Paul

Horrible, Horrible Production

Revisado: 05-20-22

I'll finish it for the story but...

1. The female narrator is one of the worst I've heard. She cannot differentiate between voices. I get that the first part is from the perspective of a 12yr old but hiring a 12yrs old to read it was the wrong decision.

2. The male narrator is the wrong choice as well. 60yr old white men trying to do accents make me cringe.

3. Whoever produced and recorded this mess deserves shunning. from the audiobook community. They recorded the female narrator with so much treble, I had to kill the treble and midrange just to listen to it. Ok. Fine. BUT...then they switch narrators and I've got to AGAIN redo the equalizer to continue to listen.

Did anyone even do a quick quality check on this or consider if the readers' voices were compatible?

I wouldn't be so angry if the writing and the story weren't so lovely. You've really done the author a disservice on this. This is the worst produced book since the Ron Miscavage book where the last syllable of pretty much every sentence was cut off.

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A-Goering, A-Goebbels A-Please A-Stop

Revisado: 08-31-21

This was a fascinating look at the Nuremberg Trials marred by the narration that nearly made me stop listening. I understand that the narration should have a gravity to it but Cosham spends too much time prefacing his sentences with "A -" which is quaint the first 432 times you hear it but gets grating quickly after that.

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Could Not Finish Because Of Williams

Revisado: 11-21-15

I found this fascinating and such a great idea - a collage of voice illustrating the end of Nazi Germany. Running the gamut from important (Hitler in the bunker) to unimportant (an American blandly writing home), this book was right up my alley. It took about 30mins to kick into the rhythm of it. Ultimately, though, I can't continue with it because of Christine Williams and her coy, fey, read-everything-like-I'm-in-a-young-adult-novel voice. Eric Dove manages (if not always successfully) to differentiate between the voice of people he's reading. Williams just doesn't care. Everyone sounds the same. Her "listen to my charmingly empathic style of speaking" gets old quickly and, for me, made me cringe every time she spoke.

Really, really sad the producer allowed this.

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"Pearls before swine"?

Revisado: 08-24-15

I'm happy there's finally an audio version of Mein Kampf. Sadly, it's this one. I can't speak to the controversy surrounding the translation. I *can* speak to the narration. Or rather "narrations". The translation this is based on "helpfully" includes explanations of some of the references Hitler uses. There are three problems with this. The biggest of which is that in order to do this, they switch to a different narrator, a woman whose voice grates. This seems like it was an afterthought since the transition sounds abrupt and jarring. The main narrator gets cut off in mid-sentence for the explanation and then the narration just as abruptly resume. The second is that the two narrators can't even agree on pronunciation. There should really only be one way to pronounce a German name. That's not the case here and it casts serious doubt on the reputation of the audiobook. Most annoyingly, the inserted explanations assume you're an idiot. Do you really need to explain the meaning of "Pearls before swine"? "Recalcitrant"? Is that really such a "hard" word?

The main narrator does a decent job, He sounds convincingly thuggish though sometimes he seems like he's on the verge of laughing when laughter isn't appropriate. The insert narrator...dear lord...she reminds me of pre-Higgins Eliza Doolittle.

For those who've wanted to listen to this it's your only option on Audible and beggars can't be choosers. (This means that you can't really complain about the situation you're in because there's no other choice than to be in that situation.)

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esto le resultó útil a 28 personas

Amazing Story - Horrible Narration

Revisado: 03-08-14

I'm not sure why this was narrated as if it were an American Girl story. I'm glad I stuck it out but especially in the early chapters the book sounded like some kind of alt-reality Disney story which took away from a lot of the power.

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So Much Fun!

Revisado: 11-28-13

An amazing overview! Well put together with great narration that kept me listening even after I was done driving. I love books like this that give you history in a context that you may not consider.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

"GODZILLA IS DESTROYING THE CIDDY"

Revisado: 11-28-13

The narration is just miserable. Sisco never met a "t" that he liked, which would be fine if the subject's name wasn't "RaspuTin". So, you're treated to hearing "Raspudin". His tone varies between sounding computerized and sounding like the bad dubbing on a Japanese monster movie.

The book itself is fine, if a little low-brow. This is not a scholarly work but will give you an overview.

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esto le resultó útil a 11 personas

Wao!

Revisado: 03-26-13

It's cliche, but I could listen to Robertson Dean read the phone book in one sitting. I love everything about his speech and mannerism. He's simply the best narrator there is.

I ripped through this 26hr book in under a month, which may be a new record. It's that good.

The slow rise from fey, middle class academic to brutal sociopath warrants the time it takes for make the journey. In that way, the structure of the book serves the story. Dictatorships don't happen overnight. They take thought, planning.and careful manipulation of those around you. What's stunning, though, is how this thoroughly unlikable man managed to starve and murder tens of millions of his own people and remain in power. Often, especially in the last half of the book, I found myself screaming at my iPod for the citizens to start an actual revolution against Mao.

If there's a moral to the book, it's that education is the key. Keep the people ignorant and illiterate and dictatorship is easy. Mao continued to read voraciously as he destroyed the books and culture of those he was supposed to protect. Knowledge is power. Ignorance is powerlessness. Get the book and get some knowledge.

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Not Much Of A Sequel

Revisado: 11-28-11

If you read The Family, save your time and money. If you haven't read The Family, get that book first. And I *highly* suggest you get The Family.

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Stunning, Compelling and Relevent

Revisado: 11-28-11

Long can be easily called the father of the OWS movement. It's somewhat surprising that his name doesn't come up more often. His methods, though, raise thorny questions about how far one can push ethical boundaries to achieve fairness for all. Say what you will about the man, he had the courage of his convictions lacking in politics today. To stand up to Roosevelt because his agenda wasn't radical enough, that took, let's say, testicular fortitude.

The greatest praise I can give this book is that I finished at 32hr book in 10 days which is pretty much a record for me.

The only carp I have - Wiener's accents border on offensively clownish at times. I got used to the Cajun drawls but the Black and Hispanic made me wince.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas