Luna Fortuna

short and sweet. Tear jerker.

Revisado: 03-30-21

If you've ever had any kind of pet that you felt a special connection with, especially a dog, this book will be very emotional for you. It's a fresh approach to a narative. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Disinformation and hogwash

Revisado: 03-26-21

If you picked this up because, like me, you were hoping for an in-depth and scientific look at plants at the cellular level, full of the soaring wonder with which Carl Sagan describes the Cosmos, you will be sorely disappointed. Parts are shakey, others are pure fantasy, and still more are harmful charlatanry preying on the hopes and dreams of the credulous and untrained. In chapter 2 I kept waiting for the moment the irony would become evident, and they would talk about applying electrodes to rocks and beakers of salt water and getting the same results. They state "scientists stood in awe" but have no sources, and quote no names. They say (very conveniently) that skeptics "would not be able to get the same result" and that scientific probing will only shut up the plants forever, as if good science doesn't require the practicioner to be open to the possibility of being wrong.

Not only will you listen to pseudoscience presented in the least convincing way possible, but the narrator reads with all the sparkle and imagination of a funeral durge. So if you are not credulous enough to believe it, you will not even be entertained. Truly a waste of a very good title.

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Strange, sad, and wonderful. A happy ending

Revisado: 03-01-21

I don't think I can say too much more than my headline without giving it away. It was tense and sad and sensual. If you've ever been interested in conservation this book will tug at your hearstrings in that specific unhappy way that reading about endangered species does. The most (perhaps only) unrealistic part of the narative is the happy ending. Overall a unique read. I highly recommend.

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The voices aren't consistent.

Revisado: 11-17-16

The voices he chose for each character aren't consistent from the last books, or even within this same book. Mr. Dotrice has a wonderful voice to listen to, but he's garbage at voices, and apparently the directors didn't do anything to remind him what voices he used for what.

It also irks me how some of the names are pronounced. Though, I can't hold that entirely against Dotrice. This performance was made before the HBO series aired, and that was my first exposure to Martin's work.

The story itself gets quite dark in this book (not that it wasn't dark before). I have to praise the HBO directors for not ruining some really crazy stuff that happens in this book. (There's a special hell reserved for people hurt children and those who divulge spoilers.) Martin does a good job of showing the side of war we often don't think of, or try not to. I'm excited to read the next one!

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Get the abridged version.

Revisado: 05-11-16

First things first. This book has quite a few charts and pictures that are very handy when reading the paper copy, that just don't translate to a spoken format. It's at best boring and at worst confusing, and I have a degree in biology.

Not to mention, the original published text is over 150 years old. That's some seriously archaic language going on at times. Bill DeWees does a great job enunciating individual words, but the flow of the sentences is missing. The dude sounds like he's reading side effects off the back of a laxative box. Much of the meaning of the book is lost in translation. So just don't bother, and get the abridged copy.

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Don't bother with Unabridged

Revisado: 05-11-16

They cut out all the bits that were hard to listen to (such as the long descriptions of charts you don't get to see with this format) and stuck to the most relevant parts of the book. I really appreciated the editor's notes, because it gives some context for this 157-year-old text (he mentions Lamark quite a bit, or references Lamarkian theories. Nobody without a biology BS will remember who that guy is).

As always, Dawkins is a superb voice actor. He makes it so clear and easy to understand even the most archaic turns of phrase. I started out trying to listen to the (much cheaper) unabridged copy of this audiobook narrated by Bill DeWees. While DeWees spoke clearly, and each word was enunciated clearly, the guy read like he was listing side effects off the back of a laxative box. I made it 2 hours in and had to stop.

Dawkins and this abridged copy held my interest to the very end (not that it's that much longer than 2 hours, but I have a 45 minute commute. That's a long time to listen to someone talk in a sitting.) it kept me awake through my drive, and even had me listening on my headphone in lab.

All in all, I am very pleased.

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Very VERY long. The recording has poor volume balance.

Revisado: 12-04-15

While I think the story was quite good, it could have done with being about half as long. Actions that take a few seconds spanned pages in description. It's well written, and the story is engaging, but it's an exhausting read (or listen).

The narrator was very good. He had a different voice for each character and did a good job on the whole. The volume was too variable, though. Some characters had very soft voices (all the female ones and sometimes Bassam) and some voices were far too loud (looking at you, Zaphir). Having a conversation between a quiet one and a loud one meant constantly adjusting the volume on my device. It's not the voice actor's fault, that's something the recording studio should have dealt with before publishing it. Like I said, Mark Deakins did a great job.

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Beautifully written. Narrated by author (who has a very pleasant accent.)

Revisado: 08-21-15

While I think this text may be mildly offensive to fundamentalist theologians, it was highly instructive and a pleasure to listen to. It's easy to understand and has numerous easily digestible examples that do not lose quality for lack of visual aid. As a teacher of intro biology I've used a number of the examples from this text to great effect. I will likely read this again.

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Very motivating

Revisado: 04-22-15

This book has inspired me to go through my whole house and dispose of it give away about 1/3 of my possessions. My room is not cluttered for the first time in my life! While it remains to be seen if it is, in fact, a life-long change, it has certainly helped me consider every object in my house, and how much I actually like it. I donated 8 13 gallon bags of clothing, two big boxes of books, and two 13 gal bags of "junk" so far. I've thrown away 3 20 gallon bags of garbage. And I'm not even done!
While I don't agree with everything she says, it is definitely worth the read (listen).

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Love the book, mediocre narrator

Revisado: 03-20-15

This book has been with me for a long time, and I'm listening to it again for fun. It's too similar to the Pern novels to have 5 stars on its own, but it's very good all the same.

The narrator was overdramatic in some places and ridiculous in others. The voice he made for the cook sounded like a Monty Python sketch about Slovakian women. Not a compliment. Sure, every character had their own voice, but they were heavy handed at best.

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