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Mispronounced words mar solid text.

Revisado: 03-10-25

As the headline states, this is a solid text on Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world, but the reader mispronounces Every. Single. Word. in any language other than English. It's really, really, poorly done. It's not Prof. Ernst's fault, but it astonishes me that whoever commissioned this audiobook didn't hire a reader familiar with the pronunciation of Islamic words.

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Weird narration. Decent (audio)book.

Revisado: 05-14-24

Odd choice of narrator, given that Graeber was a NYer (although he taught in Britain). And he speaks like an A.I. Michael Caine, with pauses in unusual places.

Thesis is interesting, lots of digressions. Worth the trip, if you can bear the narrator.

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Seems like it wasn't audio edited?

Revisado: 12-12-23

The story is good. The narrator is fine, although it's weird that they changed narrators most of the way through a series.

More significantly, in the first half of the 'book' the narrator occasionally flubs a line, and then immediately repeats it. I'd guess that an audio editor was supposed to go in and remove those, but missed them.

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Like a 40 hour long Three's Company episode.

Revisado: 04-10-22

I really have no idea how this won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards. As I noted in my headline, it's like a forty-hour long episode of Three's Company: there are all sorts of mixups driving the plot forward. That kind of gag works (maybe) in a 23 minute sitcom, but it becomes beyond tired and predictable in a 40+ hour long double audiobook. (And yes, I realize that most of them are ultimately part of the plot. But seriously?).

I don't mind long, languorous books -- in fact, I seek them out -- but this came across as if the length was ultimately just to show the depth of the author's research into WWII Britain.

As a cultural anthropologist who has spent quite a few years doing participant observation-based research 'in the field' (perhaps the closest thing to what the main characters are supposed to be doing), I also found it odd that these 'historians' never actually seemed to be doing the history that they came for.

I made it through this book (Blackout), but could only make it halfway through the second (All Clear) before I just couldn't bear it any longer. (I read the ending on Wikipedia to provide myself the necessary resolution).

Clearly, folks like this book -- although for the life of me I can't see why. I suspect this would have been an awesome 250 page novel, but at well over 1100 pages (over 40 hours of listening) it's just too many words and not enough actual plot for me. YMMV.

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Story is good, voice-over not so much

Revisado: 03-23-22

A good second story: entertaining and interesting.

The voiceover actor mangles words from Bangla and Hindi, which is distracting and annoying. Were I the author, I would be upset that the company that recorded the book didn't either find someone who could pronounce the words correctly, or prep the actor they chose.

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Good story, audio performance not so much

Revisado: 03-23-22

It's a good story, with lots of interesting detail from the setting, which is colonial Calcutta. Lots of interesting detail and 'local colour.' I wouldn't call this a 'postcolonial mystery series,' as another reviewer has done, as that phrase has particular meanings in academia -- but the author does present a much more balanced, even pro-South Asia view, which is both welcome and necessary.

The reviewer horribly mispronounces words from Indian languages (Bangla, Hindi). This would be okay if only the main narrator (a white British police officer) were speaking (as he might mispronounce the words), but Indians wouldn't. I don't know how the voice-over process works, but he, or someone from the publishing or recording company, should have done a little research. It really negatively impacts the listening experience.

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Good story, terrible performance

Revisado: 03-23-22

The story is solid, and keeps your attention. Someone called this a postcolonial mystery series -- I don't think they knew what postcoloniality is, as this isn't it. The author does make a point of presenting a more balanced point, even pro-South Asian point of view, which is necessary.

The audio performer, however, is poorly chosen. Most significantly, he mispronounces all the words from Hindi, Bangla, etc. That would perhaps be fine if only the main character were speaking -- the main character, a British police officer working in Colonial India, might mispronounce the words -- but not the various Indians who speak. It's really off-putting if you know how those words should be pronounced.

The accent the performer has chosen for Captain Windham also seems off, given the time and place, and his social position.

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Weir doesn't really get culture.

Revisado: 09-16-21

I listened to The Martian and really enjoyed it, so I got this one. It's not nearly as good.

Without going into spoilers, Weir has a great handle on the hard science, but his understanding of linguistics and culture are pretty poor. The long descriptions of the hard science does occasionally come across as unnecessarily flexing, and gets in the way of the narrative.

The story itself was pretty good, and I did listen to the whole thing, so there's that.

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A great listen

Revisado: 06-15-21

I generally read the reviews before purchasing an audiobook, and saw a lot of people complaining about Will Wheaton as narrator. Nonsense! After listening, I can comfortably say he was great. And the story was fantastic. Really well done overall.

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Worst. Reader. Ever.

Revisado: 06-05-21

I read this book in physical copy some time ago, but picked it up here because I really enjoyed it - and it was free.

The story is great - but the reader is so awful I couldn't get past the first chapter. Weird pauses, inexplicable stresses - bad. Just really bad. The dude reads like a strange robot.

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