Anders

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Revisado: 11-21-24

Very superficial, and not always entirely objective. Totally without engagement, both in the narrative and in the narration. The pronunciation of non-English names and places is mostly laughable.

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Hopeless narration

Revisado: 06-03-23

Maybe it’s just me, but the narration totally ruined it for me. It was as if Siri or Alexa were speaking to me. It sounded computer generated, but probably wasn’t. The story itself is obviously fascinating, but for such a short book, it would be better with less details and more broad lines. But really, with this narration, nothing would have worked for me. Sorry.

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Not an historical account

Revisado: 01-06-23

I gave it two stars instead of one because in between all the fluff, there is still a little bit of history in this book. There are a few things that one can learn, but one has to be very patient.

This author of this book is more a christian apologist than an historian, judged on this book. It is not at all surprising that Luther, Charles V, the papacy etc at the time debated theological issues with the foundational viewpoint that the christian bible IS a revealed truth, and that the christian gospels describe things that REALLY happened and was said. However, that someone in the 21st century takes this things absolutely and uncritically for granted, and has that as leverage on basically everything is astounding. Judged as a book about history, this one becomes disqualified already there.

The book is full of attempts to analyse what things like, for example, the sacrament REALLY means, instead of simply presenting the conflicting viewpoints of the time. Several times, the author refers to "the devil" as if that was a real thing. If becomes both boring and irritating. The example of ludicrous statements in the book are too many to enumerate. One could mention the entirely unqualified claim that Luther supposedly introduced things like liberty, democracy and free thought. Interpolations between Luther and the US constitutions are laughable.

The narration is poor. A sensationalist tone is applied that becomes very tiresome and that diminishes the credibility. Names of people and places are family consistently mispronounced.

If you are actually looking for an objective biography about Martin Luther (as I was), look elsewhere.

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Very odd

Revisado: 04-10-21

I find this book difficult to rate. It is a strange book. for a while, I was thinking of giving it three stars, and then two. There are a few passages that are worth four, but in the end, I settled on one star.

I got this book because I love travelling and I have lived and travelled in South Asia. No one likes to hear about travels as much as another traveller. But early on, I realised that I would not be able to connect in any way with the author of this book.

The author starts off from London. Already when he is in southern Europe, I started wondering if he would, in the rest of the book, describe any of his co-passengers, or anyone he meets, without contempt. It turns out that the answer is no. There may be a few characters who get one or two compliments, or who briefly is treated with just a little respect, but on the whole, the author seems to look down on, and indeed reset, pretty much everyone he meets.

This is supposed to a book celebrating, or at least describing travel, but it gets complicated to take it in when the author seems to have such an utterly horrible time. There are very few places he likes, and as mentioned, very few people. Most of the trains are also horrible. Now and then, there is a general statement about train travel, either as a quote or by the author himself, end these are often both eloquent and appreciative. However, the dissonance with how the travel experiences themselves are described are stark.

It should be said that the writing is overall good. The author paints vivid images with words, the language is fluid and it is easy to follow the journey. It is just that everything is so negative. This gets tedious, as do the strange generalisations. For example, Afghans are supposedly lazy, Laos is more like a riverbank than a country, and in its capital Vientiane the brothels are cleaner than the hotel, writes the author. There is a very large dose of anglo-saxon exceptionalism, not a little misogyny and, predictably, people seem to be described a lazier and filthier, in the author’s eyes, the darker their skin gets. Things are not helped by the narrator’s childish mock accents.

The thing that pushed me over the edged and made me settle for one star was the revolting passages, luckily only few, when sexual exploits involving prostitutes were described. These were always stories that fellow passengers told the author in some filthy Asian train compartment, and for some obscure reason, the author thinks it’s an important part of the travel experience to tell his readers about this.

I really cannot recommend this book. I will not re-read it, and I will pass on the rest of this author’s production.

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Not more than OK

Revisado: 01-30-21

The lecturer is knowledgeable, but in the end I didn't learn very much from the course. If you want to learn about the early periods of British India and of the East Indian Company, you'd do much better by reading, for example, some of William Dalrymple's books, They are better informed and vastly more enjoyable to read/listen to.

A better section of the course is the later parts and the events leading up to the partition. The final chapter provides an interesting analysis of the consequences of partition and the lingering impact of the raj on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

I find the performance very problematic. I know that this isn't a regular narrated book, but a course. Nevertheless, the constant rhetorical questions do not fit well into this medium. They become annoying. In particular I cringe every time the lecturer/narrator says "What do you think .......? You got it!". It got to the point that whenever another one of those questions came up, I reached for the fast forward button. The narration took away a lot of the enjoyment of the course for me.

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Avoid!

Revisado: 04-14-18

The narration: the idea of having an actor other than the narrator read quotes is never a good idea, except possibly in a book for children. When that actor in question tries to imitate voices, it becomes silly. When he does it with fake accents, it get totally unbearable. The principal narrator is poor, but it would nevertheless had been better had he read the whole thing.

The story told is most superficial. The book is totally void of critical analysis. If you want to learn about Central America, you will do better to spend half an hour with an encyclopedia. Don’t waste your money on this garbage.

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