Mark C. Wallace

I was interested until we got to thoroughbreds

Revisado: 12-13-24

I was intrigued right up until the author mentioned thoroughbred horses in Han China. Thoroughbreds are a 17th century European phenomena. The only way they could be present in China is through time travel. I'm skeptical that the Han Chinese had a notion similar to what is implied in the term "breed". Certainly they had bloodlines, but using the term thoroughbred horse is about as accurate as referring to the Han Chinese Air Force.

Is this a major issue? no. But it lowers my confidence in everything else the book presents.

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flat

Revisado: 10-03-19

Good people are good; bad people are bad. Traditional gender roles are comforting. Dwarves laugh constantly.

There are some things to love here but this feels like YA with swear words.

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one dimensional characters and not much plot.

Revisado: 03-13-18

Elves were described as "calm and confident" in two successive sentences, and a third time in the same paragraph. all the good characters are painfully good.

I couldn't identify with or care about any of the characters, and I kept waiting for some tension/ plot. An off screen villain shoewd up in the final chapter.

Don't read this unless you already love the series; having read this, I have no desire to read the series.

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One dimensional

Revisado: 12-20-14

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the story had followed the first chapter of the first book, when the characters were interesting. The protagonist of this novel just keeps making foolish choices and never really being punished for them. It is like he lives in a paranoid delusion but the rest of the universe is patronizing him. I couldn't finish the book because I no longer believed in any of the characters.

The world and characters early in the first book were intriguing,and I wanted to see how they turned out. But as the second book went on, I found myself having to bribe myself to listen and I finally gave up.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Not sure

Would you listen to another book narrated by Oliver Wyman?

Yes; solid but unobtrusive voicework.

What character would you cut from Blood of Innocents?

The protagonist; if were omitted, then perhaps we could have a rational plot.

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Optimistic meditations on the future

Revisado: 08-10-14

What did you love best about The Fourth Revolution?

Nice survey of history with unusual insights into some of the traditional thinkers. Good survey of the status quo, how we got here and a path forward. Wide ranging analysis of modern Liberal Democracy.

What didn’t you like about Chris Sorensen’s performance?

Sing song; every sentence drops on the end, every sentence exteeeennnnds the Finnnnaalll wooordss. Comes off very patronizing and distracts from interesting material.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

The variety of successful alternatives to the bloatocracy. Swedish and German efforts to build a sustainable governance structure on a liberal democratic base.

Any additional comments?

The authors describe some paths forward. I think that those paths are a trifle pollyanna. I agree that if we are to succeed we must find ways to solve this problem, but I think the authors ignore the real obstacles. On the other hand, the authors have done far more research than I, so it is worth continuing the dialogue.

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About half useful.

Revisado: 10-17-13

Would you try another book from Jack Weatherford and/or Victor Bevine?

No. I felt like I was reading entertainment and/or polemic, not history. The first chapter was perplexing; then there was about half a book that was good. But suddenty around the time of Breton Woods, the book went off the rails into longwinded diatribes against fiat money. At that point I started to wonder why I was listening. The examples became longer and more repetitive, and the facts became thinner and thinner.

The author continuously confuses the artifact of money with the transactions that are enabled from money, and asserts that modern money will vanish, although ancient barter systems will survive the evolution to new money. He ignores the role of China (in fact he seems to treat the "history of money" as distinct from the history of economics). He has a long discussion of the rise of loyalty money (airline miles, loyalty points, etc.), but asserts that private senioriage will begin in the 21st century - ignoring the fact that loyalty money is private senioriage. He praises Breton Woods management of exchange rates as the only rational course, but condemns federal reserve management of monetary value as deceptive and nearly criminal.

Pity is that these doubts are causing me to question the parts of the book that sounded good. How much trust can I place in his discussion of Roman or Renaissance economics once he has revealed that he's willing to substitute politics for history?

Has The History of Money turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What didn’t you like about Victor Bevine’s performance?

IF Mr. Bevine was accurately conveying Mr. Weatherford's tone, then my only complaint is that he spoke too slowly. If however the contempt came from Mr. Bevine, rather than from Mr. Weatherford's text, then he deserves more criticism.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes - there were some very useful examples between Lydia and Breton Woods. So long as the book sticks to history and avoids politics, it is decent.

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Splendid performance conceals an adequate book.

Revisado: 08-13-12

Ms. Duerden is the best thing about this book; every character has a distinctive voice, and I can almost pick out on a map of Great Britain where that character was born & educated. Several times I was so fascinated by the accent that I had to skip back to listen to what they were saying. Beyond the regional accents, the voice work made the minor characters individuals.

The underlying text is adequate. I can't quite agree with those who have compared this to Stross' Laundry series or others. Stross manages to convey that the impersonal forces of bureaucracy and institution are just as dreadful as horrors from beyond space, and for some of the same reasons - both are beyond our comprehension, neither have any mercy or interest in our welfare, and the best we can hope for is to remain invisible to either. Mr. O'Malley's book doesn't quite reach that standard. The bureaucracy of the Chequy reminds me more of a squabbling set of middle school children, and the protagonist all too often obtains victory by being the only adult in the room. There are some very good characterizations, I just wish there were more of them, and they were invested more deeply. I wish that the plot emerged more fully from the motivation and understanding of the characters - it feels like the characters are floating on a sea of plot.

If the characters are slightly shallow, the world is correspondingly rich. Mr. O'Malley is at his best when building a creative original world based on historical myth and legend. Too many other authors of modern urban fantasy are derivative, recycling pop culture over and over until it bears no more resemblance to mythology than processed cheese food product does to anything. (I hesitate to put Mr. O'Malley in the category of Urban Fantasy, because "Urban Fantasy" now sees to require a plot of "Heartbreakingly beautiful butt kicking heroine can't choose between the good guy and the bad guy who both love her." - a trope which I am overjoyed to say is missing from Mr. O'Malley's work.)

The plotting was solid, but somewhat obscured by the style of the work. One of the other reviewers commented that the device of "letters to my future self" worked in the beginning of the book, but interfered with the middle/end. I'd have to reluctantly agree; I thought it was a clever stylistic device, but about midway through, when I was getting involved in the plot, something went wrong. I think if I hadn't been distracted, I would have enjoyed the whole book more. The plot is well constructed and complex. I had all the information the main character had (with one exception), and nobody was making progress by behaving stupidly (again with one exception, but that character had a very solid reason to behave stupidly; reasoned, considered foresight would have been out of character for that individual). There were multiple layers, with multiple levels of revelation after the big reveal.

Ultimately I don't think I'd read/listen to the next book in the series (if there were one), but I might very well try again if Mr. O'Malley wrote something different.

And I will search for more works read by Ms. Duerden.

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Excellent performance covers for a mediocre story

Revisado: 01-30-12

The voice acting on this was fantastic; every character has a distinct and individual voice, and the accents are spot on for the class or origin (as far as I can tell).

The story however contains some fairly serious flaws. I despise stories where the protagonist makes progress only because the antagonist is dumber than a box of rocks. In this case the story makes progress largely because the protagonist makes error after error.
When the main character discovers a dead body, she writes an incriminating note establishing her presence at the scene, then leaves the house to create an alibi that is thinner than onionskin paper.

The book is driven too much by the romantic tropes (in which the only thing that matters to the progress of the novel is the obstacles to our hero's eventual union with the object of her affection) and not enough of the mystery tropes (in which clues, evidence and deduction carry the story). Neither the protagonist nor the antagonist act rationally, which leads to an incoherent and unbelievable mystery. If I'd know it was a romance novel, I'd have chosen something else.

I disliked the plotting, but the writing was good - the dialogue mostly comes off very well, and when the characters motivations aren't hijacked in the service of a commonplace romance plot, the characters are engaging and vivid. I'm particularly fond of the heroine's confidant and old school chum, and of Her Majesty. And the voice performance redeemed quite a few of the rough spots.

This book was a bad choice for me, but could be a good choice for you.

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Ho Hum

Revisado: 10-09-09

Yet another entry in the "I have power that your mortal minds cannot conceive, but I'll do essentially nothing throughout the book" collection.

I simply can't identify with a protagonist who has no flaws, has awesome power (but does nothing with it). She's so good at everything that she can carve her initials into a man's buttocks with a bullwhip. She's immortal. She's got awesome and dangerous artifacts. How do I connect with that character? She's saving the world from certain doom. How do I connect with that character? Why do I care what happens to her?

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Occasional wit doesn't conceal dry rot

Revisado: 10-09-09

Bits of wit throughout, and a nice construction of a new story on the frame of the classic. I admire the concept. I just wish it had been executed better.

The novel lost me when the heroine rips open the heart of a noblewoman's ninja retainer and eats it. Completely fractured my suspension of disbelief. (if you think about a novel in which zombies are lured into traps by cauliflower, my suspension of disbelief must have been pretty elastic to start!)

Too many elements executed without sufficient subtlety.

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