Jessica Jones

Great story ruined by laugh track

Revisado: 01-24-20

I am a total sucker for alternate history/time travel novels, and this one's story did not disappoint. The audio, on the other hand, was bad. Really bad. I don't mean the narrator; he was excellent! He did a very good job differentiating the characters and conveying the meaning of the text. For example: Joe, a native Texan, says that for fuel they use "co". (There's not really a better way to describe the sound.) My native Texas ear immediately recognized this as "coal", and the narrator did a lovely job of bringing this exchange to life.

I mean that the "sound effects"—95% of which was a bad, bad laugh track—were truly the worst things I've ever heard throughout my 650+ audiobook library. To be honest, I've never encountered *anything* like this in any other audiobook.

An example: The narrator says "They all laughed." This is IMMEDIATELY followed, and sometimes interrupted, by the world's worst laugh track: a strange mashup of fake laughs all done in the author's various voices. As in, five different sounds of the same fake laugh played simultaneously. This happened dozens—if not hundreds—of times, and it completely threw me out of the otherwise tremendous story. I know what laughing sounds like; I do not need such a jarring reminder. I don't know who came up with this idea but, please, do not ever do it again.

Otherwise, the story is really, really interesting, and 1871 Chicago is a unique choice of time. It grapples with all of the paradoxes, effects, and implications of time travel far better than most books. The characters were well-crafted, though it was an odd choice for the author to focus so much on the height of the main character. The main character is a short man. The main character is 5'7". The main character is the shortest person in both squads. This has absolutely no relevance to the narrative, so it was bizarre to hear it mentioned so many times.

Note to the author: In Illinois in 1871, interracial marriage was illegal. It was a felony for all parties involved. (I also felt that the other race issues were forced into far too quick and tidy resolutions—there was hardly any overt hostility from any of the white characters—that don't truly reflect the extreme racial segregation and resentment of the time. But this is a side plot that doesn't have anything to do with the main story.)

My recommendation? Read the story. Don't listen to it.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Completely oddball and thoroughly entertaining

Revisado: 12-06-17

This was a very strange—in a fantastic way—collection of Star Wars stories. In short, Canto Bight is the Vegas equivalent in the Star Wars universe. And these stories could easily be dropped into Vegas or any other world, and they’d still be great. Most of them involve some sort of heist. There’s a clear Ocean’s Eleven homage that is confusing at times but, let’s be honest, so was Ocean’s Eleven until th

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Intimate account of a one-on-one space battle

Revisado: 08-28-17

The fairness and intimacy with which the author treats a one-on-one battle between two starships is outstanding. The two captains develop a grudging respect for one another as an intense cat-and-mouse game develops over the course of many hours, despite coming from diametrically opposed cultures. Very well done.

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Good

Revisado: 03-05-15

The story is great. It took me several tries to really get into it; this is not a book you can listen to in small intervals and expect to follow along. Once I put it on for a road trip and had about two hours of uninterrupted listening, I was all in.

Definitely would recommend.

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Overall excellent

Revisado: 02-01-15

I'm an avid consumer of WW1 and WW2 audiobooks, with at least 50 listened to in the last year. This is one of my favorites; I just finished my second listen of it. There are two audiobooks I recommend to people just getting into them: this one, and "A World Undone." Robertson Dean is one of the best narrators there is.

This is being made into the next WW2 miniseries for HBO by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Have a listen.

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