Brian

Excellent

Revisado: 12-16-22

Not a light listen (as perhaps many other reviewers wanted) but for a detailed history of a completely ignored MAJOR part of US and Mexican history, it is excellent.

My favorite aspect of this is it doesn't have you crying in your pillow about the poor Native American victims and how horrible it was. No, the Comanches were a strong & proud powerhouse that absolutely humiliated the Spanish and their colonial ambitions, even going so far as invading & occupying half of Mexico when they stopped paying the Comanches tribute.

While these guys were bloody & immoral, it's still so refreshing to see a good counterpoint to the Native American portrayal as victims

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Incredible

Revisado: 01-05-22

Almost everything Brandon Sanderson touches turns to gold. I absolutely loved this. This has to be one of my favorite listens and I've completed over 200 audiobooks.

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1st half... 5 stars. 2nd half... absolute trash!!!

Revisado: 07-10-21

This is New York Times authored. The same people that brought you four years of "orange man bad", "Russia, Russia, Russia", critical race theory and other such nonsense tell you what to think about Putin. Since you seemingly cannot find any neutral books on Audible about him, you have to take the bad with the good and accept what's available.

First off, I am shocked that there is actually A LOT of good. I expected this entire book to be trash and it wasn't. The first 12 hours were incredibly interesting, very informative and consistently neutral. The first eight hours is Putin's heritage, his rise through the ranks of the intelligence service and how he became involved with Boris Yeltsin. Hours 8-12 are the first few years of his presidency and his difficulties in Chechnya.

At hour 12, it's like The New York Times fired the author, threw away the rest of his manuscript and filled in 12 hours of orange man bad written by activists, only substituting Putin for Trump. It's absolute garbage.

Thinking I could still learn something & desperately wanted to, I powered through it regardless. Much of this is about Putin persecuting "innocent" victims. I'm talking about innocent victims such as...  pro-Democracy NGOs (who involve themselves in other countries' elections and one is modelled on a George Sros group), "peaceful" protesters (aiming to overthrow governments and the author admits incidents of throwing chunks of asphalt at police), news corporations (doing divisive antagonistic coverage ala CNN), oligarchs (with left-wing agendas given REPEATED warnings to stay with business and not get involved in politics) and Pssy Riot (those ski-mask wearing girls who stormed an Orthox church in order to blast the attendants with Putin-hating Punk music). These are the author's "victims". Putin got laws passed, jailed many of these people and he also engaged in lawfare to sue these people very badly. Listening to the author, you'd think you were hearing of Stalin putting millions of people on trains, shipping them off to the Gulag and starving them to death. Putin is actually very restrained in comparison to the dictators he supposedly resembles.

Another part of this is the whining about Putin being autocratic. This country did in fact experiment with democracy and an amazing degree of openness through Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The author does admit this was indeed a catastrophic disaster that tore the nation apart, led to extreme political chaos, an economy in shambles and had the government's assets sold off to oligarchs for pennies on the dollar. Putin reversed this, saving the country and the economy with political stability and wealth. We have constant cries of bloody murder from the author that Putin went back on democracy & openness... yet it was clearly what saved his country.

This book shoved tons of theories & dogmas down my throat so I'm going to share the one I got out of this book. I got the distinct impression that the left doesn't want democracy in Russia, they simply want the constraints on Putin's leadership that would come with democracy. They are viewing political & economic openess as a Trojan horse that would allow them to exploit any constraints on Putin. After a group stays for awhile, it can become the equivalent of say... the mass media, or the US school system, or Hollywood, or silicon valley.

It seems they are trying hard and it sounds like Putin is very effective in stopping this as an autocrat. That's why you constantly hear complaints that he's too much of a dictator. You hear from the author that Putin talks plenty about western interference & subversion from such groups. But the author wastes no opportunity in calling that a far-fetched conspiracy theory and these groups are nothing but benevolent. Yeah, I'm sure. Nothing but sunshine and rainbows if Putin turns to democracy and submits himself to the liberal agenda. I actually think he is very smart to stay autocratic under these circumstances.

There was one particular point that amazed me was when the author dismissively references Putin raising GDP per Capita from $1000/yr to $10,000 per year (it was $1772 in 2000 when Putin took office to a high point in 2013 at $15,975 and has since went down to about $10,000). But several sentences later he goes into a long disparaging rant about Russian citizens having to pay officials bribes and how it makes the country so horribly intolerable to live in. Anybody else see the contradiction here?

A final thing the author biases is Chechnya. Extremists went directly to Moscow and started blowing up apartment buildings, taking hostages, using suicide bombers, killing hundreds and threatening thousands of innocent people. The author cries in despair that we couldn't mediate peaceful resolution afterward. This was Russia's 9/11. Putin feels just as strongly about Islamic terrorism & extremism as people in the US do. The author mentions all this and then acts like it's simply unreasonable & bloodthirsty to wage war against those responsible.

Anyway, this second half was just biased in every possible way and absolute torture to get myself through. It took me perhaps a month when the first half took me a couple days. I would not recommend most people trying to trudge through that. If you're wondering whether to spend a credit, completely disregard that a second half of this book even exists. There's 12 good hours in the first half and it covers a period up to Putin's early presidency. If that sounds like a good deal to you, than go for it. The first half will be a good listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 11 personas

The Fall of Rome

Revisado: 05-20-20

While the setting for the book is futuristic, the spirit of this book is VERY historical. What if you were an aristocrat living in Rome at the height of its splendor and greatness in 200 AD and could see into the future?. What if you saw that your civilization was doomed to catastrophic failure in 200 years after lasting 1000 years and all the knowledge and science of that civilization was in danger of being lost forever in the barbaric Dark Ages? And what if you realized you did not have the power to convince the leaders that there was grave danger? You could not save Rome.

This is about this guy's plans to save civilization and create a society to end the Dark Ages. Just plant the seeds in remote back-waters, have them grow unnoticed and face the challenges of brute-strength superiors intent on your destruction. This book has a slow start but after getting into it, I absolutely love it. This series is about the political intrigue and world-building more than the characters. Characters come and go as this is a saga that lasts hundreds of years. Not a series for everyone but for the type that can get into this sort of thing, its a classic and you can very much see why. Give it some time to grow on you.

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A Commentary On Nietzsche

Revisado: 11-11-19

I won't say that Jack Donovan isn't spreading much needed truths, but this is pretty much an advertisement for Nietzsche. He imitated Nietzsche's imagery & poetic writing style (and didn't do as good a job of it) and it's not nearly as interesting as simply reading Nietzsche yourself. I found this a slog at parts. I was hoping for more specific details about what to do than philosophical understanding. If you're just looking for a quick summary of Nietzsche and don't have a lot of time, than sure. This is very worth listening to. If you have more time, just listen to Nietzsche.

There's a lot of joy in Nietzsche's "The Geneology of Morals" and "Beyond Good and Evil" if you're ideologically in line with Jack Donovan. You're going to laugh your ass off at how poetically brutal he is towards what's weak in society and know exactly who he's talking about. Imagine all the filters for political correctness and politeness being stripped away and reading the most brutal put-down of the left that you've ever heard in your life. It's awesome and there's also a deep understanding that's very valuable.

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is a whole different animal. DO NOT try to pick this up and simply read this through. You will be confused, frustrated and not get very much out of it. When people say Nietzsche is inaccessible and difficult to understand, this book in particular is what they're referring to. It's written in parable (little stories meant to illustrate a point, like the Bible) and you're going to need to pick up a study guide to go through the stories and understand them. The book is more about creativity, mastery and venturing into unexplored terrain (doing stuff that no person has done before) than the other two books I mentioned. The last hour of "A More Complete Beast" was the type of stuff that would be covered in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".

The one audio source I found is a podcast and should get you started: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra - A Reader's Guide" by Alex Drake.

As for "The Birth of Tragedy", I haven't read it and cannot comment on it.

I very much applaud Jack Donovan for bringing attention to a brilliant philosopher whose ideas are in way too short of supply these days, but he doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table. Trust his recommendation to go read Nietzsche!!!!

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Extremely Disappointed

Revisado: 07-11-19

Like other reviewers here, I was extremely disappointed by the politics in this book. Book 1 & 2 were excellent. They were about exposing the uncomfortable reality about what the drug politics really are in Mexico & Central America. It was fascinating and I felt it gave understanding & insight to the different players in the wars. It brought a personal connection to things that the news clips just can't convey. It's like a book version of "Narcos: Mexico" with a lot more detail. I expected Don Winslow to have the integrity to do the same sort of thing to bring us an understanding as to what's happening with this drug money in the US... and do the research to back it up. Don Winslow is a fascinating author and I was really looking forward to seeing where he went with all this and what he uncovered.

I'm so disheartened. Much of this is political propaganda that's painful to get through, not to mention dishonest and destructive. I had to put the book down 2/3rds of the way through with 12 hours left and ask for a returned credit. This is despite the fact that I was indeed willing to deal with ideas I don't agree with and trudge through story elements I don't like. I was willing to deal with quite a bit. Don Winslow is THAT good an author and I was getting THAT much out of book 1 & 2.

It's the romantization of Robert Mueller & James Comey that did it. The book has Art Keller/Mueller discovering Don Jr laundering $280 million of cartel money and that Trump is bought by the cartels. We all have to rely on heroic Robert Mueller to save the US from destruction and endure constant insults on conservatives & Trump. Insufferable.

It would've been nice if Don Winslow instead addressed more plausible questions that may involve cartels. Why is there such incessant resistance to securing our southern border on both sides of the aisle? What is the REAL effect on drugs and smuggling going to be with border security & the wall? What is the cartel's presence in sanctuary cities? How about the news story about that small-time mayor or sherrif on the Texas border that simply let smugglers and drug runners walk through. How widespread is the corruption? What REALLY happens with the drug money laundered in the US? What is the good & bad about Trump & Democrat policies? What does ICE have to do to track down illegal aliens?

There's so many good questions to ask about drugs in the US to make an interesting story that teaches us something. Why did Don Winslow have to take on such insidious political propaganda instead?

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Needs An Editor to Become Great

Revisado: 06-22-19

When Neven Iliev really gets into the plot, it's excellent. You find yourself wanting to break all commitments to continue listening, hours melt by and you constantly crave more. If unnecessary fluff could be edited out, this series would be among the best there is to listen to.

The problem is that Neven either doesn't have an editor or not a very good one. Books 2 & 3 suffer for this. Here and there he gets sloppy or makes some simple mistakes that shouldn't happen. What bogs down the series is mostly the sexuality. Kora is an awful chacter (very bland and uninteresting) and her part in the sexuality is uncomfortable to listen to. Fizzy was a great character but Iliev unfortunately decided that she needed to be powerful or else had to kill her off. I don't agree (non-powerful characters are very endearing & add a lot to anime stories). Her transformation to make her more powerful was unnecessary, painful to read and turned her into a Kora clone.

Hopefully book 4 will have Neven continuing the excellent plot writing but clean up the sloppiness and cut down on the uncomfortable sexuality.

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Ancient Rome w/ Mythical Heroes in the far future

Revisado: 07-27-18

This is a really cool concept and world that’s been built. Even with the technology and futuristic setting I feel like I’m reading about the deified heroes of Ancient Roman conquest and the civil wars. It’s such a bloody world that’s so focused on power, glory and strength. The heroes are biologically modified to be superior physically and mentally and made into the unstoppable warriors charging into battle on the front lines wreaking havoc. I feel like this could just as likely be futuristic tales of Achilles, Romulus or Aeneas. Well done!!!

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Wow... One of My Most Engaging Reads Ever

Revisado: 03-10-18

Where does Super Powereds: Year 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I'm nearing 60 books listened to and in terms of sheer entertainment, this is perhaps the best one. It takes true talent to hold interest like this for hours on end. For me, this is an incredible accomplishment.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Super Powereds: Year 1?

The climax. I don't want to ruin it for everyone but it is very well done.

What about Kyle McCarley’s performance did you like?

The guy is an incredible voice actor. He can handle a huge number of voices, put emotion into all of them and keep them all very distinct. As soon as he opens his mouth, you know exactly who is speaking without him having to tell you.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. You will want to. Due to the length of it, its impossible... but that is a good thing. Many hours of entertainment.

Any additional comments?

The one drawback is the beginning. I picked this up on special and was a little hesitant because this is not my normal genre. He began with Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport and from the way things started off, I was waiting for the chiches of white knights vs evil bad guys and other non-complex stuff that bores me and I can't connect with. I expected this to turn into a children's book. Thankfully, I pressed on. This is not appropriate for children or young teenagers. Despite the cover art, this is very much a book for adults. It does indeed include the college-age topics of drinking, parties, relationships, ect, which are as much a part of the story as the super powers, training cirriculum and brutal violent tests but if you can look past the college themes, this will draw you in and captivate you for countless hours. I've had to binge listen to all three books. With the exception of Lord of the Rings many years ago as a high school student, I've never in my life been compelled to dive into a book series as much as I have this one.

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Great drama but some aspects I can't stand

Revisado: 01-11-18

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Sure. It made a few days at work go really quick. The drama was good and it held my attention

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The first half of the story was excellent and I was figuring this was going to be one of the best stories I've listened to. The second half started with never-ending romance writing (by itself I can tolerate) but then came the self-righteous moralizing and I wanted to break my phone out of indignation. Every military, police and security group worth its weight in salt values physical and mental toughness and many of the most successful people's throughout history instilled a lot of this toughness growing up and as rights of passage. Of course you don't want to cause PTSD, but every fiction-writer and TV producer forcing this "being mean in any way means you're evil" morality down our throats is disgusting. I wanted to enjoy a story of people surviving a super brutal right of passage and what they would face defending the city or whatever. Instead I got the message "treating people anything like this is bad... they should be ashamed". I'm annoyed.

Have you listened to any of Emma Galvin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Sure. Hopefully I can tolerate the moralizing.

Any additional comments?

No.

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