David

Hung over

Revisado: 06-12-20

It felt like a bad gothic novel and left the reader a little hung over.

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Needs a new recording

Revisado: 06-12-18

When writing dialogue it is traditional to use the form x said, y responded, z interjected... In this book John le Carre doesn't always do that so the speaker is often not identified. In book form this wouldn't matter as the paragraph structure would make it sufficiently clear that the speaker has changed. In audible form the narrator has to communicate the different people by using different voices. Michael Jayston's use of voices wasn't always clear enough for me to distinguish the speakers. The recording quality was spotty - you could hear when they switched machines or studios. Finally, who ever directed this production cut the gaps between sentences and paragraphs which created additional discordance. Perhaps it's an older recording and they were trying to save on CDs. This is a good enough book that it should be re-recorded to modern standards.

le Carre's writing is as fine as ever containing poetic language, interesting ideas and unfamiliar history.

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Endless

Revisado: 04-20-18

There is a difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy. I enjoy both. Science fiction can be quite speculative but it still needs to have some basis in science. It has to be plausible. Fantasy can just make things up and so long as there's some consistency the reader can choose to accept a different reality. This book pretended to be Science Fiction but it felt silly. It was too bad because the writer had some interesting ideas. Better luck next time.

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Reminiscent of Spider Robinson

Revisado: 04-09-18

There is a lot of heroic fantasy but less that I would characterize as 'charming'. This falls in the charming category. It reminded me a lot of the Spider Robinson Callahan books.

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The best yet

Revisado: 01-06-18

I have liked all of the books in this series but this one is so good it makes me want to set every book that I've previously rated a 5 back to 4 so I can convey that this book is better.

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Best yet

Revisado: 01-25-15

I've been reading the Jack Reacher books sequentially, this one is the best yet. It includes a look at the Secret Service and introduces a new, and hopefully continuing, character from Jack's MP past.

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Terrific narration

Revisado: 02-04-13

What other book might you compare The Winter Sea to and why?

Water for Elephants

Any additional comments?

I write few reviews but this book deserves some comment. The narration was terrific. I have found that female actors do a better job with male voices then male actors generally do with female voices. That was certainly true here. The book contains two story lines. One is modern day, the other is 300 years ago. Not only does Ms. Landor handle all the different character voices but she even provides two different narration voices - a helpful hint cluing era shifts between chapters.The book contains English, Irish and Scottish accents. Within the Scottish accents we have both class and era distinctions. I can't attest to Ms. Landor's accuracy but I can attest the the accents were usefully distinctive and even the most difficult accents were still clear to an American reader. It reminded me of going to a Shakespearean play with good actors - the meaning is clear even if not all the words are familiar. Now about the story I will say very little as I don't like reviews that give anything away. But it was well worth the listen. It is the best book I've heard since Water for Elephants. There are great characters and an interesting story, well put together.

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Character study

Revisado: 06-25-08

I favor character studies and this one is fascinating. All of the major protagonists are well over 70, quirky, and possibly demented. The plot isn't very important and it's a little misleading to label this a mystery but it's well worth the listen. The prose is solid. The story is both funny and a little sad. The narration is outstanding.

The creative challenge for the author is how to get into the heads of the very old without being very old oneself. Somehow she seems to have done it.

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Simply Awful

Revisado: 06-19-08

Cliche', simplistic, poorly researched... did I say cliche'? A couple of the other reviewers say the same thing. What amazes me is that it apparently won some award and that some people find it tolerable.

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Two Things

Revisado: 04-18-08

Two things kept me going. First was the mystery of whether a woman writer could really write anything this sophomoric. It was the sort of writing I would have imagined from a 13 year-old boy just discovering puberty. Second, I was amused at just how really bad it was. I found myself laughing out loud. Part of the problem was the genre confusion - if I'd been reading this as a bodice ripping Romance Novel I wouldn't have been so caught off guard.

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