Eugene

An absolute must read!

Revisado: 07-14-21

The audio book has some glitches in editing, sentences are started by the readers, stopped, and then repeated in full. This happens a number of times, but in the end it doesn't detract from the absolute intensity of the tale. We have all heard in recent times about the Rules of Engagement (ROE) written largely by lawyers with no experience in combat. The events recounted in Sole Survivor were a prime example of what happens when our operators are forced to follow rules that make no actual sense in the real world. Eddie Gallagher was accused of a crime he did not commit. He was prosecuted and persecuted for more than a year before he was found not guilty in a general court martial. How this all happened, how the charges were invented and pursued by a corrupt NCIS officer, and the degree to which this high decorated SEAL was abandoned by Naval Special Warfare hierarchy, and how those who tried to help him were also persecuted, is a woeful tale. What is even more unfortunate is that the premier fighting force of the United States is no largely populated by prima donnas who want their Trident not to be great fighters, but, rather, to become entrepreneurs and barroom heroes and, in some cases to write books. I have read a number of these books.This one is, by far, the most honest and real description of what it is really to be a SEAL in the Navy of the 21st Century.

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An oldie but a goodie

Revisado: 03-01-19

I never read this book before, nor have I seen the flim that was made of it, though I will now try to seek it out. The book is excellent in its character development as well as its techical aspects. Sagan had a wonderful ability to make science, even the most complex sciences understandable. He was unquestionably brilliant and charming. He has created in this book something that will never grow stale. It contains humanity and a hope for the future. It is in a word used on the billboard for the film, Superb!

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A Small amount of knowledge is a dangerous thing

Revisado: 08-23-18

I have listened to quite a number of Great Courses offerings. Some are good, a few are great, a few are mediocre. This wouldn't even meet the last category. Shermer had his lectures taped, not very professionally. His lectures are ill-prepared, and not very well developed. He frequently mispronounces names which no historian should do. He repeats long discredited theories, i.e., Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and did nothing to prevent it or prepare for the attack. His descriptions of historic figures offer nothng new. and demonstrate only a very limited knowledge of them. My overwhelming sense in listening to his lectures is that he is about a chapter ahead of his students.
I have read extensively into the American Civil War and the First and Second World Wars. I am no expert, but my knowledge is far superior to what Mr Shermer demonstrates in discussing these conflicts. After 20 hours of listening I have not heard anything I was not fully aware of, and a lot I know to be bogus.
If you are unfamiliar with these wars and want a brief exposure to them, this might be a reasonable introduction. However, for anyone with anythng more than a cursory knowledge this is a large waste of your money and your time. With less than 5 hours left I am yet to learn his view of the causes and solutions. I can't wait. (That was pure sarcasm. Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
Addendum: After a less than historic description of the holocaust in Europe, the Shermer moves on to the post Civil War west where he attempts to equate the Indian wars to the holocaust. It will appear that his entire knowledge of this period is based on Dee Brown's book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. He makes a number of outrageously ill-informed statements, some not even backed by Brown's somewhat exaggerated text. It is obvious that he has read none of the available literature on Custer and has almost no knowledge of persons and events other than that supplied by Brown's book, and that not particularly well understood.
He does not have even the most cursory understanding of the times and the events. Historic figures have to be judged in the times and places in which they existed, not by modern standards. They should be judged and understood within the context that they lived. That he lacks an understanding of even this most basic tenet of the historian's wheelhouse makes this entire work one of absurd fantasy. That this man is actually teaching a "college" level couse demonstrates the complete lack scholarship that has overtaken our modern universities.

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Deeply poetic as only the Irish can write

Revisado: 07-21-18

This is a truly beautiful book. Being myself of an age where there is far less of my life left than what I have already lived, I found it particularly poignant. It is fairly obvious from the beginning that these are the last thoughts of a man who is dying, in the last moments of life. We are told that your whole life passes in front of you, and this rambling, stream of consciousness exposition of a man's fleeting life is wonderfully real in chronicling his youth, his marriage, his career, his children's lives, and the ups and downs of all. It is far from a perfect life, but it is a good life of a good man, and his passing left me very sad. Still, I would not have wanted to not have heard this book read, as it was, by Tim Gerard Reynolds. He was the perfect voice for this story.

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Is the sacrifice really worth the outcome?

Revisado: 06-05-18

I read another review in which the reviewer panned this book as being too politically motivated, too anti-Iraq/George Bush. That is a pretty shallow analysis in my view. Though very skeptical about the war from the beginning, I believed that once committed we needed to finish what we started. I don't think this book changed my view. It did, however, clearly show the costs of that policy.
The first war to ever be photographed was the Crimea. The pictures, though far less than graphically disclosing the reality of that war were still quite shocking to the public. The American Civil War upped the ante quite a bit with photos of dead, swollen bodies in lines following the various major battles. For the first time it was impossible to continue to believe that mythos of the glories of war.
In more recent times we have Saving Private Ryan. It, again, upped the ante, and it showed the horrors of the invasion of Omaha beach in realistic detail. The weakness in that portrayal was that the majority of those we saw drop and die or be blown apart were anonymous extras, not the stars.
This book follows a unit of the United States Army formed in Fort Riley Kansas, led by a fine American officer, sent to Iraq for a period of more than 14 months. There aren't any glorious battles in which the 14 or 15 KIAs from the ranks of nearly 300 men die heroically, or the many more are horribly maimed and disabled. The men who died were mostly killed by roadside bombs, IEDs and EFPs while they drove around Baghdad in their Humvees. They are or were individuals whose histories we become familiar with and the circumstances of whose deaths or maimings we also become familiar with.
I don't care what your politics might be. Personally, I consider myself a conservative, but when you read/hear the descriptions of these deaths and terrible injuries which will leave the surviving young soldiers impaired and, likely, in pain for the rest of their lives, you are forced to examine the price they paid for us, for the nation, to achieve what ultimate goal?
This is the most realistic view of the war in Iraq that I have read/listened to. It isn't slanted to one political side or the other. It is telling the story of what happened and continues to happen from viewpoint of the men who are actually doing the fighting, not the generals, not the politicians. It is extremely powerful and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to you.

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Another Progressive interpretation of history.

Revisado: 07-30-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book lacks a balanced perspective. Told from a Progressive/Liberal viewpoint, it has all of the most salient features of a New York Times editorial.A

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I was born in 1945. The period covered in this book is very familiar to me, as is the interpretation presented by the author. In recent years I have read books with a more balanced view on the history of the period, ones that treat Kennedy and Johnson with less esteem and more objectivity. Others like Whitaker Chambers whose autobiography I have also read were given short shrift. Chambers exposed Alger Hiss. Hiss according to this author, very unhistorically, seems an innocent victim, a blatant lie since Hiss did ultimately confess. The Rosenbergs are also presented as victims of the Red Scare.
Having read all of the preceding volumes of the Oxford History, I was expected a book with a more historically balanced view. This was an attempt to set on stone the leftist interpretation of this period and is unworthy of being part of a much better historical set.

Was Grand Expectations worth the listening time?

Despite the obvious failings, I did enjoy listening. As I stated, I lived through this entire period and have read many biographies of the outstanding figures of the period, as well as the historic events. It would have been a much better book if the author had stuck to simply telling the truth rather than shading it to meet his political objective.

Any additional comments?

I don't recommend this to anyone who is going to rely on it as the final history of the period. It has the same flavor of truthfulness one finds in Howard Zinn's history text. This is a brief overview with too much of a political agenda. Where details are left out, they are the ones that gainsay the viewpoint of the author. That isn't good history.

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A truly great post-apocalyptical trilogy

Revisado: 07-13-17

Would you consider the audio edition of The Mountain Man Omnibus to be better than the print version?

R.C Bray is such a great reader, it is hard to imagine that the print version could be more enjoyable.

Any additional comments?

I am not usually a fan of this type of novel. Had it not been a deal of the day, I might have never listened to it, and that would have been a shame. Most post-Apocalypse/zombie novels are pitifully dirivative. These three books have a good deal of originality. The characters are common men and women who adjust, adapt, and survive. The zombies are awful, but far worse are the living survivors who are truly evil. The descriptions are vivid, terrrifyingly described. This is great reading and a great reader. I was never bored, never really sure where it was all going to lead. The books start out really good and become truly excellent when you reach the third volume. Great escapist literature! I highly recommend it to fans of this kind of horror story. This is one you definitely shouldn't miss.

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A truly wonderful childhood recollection

Revisado: 05-24-16

Would you consider the audio edition of The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be better than the print version?

I think that Neil Gaiman's narration added something to the text that no one else could have, nor would the simple text have been as powerful. This is truly a masterpiece.

What other book might you compare The Ocean at the End of the Lane to and why?

There are many childhood fantasies, but this one stands alone in my estimation. It possesses the best element of imagination combined with a child's eye view of the world and the people who inhabit it. The concept of a tiny piece of land that becomes a whole world and a duck pond that becomes the ocean could only happen in the mind of a child. Even though you know that it is a fantasy, a part of you wishes it were all true. Though a very different book it did remind me a bit of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Thing Are which I read to my son over and over when he was child.

Any additional comments?

I have read (listened to) a few of Gaiman's books, but I have never been captivated by them before. This book absolutely held me, possessed me, as it were. It is a work of real genius that belongs along side of Exupery's The Little Prince as a book that can be read and reread many times.

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The finest history of early Everest exploration

Revisado: 05-14-14

Where does Into the Silence rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have listened to more than 200 audio books and would put this book close to the top, if not at the top itself.

What other book might you compare Into the Silence to and why?

Over the years I have read hundreds of books on climbing, quite a few of them describing the early Everest expeditions. Never before has an author put the climb and climbers into the context of the period in which it occurred. Above All Things by Tanis Rideout has been one of my favorite books specifically on Mallory, but it was novelized. This is pure fact, superbly researched and written, and it brings all of the players into focus so clearly. I was skeptical about Wade Davis writing about a climbing expedition, but he has great understanding combined with superb skills as a writer. It has never been so clear that those concepts of high altitude climbing so familiar to any modern climber were largely evolved during the three early attempts on Mount Everest.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was definitely difficult to stop listening, but at 28 hours a bit long for a single sitting. It is certainly one that I will return to again and again.

Any additional comments?

Wade Davis has achieved a remarkable feat, produced a book on climbing the like of which may never be done again. It is a book that even non-climbers can read and enjoy. His descriptions of the trenches of WWI from the perspectives of the various players compares to some of the best writing on that period. This is truly a work of real genius.

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Simmons is definitely not a climber

Revisado: 11-02-13

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this to any of my friends. They are, for the most part, experienced climbers who would find Simmons very elementary knowledge of climbing history, climbing equipment, and the effects of high altitude totally silly.

Would you ever listen to anything by Dan Simmons again?

This is my second Dan Simmons' novel, and very likely my last. I am not much into melodrama, and I prefer that the author I read know at least as much about his subject as I do. Simmons doesn't. He breaks Hemingway's first rule, write only about that which you know and have experienced.

What does Kevin T. Collins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Collins is decent reader, although I prefer someone with a bit more "grit" in his voice. If I were reading this book myself, I would likely have tossed it long before the end. I found myself shouting at the speakers when Simmons' inane lack of knowledge of mountaineering practices and the actual nature of German climbers of the 1920s and 30s demonstrated a complete ignorance of the real people, many of whom were superb individuals without any political agendas. The NAZIs were scum. Most climbers were no different than climbers all over the world, just interested in reaching unclimbed summits for their own sake, not for their country or their party.

Did The Abominable inspire you to do anything?

As mentioned earlier, scream at the speakers and want to puke.

Any additional comments?

I climbed and guided in the mountains for nearly 40 years. I have read hundreds of books on mountaineering, expeditions, biographies of climbers, and several on the discovery of George Leigh Mallory's remains. I found Simmons' use of that tragedy and pretense that the event took place almost three quarters of century earlier than it actually did to be in very poor taste. His description of the condition of the body taken from The Lost Explorer by Conrad Anker and David Roberts to border on plagiarism. Only one other book, The Eiger Sanction, irritated me as much as this one did. In both cases the authors read one or two books on the subject and proceeded to write their own with a minimal understand and knowledge of the subject they were exploring.

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