Lon Vining

Juvenile

Revisado: 06-24-24

This was a puerile, sex-heavy, poorly written, mediocrely acted story. If you told me it was a skit written be teenage boys at summer camp, I’d believe you.

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Unparalleled Depth of Psychological Insight, with Superb Narration

Revisado: 05-29-21

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment has it all, and all on the top shelf of literary accomplishment. He captures self-talk with unparalleled insight, and emotional and psychological thoughts and anguish that ring true, not only for the main character, but across an entire cast of actors. Add to that a riveting story which contains endless back stories, dialogue which is superb, and deep religious and philosophical thought, and you have a novel with few rivals. And I will venture to say that you "hear" the insanity, humanity, frailty, pride, and love that Dostoevsky is penning all the better with the masterful voice acting of Anthony Heald, who is clearly a student of the text, brings it all to life in a way my imagination could have scarcely conjured with such vivid realism. I was so moved by the entire experience that I wish I could thank both Dostoevsky and Heald for their artistry!

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Mostly Solid Psychological Murder-Mystery and Performances

Revisado: 10-23-20

When You Find Me is not a novel I'd call excellent, but it's good, or what I'd call solid. It was a good listen. Its strongest point is its plot twists, right up till the end. If you like this kind of creativity, you'll like this book a lot. The depiction of a proud Southern family of reknown also rings true, mostly.

A weakness of the book is its relative lack of a likable character. That's a pretty rare feat. This makes it much more difficult to develop empathy for the characters and what they go through. I think the mystery and plot twists of the book played a part in all this, but need not have. Almost every character, save a couple, are pretty detestable, and the few that aren't are at best neutral. The most honorable main character, Nina, is not evil, but she's not really super likable either. It's true that she persevered through much to seek justice at risk to her own well-being, but we don't benefit from knowing what part of her internal character drove her to do good.

Other minor characters existed in the story which could have brought in some much needed levity and likability, but that opportunity was not pursued. I think this all points to the most basic flaw of the book: a failure to develop the characters more. I want to hate them more or like them more, but I just don't really feel either emotion. I sort of feel ambivalent about the whole lot.

The two performers are also very solid, but average. They were not expert at maintaining the same voice for each character they voiced, and I was not always certain which character was speaking. I also found it strange to hear the voice of a different actor reading the lines of the same person, though I got more used to it as I got further into the audiobook. But overall, I'd recommend the book to friends, but only to those who really love a good psychological murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns.

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Haunting Story, Top Shelf Acting & Production Values

Revisado: 10-15-20

Unless one simply hates sci-fi to the core - and maybe even if one does - The Sea in the Sky is a must-listen-to audio delight. TSITS perfectly weaves together the perils of space exploration, the devastating effects of isolation, and the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity into a spellbinding 11 episodes. The story is extremely haunting and heart touching, with realistic and witty character-to-character interaction, authentic emotional conveyance, and the best acting ensemble of any podcast or audio I've heard. In my estimation, the performance by Lizan Mitchell was simply superb and deserving of an Audie nomination, but James Ludwig was close behind, and Octavia Chavez-Richmond and Pun Bandhu were excellent as well. The production values and special effects were also superb and worthy of recognition. You don't want to miss this stellar tale!

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Excellent Historic Fiction

Revisado: 09-27-20

This book won awards when it was published for a reason-it's a great tale that takes a page out of the history of WW2 and fills in fictional details that might be more true than we know. Excellent handling of bouncing between "scenes," characters, and locales that remind one more of a modern movie than a decades old book. Follett is not excessive with detail, but gives enough to help you immerse fully into the story and its settings.

The narration is excellent, and the dramatization only adds to the story, and doesn't detract like they sometimes can do. Overall, definitely a worthwhile story for anyone who loves fiction, particularly historical fiction, spy stories or war stories.

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