Milford Cubicle

interesting but not a lot of new info

Revisado: 09-25-23

It was interesting to get some more details about the early days of Rocket Lab and Planet Labs. But man, the personalities involved in some of these companies seem like unbearable sociopaths. It was hard to get through the chapters about Chris Kemp and Max Polyakov in particular. They just seemed like such self obsessed jerks I didn't particularly want to spend a lot of time hearing them talking about how brilliant and special they are.

Also the book has some groan-worthy moments where the author seems to imply that these genius rocket guys are doing CRAZY stuff like 'making machines with machines'. Ever wondered why they call it machining?... Not new. At times I think the book gets a little too caught up in the ego bubbles of the subjects. Would have preferred to hear a little more how these guys are standing on the shoulders of NASA and other people's work - just trying to 'disrupt' it and make it cheap or fast or small or some variant of what's been done before.

Would have been interesting to hear about Spoke aerospace, but maybe they're too new.

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a bit dry even for the topic

Revisado: 02-25-22

I expected more technical info and more about the people and personalities involved but this read much more like a series of academic essays. Very dry and ended abruptly.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Interesting and fun read

Revisado: 03-14-21

Got through this quickly - enjoyed the pace and style of the book and narration was good. Hoping for a follow-up in a couple years since Spacex is moving so quickly!

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a little name-droppy but fun

Revisado: 06-12-19

There are some interesting stories in here and I enjoyed the narration but at times it just feels like a long list of interesting people he’s enjoyed mundane activities with.

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narrator’s accents are offensive and distracting

Revisado: 04-28-19

Over the top accents have no place in a non-fiction book. I cant even get through this.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

distractingly bad narration

Revisado: 04-04-19

The book was pretty interesting and I can forgive the occasional dramatic silly music interludes between chapters but the narrator’s pronunciation of many words was laughably bad. Was there no editor/producer to help out here? Some examples:
Saudis = Soddies
Riyadh = Ree-yada
Corroborate = co-wobbuh-wait
Oppenheimer = Oh-pen-heimer
pugnacious = pyoog-nacious (?!)
United Arab Emirates = United Arab Emeritus
Tanzania = tan-zany-uh

At other times the narrator says wrong but visually similar to the correct word in the text making for some ‘what?’ having to rewind and hear it again moments.

It’s fine overall but I found the errors narration jarring.

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How many times can you use bete noire or joie de guerre in a sentence? Find out!

Revisado: 01-25-18

Some interesting content but it seems rushed or at least poorly edited. It reads like a long magazine article. Not bad but not a great work of non-fiction. Narration was good though.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

interesting if a bit dry - whispery narration

Revisado: 12-21-17

Content of the book was interesting though a bit dry, par for the subject matter. Some interesting info in here I had never heard. All in all pretty good book. The narrator is a bit odd though- he’s whispering/mumbling like he’s reading a bedtime story to a sleepy child. I found it difficult to hold my attention listening to a monotone near-whisper. First audiobook narration I’ve heard like this.

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charming and fun

Revisado: 10-06-17

I loved this movie as a kid and enjoyed hearing Cary Elwes’ stories about the making of it. It’s a fun little book and his narration is outstanding.

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heartfelt and interesting

Revisado: 04-20-17

I enjoyed learning more about Martin Short. This was a good read up there with Steve Martin's bio from several years ago. Martin short lost some people very close to him unexpectedly as many of us do in our lives, but he handled each tragic situation with humanity and humor. I like him even more after reading this. His narration was also top notch.

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