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CyberStorm
- De: Matthew Mather
- Narrado por: Tom Taylorson
- Duración: 11 h y 15 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 6,191
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 5,581
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 5,572
Sometimes the worst storms aren't from Mother Nature, and sometimes the worst nightmares aren't the ones in our heads. Mike Mitchell, an average New Yorker already struggling to keep his family together, suddenly finds himself fighting just to keep them alive when an increasingly bizarre string of disasters starts appearing on the world's news networks. As both the real world and the cyber world come crashing down, bending perception and reality, a monster snowstorm cuts New York off from the world, turning it into a wintry tomb where nothing is what it seems.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Yes - satisfied a craving
- De Blue en 01-14-14
- CyberStorm
- De: Matthew Mather
- Narrado por: Tom Taylorson
All storm, no cyber
Revisado: 04-24-17
What did you like best about CyberStorm? What did you like least?
The apocalypse-as-purgatory idea was interesting. My biggest issue however was that the story appears to be a giant running pun constructed from mashing together both parts of the compound word cyberstorm. There's a big storm. Massive storm. Mother-of-all-storms kind of storm. With enough references to cyber stuff that sorta, mighta, coulda happened if only we knew what's going on, to justify the "cyber" part of the title. Don't buy this if you are looking for a techno thriller full of hackers, crackers, and geeks. Do buy this if you like post-apocalypse tales of carjackers, saltine crackers, and a city that reeks.
Would you ever listen to anything by Matthew Mather again?
The ending was unforgivable. The Damsel In Distress is about to meet her doom when the Shining Knight rushes in only to be knocked cold. The actual ending is then told in flashback in the epilogue in which these same two characters are recovering nicely and surely about to live happily ever after. All plot holes and loose ends are explained in this data dump so you can't say anything was left dangling. It is almost as if the author was given a final deadline and had to finish the last 2 chapters overnight.
Which scene was your favorite?
Resolution of the scene in which the apartment stronghold is breached by bad guys. the old immigrant couple are the best characters in the book.
Do you think CyberStorm needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
If the next book is anything like this one, just publish the query letter along with the epilogue.
Any additional comments?
The narrator did a great job.
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Raw Power: An Urban Fantasy Novel
- Demon-Hearted, Book 1
- De: Ambrose Ibsen
- Narrado por: James Foster
- Duración: 7 h y 15 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 296
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 272
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 273
Howdy. My name's Lucian Colt. I'm one of those disgruntled millennials you've heard about on the evening news. I've got a master's degree in art history, a mountain of student loan debt, and no job to show for it. Wait, scratch that. I track down stolen pieces of art for wealthy clients and then beat whoever stole them to within an inch of their life. Say what you will, but it puts bread on the table.
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4 out of 5 stars
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original and entertaining
- De Midwestbonsai en 06-16-16
- Raw Power: An Urban Fantasy Novel
- Demon-Hearted, Book 1
- De: Ambrose Ibsen
- Narrado por: James Foster
Fun urban fantasy improved by a great performance
Revisado: 09-02-16
If you could sum up Raw Power: An Urban Fantasy Novel in three words, what would they be?
Fast, fun intro
What was one of the most memorable moments of Raw Power: An Urban Fantasy Novel?
Lucian gets the mother of all heart transplants from donor, fallen angel and demon Gladreel. But it isn't just a heart, it's Gladreel himself now living inside of Lucian who has constantly to battle for control. But Lucian has even bigger inner demons to face when he discovers he's crossed paths with his new friend in his old life as a debt collector and he discovers he's repulsed by the person he sees in the mirror of his past.
I have to give Ibsen credit for juxtaposing Lucian's inner and literal demons as equally bad and managing to pull it off smoothly. Would have been easy in lesser hands for that to come out preachy or syrupy. I look forward to hearing how Lucian comes to terms with all his demons in the next installment.
Have you listened to any of James Foster’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Hey Audible, if you are going to ask this question you ought to give us a way to search on Narrator in MyLibrary. I have hundreds of Audible books and although I'm pretty sure I've listened to James Foster's narration before, I have no way to confirm. He is great, though.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No extreme reactions here but it was a solid start to a new series and I'll read the next one when it's available in audio.
Any additional comments?
Within the Urban Fantasy genre the various authors are cooking with many of the same ingredients. One aspect I particularly enjoy about trying new (to me) authors is the different flavors they bring to the table that have familiar elements but often contrived into delightfully new concoctions.
Although you will recognize Ibsen's adepts for their array of stock supernatural powers and biblical/mythical references, he sprinkles a bit of Harry Bosch's musical and artistic tastes into protagonist Lucian then gives him a demon who favors proto-punk rock and roll. Lucian/Gladreel has several tasty and ongoing conflicts that promise to develop over the series and give him plenty of room to grow. Among those is that he's kept mostly in the dark about the Veiled Order and his team so in this book you get an entree and no sides. If you don't like the main character by the end you probably aren't going to read the next book.
Which is, in fact, my only reservation. I'm assuming here that forthcoming books fill Lucian (and us) in on back story of all the other characters and do a little world-building. Lucian's snarky attitude is fun but that and a lot of supernatural action won't sustain an entire series. For me the next book will make or break the series. Fingers crossed.
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Warstrider: Rebellion
- Warstrider, Book 2
- De: Ian Douglas
- Narrado por: David Drummond
- Duración: 11 h y 55 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 285
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Narración:4 out of 5 stars 262
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 261
The universal order is unraveling. The enslaved cry out for freedom. The apocalypse is now. Devis Cameron, hero of the Xenophobe War and the Empire's reluctant champion, has been posted to the 4th Terran Rangers - a gaijin Warstrider unit on New America - to eliminate a newly discovered underground colony of Xenos and to deal harshly with civil unrest spawned by Imperial repression. The situation is rapidly degenerating into total anarchy. And the nuclear option may be the only alternative.
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2 out of 5 stars
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libertarians
- De Jared en 04-15-15
- Warstrider: Rebellion
- Warstrider, Book 2
- De: Ian Douglas
- Narrado por: David Drummond
The books deserved better
Revisado: 03-20-15
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
I'll be blunt: the performance was horrible. I'm not familiar with the narrator's other work but I suspect the problem here is the direction anyway. Bill Paxton's character in aliens is famous for his panicked scream "Game over, man! Game over!" It was effective because it stood out in stark contrast to the other soldiers who (mostly) remained calm under pressure. In this performance, *every* character sounds that panicked, *every* time. There are plenty of ways to portray excitement in a dangerous situation other than terror. I only hope that the remaining books in the series are yet to be performed and that the director and narrator give the material the treatment it deserves.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I'm cheating here because I have the series in paperback and know the arc of the story. Ask someone for whom the material is fresh and maybe they will name a character other than Dev Cameron. Among the other things I like about Dev is that his rise to prominence is believably reluctant. He's not the resentful rogue-cop, bad boy kind of hero who breaks all the rules and gets away with it because he's so effective. Dev gets thrown into undesirable situations and reconciles by making the best of them, learning and growing from the experience.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
Yeah, sure. The pacing was fine. At least I think so. If it was off, I was too busy cringing every time something happened and all the trained, professional, hardened, badass soldiers started shrieking.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
This is one of my favorite book series and the author ties together elements of military sci-fi, cyberpunk, space opera, exobiology, emergent phenomena, galactic origins, AI, nanotechnology, philosophy, and more. I was so anxious to experience it in audio that I was getting close to recording it myself. When I found it on Audible I freaked and snapped it up. I would have bought the entire series if it had been available. Now I'm waiting to see how the next one sounds and actually considering abandoning the series.
"What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?"
Exactly. How did you know?
Any additional comments?
To be clear, I remain loyal to the series and will probably listen to the entire set, even if cringing all the way through. But then I'm a sucker for emergent phenomena (which occurs later in the series) and that isn't widely covered in the genre. If you start the series and don't finish it you will probably wonder why I'm such a fanboy. If you make it all the way through I predict you'll at least like the series and understand, even if you don't love it as I do.
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