Stephnsea

Great Information, But Not a Lot of the Book of Revelation!

Revisado: 04-01-25

I enjoyed the wide range of information about the early Church, but the Revelation to John was a bit tangential…a bit of a misleading title, but not without merit to be sure.
The narration was okay except a lot of bad pronunciations of key figures and places. I would discourage this purchase if you need a direct biblical commentary on the Rev to John, but certainly a fun look from the expanse of history.

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Reluctant Three Stars

Revisado: 12-21-24

I title this the way I have because I do enjoy this series. It’s a nice bit of escapism with some unusual, fun, and captivating characters and the narration is always very good.
But, the usual and intensely frustrating flaws of Gigi Pandian’s writing is also ever-present: the over capitulation of the characters back stories, what I experience as the constant “preachiness” of the long sections on plants, intent, and sacrificial giving of self, etc. And an *almost• spoiler alert ahead. *Almost* because it doesn’t give anything unexpected away: What was phenomenally frustrating, however—and the editor should shoulder this comment as well—was the absolutely ridiculous and insulting set up for the initial art theft. Please, a little less in the powers and opposite attractions of the sun and moon (over and over again) and some attention to not insulting the reader with ultra thin plot points…the BIGGEST of all is when Zoe knows her most precious possession, her painting, is in immediate and dire danger, she “hides” it in a crate with all of the other artwork she has (it’s like a giant arrow (look here for artwork!!!!) she then, for no discernible reason other than , “I’m just not going to worry about this,” then leaves the unprotected house (and painting) to go to her ex policeman boyfriend’s home for the night! What???? Let’s not hide the painting somewhere really secure—or take it to the boyfriend’s with us—or perhaps let’s just stay at my house with the ex- policeman and the painting to keep it safe!!!! Let’s just be all heartbroken and surprised that what we were just warned could happen actually happens and a hidden gargoyle with a rolling pin couldn’t stop the intruder….” What??? The painting has been found in a big box of paintings and stolen from my basically empty, unprotected house while I go to my boyfriend’s??? How could this happen?
Well, let’s think…sorry—I know that was a rant, but I wouldn’t be this frustrated if I didn’t believe Pandian has the ability to do sooo much better. This series is still a sweet little gem, but with the tiniest of effort (and respect for the reader) they could be precious little jewels…My 2 cents…

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Horrible Narration/Convoluted/Inconsistent

Revisado: 11-05-24

I am with many of my fellow listeners in finding the narration just painfully awful. I hope and pray someone in Louise Penny’s organization reads reviews—or simply listens for themselves to this sad disaster. I usually feel that reviews are very subjective—to each his own, but I’m truly stunned by the positive reviews of both narration and content. I am a very long time reader and listener of Penny’s book and found the beauty and humor of Three Pines to be very interesting and deeply unique —special actually. The plots have often been a bit ridiculous—always some plot of world domination or the ruination of life as we know it, but the village and its inhabitants made up for all of that—this is just a bridge too far. And please, please do not disrespect your faithful readers/listeners with inconsistencies in the back stories. Some of that is expected and inevitable, but these are glaring and just maddening! And for me the bread and butter is (as previously mentioned) the people of Three Pines. It’s not the first time she’s departed Three Pines and left my beloved Ruth (yes! I love that crazy mean woman!)and other TPines stalwarts relegated to cameos. I can actually understand wanting to do something a little bit different so I can get over it…but everything (at least to me) that could make a Louise Penny book insufferable (I would have previously thought that an absolute impossibility ) collides and colludes to make this book unreadable AND “unhearable.” Not a real word I know, but dear heavens—I feel like everything I love about Penny’s books came here to die. I would have given the narrator a negative rating (nothing personal, but he’s just not an audio book narrator) and I only gave the story and overall rating a 2 because I just love her other books and the world she created in Three Pines and it felt like criticizing a beloved friend. But no. Just say no to this narration and plot…

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Victims and Victimizers, Patsies and Users; a Horrible Universe!

Revisado: 10-31-24

Wow! Is Kate Atkinson a good writer? No doubt, very talented. But her vision of people and humanity—soooo painful. A couple of her characters in this book (Martin) is so “doormatty” and ridiculous that I found utterly painful to deal with him.
The universe and people of her world is just horrible. Very few redeeming characters so anyone that shows even the merest hint of humanity becomes a superhero! I would say that about 95% of her characters were just as*holes and the couple of people you could get behind became little islands, a place to get your breath before being cast back out into a hopeless world full of horrible people. Why did I keep listening— I must be one of the mindless masochists she writes about!!!! Very depressing.

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Narrator Fail/Immature, Self hating Protagonist

Revisado: 10-22-24

It’s hard to give a full and clear review of the story because I found the narrator to be so grating. This weird whisper/whine that I personally found so distracting. It helped to speed it up, but as a copious listener to audio books I simply reached a peak of frustration. Does the author have input? Is this how she views the main character?? Where is direction and production? And the men’s voices had a ridiculous version of a Hollywood movie trailer parody, “imagine a world..,” blah, blah, blah. Sorry for the tirade, I realize it’s subjective, but for those of us who have to listen to audio books rather than read them—-respect us. Believe that the narration matters to how the author’s work either soars or fails,
And I found the story basic, A trope filled romance. Lead character is tragically insecure and immature. Does she ever come to herself? No spoilers…If I weren’t working so hard to overcome the narration…It might have been a little better.

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Sweet, Hopeful, Warm

Revisado: 10-22-24

If you have aging parents, if you know anyone over 70 or simply want to escape into a little humanity, get this title.

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Copious Recapitulation!

Revisado: 10-17-24

I do enjoy this series and definitely recommend it for some distraction. The character of Dorian, the gargoyle is brought to life by the narrator—interestingly, she reads all of the other characters rather blandly and flat, but she is wonderful voicing this fun character.
I am reading the whole series, but struggling with the author’s constant recapitulation of the characters back story. I know that a little has to vibe done for those who may not be reading them in order, but I wish she would learn to keep it brief and learn perhaps from other authors who write the same characters in a series. And finally, as I’m on what is challenging—the author does have a tendency to become preachy—the main character of Zoey seems to give voice to long sermonizing on her topics of interests. She is really clever, obviously smart and I’m all good with veganism, nature, gardens and tea, etc. but it’s enough already with the long discourses that makes her protagonist unappealing (to me) at various points. Having said all of that, this is a lovely, imaginative series and worth the credits to hear them.

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Fun Series, Weak Segment

Revisado: 10-07-24

I’m enjoying this series and Dorian comes beautifully to life through both the writing and narration. Aside from a terrible English accent, the narrator is very good. This plot, however, made me have to work very hard to enjoy the main protagonist. For someone over 300 years old, the main character Zoe is portrayed as gentle, but phenomenally naive, darn near stupid — painfully so—in this edition. I am trying to continue, but it is a challenge to listen to this much willful ignorance of human nature in someone who is centuries old…

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Another Day in Whitstable

Revisado: 06-24-24

These are not great literature, but dependable cozies. The improved narration helps tremendously, but the plot is very samey. No spoilers, but yet again the crime is resolved by Pearl putting herself stupidly and uselessly in danger. All of the tropes…but again, they are what they are…

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A Nice Romp

Revisado: 06-14-24

This was an interesting style of mystery that had features I’ve never encountered before. I liked that. It had a lot of moving parts but never became convoluted as it might have done. I’m not often surprised, but this one left me guessing for a while. And the narration was really sound—it would have been a shame if the narrator had ruined the writing, but I thought she did a great job. I can definitely recommend it for a good summer listen—no heavy lifting and no regrets for the purchase.

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