BT

Fast paced with no filler

Revisado: 02-06-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This short story had me hooked. At an hour and a half, it was the right length of action without the filler to drag it down.

The main character was interesting and likeable. He was relatable, in his motivations and interactions. He had just enough backstory to feel real. Not well rounded enough for a full novel, but enough for a story of this complexity.

The setting was familiar but different. Crash landing on another world, in the middle of a war zone was definitely an interesting choice, and it pays off. It keeps the plot moving and doesn't lend itself to long drawn out explanations of barren rock and things go boom.

The narrator, Anthony LeRoy Lovato, was a good choice. He has a sufficient range of voices and an easy tone that make this a breeze to listen to.

All in all, this is a good time, just not a long time. Voice narration and plot are easy to take in. The pace feels right for the back story provided, and shows a nice LITTLE slice of another time and place.

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Definitely worth a listen

Revisado: 09-26-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This was an enjoyable book that was fun and fast paced. There was some logical issues, but they were overshadowed by characters.

This book is about high technology and a race across space. It is tropy and cliche, at times, but the pacing keeps things moving well and the tone is light, so it doesn't become an issue.

The main character is complex with background emotional states and complex reasons for. His actions.

The secondary characters are less complex and range from being somewhat developed to little more than a name. This is fine, for the most part, but I would have liked to know a little more, some of the people in this world.

Settings are varied and somewhat vivid. Different planets range to truly exotic to earth like. They generally have some sort of charastic that is explored, even if it is only briefly.

The biggest issue, is the plot. It's a little annoying that the technology at the core of the story is kinda random and is both underutilized and overused. But the real issue is, it's the kind of plot that could be over if the main character and antagonist would just talk to each other. I won't go into spoiling details, but suffice to say, a level conversation could have prevented much of this story. And it's a little frustrating to sit through, at times.

The voice narration, by Kyle Snyder, was well done. His easy tone and voice differentiation made this easy to listen to, even while the characters were frustrating.

All in all, this was a good book. It was very familiar in some ways, but different in others. This was a fun read, with some good narration.

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Dry and uninspired

Revisado: 09-26-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

I received The Void Wars Collection 1, which includes the first 3 books. This review only covers book 1, as that's as much as I could handle.

This book is a point by point description of the events that lead up to the battle with a space ship nicknamed the Bismarck. It outlines the people involved, ships used, shots fired, ships lost and the outcome. What's missing is a story and more importantly characters.

This book is dry. It doesn't develop any of the characters, doesn't establish an overall world, or backdrop, or have any emotional context at all. We never learn anything about the enemy or their motivations. It reads like a text book.

In preparation for this review, I read what others were saying about this book, and it seems this is play by play what happened in WW2, between the British and the Germans. Some are saying down to the officers names. This may be true, I don't know enough about the details to say, but it reads like the author had to hand in an assignment on the Bismark, but had to change it just enough to not be "copying".

This wouldn't be an issue, except, there is no personality to any of the characters. No hopes and dreams, no back story, no personal relationships. This book goes from the events of one engagement to the next with no story building in between. We are never introduced to the Commonwealth society, whether they are actually the good guys or not, how civilians live, etc.

Similarly, we have no information about the enemy. Why they are aggressive, what they hope to achieve, consequences of loosing to them, what it will take to win against them, if they are human...

This is 10 hours, about hunting 1 ship, when none of the characters are developed and frankly we're never given a reason to care if they live or die.

What we are given, is snippets of exposition dumps at the start of each chapter, from fictional text books, about the void wars. Again, there is no insight into the story, just more technical information about the ships and battles.

Voice narration, by Neigel Peever, was mostly well done. He has a decent range of voices and can do a passable female voice. His voice was easy to listen to, but I did find it too slow. I generally don't speed up books, but I had this playing at 1.7x and wasn't really missing anything.

This is a full audio experience, with background music, sound effects, etc. It is a constant audio assault. When I first started listening to audio books, I thought I liked this, but I realized quickly that this isn't for me. Its not good or bad, just personal taste. I would have perfered the book without it.

All in all, I didn't care for this book. The voice narration was the high point, and that was preformed well, but the pace was too slow. The book is dry and uninspired. Or more actually is too inspired by real events, and no work was done to build on the human experience and emotional journeys of anyone involved.

I will not be continuing this series.

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Definitely worth checking out even with some flaws

Revisado: 08-03-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This is an interesting story, with some inconsistencies, and awkward dialog.

I enjoyed this book, quite a bit, despite it's shortfalls. The main character was relatable, secondary characters believable, good settings, good plot and pacing. It was a good time.

The main character was well developed and easy to identify with. He was a little over powered, but not so much so as to feel out of place, just a little cliche. The fact he is a a tech head, with all the right contacts, and also well versed in firearms and martial arts, is a bit much. I'm not saying there's not a lot of similar people in the world, but it just seems a bit far fetched how this all fell exactly into the right persons lap.

I loved that this was set in canada, but this also lead to some inconsistencies. Like the fact he got a hand gun, at one point, and his mind is solely on the "illegal" 10 round magazine in the rifle he has. He has no firearms license, and no permit for the handgun, meaning the rifle magazine would be the least of his worries.

There is also an American agent working in Canada. An international agent or Canadian CSIS officer, would have been a little more logical, but hey, I guess America has the police the whole world, so....

The dialog is also a little clunky. Now, the book is written as a diary or log of something that happened to the main character. The main character is writing it all down, incase he is not able to deliver the information. In that regards, it makes some sense that the dialog he recalls wouldn't bee the way people talk, especially as the narrator is trying to write semi formally, for record of the events. However, it is a little hard to read/listen to, as people don't generally speak to each other the way they do in the story.

The voice narrator, Adam Schulmerich, didn't help the dialog. He read the book a little like he was giving a speech. It matched the semi formal tone of the text, but it definitely added to the robot feel of the story. The narrator needs to add some voice differentiation between characters and add some female voices, and generally loosen up a little. Be more conversational.

All in all, this was a pretty good book. It falls into some cliche traps of overkilled protagonists, and "'Merica!!" the tone is a little too formal, leading to some robotic dialog, but the engagement of the story is more than enough to over power any of this.

This is definitely worth a read/listen to.

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There's a good story here, but it wasn't developed

Revisado: 08-03-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

The synopsis for this book really hooked me. Something big, stolen, that leads to unraveling everything the main character thinks they know? Count me in! However, in this case, while it delivers the premise, it doesn't develop it into a compelling story.

Part of the problem, with this story, is the length, in both ways. This story introduces a new society, economic system, food system, etc, all in about 4 hours, with all the story. This means a lot of info dumps early on, to set everything up. Not exactly leading to riveting stuff. This also means that with nearly half the story setting up the setting and background, the other half is basically sprinting from event to event with no time to set up situations, explain their relevance, or most importantly establish a mystery.

On the flip side, 4 hours was far too long on a book that was a struggle to invest in.

The lack of a mystery, was the biggest issue for me. I went into this, with an expectation of a plot to figure out. Of a character unraveling something, and following along as things are revealed. Instead, the story bumbles from exposition to exposition, never building the plot or twisting expectations. It was dull.

The characters are all, similarly, flat and dull. No real depth, back story or complexity. The characters are basically all, what you see is what you get. Not surprising, for a story of this length, but with nothing else going on, the characters could have been a way to bring it together.

The voice narration, by Benjamin Powell, was also kind of dull. There was no inflection, no differencing between characters, no bringing the book to life. It was just a plain read.

All in all, there is a good story here, that just wasn't developed. I think if the author were to sit down and turn this 4.5 hour story into a 8 hour story, there may be something worth listening to. The world needs to be built and shown, not explained to the reader. The characters need to be brought to life. And the mystery needs to be slowly and purposely unraveled, rather than stumbled through.
Overall, it wasn't great, but I've listened to.

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Too cartoonish

Revisado: 10-01-22 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

I thought this was going to be a cross between Father Ted and Shane of the Dead. Unfortunately, it's more like a mix of Father Ted and Looney Toons.

The story starts out like a typical episode of Father Ted. Dim witted priests in a small town, hill Billy townspeople and slightly exaggerated but normalish problems. Instead of a flawed straight man and an idiot, like father Ted, we have 2 characters who are about the same and interchangeable, and are a mix of the straight man and idiot. The characters MIGHT work if they both didn't refer to each other as "Father" in every single line of dialog. I know it's supposed to be a repetitive to the extreme kind of funny, but it doesn't work.

The characters and places don't stand out, either. It's a short story, about 4 hours long, so I don't expect super complex characters and wild settings. But it's a little too cookie cutter. Idiot #1 and 2, their grown sons (idiots #3 and 4) missterotyped minority #1, etc. Stock character that are often popped in for a comedy.

The issue with this book, for me, is it wasn't funny. It tries too hard to be funny and in the end just ends up being lame. There are a few moments where I was laughing, but for the most part I felt like Gram Chapman's army officer character from Monty Python saying "stop that! It's silly!" there was nothing believable about the plot. Not the super natural/God/devil part. But the creatures, the action, the dialog, etc, it all felt like it came straight out of a cartoon. There is no excapism in this, as it is basically impossible to put myself in any of these situations, they are all so absurd.

The voice narration, by Justin Mills was only OK. He did a great job with Irish accents, but why the author didn't pick an Irish actor is odd. The plot takes place in Ireland, with Irish characters, and to have all the character speaking in accent and the narrator having a North American accent, was odd. The narrator, himself, was fine. As mentioned he could do an Irish enough accent, and had enough voices for the characters. The delivery was a little forced and didn't feel natural, but overall it was OK.

All in all, I did not enjoy this book. The comedy was so over the top it wasn't funny anymore. This story is just silly and doesn't feel natural in any way. The narrator did an OK job, but was the wrong pick for this work.

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Fun adventure with excellent narration

Revisado: 08-30-22 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This was a fun story. It's relatively short, to the point and flows well. The story never feels like it bogs down and no parts of it feel like they are going on too long. It was a pleasure.

The plot is very Indiana Jones-ish. An archeologist who does the results thing, instead of the book thing, stumbles into a mystery. He gets himself into trouble and has to rely on the secondary characters to get him through. There is plenty of sarcasm and punchy dialog. There is a sense of chemistry between the characters and overall it is a pleasant listen.

The main character is on a physical journey, more so than an emotional one. So character growth isn't really strongly emphasized. However, the characters felt real enough to be believable, if a little outrageous at times.

The main character is well developed, with complex emotions and drives. The secondary characters have back stories, but are definitely not as well rounded.

The settings are mostly jungle or small village on the edge of the jungle. Even the brief Mayan Ruins are in low light and not well explored. There is little new or exciting about the settings themselves, however this does make for a tense backdrop, at times.

The plot is predictable. However, it's the "I bet this..." and "ha, I knew that" kind of predictable. Rather than the "uggg, it's so obvious that...." and "well that took forever to be what I knew". The book is fast paced and fun, so while the twists and turns are definitely not shocking, they don't slow the story down and allow for a good time. The feel is very much like an adventure movie, you know where it's going, the fun is how you get there.

The voice narration, by Phil Thron, is first class as always. He has a range of male and females voices and his accents are excellent. Where Phil truly shines is his comedic timing. When reading a funny or humorous story (like this), he is able to bring out the comedic elements and make them hit home, more than any other narrator I've listened to.

All in all, this was a great book. Predictable but fun, with some great characters and an interesting plot. It's fairly safe, in terms of twists and turns, but it is a fun ride. The narration is amazing and brings the characters to life, and I can't wait for the next one.

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Plot is light and no character development

Revisado: 08-23-22 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The plot is light and the action is sparse. It is too wordy to be fast paced, and I never really felt connected to the characters.

This story is a Mafia story, of sorts, with organized crime families struggling for control. The main character is an assassin of one of the organizations, and we follow him through the conflict that defines him.

While this sounds exciting, very little actually happens. The book is mostly him asking people for favors, information, exposition, and a huge amount of poetic description of the world around the the man character (usually in the middle of a conversation or action scene).

The book itself isn't overly long, at less than 12 hours. However, there isn't enough plot to fill out the story. The plot is fairly thin, and uses twists and turns to justify the length. However, they feel like they were added to extend the word count, rather than be part of the story.

Like the plot, the world building is also fairly thin. While we are brought into the family, there is no effort to bridge here to there. It is a dystopian world of greed and corruption. But that's about all we know. There is no explanation of what happened to get to there. Or how there even works. We hear of politicians and working class people, but we don't really see them or how they actually live. All we get are statements that the main character doesn't want to be them, they are "clockers" and that's it.

There is also a lack of character development, in this story. The main character is boring. He has love and hate, in him, but that's it. There is no joy, humor, or personality, to bring him to life. He loves is organization and his girlfriend. He hates his enemies. Everyone else he is either mildly compassionate for or is mildly annoyed by. He feels more like a robot than a fully fleshed out character. Similarly, all the secondary characters are completely flat and what you see is what you get. The characters we don't meet are the only interesting ones, and that's a shame.

Because the characters are so flat it is hard to emphasize with them. How do you feel attached to a cardboard cutout of a person?

The super long poetic descriptions are also very distracting. Both because they serve no purpose other than to show that the author can write like this, and because they are poorly timed. Something will be going down, then suddenly the narrator is waxing philosophical about the nature of life, or the beauty of the sky, or how wonderful it is to be in love. Then bam, back to where we were. It completely stops the flow of the story and makes it hard to follow.

The story, itself, was fun at times. Car chases, fights, etc. There should have been more of this and less of everything else. Honestly, there wasn't enough of it to hold my attention.

The voice narration, by Ryan Haugen, was done fairly well. He had several different voices of both male and female. His voice was easy to listen to and understand. It was good work.

All in all, this was an OK story mixed with too much filler and not enough substance. You cannot substitute poetry for plot in a crime drama. The missing character development and world building really highlighted the thin plot and made this book difficult to stay engaged in. The voice narration was pretty good, and while I'd listen to another one of Ryan Haugen's books again, it would not be one from this series.

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An easy listen

Revisado: 08-06-22 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This is somewhere between a short story and a full novel. At 5-6 hours it doesn't have a lot of world building or character development. It is, however, fun, quick, and enjoyable.

First I want to point to that this is not a hard sci fi. If you want realistic and believable science and theory, this is not your story. The science here is very much to stick the story elements together and not to be taken seriously.

The setting for this book is present day earth. There is nothing new. There is a point where the main character goes somewhere fantastic, but it still just boils down to they're on an earth like place, and there's really nothing too extraordinary about it, visually.

The main character is a bit dull and to be honest, a bit dim. He is supposed to be teaching physics at a university, however, he's slow to pick up new information and has little imagination. He's a lite frustrating as a main character, as he is playing a plain straight-man to the universes absurdity. He doesn't really develop as a character throughout the story and while he is likeable enough he could have been so much more.

The secondary characters range from loveable, to background scenery. Some really steal the show while others are there for explosion and plot reasons only. Still no development or growth.

The plot is fairly straightforward and simple. The twists and turns serve mostly to extend the length of the story, rather than for any real complexity.

So, why 4 stars? Well, it's simple. This was a fun and funny book. It was basically like an episode of a sitcom. No one is going to change, no real progress is going to be permanent, but wasn't it fun getting from point a to b? This is a quickly paced book that doesn't waste time expanding on itself. It was a fun pickup and I have no regrets about listening to it, it was great fun.

The voice Narration, by Jennifer Pratt, was fairly well done. She does passable male voices and the use of the digital effects for the unicorn was a nice touch. She has a range and accidents and while it was weird to have a female narrator as there was no females in the book, it worked out fine.

All in all, this was a fun story that was easy to listen to. It lacks character development and world building, but that's not unexpected in a story under 6 hours. Voice narration and the humor really made this story a pleasure.

I may check out more from this author.

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Dialog needs work

Revisado: 06-24-22

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This story has a great premise, but the execution was lacking in several area.

The story is broken into two books and has an interesting plot about time travel. The premise of book 1 revolves around a girl who accidentally swaps body with people from history. She lives a time in their body, while they live in the present in hers. This is a fun idea and kind of a different version of time travel. There is romance and a sub plot about people trying to sabotage the whole thing.

Book 2 kind of goes off the rails and becomes convoluted, with 2 minds in the same body, people from the future attacking the past, life cycles, etc. I found the second part hard to follow and not as concise as the first.

One of the issues, throughout both sections, was how none of the emotions or emotional growth seemed earned.

A big example of this is the romance. There is so seduction, no building relationships. There is only people meeting soul mates and being unnaturally attracted to them and then just being together. The main character goes to a support group for ptsd and after 1 session she's fine.

There is no emotional journey, just events and sometimes people having an emotion, no arc, no build up just none then emotion.

For me, the biggest issue is the dialog. The dialog is awkward and unnatural. People, including couples and family members, have an odd formal way of speaking to each other. The author also uses "for" (ie. "we should do this, for it is the right thing to do") every few minutes. Not only in narration but also in dialog, by every character. It is so common it became distracting for me. While I agree it can lend a poetic flair to a sentence, it is over used and frankly I don't know anyone who talks like this, let alone a hold cast of characters.

The voice narration, by Margie Valine, is robotic and adds nothing to the dialog. She does a passable male voice, and her range of female voices and accents is pretty good. However, this story really needed more acting, something more dramatic, to compensate for the dialog/narration, and unfortunately this narrator didn't accomplish it.

All in all, this was a good idea that I just didn't enjoy. I was unable to connect with anyone in the story due to the unnatural dialog and problems with the emotional journey. The voice narration failed to bring this book to life and I found it difficult to finish.

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