BookWorm

Solid 5 Star Story and Performance

Revisado: 05-28-15

I've been reading Dan Simmons books for years and his work has NEVER disappointed me. Hard Freeze is Book two in the Joe Kurtz series and the story is fantastic. Great character development (as usual) and non stop thrills from the opening paragraph until the very last syllable. The audible narration was spot on perfect for this series.

His Joe Kurtz series reminds me of works by Elmore Leonard, another great author of crime stories. If you enjoy Elmore Leonard, Vince Flynn, or Thomas Perry and you will **love** Joe Kurtz. If you enjoy thrillers additional titles to check out include: Term Limits by Vince Flynn, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, and Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry.

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Another Excellent Dan Simmons Book

Revisado: 05-25-15

I've been reading Dan Simmons for years. I had read Hardcase years ago before the audio version was available and loved it. I just finished listening to the audiobook version and it was fantastic from start to finish. I've already purchased the next book in the series, Hard Freeze, and look forward to listening to that. Hardcase features an exciting story, excellent fleshed out characters and even good villains. Joe Kurtz is a no nonsense hardboiled detective. The people in the story act and talk like you'd expect real people and the narration was perfect. Hardcase reminds me very much of the style of writing and characters you'd find in a really good Elmore Leonard novel (examples include Gold Coast, Stick, Swag and Mr. Paradise). Other Dan Simmons audiobooks I've enjoyed (multiple times each) include: Flashback, Illium and Carrion Comfort. The Joe Kurtz series is new to audio and I hope he releases Joe Kurtz #3 soon.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Boring Boring Boring

Revisado: 05-15-15

This book can be best described as short interludes of excitement and adventure (very brief when they do occur) with the rest of the book being taken up with an unending internal monologue of the story's hero, Dave, a character I find annoying to no end because he possesses mutually exclusive characteristics. One minute he's a fearless superman, alpha male oil rig worker, but the next he's the soft, sensitive, introspective, thoughtful, guilt filled stereotypical beta male. This kind of character is all too common in modern fiction as writers try to have it both ways, having male characters which will appeal to men and women at the same time. Men that don't exist in the real world. Which is it? Is he an alpha male, or is he a beta??? I got halfway thru this train wreck of a novel before I had to add it to my list of novels I will never finish. Too bad, because I liked John Birmingham's previous series, Axis of Time.

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Five Star Entertainment from Start to Finish!

Revisado: 06-02-14

I listened to the audible version of this. Very entertaining, every time I thought I had it figured out, something else would happen going in another direction. Excellent character development, and an original story unlike any I've ever read.

Kind of reminded me of a cross between Michael Crichton and Stephen King (the **good** Stephen King, the one who wrote The Stand and The Shining, not the body snatcher from another planet currently occupying his body, churning out crap like "The Dome"...).

I've read Blake Crouch before but nothing that made an impression on me. This, however, was different and I couldn't stop until I finished it. I've already purchased the sequel and look forward to listening to it.

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Solid 5 Star Military SciFi Audiobook

Revisado: 12-08-13

What did you love best about Steel World?

I only wish all audiobooks were this good. This one was excellent from start to finish, everything from the story, character development and narration were flawless. I love it when a story hooks me from the first page and holds on until the end.

Another thing I liked about this book was that the characters were believable, as in they acted like real people and each had unique flaws. An annoying thing about some action stories is the way that that characters are often 2 dimensional and the hero is some kind of superman, not so in this one. Also I liked the way there was the political infighting and backstabbing in the Legion unit. In my experience, any time you get a bunch of people together you're going to have that kind of thing and yet its often an element that's left out of fiction (the B grade fiction anyway). I spent 20 years in the US Army, and the unit portrayed in this story seemed like a real military unit, the terms and technology were different but the people acted in a way consistent with my experience of how real soldiers talk and act.

I would rate this book right up there with some of my other favorite military fictional reads, to list a few: A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War Series by John Ringo), Red Storm Rising and Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, Invasion America Series by Vaughn Heppner, Armor by John Steakley, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein and Redliners by David Drake.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the Undying Mercenaries series.

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Revisado: 09-27-13

What would have made Skinner better?

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What could Charlie Huston have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

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

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What character would you cut from Skinner?

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Any additional comments?

My first Charlie Huston book was Sleepless, which was a solid Five star excellent distopian thriller. I liked it so much I've listened to it 3 times. I'd put Sleepless right up there with Stephen King's The Stand. Since then I've tried several of his books, hoping for that same quality (and haven't found it yet). Its almost like Sleepless was written by someone else. With Skinner, in the beginning I thought yeah, this could be good. But no, this book consisted of brief spurts of action separated by long periods of boring dialog and lots of "feelings". Who knew an assassin could be so deadly and efficient and yet so sensitive at the same time. But that wasn't the worst thing about this book, three quarters of the way through the author starts beating me over the head with this liberal dogma, best summarized as the world is going to Hell in a hand basket because citizens of the US and Europe are selfish, exploiting and greedy and screwing over everybody in China, India and Africa. Oh yeah, and the world is going to end because of Global Warming. When I read or listen to a book, I want to be entertained, not brainwashed or preached at.

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Excellent Horror Story

Revisado: 09-17-13

What did you love best about Flesh Gothic?

I've read and enjoyed several Edward Lee books, but this was my first audiobook by the author. I found it excellent from start to finish. There have been some of his books that were too graphic for me to finish, not this one though. The story, character development and narration were all well done. I'm hoping that in the near future even more of Lee's works will be available on audible.

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