Jarno

Some good information, with a side helping of woo

Revisado: 05-02-24

Fairly good, until the promotion of acupuncture, chiropractic, Reiki and energy healing. After that, the author just lost all credibility with me.

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Essential reading.

Revisado: 10-26-23

An eye opening account of the horrific history of Israel and Palestine. The only way to peace starts with the acknowledgement of historical facts, even when they are painful. Recommended reading for everyone.

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Thoroughly engaging

Revisado: 05-29-23

One of the most engaging stories I've listened to - goes into my top ten series openers in my rather extensive as audible library. Well written characters, strong story telling. The world is fleshed out through the experience of the main character, so we are shown, not told, how this story world is.

Very much looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series, and will be looking for more from this author.

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A good story with some problems. (minor spoiler)

Revisado: 07-15-21

For a science nerd like me, the science fiction I enjoy most, is where the author is clearly well informed in the relevant sciences, and only takes liberties with accuracy of the science when the story absolutely demands it. And when such liberties are taken, they should be taken knowingly.

I'm undecided on whether this is the case here - whether the author has just chosen to ignore one basic fact about the universe, because it was the only way he could think of to make the story work, or whether he doesn't know this basic fact about the universe, and works under a misapprehension.

A minor spoiler warning: The reason for the alien invasion is given as their need for water, which is abundant on Earth, and as the author would have us believe, an otherwise rare resource.

Of course, this is not so. Even in our solar system, the Earth isn't where most of the water resides. The Jupiter's moon Ganymede (The largest moon in the solar system) alone has a massive subsurface ocean beneath an ice crust, that contains more water than all the seas of the Earth combined. Two other moons of Jupiter - Europa and Callisto both seem to also have large subsurface oceans. Thus the Jovian system has FAR more water than the planet Earth, not to mention the much more distant Oort cloud, which is largely composed of icy bodies.

Water is ubiquitous in the Universe, because water, H2O, is composed of two of the three top most common elements in the universe - hydrogen and oxygen (hydrogen is the most common, and oxygen is the third most common element).

So if you know this fact about the universe, you really need to suspend your disbelief with this story. Another issue is related to human evolution (which decidedly took place on this planet), but whether that's another liberty taken I don't know yet; later books in the series hopefully shed light on this.

The book otherwise was well written and an interesting take on the "end of the world", and a good set off point for whatever comes next.

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A true joy to listen to

Revisado: 12-01-19

This is not the kind of thing I normally listen to, but I'm so glad I picked this up. A really beautiful and interesting story that had me smiling at many points. William Finnegan is a good story teller, and while many authors would not be a right choise to read their own books, here, I think nobody could have done as well. It was well written and well read.

The father-daughter relationship that came through in the telling was wonderful, and the interview with Mollie at the end was a nice bonus.

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Good story, but...

Revisado: 10-14-19

Before I go into what annoyed me about the story, I'll say that overall I liked it, and what annoyed me annoyed me mainly because the author could have avoided the problem with litle more than changing one word. I know this isn't hard science fiction, but more like a human story, or action adventure/mystery set in a science fiction setting, and as such, the story works very well, and is well written. But that doesn't excuse being lazy, when it comes to the science.

The basic idea of the setting of the world in the story - ships escaping a doomed Earth - is a good one, but I do wish the author had fleshed out (and thought out) the reason for the escape better. The idea is that Earth was "destroyed" by an asteroid, but they had 60 years of warning, during which they built the ships to get out.

Immediately I thought what probably almost every reader thought: with 60 years of warning, couldn't they simply have diverted the asteroid? The book offers very little in explanation, shortly mentioning that they shot the nuclear arsenal at it, but "it didn't work". Why didn't it work? What else did they try, and why did all attempts fail?

Seriously? How big was this asteroid? With 60 years warning, you could simply park a space ship next to it, and use it's small gravitational tug to alter the asteroid's course enough to miss Earth. Or land a ship, install an engine on to one side, bring fuel to it, and turn it on - a few decades of burn would shift the trajectory of even the largest of asteroids enough to miss the Earth.

So how could the author have done this better? Why call it an asteroid? Why not a rogue planet? After all, there ARE rogue planets flying around the Universe, kicked out from their star systems through various gravitational interactions. Of course it would be exceedingly unlikely that a rogue planet would fly through our solar system, and even more unlikely it would hit Earth, but it is within the realm of possibility - and even if we got 60 years warning, I doubt we could do anything about, say, a Mars sized object on a colission course with us. The asteroid explanation with 60 years warning, is just implausible, given a society that can build the sort of space fleet in the story.

In other respects the science - or the astronomical side of it - was very weak, and could have been thought out, and fleshed out significantly more - what was this "Gagarin" probe actually doing? The distances involved, between stars, are unimaginably large, and to have a probe that could visit different planets (presumably around different stars) and come back, within reasonable time periods would require acceleration for that probe that is frankly, implausible - the difference in speed the probe could get compared to the moving fleet, is insignificant on internstellar scales, and I rather think that simply advanced telescopes could achieve much faster, what the probe was suppposed to do.

I don't know how to fit the probe into a plausible Science Fiction scenario - I'd have used, say, some large telescope survey cycles instead.

I do understand the need, sometimes, not to be entirely scientifically plausible; usually the best path there is to invoke some new physics we don't currently know of. But the author really should make an effort to make the universe he is writing the story in seem plausible to a scientifically informed reader; or at least help him suspend his disbelief with something approacihing plausibility.

Appart from this annoyance, I enjoyed the story, and the characters in it.

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Essential listening

Revisado: 04-22-19

If you are still wondering which freebies to pick for this month, wonder no more - make one of them be this one. Educational, mind expanding, and emotional. I knew about CTE, but never realized how huge of a risk it was for anyone getting hit in the head a lot, whether in sports, or in an abusive relationship.

It's an uncomfortable fact, most definitely. So much of our sports entertainment involves being hit (or risking being hit) on the head. I wonder whether people, a hundred years from now, will look back at our time, and think of us as barbaric, for having sports entertainment where the fragile brains of people are bounced around in their skulls, condemning the people possessing those brains to a likely fate of cognitive decline and dementia?

One would hope that some day, there'll be a medical solution to either prevent or repair such damage, but as we stand, our sports heroes are paying a steep price for entertaining and amazing us.

If you missed the free download, I'd even recommend spending a credit on this, or buying it outright - even though it's only just shy of four hours long. It's a very good four hours.

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Loving the series - book three was excellent.

Revisado: 09-10-18

I REALLY hope the rest in the series is slated to come out on Audible, the sooner the better.

I listen to a lot of books, and this series has become one of my favorites. This book was one of those rare books that I've had difficulty putting down. The way the series began, I felt it was almost suitable for young audiences; the way it's developed, not so much. While not nearly as violent as the Game of Thrones, this series has one common factor to it; you can't be sure that your favorite characters will pull through. Not to the same degree as Game of Thrones, where you can't seemingly be even sure any "good guys" will win in the end, but still, the danger the fact that major characters aren't guaranteed to survive puts a "charge" into the story. And it is well written, and well performed.

So I do highly recommend this book, and the series, and please Audible, give us the rest of it!

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More like this, please!

Revisado: 09-10-18

This was a fascinating look into not only weather forecasting, but the politics of weather in the U.S., and how the change of administrations can throw a spanner in the works. It also goes into the psychology of effective warning about severe weather events, and how people evaluate the risk of rare events.

If "The Coming Storm" is an indication of the quality we can expect from these new audible productions, you're onto a good thing. More in this vein, I hope. I use quite a bit of money on Audible, (two credits a month, and often buying three more), and this new monthly extra is well appreciated! I hope that we see, in these extras, more in the vein of science, and issues that science effect, and that effect science.

A good read!

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Essential reading

Revisado: 06-30-18

This is a book anyone interrested in US politics should read. Certainly if you wish to understand what has happened to the Democratic party, and why the establishment democrats are so out of touch with the issues facing working Americans, especially blue collar workers. Should be manditory reading for every democratic voter.

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