Dan

Gritty street cop hot tubs with werewolves

Revisado: 10-11-14

What did you love best about The Fifth Elephant?

Multiple levels of anachronism and just plain odd juxtaposition of objects/ideas.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Gaspode the talking dog.

Which scene was your favorite?

Too many good/fun scenes to pick just one. Gaspode talking with the wolf in the cage (after making Carrot *promise* to get the chickens first was good for a chuckle.

I guess that's common to the Discworld books I've read or listened to so far, the scenes are all tight/enjoyable so there aren't any that really stand out in my mind. Or what's left of my mind.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not at 10+ hours, thanks. It is very fun to put it on while I'm working in my shop or just sitting in front of the fireplace for an hour or two.

Any additional comments?

Performance should be a 4.99, but only because I listened to several of the Nigel Planer narrated ones first, so his voicing is the one I associate with the characters. They're both freaking brilliant at reading Terry Pratchett. Even if you love Nigel Planer, give Mr. Biggs a try, he's equally talented and he "gets" the characters.

At least this one doesn't have the annoying "You're probably a criminal" lecture at the beginning of the recording. I'm not sure what Pratchett thought he was doing when he had them add that to some of the books, but it just annoys hell out of me to have to listen to that "We need to preach at you to remind you not to be a criminal" every time I sit down to listen to a book I've paid for.

I think the Discworld audiobooks are very overpriced. They don't sell them in a collection, and $22 to $35 per book is a bit hard to swallow. It wouldn't surprise me if they are frequently pirated.

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First Doctor Who where ending isn't soon enough

Revisado: 08-24-14

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, I wouldn't recommend it. The story just will not die... it goes on and on and on even though you *know* exactly how it's going to end before the book is halfway read.

Has Doctor Who and the War Games turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not a chance. One bad apple and all that

Which character – as performed by David Troughton – was your favorite?

He does Jon Pertwee *perfectly*

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe. Some visual distraction might make the story better.

Any additional comments?

I've never watched, listened to, or read a Doctor Who episode where so many humans get killed, particularly by firearms, and most of them get at least two lines worth of description of their death. It makes the characters "throwaway" since you know they're all equally likely to take a bullet or get shot by a "stun gun" that is "set to kill mode" (Doesn't that just make the thing an ordinary gun that can be set to "stun" mode?)

I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who but this was the very first story where I could not wait for it to end after I had listened to the first half.

I forced myself to listen to the end just on the off chance there was a very clever plot twist that I was too thick to anticipate. Alas, if only I were that thick. The plot simply splattered on the ground exactly the way one expects of any other falling cow patty.

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Interesting history, but fails to make his case

Revisado: 03-20-14

What did you love best about The Science of Liberty?

I learned bits about the history of the French revolution, the rise and fall of deconstructionism, and a few other moderately obscure areas that I never would have sought out to read about.

What other book might you compare The Science of Liberty to and why?

It's only vaguely reminiscent of Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" - Loewen is much more convincing and much more thorough, but there were some of those "hah!" moments in this book.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Way too many pronunciation errors, many on relatively simple words. I don't recall ever hearing an audiobook with this many errors.They're annoying and detract from the experience, but not horrifically so. I'd still buy it again even knowing what the narrator is like.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I'm a pure rationalist, an anti-theist and a huge fan of science. I *want* his hypothesis to be true, it "feels right" just based on a reading of the title, so I was really looking forward to learning some good solid measures/comparisons/relationships that clearly show a correlation between rational, liberal governance and scientific progress. I enjoy having a large arsenal of facts, examples and citations on hand because I often debate (or simply ridicule) anti-science factions whenever they appear in discussions of science.He just didn't make his case. If he had taken 3 or 4 specific cases and enumerated the same specifics values or correlations - how often they held elections and what sort of voter turnout there was (to spot discouraged or coerced voters) and somehow related that to number of published science papers... I don't know, I'm just pulling random ideas out of my nether regions, not really proposing that as a valid metric. I was just hoping he had already thought through which of those sorts of correlations were most valuable or strongest or something.His hypothesis is probably correct, even though I thought of a couple of arguments that countered his. I just wanted to feel roughly 60% certain and all I got was about 30% or less.

Any additional comments?

At least a couple of anti-science wackos ranting in their reviews about his coverage of climate science. I cannot stress how unbiased and precisely stated his description of the (at the time) current state of climate science is. In every single statement he fully qualifies it with all the relevant levels of uncertainty, acknowledges the possibility of error, and basically makes an exemplary scientific presentation. He never once makes an absolute statement on the science. It's actually quite sad that he has to couch generally good/well established science in such conditional (at times sounding almost apologetic) language. Those reviews are a clear illustration of how irrational and dangerous the dogmatic illiberal political groups/tendencies are. That they could find fault in a purely rational, purely factual summary of a specific field of science, and that they would use even book review that had nothing to do with climate science to try and inject doubt into the discussion of it is telling. The author simply chose it as a specific, relevant and timely case where governments and people around the globe will have to act in concert to study and potentially address the threat, and where the science has been under attack by dogmatic, illiberal groups. He could have used the problems addressing the AIDS crisis where dogmatic and illiberal groups interfere with the distribution of condoms, or groups that use political influence/interference to intimidate science teachers and prevent the teaching of biological evolution in science classes. There would still be anti-science rumblings from the dogmatic types no matter what topic you choose. All that reinforces the point that the author's hypothesis, whether right or wrong, identifies a political/social problem that *must* be acknowledged and addressed if we want the human species to continue moving forward and continue to benefit from science that isn't polluted by popular dogma. Oh yeah, one other thing that annoyed me is the author's occasional blatant error in science. For example near the end he makes the statement that it's not likely, but possible for all the atoms in your copy of the book to "make a quantum leap..." causing it to disappear. Atoms don't make "quantum leaps", and a "quantum leap" happens only over incredibly tiny distances. It's the sort of mistake someone with only a vague familiarity with quantum mechanics would make. It lessens my confidence in him as a representative of science. I like his other books, I like this one okay, it's an interesting listen (I was never tempted to fast forward), it simply wasn't what I wanted/expected it to be. If you kinda-sorta enjoyed the book and found the history somewhat interesting, I'd suggest having a listen to Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Nearly Everything"

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Good story, repugnant author

Revisado: 11-03-13

Would you listen to Ender's Game again? Why?

I've already listened to it twice, will probably listen to it again someday.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ender's Game?

Nothing that really sticks in the mind, it was just decent sci-fi. Not sophisticated, fairly imaginative.

Which scene was your favorite?

To quote Dr. River Song: "Spoilers."

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Ender was first taken to the academy, first meeting with Graf (sp?)

Any additional comments?

Decent sci-fi, not Asimov quality but definitely a good listen.I think the book has more impact on younger readers than on us old farts.

The plot is is fairly easy to figure out from about 1/3 of the way through the book, so it plodded a bit knowing what was probably coming. Still fun.

I enjoyed the book but much of my enjoyment was lost once I found out the author is a raging homophobe. It's like reading a decent book and then finding out the author was a Nazi, it doesn't matter how good the writing is, it still leaves one with a funny feeling in the stomach. Had I known in advance, I would have gotten the book from a library rather than support any author who preaches any form of bigotry or racism.

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I forgot how good this one is

Revisado: 02-17-13

Where does The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Right up there with HHGTTG.

I read it back in high school (early 70's) and I remembered that I liked it.I'm really glad I got it in audiobook, it's a very fun story.

*SPOILERS* (in best River Song voice) Don't read further if you don't want your reading of the book colored by my idiotic opinions.

I love all his stuff, but I'm not sure why he kind of just slapped an ending on this one. The concept is brilliant, the writing top notch, and Adams wrote the sexiest female characters ever, but it kind of peters out with a whimper at the very, very end.

He was one seriously funny and creative guy.

What did you like best about this story?

The way he connected past and present seamlessly.

Have you listened to any of Douglas Adams’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. If you're a fan, seek out (rob a bank or steal a plane, if needed) and find his 4 CD version of Hitchiker's Guide. I love Stephen Fry, he is a brilliant and talented guy, and he does an excellent job of reading HHGTTG, but let's face it, there is nothing like having the author perform the characters. It's one of my favorite audiobooks of all time.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

What's a god gotta do?

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Worth it for the Jim Dale performance

Revisado: 02-16-13

What made the experience of listening to Peter and the Starcatchers the most enjoyable?

If Jim reading the HP books brought you here, just buy it. He's amazing. His voices and accents, while some are similar to the HP book characters, are definitely not exact copies. He somehow manages to come up with more.

The story is bit contrived to fit in and at times panders to the kids a bit, but still very high quality story telling.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Peter and the Starcatchers?

Stupid as it may sound, some of the slapstick is quite funny, even when read.

Have you listened to any of Jim Dale’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yeah, all the HP books. He's brilliant, truly unique talent.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Bloody pirates!

Any additional comments?

It's fun, even for us old guys. NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

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