Wundt

Good story, but flawed characters

Revisado: 12-01-22

The story itself is interesting, though it follows a familiar narrative (people in a controlled environment discovering their existence is a lie). I felt the first book had enough promise that I went ahead and listened to the second book, and will likely buy the third. Hamilton is very good at 'world building' and this is another good example of a plausible future.

However, as I listened to the story I became more and more annoyed by the main characters. I get that the protagonist is a teenage girl, but her personality and the divergence of the story into a love triangle become very annoying. For example, frequently in the story other characters will discuss how they are drawn to he energy and her character, but (and perhaps this is the reader's fault), at no point do we actually see a character that others would be drawn to.

It also begins to become just unbelievable for other reasons. First, there are frequent 'long conversations' in the middle of what are action sequences. For example, two of the main characters have a lengthy conversation about their feelings for each other while literally being chased by monsters. Second, you also have the nonsense that a group of untrained kids can succeed where highly trained professionals and hyper-intelligent AIs all failed (a la Red Dawn).

I will still likely listen to the final book in the series, but this is definitely NOT one of Hamilton's better books.

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enthralling

Revisado: 06-11-21

I really enjoyed it and it kept me questioning many things, which character was correct.

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Good. Worth a listen.

Revisado: 10-29-19

The case is engaging and feels very even handed. I am sure there are some who would listen and say it is biased, but I think it is clear they never took anything told them by the convicted at face value. It is a good example of how juries tend to vote with their emotions rather than based on the evidence and how police and lawyers can turn tiny details into elaborate stories. In general, once I got into the audio book it was a good listen and kept my attention.

Two complaints...
- Like many of these sorts of books/podcasts there isn't really a conclusion. They certainly conclude that the case against him was too weak to justify conviction, but neither offer adequate evidence to clear his name nor do they find the conclusion that says he was guilty. In the end, all I could say is that it likely didn't happy as they police claimed... but...

- It is repetitive. This might be a product of this following the podcast format, where the chapters are meant to be listened to days apart. However, listening to them as a single book there is a lot of redundancy. This slows the book down somewhat and there were times when I felt I could skip ahead and not miss very much.

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I just wish it was longer

Revisado: 10-21-19

I truly loved listening to this book. Even when I was familiar with several of the stories I still learned many things I didn't know. I just wish the book was longer than 2 and a half hours. I ended up buying the second book just to listen to more.

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Worth a listen, not among my favorite Simmons book

Revisado: 10-21-19

I generally enjoy Dan Simmons books, with "Carrion Comfort" being among one of my all time favorites.

This book is one of Simmons' recent trend for historical fiction, such as "Everest" or "the Terror." For myself, I am not as much of a fan of his historical books (I almost gave up on Simmons after reading "The Crook Factory") but I did find Black Hills enjoyable and worth the listen, It still suffers from some of the flaws of some of the other Simmons historical fiction, such as his tendency to bring in famous historical figures into the books as if to say, "see how well I researched this topic." I also found the ending to be a little too 'deus ex machina.'

Worth a listen.

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I gave up and just read a summary online

Revisado: 09-17-19

I think there is something interesting here. The concepts are good. The play with time is interesting. However, the book just drags on, bogged down in details that ultimately don't move the story along. I started skipping sections, finding that doing so didn't impact the story. I eventually found I just didn't care about the outcome. In the end, the core themes are interesting, but what would have been a great short story was overwhelmed by pages and pages of nothing.

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Derivative of Harry Potter, but still good

Revisado: 09-17-19

The book is clearly a derivative of Harry Potter. But, I really enjoyed the book. I found the characters interesting and the story moved along nicely with a good (though not unexpected) conclusion. If you are looking for something light to listen to, especially if you have kids in the car with you, I recommend it.

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Not Dan Simmons' best

Revisado: 06-17-19

Simmons' recent books have fallen into a pattern where he researches the historical story and then novelizes them. In general, this is a fine, readable book. Interesting enough to keep reading, but not good enough to call out especially as interesting.

There were a few things that did annoy me.

- The narrator is somewhat boring and formulaic

- Some of the portrayals of the actual, historical individuals are questionable and he took some serious liberties with some historical facts. For example, he refers to Julia Child as a chef working for the OSS as a spy. She wasn't a spy, she was a clerk. And, she wasn't a chef until much later in life. Likewise, his portrayal of other figures have similar minor and major errors.

- In general, there really isn't much of a story here. The final conclusion is unsatisfying and the mystery wasn't all that mysterious. This reads more like an homage to Hemingway, and not much else.

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Long, without much of a pay off

Revisado: 09-19-18

I actually stopped listening to this fora while, but returned to finish it once I ran out other things in library. it has some interesting ideas and characters, but the narrative arc is odd and pieces of the story don't really add much.

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Romance novel with dragons

Revisado: 02-24-18

I read this series when I was younger and remember loving it. listening to it now, I was disappointed. The characters are thin and their motivations never explored. The story is predictable. It skips over the interesting parts of the story in favor of spending time on trivialities. there are so many better examples of this genre.

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