OYENTE

R. Carlson

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  • opiniones
  • 10
  • votos útiles
  • 36
  • calificaciones
Gideon the Ninth Audiolibro Por Tamsyn Muir arte de portada

Intersting story, but with loads of holes

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-10-25

The story starts off slow, but the combination of the "mystery box" format and the narration pulls you in. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of unanswered questions that leave you hanging. Those questions might get answered in the next book, hard to tell.

The narration is excellent. The pacing is somewhat uneven and builds towards the end. There are a series of "fight scenes" that seem overly long, but some people will enjoy them. The "feeling" of dark, baroque spaces and lots of blood and gore come through well.

The main premise, however, seems to depend on a series of "deus ex machina" events. People are not who they appear to be, the path to the endgame is fuzzy at best. The power of the sorcery used throughout is never explained. The history of "how we got here" is only tangentially touched upon. (Sorry, it's really hard to explain without spoilers).

I'm not clear if knowing what I now know, I would have read the book, but conversely found myself with my finger hovering over the "Buy Harrow the Ninth" (the next in the series).

I would give a recommendation that if you're good with atmospheric tales that include unexplained magic, the narration and characters would still make this an enjoyable read, but be prepared for a larger investment in the series at the end.

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Not Till We Are Lost Audiolibro Por Dennis E. Taylor arte de portada

Maybe not the best, but pretty good

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-26-24

After "Heavens River" I was a bit skeptical about the Bob's, thinking that maybe it was time to wrap it up, but NTWAL convinces me there's more stories to be told (and this is clearly the intent of the piece). Without giving away too much, the book sets up ancient civilizations, a future conflict with an AI and other sub-plots that will likely be handled in future books. A good start. There's an entire subplot about a return to earth that didn't get tied up and didn't make much sense, and one about a newly discovered intelligent species that seems to have been inserted simply to provide some swash-buckling. On the whole it felt much more like the first three books and that's a good thing! Time for a coffee.

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World Engines Audiolibro Por Stephen Baxter arte de portada

Closure (Kinda) for the Manifold Series..

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-04-24

(applies to "Creator" and "Destroyer")
This will likely be my last Baxter book. Xeelee Vengeance and Redemption were bad enough, I was hoping for a return to better days, but it was not to be. So many issues!

First let's start with the good stuff: It's "high concept", its multiverse, mysterious world destroying engineers, it's Malenfant from the Manifold. In fact, this wraps up the Manifold Trilogy (Time/Space/Origin), making it a …”Pentalogy”! (but see below) It offers some closure to those of us who scratched our heads over Manifold/ORIGIN and the Red Moon, which seemed to have actually been part of a larger storyline – sooooooo Yay?

What's not to like?

Unfortunately, quite a bit

Let's start with the narration. It’s a trainwreck. In the first book there’s two narrators, in the second there's four, but they trade off some parts, like one of the main characters, Malenfant. At least in World Engines Destroyer, there were just two of them. Also, they don't necessarily split the narration according to character. You can figure it out, but it's disconcerting when Malenfant's voice just changes for no reason, depending on who he's talking to. Also, Penelope Rawlins' Malenfant is abominable - cringy and hard to listen to. There’s also only so many hours you can listen to a sardonic robot as a main character (he's no "Bender"). Also, no one in the US pronounces it “mee-thane”. It’s “meth-ane”… or Gee-sers…it's Guy-sers!

Next, there's the characters -- there's way too many of them. Emma seems to have almost no point and no relationship until almost the very end. They seem to kill off some characters, like the Brits, or forget about them, like the Denisovans (Neanderthals?). Also, there's little linkage back to the Manifold books (which you might have read 25 years ago). Sure, they mention a fact or two from them, but these guys all come from a different universe, so...

Then, there's the exposition. Book 1 (Destroyer) spends 3/4 of the book describing post-climate change economics in a world where Armstrong dies on the moon and Nixon invents guaranteed basic income. Sure, at the very end we discover the Multiverse, try to move a planet (not very successfully), and jaunt off to find the engineers. In Book 2 (Creator) we spend the first half in a "Robinson Caruso on Mars" scenario as everyone tries to understand what is pretty much evident from the start - Persephonie is a zoo. Throw in some very evident “mysteries” (the mistreatment of the sub-humans) and a LOT of rocket engineering and you’re now about 3/4 ‘s of the way through.

Answers come in the last 45 minutes or so. Through exposition, of course….

--------------------------- Danger: Spoilers Ahead -------------------

OK, time to wrap up the prior Manifold Trilogy (sorry, Tetralogy… I guess Phase Space, a short story, is sometimes included(?) so now a Hexology!). Spoilers -- it’s the Downstreamers – (remember them from Manifold TIME -- 1999? 25 years ago?) basically, humans from the end of time, back when there was no multiverse. They’re bored. Reruns of “Happy Days” are just not doing it for them. They simply ran out of time and resources, so they sent a message back in time to a generation of children and had them build a device to create the vacuum catastrophe. In doing so, they created a series of universes, a multiverse, a MANIFOLD. At least some of the kids (including “Michael”) jumped into portals before the catastrophe and became immortal beings whose job is to tinker with the construction of various versions of the solar system, like a big billiards game. Oh yeah, and they spread Earth Life (because it’s basically the only game in town). Oh YEAH – remember the red moon from Manifold ORIGIN (from the Manifold Trilogy)? Finally explained, tied up – it was Michael cross breeding hominids across the universes! (And that's why there's duplicates of most of the characters in some of the multiverse worlds....huh?)

Eventually, the blue children will report to Downstreamer central….(wherever that’s supposed to be -- if the vacuum disaster wiped out the original timeline, then Where TF is “Michael” supposed to report to in the end? Nevermind... )

Why?

Who knows…I can hear Baxter screaming “Well just reread the damn books!!!” (the Manifold Series, which were already pretty incoherent 25 years ago...).

Malenfant and Emma decide to stay in “reality IV” and build a life together on a Mars that’s only a little more habitable than ours. Dierdre decides to join the AI/Blue Child “Michael” and travel downstream to the end. Col. Lighthill decides he needs to establish a Titanic to service the Multiverse (and seems not to see the irony in this… Ahhh.. the British Empire in Space!).

Like I said, this is my last Baxter.

If you LOVE Baxter and absolutely NEED to have "Manifold" wrapped up a bit more AND you can tolerate exquisitely bad narration, then have a go. Otherwise, look for better product.

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World Engines Audiolibro Por Stephen Baxter arte de portada

Kinda wraps up Manifold...

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-04-24

(applies to "Creator" and "Destroyer")
This will likely be my last Baxter book. Xeelee Vengeance and Redemption were bad enough, I was hoping for a return to better days, but it was not to be. So many issues!

First let's start with the good stuff: It's "high concept", its multiverse, mysterious world destroying engineers, it's Malenfant from the Manifold. In fact, this wraps up the Manifold Trilogy (Time/Space/Origin), making it a …”Pentalogy”! (but see below) It offers some closure to those of us who scratched our heads over Manifold/ORIGIN and the Red Moon, which seemed to have actually been part of a larger storyline – sooooooo Yay?

What's not to like?

Unfortunately, quite a bit

Let's start with the narration. It’s a trainwreck. In the first book there’s two narrators, in the second there's four, but they trade off some parts, like one of the main characters, Malenfant. At least in World Engines Destroyer, there were just two of them. Also, they don't necessarily split the narration according to character. You can figure it out, but it's disconcerting when Malenfant's voice just changes for no reason, depending on who he's talking to. Also, Penelope Rawlins' Malenfant is abominable - cringy and hard to listen to. There’s also only so many hours you can listen to a sardonic robot as a main character (he's no "Bender"). Also, no one in the US pronounces it “mee-thane”. It’s “meth-ane”… or Gee-sers…it's Guy-sers!

Next, there's the characters -- there's way too many of them. Emma seems to have almost no point and no relationship until almost the very end. They seem to kill off some characters, like the Brits, or forget about them, like the Denisovans (Neanderthals?). Also, there's little linkage back to the Manifold books (which you might have read 25 years ago). Sure, they mention a fact or two from them, but these guys all come from a different universe, so...

Then, there's the exposition. Book 1 (Destroyer) spends 3/4 of the book describing post-climate change economics in a world where Armstrong dies on the moon and Nixon invents guaranteed basic income. Sure, at the very end we discover the Multiverse, try to move a planet (not very successfully), and jaunt off to find the engineers. In Book 2 (Creator) we spend the first half in a "Robinson Caruso on Mars" scenario as everyone tries to understand what is pretty much evident from the start - Persephonie is a zoo. Throw in some very evident “mysteries” (the mistreatment of the sub-humans) and a LOT of rocket engineering and you’re now about 3/4 ‘s of the way through.

Answers come in the last 45 minutes or so. Through exposition, of course….

--------------------------- Danger: Spoilers Ahead -------------------

OK, time to wrap up the prior Manifold Trilogy (sorry, Tetralogy… I guess Phase Space, a short story, is sometimes included(?) so now a Hexology!). Spoilers -- it’s the Downstreamers – (remember them from Manifold TIME -- 1999? 25 years ago?) basically, humans from the end of time, back when there was no multiverse. They’re bored. Reruns of “Happy Days” are just not doing it for them. They simply ran out of time and resources, so they sent a message back in time to a generation of children and had them build a device to create the vacuum catastrophe. In doing so, they created a series of universes, a multiverse, a MANIFOLD. At least some of the kids (including “Michael”) jumped into portals before the catastrophe and became immortal beings whose job is to tinker with the construction of various versions of the solar system, like a big billiards game. Oh yeah, and they spread Earth Life (because it’s basically the only game in town). Oh YEAH – remember the red moon from Manifold ORIGIN (from the Manifold Trilogy)? Finally explained, tied up – it was Michael cross breeding hominids across the universes! (And that's why there's duplicates of most of the characters in some of the multiverse worlds....huh?)

Eventually, the blue children will report to Downstreamer central….(wherever that’s supposed to be -- if the vacuum disaster wiped out the original timeline, then Where TF is “Michael” supposed to report to in the end? Nevermind... )

Why?

Who knows…I can hear Baxter screaming “Well just reread the damn books!!!” (the Manifold Series, which were already pretty incoherent 25 years ago...).

Malenfant and Emma decide to stay in “reality IV” and build a life together on a Mars that’s only a little more habitable than ours. Dierdre decides to join the AI/Blue Child “Michael” and travel downstream to the end. Col. Lighthill decides he needs to establish a Titanic to service the Multiverse (and seems not to see the irony in this… Ahhh.. the British Empire in Space!).

Like I said, this is my last Baxter.

If you LOVE Baxter and absolutely NEED to have "Manifold" wrapped up a bit more AND you can tolerate exquisitely bad narration, then have a go. Otherwise, look for better product.

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Sunstorm Audiolibro Por Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke arte de portada

Be Warned -- there's no end!

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-01-24

It looks like this was going to be a much longer series, instead it's 3 books with no ending.
Pros:
-Interesting ideas
-Lots and lots of details (if that's what you're into)
-Action, adventure

Cons:
- There are a lot of details glossed over, especially in the last book.
- None of the storylines come to a conclusion

Spoilers:
-- you've been warned --
Back in the early days of the universe the "Firstborn" evolve and decide that they need to stretch their civilization to the end of time in our current universe (the big rip) and the only way to do this is to kill off all other energy-hungry intelligent life in the universe, so they go around causing solar mass ejections and such. Apparently the Martians had a run-in with them and that's why there are no more Martians. Except, the First Born create these short-lived, closed universes to "sample" the civilizations they are destroying. So most of the first book is about a copy of Earth where there's a couple of "time slices" including Alexander the Great, Ghengis Kahn, Thomas Edison in Chicago, a couple of 2050's soldiers and some 1850 British troops. They all come to discover they've been set up on this alternate Earth. Oh yeah, and there's one remaining Martian on Mars. Apparently there's a faction among the Firstborn who think they are being jerks and decides to help one of the "modern" people who we follow back to Earth in the 2060's. A lot of shenanigans ensues, including building a giant shield for the Earth to prevent it being wiped out by the giant solar flare that was started 2000 years ago in December (yeah... it's the Christmas star from the Bible). So you get through all of this in book 2 and you think "OK, they need to wrap this all up in book three". Book three involves some more transits between the alternate Earth, the creation of some sort of signal to Mars by carving a flaming message in the North American Ice Cap using wooly mammoths and big plows to get the Martian to trick the Firstborn to divert a planet destroying bomb from Earth to Mars in "our" universe (the mechanism of all of this is never explained). Poof, Mars and a couple dozen people on it are sucked into a new micro universe set to go big-rip almost immediately. Mysteriously, the main characters daughter is rescued from this by the rebel Firstborn and end up on some version of Mars (presumably in the alternate mini-universe that the Alternate Earth is in) and they're looking up a a tall dude in white robes who turns out to be the main character's grandson who says "We call ourselves the Lastborn... and we're losing the war". Cue the curtains. No resolutions. The alternative universe has about 500 years to go, plenty of time to wrap things up. The big space telescopes have discovered dozens of other civilizations fleeing the Firstborn, so plenty of allies to reach out to. Hours and hours of exposition with some really cool ideas (mars flora makes a comeback, we learn a little about the old Martians, we see the Firstborn run some really weird tests on an set of Australopithecus's one of whom shows up in the last chapter, but totally unanswered are the questions of - who are these Lastborn guys; what power do they have; why is it important for the Firstborn to make it to the end of the universe; who was picking up all the mammoth dung? It was actually a good ride - three books worth - it probably wants to have another three books attached, but that will never happen now because Clark is dead.

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Time's Eye Audiolibro Por Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke arte de portada

Don't get hooked, there is no ending!

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-01-24

It looks like this was going to be a much longer series, instead it's 3 books with no ending.
Pros:
-Interesting ideas
-Lots and lots of details (if that's what you're into)
-Action, adventure

Cons:
- There are a lot of details glossed over, especially in the last book.
- None of the storylines come to a conclusion

Spoilers:
-- you've been warned --
Back in the early days of the universe the "Firstborn" evolve and decide that they need to stretch their civilization to the end of time in our current universe (the big rip) and the only way to do this is to kill off all other energy-hungry intelligent life in the universe, so they go around causing solar mass ejections and such. Apparently the Martians had a run-in with them and that's why there are no more Martians. Except, the First Born create these short-lived, closed universes to "sample" the civilizations they are destroying. So most of the first book is about a copy of Earth where there's a couple of "time slices" including Alexander the Great, Ghengis Kahn, Thomas Edison in Chicago, a couple of 2050's soldiers and some 1850 British troops. They all come to discover they've been set up on this alternate Earth. Oh yeah, ad there's one remaining Martian on Mars. Apparently there's a faction among the Firstborn who think they are being jerks and decides to help one of the "modern" people who we follow back to Earth in the 2060's. A lot of shenanigans ensues, including building a giant shield for the Earth to prevent it being wiped out by the giant solar flare that was started 2000 years ago in December (yeah... it's the Christmas star from the Bible). So you get through all of this in book 2 and you think "OK, they need to wrap this all up in book three". Book three involves some more transits between the alternate Earth, the creation of some sort of signal to Mars by carving a flaming message in the North American Ice Cap using wooly mammoths and big plows to get the Martian to trick the Firstborn to divert a planet destroying bomb from Earth to Mars in "our" universe (the mechanism of all of this is never explained). Poof, Mars and a couple dozen people on it are sucked into a new micro universe set to go big-rip almost immediately. Mysteriously, the main characters daughter is rescued from this by the rebel Firstborn and end up on some version of Mars (presumably in the alternate mini-universe that the Alternate Earth is in) and they're looking up a a tall dude in white robes who turns out to be the main character's grandson who says "We call ourselves the Lastborn... and we're losing the war". Cue the curtains. No resolutions. The alternative universe has about 500 years to go, plenty of time to wrap things up. The big space telescopes have discovered dozens of other civilizations fleeing the Firstborn, so plenty of allies to reach out to. Hours and hours of exposition with some really cool ideas (mars flora makes a comeback, we learn a little about the old Martians, we see the Firstborn run some really weird tests on an set of Australopithecus's one of whom shows up in the last chapter, but totally unanswered are the questions of - who are these Lastborn guys; what power do they have; why is it important for the Firstborn to make it to the end of the universe; who was picking up all the mammoth dung? It was actually a good ride - three books worth - it probably wants to have another three books attached, but that will never happen now because Clark is dead.

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Optional Retirement Plan Audiolibro Por Chris Pourteau arte de portada

An attempt at Sci-fi Noir that falls flat

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-14-24

Calling this "science fiction" is a stretch. Sure, there's ray-guns and space ships and the story takes place on an orbital, the Moon and Mars, but essentially, this is a "gangster story" about a fading assassin/mob enforcer. It's not even particularly engaging even on these terms.

You desperately want to find something admirable or interesting about the main character (the enforcer), but all that comes through is an old man who's lived a bad life with a brain ravaged by alzheimer's and it's all coming to an end. I kept waiting for the clever turn of events, the surprise ending, something that would make this story worthwhile, but it was a predictable string of murders and close calls ending in his demise.

[spoiler]

The ending is an incredible disappointment. After shooting up half the solar system, evading his last foe, there's really no salvation for our anti-hero. After all, he's a killer. In the end he's begging you, the reader to pull the trigger (literally -- the narration has all been for the benefit of the guy he just gave his gun to). .... So I did.

Jeesh, I went into this hoping for some sort of clever twist on the the old gunslinger getting put out to pasture but all I got was a hackneyed, predictable, boring seven and a half hours of gum clacking, wise cracking mob-of-the-future.

The ONLY thing that made this experience acceptable in any way, was RC Bray's narration. He was the perfect guy for the job, even if the job was certainly beneath him.

Recommendation: Take a pass, go re-watch Bladerunner instead if you're hankering for sci-fi noir. How this gets a 4.4 star, I will never know.

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Saint Joan of New York Audiolibro Por Mark Alpert arte de portada

good concept, bad execution

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-28-24

good start, interesting premise, but the story gets bogged down in so many ways. the ending is forced and unsatisfying. see Kudan's very insightful review. the only thing I'd add is that it would have been more interesting if Joan doubted her sanity a bit more. the religion bit is pretty hackneyed, the science not strong. would not recommend. I finished it, but had to crank the speed up to 2 to do so.

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Infinite Audiolibro Por Jeremy Robinson arte de portada

good read strange ending

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-17-23

let me start off by saying this was an enjoyable read. it would be almost impossible to give a review of this story without giving away the ending and without giving away the premise. so I'm not really sure that I want to put too much in here if you want it take a look at the other reviews and you can see a spoiler. I'll just comment on the technical excellence of the production. RC Bray as usual was an excellent narrator. the story was engaging. and the ending was weird but satisfying. I would recommend this however be prepared for twists along the way.

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Roadkill Audiolibro Por Dennis E. Taylor arte de portada

a little light for a Taylor book

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-06-23

I think the comparisons in other reviews to expeditionary Force are a little bit disingenuous. This is an entertaining light read with great performance by the narrator and suitable plot twists to keep it interesting. That being said it pales in comparison to the Bob series. But overall an enjoyable read. It's a little bit above the "young adult fiction" level but not by much. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something quick easy and breezy. It is amusing and well written if you accept those limitations.

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