Billy Ray

Who's this guy?

Revisado: 02-19-24

My introduction to (audiobook) Reacher was Johnathan McClain as narrator. And while McClain wasn't perfect, Dick Hill sounds like grandpa, and it's distracting. I'm going to have to skip the rest until book 23 and Scott Brick.

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Do I want to write a review? I do.

Revisado: 11-22-19

Great story. Lots of action. Great characters. Good suspense.

Just a couple of beefs.

One: Not everyone in the world answers affirmatively by saying "I do". Some people would just say "yes", or "yeah", or "affirmative". I can see all the Dimas brothers habitually talking that way, but not everyone they come into contact with. It was fine at first, but now I'm finishing book two, and once you notice it, it becomes annoying.

(I grew up in Chicago.) There was also a throw away comment about guns being illegal in Chicago, so their cache of weapons is less than it could be. Handguns have been legal to own in Chicago since 2010, and relaxed some of the laws a bit in 2013. The firearms laws are pretty strict, but you'd have to be criminal to be afoul of them.

Last, Kevin Pierce does a good job. But he's sounds... I dunno, kinda too old for this. Nevertheless, he's still compelling.

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What's. Up. With. The. Narrator?

Revisado: 09-08-14

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The truth is, I'm not sure about the story, because I just couldn't get past the narration. But if you like your narration slow as molasses, to the point of not being sure your speed settings are correct, then you might like this.

Any additional comments?

Narrator's style is way, too, slow. Absurdly so.

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Yay!

Revisado: 12-29-13

What made the experience of listening to The Martian the most enjoyable?

The story was really compelling. Best hard-science fiction I've "read" in, like, forever.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Martian?

So many moments. Mostly, though, the main character's smart-Alecky personality. "Yay!" Geddit?

What about R. C. Bray’s performance did you like?

Bray's performance was stellar… Well, except it's "sis-op", not "sise-op", and "/ˈæski/ ass-kee", not "A.S.C. 2". But even the best narrators seem to mispronounce some of these relatively obscure terms. Like another reader kept pronouncing corpsman as "corpseman". Unfortunate, but not a deal-breaker if everything else is great.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"He's a pirate. A space pirate."

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Amateurish Narrator

Revisado: 09-10-12

What disappointed you about Into the Black?

The narrator sounded like he'd never done a dramatic reading.

What other book might you compare Into the Black to and why?

n/a

How could the performance have been better?

Better reading by the narrator.

What character would you cut from Into the Black?

None.

Any additional comments?

Are things so bad in the audiobook business that they'll hire someone without an audition? Or are the editors/producers just not caring anymore?

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Discordant echoes

Revisado: 08-09-11

I kinda like this story, at least the setting, near future, and the premise (so far) convicts' redemption as soldiers, marines, no less.

But I find a couple things off-putting. One, which is odd, is all these soldiers addressing each other by their first names. WTF? I'm not familiar with Shawn Kupfer as an author, but I find it difficult to believe he's actually been in the military. There a lot of references to specific weapons and weapons systems, but attempts to portray intimate comaraderie in combat fall flat.

I just can't see a military team, in combat, saying things like "Okay, Todd, you take Mark, Benjamin, and Steve, and cover our left flank. Bill, Jeffrey, and Pete and I will provide cover fire with our M-4 assault rifles." And I get it, the Razor (fighting vehicle) is HUGE, it's big, got it. 24 cylinders, and it's powerful.

This is my first book narrated by Victor Bevine. I hope it's his first too. I mean, I hope he get better as a narrator. He's okay, has potential, but not great.

So, because this book has some interesting ideas, I'll give it 3 stars. If the story was any weaker, though, it'd be pushing it to give it a 2.

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The narrator makes the audiobook

Revisado: 05-30-10

I've never heard of, or a reading by, Simon Taylor before, but I'll be avoiding him for a few years. Maybe I just don't like his style and he's a perfectly fine reader, whatever it is, I had to let this book go.
He sounds almost amateurish in spots, and has a tendency to linger on a word as if for dramatic emphasis, but it seems unwarranted. He also has an unfortunate tendency to over pronounce the 'ng' on words like long, so it sounds like long-geh. Once you notice it, it becomes annoying.

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Needs to be re-recorded

Revisado: 01-16-10

Wow. That's some bad audio book.

It's a book! No special effects needed! And seriously, do they not have editors for recorded books? The reader mispronounces the protagonists name for the entire book! Despite the pronunciation being a point during the previous books. Hello?!

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