reball01

Better Than Might Think!

Revisado: 02-18-25

Took a moment to realize that Nick is David's son. I kept my skepticism in place, just the same. Why read a "pretend John Le Carre" novel?!

I'm glad I kept the skepticism as it made the story that much more surprisingly good! Nick doesn't have his father's voice nor should he. It's unnecessary if you already know enough about Smiley, the company he keeps or how he gets around--especially when he's trying to dodge hoods from Moscow Center in enemy territory. Likewise, the new characters are just as interesting as the original cast (dead or alive). You might try Liza Mundy's books on code girls and female CIA case officers for better context, also.

My star ratings might have to speak for themselves as much for me. I did have to increase the reading speed a bit to keep up (that's an impressive technology!). Beyond that, a thoroughly enjoyable listen!

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Great book! Well done!

Revisado: 11-26-24

Good writing and great reading! Interesting stories that prompt me, as an amateur radio operator participating in emergency communications, to want to learn more! Thanks for this!

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Excellent Performance Reading

Revisado: 09-20-24

Great work! Great story made better with a well-produced performance. Very entertaining and enjoyable! Ray Porter did a great job!

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Well....I liked it!

Revisado: 02-25-24

There are better critique's than mine but I really enjoyed the book. Well written and researched, thanks! I'd really like to see this kind of analysis done on other wars involving the United States. My best to the author.

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“The Machine Says So.”

Revisado: 02-04-24

Awful story that must be told, Wallis got it right all around. Great journalism! Brought the UK legal system down an understandable level for this American.

You might be tempted to think this book a polemic against the UK Post Office until you discover that the facts were worse than originally thought and verified in numerous legal trials. Great listen.

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Perhaps Better Seen And Not Heard

Revisado: 12-19-23

I’ll let others critique the story. For me, it works well. As with the first book, “Slow Horses”, narration is satisfactory but suffers from the authors insistence on trying to maintain the various storylines simultaneously (as though writing a teleplay). It would work better had the narrator paused longer between each shift of the story but, then again, such pauses might well have added 15 or 20 minutes to the runtime.

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Great Series, One Minor Complaint

Revisado: 11-25-22

I loved the entire series, but I have one minor complaint regarding the production. For whatever reason, the audio producers at Harper-Collins did not include the authors note from the end of every book. Cormwell always includes a page or two of explanation about his book and how he fits it into the historical narrative, where he takes liberties and makes things up or has to kill off a character. This does not detract from the stories, but his explanations were every bit as interesting, and I found myself having to go to my local library (no complaint there) just to read those parts in the book. To me, this makes all of the performances "abridged".

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Great book, good read but with mispronunciations

Revisado: 03-01-21

I'll leave it to you to find better critiques of the book. I enjoyed it and the reader did ok up to a point. I score low for mispronunciations. I could understand if this was the year 2000 and we were all just getting used to getting audiobooks online but I'm writing this in 2021 about a book published and recorded in 2020.

Examples:

1. Anne Arundel County is pronounced "Ann Ah-RUN-dil County", not "Anne AYR-run-DELL".
2. Catonsville (as in the Catonsville Nine) is pronounced "CAY-tuns-ville", not "CAHT-uns-vill".
3. Ellicott City is pronounced "EL-lih-kit" city, not "El-li-COTT" City.

We've got the internet today much more so than before, right?! A simple pronunciation guide provided by the author, forwarded by the publisher to both the producer and the talent should NOT be an issue anymore, I would think.

But, again, it was a great book!

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The Subject Is Worth Reading

Revisado: 10-30-20

Regardless of your politics, you want to know about The Prez (as I call him) and this book (along with "Fear") will get you there. I found the Kushner portion of the story unexpectedly compelling, especially about the books he references (including Scott Adams' "Win Bigly"). The most unexpected part of this book was that I sped up the playback to 1.5x while not realizing that Woodward would include verbatim interviews with The Prez. This means you hear the false starts, sudden stops and switches in the conversation similar to how we all talk if we're not involving prepared remarks but, in this case, it made The Prez sound like he was on every stimulant legally available (and perhaps not-so-legal). I had to stop the recording and reset my listening mind. Good work, good reading and thanks, again, Audible for the speed control on the app.

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Not what I expected (which was a good thing)

Revisado: 10-30-20

Much better than any movie adaptation I've seen (isn't the book always better?!). There are better reviews out there than mine. I will say I enjoyed the momentary comparison of D'Artagnan to Don Quixote (the influence of Cervantes is felt in many parts of the book). While I was surprised that so much of the book was given to Milady and her escape, I found that story to be perhaps the most compelling part of the book.

My only complaint on this book is the recording. The reader is fine but the audio is overmodulated at some spots, especially when John Lee raises his voice. That's not on Mr. Lee but on the sound engineer. Other than that, I can recommend this book to anyone. Enjoy!

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