Shane S Shull

Highly Educational Overview of the Mongol Empire

Revisado: 12-02-21

A thorough overview of the Mongol Empire and resulting kingdoms that seems to concentrate more on how the Empire benefited the world. I appreciate this different perspective and the work gave me a lot of food for thought. Most arguments seemed to be well supported with facts and discussion and the performance was well done.

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Enjoyable course and instructor Gregory Aldrete

Revisado: 09-22-21

Like the previous Great Course "Rise of Rome", I enjoyed this follow-on course taught by Gregory Aldrete. I consider myself decently self taught on antiquity, but I still learned a lot from listening and stayed engaged throughout. Dr. Aldrete planned these lectures out well and they flow into each other nicely. I particularly enjoyed the information on middle and lower class Romans and Dr Aldrete's nuanced explanations for important events. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to know more about the period from just before the birth of the Roman Empire to it's very end.

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Excellent History of the 10th

Revisado: 08-05-21

A detailed and enjoyable history of the 10th Legion and the world and events that surrounded it. I've studied history and military history on an amateur basis for many years and learned a lot from listening to this work. The narrator does an excellent job and the material never geta bogged down in forgettable historical detail. Battle descriptions were well done and engaging to listen to.

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What is Life?

Revisado: 04-29-21

This book explores the question of "What is life?" and how humanity has studied this idea and the many attempts at creating definitions for life throughout time.

I thought I knew a lot about the subjects discussed in this book, but I actually learned a lot of new history and science from listening to this work. Listening to this work changed some of my long held viewpoints and assumptions on what we know about the origins of life and how extremely difficult it is to even create a definition for life at our present level of scientific understanding.

I'd highly recommend this book to any rational, open minded person, who has ever wondered how much we actually know about the origins of life. There is a lot of very interesting history covered in this book as well, and will explain the state of humanity's understanding through time and how we arrived at the present.

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esto le resultó útil a 15 personas

A bit of needed geopolitical scariness

Revisado: 03-30-21

No one in my social circle seems to take conflict with China seriously and nobody seems to be able to process that the USA is on track to being outclassed by China. The power of China and the total ineffective weakness of the United States in this book, both seem very exaggerated, but to good literary effect. Through fiction, important real world issues such as the advancement of cyber warfare, and a failure of the US to adapt to our new world are examined.

I personally would have liked to have seen more real world weapon systems and technical details of a conflict discussed in this book, but that's not really what the authors are going for here. This book is mostly character based and examines it's themes mostly through dialogue and plot developments. if you're looking for tons of action, technical detail and warfare I would look elsewhere.

Even though action is generally lacking in this war fiction, I enjoyed my mind being keyed in on the important points that the authors are trying to discuss here. I can't stop thinking about the road we're on to a conflict with China if something doesn't change. If our countrie's opposite ideologies cannot be reconciled, then we absolutely need to do a better job of creating deterrence and preparing to wage effective war against China if necessary.

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A brutal and thorough Saipan account

Revisado: 03-17-21

This book was one of the most brutal historical warfare accounts of any work I've ever read or listened to. I picked up this title because I'm interested in learning everything I can about World War 2 in the pacific. "Saipan" did not disappoint in it's thoroughness and was a very effective overview of the Saipan campaign from the highest to lowest levels, supported with technical detail. Individual stories were presented fairly from all sides, even from a civilian perspective and the extreme brutality and reality of what total war actual is, was made very clear in this work. I found myself having to take periodic breaks from the book due to multiple protracted and gruesome sections that described combat injuries in intricate gory detail. I do not hold this against the writer as there is absolutely no other way to get a true sense of what happened on Saipan and to do the campaign justice.

You'll find heroism, unbelievable coincidences, close calls, superhuman feats and loads of technical detail in this work. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a hardcore historical overview of the Saipan invasion, however, make sure you have the stomach to face the true ugly face of war.

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Exceptional WW2 naval history book

Revisado: 02-12-21

I read the print version of this book and also bought the audiobook to listen to again it was so good. This work covers the battles, the people and the overall war situation in respect to Guadalcanal during the early days of World War 2. The naval battles that occurred in this area were very unique in that they were fought when the US and Japan were somewhat equal in fighting capabilities. These battles also contain some of the only examples of actual battleship vs battleship and other heavy surface unit actions.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in surface ship warfare during World War 2.

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Great Sci-Fi

Revisado: 08-19-20

I never thought I'd have a tear when one spider sacrifices itself to save another..

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So cheesy, but great Battletech backstory cheese.

Revisado: 09-09-18

Have really enjoyed the Blood Legacy books so far. The sound FX are cheesy, but they seem well placed and add immersion.

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A masterpiece of writing & narration.

Revisado: 06-20-18

Another masterpiece of historical fiction writing by Patrick O'Brian and a truly excellent narration by Patrick Tull. Patrick Tull really makes these books come alive with his voice acting. It's sad that both the author and narrator have since passed.

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