Susan D.

Nauseating narration; pedestrian pedantic writing

Revisado: 04-05-25

Having read and enjoyed Luke Phillip's previous creature books I trusted Rogue would be a worthy read that, like his other books, would hold and stimulate my imagination and the pleasant tension that made me eager to turn each page and then listen again to his other wonderfully written and narrated books.

Many times I needed to stop, usually when Talon David again and again mutilated male voices until it became a stinking pot of tasteless mystery stew. It takes a great deal to disgust and disappoint me but this narrator succeeded and as the headline stated, Phillips, for some reason felt the need to take every opportunity to bloat the text by expatiating about everything except the exact daily inches of rainfall and sizes of creature poops.

Even the ending was sullied by, again, the narrator, and another "too much" that did not turn out to be a redemptive denouement, but instead another pile of information intended to be an invitation to listen to Nina's next adventure.

I am truly sorry that I will hesitate to consider another of Mr. Phillip's books.

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A wasted effort to find no value.

Revisado: 07-15-23

A mix-up of science and adolescent adults. Though I understood the over-explicated science, it did not add sufficient value to overcome a poorly told story filled with ad-nauseam banality. Add to that way too many overused character tropes that burst from nearly every page.

There were moments when the book looked like it 'might' ultimately actually turn into something interesting so I listened off and on. I should have kept it off.

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Very unfortunate denouement

Revisado: 07-13-23

Had this been my first Greig Beck book, it would have been my last. When I discovered Beneath the Dark Ice and the follow-ups I thought I had found an author whose stories held within them most, if not all of life's elements intertwined with credible characters and stories with strong emotional cores. And the creatures were uniquely terrifying.

Taking a break from performing surgeries and teaching quantum physics often finds me looking for intelligently written SciFi including those with sensational creatures, and Beck's creations were and continue to be exceptional, even in this story though more creatures were briefly referenced, but never seen. Yuri, the dumb sociopathic fisherman got more play than anyone or anything else in the book. BAD choice, Greig. In point of fact, there were too many side stories that were never fully told. Your clumsy plot suddenly disappeared them which was in keeping with your ridiculously precipitous ending.

Were you compelled to tell a story that roamed all over the place with too much absurd and vague dialogue and virtually nothing near anything redemptive which then suddenly stopped at a literally dead end, and, yes, I realize that redemption is not always a storybook ending, but this book of yours stinks of diseased, rotting, eye-burning death of EVERYTHING good or even distantly hopeful. Perhaps a projection (I hope not) of your own life's challenges.

Your stories have taken the lives of many a good and brave person, but that's life; however, you decided to unnecessarily
turn this story into something terminally bleak and darker than dark, taking even an atom of anything life-affirming from every decent character whose souls were already bleeding out from having already lost everything.

I take responsibility for hoping for more from you. You're an author and you make money doing what you do. Like most of Hollywood's creators (and I know many of them well), you take no responsibility for how your work affects others.

Mangan's usually good narration was way below par and very distracting. Felt very clumsy going back and forth with different pronunciations of the same words.

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Like fingernails scratching a blackboard ...

Revisado: 03-08-22

Not worth the time it'd take to expatiate. Absurd characters - and even more ridiculous characterizations of Orcas.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Content overshadowed by cacophonic background.

Revisado: 09-28-21

I had read the book and found it well written and with great creatures, so I was very interested in the dramatized adaptation.

Unfortunately, while the voice actors were excellent, it was next to impossible to clearly hear what they were saying over the multiple and near-constant background sound inserts. My ears detected no sense of audio balance.

Too bad! This could have been a real winner.

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NARRATOR KILLS BOOK

Revisado: 07-03-21

In 2019 during a transatlantic flight, I read this book that had been left in the chair pocket. The creatures were interesting and there was some decent character development. When we saw this book on audible my 14 and 15-year-olds were excited to listen to it.

We are sci-fi/creature buffs and always on the watch for the next great listen, and there have been many on audible that were written and narrated by the best of the best. But we weren't expecting this book to be great, just a good, well-done story about cryptids. And the brief narration sample was not long enough to warn us before buying it.

This audible book is NOT the same as the written version, leaving out several of the most important parts that would have let the reader experience more of the decency/humanity of those capturing and caring for the creatures - and also allow the listener to experience the more nuanced and deeper feelings and perceptions - and behaviors of the cryptids - - all left out.

This book is definitely a return and delete, but served to teach us to never choose anything narrated by Reimer, who murdered the English language while creating the most insultingly absurd 'nails on blackboard' voices that degraded the identity, let alone the credibility of the characters.

The adults - and my kids and their friends - actually needed to stop the book "to take breaks from the narrator." Reimer's voices made us literally cringe, but the kids wanted to know how it ended, which was another big disappointment because details that were in the book were not in the narration.

Reimer kept switching many of the characters' voices, clearly forgetting which ridiculous voice was whose, and clearly didn't even bother to look up the pronunciation of Bili ape - and many other words most elementary kids would know.

Mr. Griffiths allowed what most other authors would never allow, and that is to allow an inept narrator to undermine the value of his work....

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A waste of time...

Revisado: 02-03-20

Kept listening, not quite believing there would be no real redemptive storyline. Absurd and mind-numbing repetitive dialogue. Narration was good, but there must have been at least 100 repeats of one absurd 'nails on blackboard' phrase that was never explicated and for which there was no purpose or value. My second try with a Meikle book. There will not be another.

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Cringeworthy...and not in a good way.

Revisado: 09-25-19

Most people know that writers write, primarily, if not only, for themselves. I get that, but there are authors like Grieg Beck, Warren Fahy , Niven, Pournelle , and Barnes - and others - who have created brilliantly thrilling stories with fantastically unique terrifying creatures, all without trashing their own work with precipitously perverse endings. But Hunter Shea gets to be who he is, which certainly shouts out loud in this piece of work. Got my money back . Deleted it from my computer.

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Not worth my time .

Revisado: 06-12-19

Kept listening, hoping for qualities I have enjoyed in other Beck's novels. In this one he seems to have fallen into gratuitous and banal horror. And how about that pathetic non-ending... As if all of us readers are addicted TV watchers who are happy - or at least willing to wait who knows how long for more of a story and hopefully decent unto redemptive closure.. No more Primordia for me. And maybe no more Beck.

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Junk indeed....

Revisado: 05-11-19

At least the title accurately and unapologetically reported its complete absence of value. For the narration, the author should have apologized! I gave the first chapter a try and then had friends and colleagues take on bits of other chapters. Consensus was: JUNK

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