W. McGeeney

Very enjoyable

Revisado: 04-17-25

It was nice to be back in the original Dune’s world for a bit. Really enjoyed the rollout and rivalry development. It may not be written in Frank’s style, but it’s still very well done and helps tie out some of the early story.

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It wasn’t as bad as God Emperor

Revisado: 10-16-24

There was action, plot build up, overall the story was pretty entertaining. The soft core porn thing was weird. I’m still struggling at how society doesn’t really change much over the course of this series - which includes technology, ethnic groups, overall workings of the universal trade, not sure why the focus is still on Rakis, honestly. I think that’s the part that irks me most about this book.

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Fun listen, well compiled

Revisado: 12-19-23

Fun details about some of the worst human beings of all time. Am curious about his selection, why were Constantine and his sons left out of this list? They should have been quite worthy of inclusion.

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Too much telling, not enough story.

Revisado: 08-29-23

A lot of sweat surely went into this book. However, for all of the research into future tech it fell flat in a few ways:

1) Wayyyy too much explaining, and I’m not just talking about w future tech, but just dumb things, like e cigarettes.

2) The story doesn’t flow. Unconnected fits and pushes have you going for a little bit then it falls off again.

3) Telling, not showing. This one is a particular pet piece of mine. And it almost tells you the whole way when it could better assume that the reader could build an understanding from context clues.

This latter piece really puts the nail in the coffin as I’m concerned. It could have been such a great experiential novel if it didn’t constantly lecture you on the environment. Rather I would have preferred to understand the environment through the narrator’s experiences, and would have preferred to come to my own thoughts without the narrator’s guidance.

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The missing pieces of colonial American history

Revisado: 01-15-23

I picked this book up after doing extensive reading on colonial America (Malone, Flexner, and a couple others). In my estimation, this book presented the answers to major holes in traditional American history. Presented very fairly and what appears to be accurate when taken in context of the surrounding histories mentioned earlier.

A must read for all Americans.

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Powerful and astounding

Revisado: 11-22-22

Not for those who are sensitive to real life. This book goes into great detail on the reality scale, traversing a pretty brutal childhood. Not going to lie, tough listening at points.

However, as the brilliant writer he is, his book reveals the mysteries of JMS’ life like a good Murder She Wrote episode, hinting all along before the big reveal.

I’m a huge fan of B5, and though I never got into Sense 8, I found it very enlightening to hear the work and plan behind the show.

Someone once told me that 12 Years a Slave is the greatest movie everyone should only watch once, this book is of the same elk.

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Surprisingly Inspiring

Revisado: 11-22-22

Think if this as an educated, nonquackery approach to self help. It’s definitely got a self help vibe but the Russ, for all of his tutelage, always presents the potential downsides of his guidance. Personally, found it to be one of the few books I’ll probably go back to a few times.

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Great, fun story!

Revisado: 11-17-22

Given that this is one man’s recap, who knows how true it ever really is. But I will say it was thoroughly enjoyable. Consider it a wedded version of the Fugitive meets Sneakers. Growing up during this era and remembering watching the Mitnick thing go down in real time made this listen a great travel back in time. Really enjoyed this book!

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Excellent detailed look at Leadership strategy

Revisado: 10-31-22

I found myself really loving this book. It’s clearly aimed a the future we’re blindly walking into. He takes shots at our modern conception of egotistical leadership driven by way of an analysis of some of the most impactful leaders of the 20th century.

In short, if you already don’t like Kissinger, move on. It’s not the book for you. If you’re looking for a fluff read, move on, it’s too detailed. If you’re really looking to see a perspective on 20th century leadership, read this. If you’re a fan of international strategy, read this.

Learned a lot more about leaders I only knew on paper from a couple of college courses. This should be supplemental reading for anyone aspiring to public office.

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Critique on Modernity

Revisado: 04-06-22

Make no mistake, this is a detailed and enjoyable read. While I did enjoy this book, and I do think there are a few take aways, I found the overall argument disjointed, convoluted and selectively supported.

These authors enjoy writing. And why not, they’re very good writers. The crux of their argument is a refutation of the pillars of western political philosophy, most notably the enlightenment. They do this in a haphazard way, which for me, muddies their argument and makes me suspicious of the narrative.

Instead of keeping focused on one individual principle they look to reframe, they tend to toss around multiple ideas at once then bring in a true, but out of context quote or two. The authors also have a strange habit of telling you what they’re trying to convey, rather than just conveying the argument in an orderly fashion. You will hear multiple times when the author pauses to queue up the “goal of the writing” in random places (which again makes me suspicious of their argument as the argument should stand on its own in an orderly and direct measure, it shouldn’t need constant reminding - at best that tells of poor organization).

I found this book to be more of a rosie eyed view of global philosophies. In one sense, the authors are bringing to light truths about civilizations. However, their failure to set a control vastly undercuts what they attempt to persuade you into believing.

The authors select cases ONLY favoring their thesis while crucifying the worst aspects of modernity (rather than investigating a one for one of say how egalitarian philosophy grew and differed in practice). One cannot simply say that “Western Philosophy” has no ground to stand on under the guise of idea assimilation, as all societies accrete ideas. To assign an ethnographic placeholder to an idea is futile at best.

Like I said above, it’s a fun read, nice read to gather areas for greater exploration into ideas that may be new to you. However, the argument just is not well put together and the support is intentionally biased toward the thesis.

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