Kathe

Outstanding!

Revisado: 12-19-24

The novel is beautifully written, flows impeccably, and is grounded on a solid, yet non intrusive, historical scenery. I couldn’t put it down, and found myself rushing through things so I could go back to the book. It will be hard to start a different book after three days immersed in this one. A must read/listen!

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Even if you read the book many times, I recommend listening to this recording.

Revisado: 09-17-24

I have read The Picture of Dorian Grey more than once before listening to this audiobook. I rarely find listening to a good book better than reading it, and rarely listen to one after reading it. I’m deeply glad I decided to make the exception. The interpretation is marvelous, and I only didn’t give it 5 stars because the continuity was not perfect. A few times the rhythm and volume change abruptly, clearly indicating that the reader paused and restarted at a later time. Ot would be perfection if those technical errors did not exist. Stupendous listening!

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Not a shred of creativity,

Revisado: 08-18-24

Many of the characters are just loosely connected and unnecessary, or have been poorly developed. These characters barely enter the storyline and are dispose off without having contributed. The love story itself is as old as stone, and there’s not a shred of creativity in its telling. The performer using different voices for different characters is at times laughable. The book was recommended to me by a friend, and it seems that we have very different criteria when it comes to judging literature.

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Couldn’t even push pause

Revisado: 03-26-24

The story and narration are outstanding. I listen to audiobooks frequently. Not rarely I’m reluctant to pause. But in nearly all cases, I don’t terribly miss the story until I pick it up again. This was not the case with After the End. Whatever I was doing while the book was on pause felt less relevant than it actually was, and I found myself drifting back to the book. I couldn’t wait to hear what was happening with Pip and Max, what was happening around them, inside them. I finished the book in a six hour overnight marathon. Yes, it is this good.

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Unnecessary time stamps.

Revisado: 03-06-24

Boyne far from his best. The characters and the story are interesting, but I failed to find a reason to spam the story through so many centuries and countries until the epilogue. The insertion of descriptors (that I call “time stamps”), like food, clothing, and type of weapons, to characterize time and place of each chapter are annoying. Moreover they have a repetitive pattern of insertion in each chapter, which makes it quite predictable and boring. Maybe he intended for people who know very little history and needed these clues to remain attentive to the context of each place and century? Couldn’t cultural practices, characteristic behaviors and beliefs of each place and time suffice for context? There are also inaccuracies here and there, which are very disrupting. The close relationship of the characters to very recognizable figures is also annoying. Did the main character really need to be closely associated to Michelangelo and Shakespeare? Anyway.. Overall, it’s creative, but boring and somewhat pedantic. The narrator is good, but doesn’t offer anything special with his reading.

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Boyne, definitely not at his best. Narrator distracting.

Revisado: 02-22-24

The story is too clichê. Well written and well told (it’s Boyne after all), but too similar to many other haunted house stories. The narrator has an annoying habit of prolonging the end of words, making it distracting. With all that said, not entirely a bad listening. But entertaining at most.

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Another masterpiece by Isabell Allende!

Revisado: 11-10-23

Wonderful book, captivating and rich in history and characters. The performance is not quite at the same level of other books by the author, but still very good.

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Poorly written, fragmented and boring

Revisado: 08-29-22

What started as a promising spy story with decent geopolitical background turned into a poorly stitched quilt of long and irrelevant side stories. Unnecessarily detailed and repetitive descriptions of car makings, airplane models and types and guns make it truncated and unbearably boring. I couldn’t go past chapter 34 or so, and that was with much effort (and speeding forward) hoping it could improve at least enough to justify seeing the end of the story. A big a waste of time.

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Written decades ago, couldn’t be more current

Revisado: 05-21-22

A must read, particularly now! Extremely well written and gut punch. The reality of a ethnic cleansing war that holds very few peculiarities to the nations directly involved in the conflict is described in almost graphic ways. A war that we now see replayed, nearly identically, in the war on Ukraine. The exposed the hypocrisy existent in the actions (and inactions) of world potencies, the UN and NATO during the war bears no apologies. And the book finishes with an epilogue that is a lucid analysis and a warning. What may seem pessimism is rather a clean journalist’s report of what is capable the wild beast inside us all if not tamed.

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Nicely read, too long

Revisado: 11-28-21

Well written, and very well read. But predictable and unnecessarily long plot. I enjoyed listening but would prefer not having invested these many hours in it. Would make a great short story, but the novel is definitely too long.

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