Amazon Customer

Great premise, but book really does not deliver

Revisado: 01-21-17

I thought the premise of the book was excellent - ask various luminaries of the academic world about the scientific theory they find to be most beautiful or elegant

The trouble is

1 ) About 1/3 of the responses are about Darwin's theory of evolution (making it repetitive)
2 ) I found it a bit lacking in genuine insight. Its like asking a load of guitarists what their favourite guitar solo is.... they will all have one, but might not be able to articulate why it affects them so deeply, or where its beauty lies - even thought they know it well. .Thats what I find in this book

Overall it was OK, but fell far short of my expectations!

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

32 hours to tell a 2 minute story

Revisado: 03-28-16

the narrator was awesome, but the book felt like a tiresome vanity project for the author; unlikeable characters playing poor little rich kids

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Grating voice of the narrator

Revisado: 11-18-15

It may be because the recording was done a few years ago, but the frequency spectrum of the narrator was very narrow, making the voice grating and tiring to my ears

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The same piece of evidence, rephrased 100 times

Revisado: 11-18-15

I was interested in the science/evidence promised by this book.

I was disappointed, since essentially the only evidence offered were anecdotal collected stories. I believe science should have pushed this fascinating topic a bit further, but apparently nobody is running any experimental investigation

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Book a dental appointmentut

Revisado: 10-04-15

This book hit me hard!!! (hence my joke about needing the dentist to set your teeth back)

It was a slow burner but ultimately I am glad I stayed with it

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My failed foray into literary fiction

Revisado: 10-04-15

I like to read many types of book, so was glad to download the book.

I enjoyed the writing a lot, but the pace of the book and the less-than-compelling, slow moving story was disappointing.

The lasting (and intriguing) impression was of the rich and famous, floating around and spending money with the rest of the normal people like invisible wraiths around them - the perspective was interesting - but was not enough to sustain interest over the whole book

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Great performance of a tedious story

Revisado: 10-04-15

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I thought the narrator did an excellent job of performing many different characters.

The problem was that I was not the 12 year old age boy demographic this book was written for and found it all quite tedious

Even as a kid I would be disappointed in the "lore" - the whole book was written around an interesting nerdy premise which felt underexplored by the time I finished.

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A book of two halves

Revisado: 10-04-15

Any additional comments?

The book has two goals.

The first it to persuade us that games can be a force for good- I agree wholeheartedly and enjoyed this part of the book, and the arguments laid out by the author were compelling and inspirational

The second was to illustrate some examples of where games are making the world better (and how they might be even more significant in the future) - Suddenly the compelling examples seemed to fade away, and the author mostly seemed to settle back into talking about her own "games" to cure climate change and engage people in the Olympic games. I felt her reliance on these examples left me with a feeling of someone tooting their own horn, as well as leaving me feeling underwhelmed. The games described seemed banal or maybe even comical rather than exciting catalysts of profound change as implied in the first half of the book

Overall I thought it was interesting, but didn't fuel conversations with my friends like some other futurist non-fiction titles.

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Awesome marraige of speaker and story

Revisado: 10-04-15

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Loved the telling of the tale, the prose (much of it purple), the narrators compelling interpretation and the underlying premise of the book - one of my favorite audible purchases

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