Steve E.

Implausible story, cringe writing

Revisado: 07-27-23

What do you get when you combine an absurd, ridiculous plot and the most cringe writing and dialog ever to exist? You get Hail Mary by Andy Weir. The writing and dialog are just comically terrible, A lot of it is "Math and science are cool, right fellow millenials?" type stuff. Additionally, the main character is a brilliant PhD scientist and a caring and kind middle school teacher, but somehow simultaneously has the maturity and thought processing of a teenage girl. Of course he's also the one who is chosen to unravel the alien threat and one in three humans to go on the space mission to stop it. Ridiculous.

The way the book is structured also doesn't work. It alternates between present day segments in the space ship and flashback segments on earth. I found myself fast forwarding through the flashback segments because . . . who cares what happens on earth, we know the main character ends up on the spaceship.

Ray Porter does his level best to save this turd, but it's beyond even his skills.

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Compilation of some previously published stories

Revisado: 04-14-21

Prospective listeners - Audible's description doesn't make clear what stories are in this compilation, so here's the complete list:

Tanya: Princess of Elves
Dead Waits Dreaming
Sweothi City
The Bridge
Grimnoir Chronicles: Detroit Christmas
Grimnoir Chronicles: Murder on the Orient Elite
Father's Day
Destiny of a Bullet
Bubba Shackleford's Professional Monster Killers
Blood on Water
The Losing Side
The Great Sea Beast
Force Multiplier
Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent

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esto le resultó útil a 58 personas

Awful

Revisado: 09-20-20

I don't get it. this book isn't good. The first part is a blatant starship troopers ripoff, and the rest is a combination of bizarre and mediocre. Couldn't finish it.

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Pleasantly surprised

Revisado: 09-12-20

There isn't much original here, but this is a very well done murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. Some of the characters were even complex with quite a bit of moral ambiguity, which is more than I would expect in a story like this. It's really quite good. As you would expect, Kelsey Grammar's narration is excellent. I hope he and Laurie Bailey write more books together.

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Truly excellent

Revisado: 06-16-20

Hyperion is a superb work of science fiction. It's really a series of short stories all woven together to fit into an overarching narrative, with each story focusing on different themes - religion, sacrifice, love and loss, parenting, war, aging, betrayal and redemption. It is one of my favorite books. I subtract a half star due to the blatant sequel baiting at the end, but that is easily forgiven as the second book is almost as good as the first.

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Average

Revisado: 06-16-20

- There are too many characters, and the author switches between their perspectives too frequently.
- Some of the plot elements are cliche. The main female character is kidnapped not once, but twice; several times characters go over a waterfall or off a cliff, One of the main characters is very important yet gets amnesia and must re-discover his identity. Another character, a rougish pirate with long black hair, is clearly a Jack Sparrow ripoff. I could hear the Pirates of the Caribbean theme in my head during some of his antics. Sigh.
- The Trell of the Tides character is not well written - he is a one dimensional hero (virtuous and honorable without exception, handsome as a male model, an excellent fighter, beloved by everyone except the villians) and the interactions between him and the other characters are often poorly written. This would have been an altogether better, more concise, more focused book if Trell and all his chapters had been cut or greatly reduced.
- Commits the unfortunately common fantasy series sin of not providing a satisfying conclusion at the end of the first book, despite it being 32 hours long.

Overall, the book was not horrible, and it is quite well written in parts. The plot is servicable and it does capture the epic fantasy feel. Some of the characters are promising. Nick Podehl is a good narrator. I will not be continuing this series, but would give Ms. McPhail another chance if she writes something beyond this series.

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Feels like two separate stories

Revisado: 06-16-20

I've been getting around to reading all of Heinlein's major works and some of the minor ones, and finally found time for Stranger in a Strange Land. It really feels like two separate stories. The first half or so of the book involves Valentine Michael Smith's return to Earth from Mars, where he was raised by Martians after his parents, members of the first martian expedition, were killed. This portion of the book is really superb, and is probably the best portrayal of the alien as "other", i.e. truly different beings that think and interpret existence differently from humans, I have ever read. In so much sci-fi aliens are either an unknown, unknowable boogyman, one dimensional villians, or beings that think and act like humans but wear an alien costume. This part of the book is excellent and makes Stranger a must-read classic.

The second half of the book involves V.M. Smith forming and establishing a new religion. This is merely okay and is obviously a derivative riff on Christianity with a dash of Heinlein's libertine sensibilities thrown in. Still, Stranger is an altogether excellent, if uneven, book.

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I feel like I should have taken notes

Revisado: 12-28-18

As other reviewers have mentioned, the story is very hard to follow, as it skips between characters, places, and even times with minimal transition. If it sounds interesting to you, this is one I'd read instead of listening as it would be easier to keep track of the plot. The writing was good and I could tell there was something interesting here, but this probably just one of those books that doesn't translate well to audio. The narrator did a decent job but a great narration might have helped differentiate the characters a bit better.

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Series has really veered off track

Revisado: 12-25-18

The first two books of the Spellmonger series, the first especially, were great - the protagonist and his various allies struggling against a surprise invasion by a goblin horde. Unfortunately as the series progresses the author is no longer focusing on the goblin invasion and each entry into the series seems like a separate, unconnected story, lacking the urgency and hook of the original premise of the series.

In this entry, Minolan escorts a group of children from one of the allied human factions to safety. Along the way, the group collects other refugees fleeing the goblins. That's about it - there's only one battle and the outcome of that is never really in doubt. I don't really understand what the purpose of this book was or how it contributes to the series, as the entire plot could have been condensed into a paragraph in a book that actually dealt with the central plot point Mancour created.

Again, this series really started strong but seems to be wandering listlessly at this point and I won't be continuing.

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Entering soap opera territory

Revisado: 05-25-18

I liked the previous books in the series and really wanted to like this one, but the unbelievable plot twists, one after the other, are simply too much. I feel like I'm reading a book of "Days of our Lives." Won't be moving on to the next book.

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