tyson

A wonderful story

Revisado: 11-22-11

I was hesitant to listen to this in part because it was described as a love story. I was not interested in any kind of chick lit experience with this but I am so glad I decided to go ahead with it. I'm actually not quite done with it, I still have about 30 minutes left but I am hooked. I already have the second book on deck and will be focusing on this story until it's over.
The reviews have said it before, great action, magic, romance and above all characters. The author really paints a landscape of tribes and lords, etc.
The narration is top notch as well, the two switch on and off between the different perspectives (the book is told through the eyes of two characters) and the voice work on both of them is flowing and engaging.
I will most likely be sending this book to my wife's kindle pretty soon so we can share the story together.

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Not at all what I expected

Revisado: 07-28-11

I loved this "trilogy" so much I was popping in my ear buds every time I had a spare 5 minutes by the time I got to the last book. The characters were well developed, the story was epic and the narration was top of the line.
In fact the narration was what made the book. I can't prove this, but I'm convinced that the narrator skipped a lot of "Said Logan", Gisele said", etc. because he was able to distinguish between the dozens of characters so well that the listener already knew who was speaking. Stephen Pacey is not so much a narrator as a story teller, I don't think a whole acting troupe each with their own specialties could have done a better job.
As to the end of the trilogy I'd have to say it was a lot more realistic than I expected, if that makes sense. It wasn't a Hollywood ending, I'll just say that.
Some people have been complaining about the ending not really being an "ending", and I don't know after reading it who could possibly deny that. The core story of the trilogy is told, but it definitely moves right into the next book (practically mid sentence). However I have to say that as far as this story goes I am satisfied and don't necessarily feel like I need to listen to the next book to get the "whole story". I think it's more of an unrelated story with the same characters.

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A visit to the Libertarian Utopia

Revisado: 06-29-11

I'm speaking from a position of knowing very little about Ron Paul and the general idea of Libertarianism. My hope with listening to this book was to get a better idea of both so I could be prepared for the upcoming election cycle.
Based on this book alone, what I found out about Libertarianism was that the general criticism of it is essentially spot on. The Libertarian ideal is an empty box covered with shiny paper and a big, pretty bow. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Paul contradicts himself (a lot) in this book, but he definitely seems to have a lot of moving targets; on abortion he tells us to trust science in that if a fetus is to be considered a "baby" at 9 months then it should be at one month as well. Yet when it comes to Global Warming we're told not to trust the overwhelming scientific consensus that something very real is happening in that regard and uses the term "junk science" to describe it. There are similar instances throughout the book. The real problem I had with it was that nearly the whole concept of Libertarianism seems to be based on the idea that left to our own devices (as opposed to heavy government regulation) we will all just do the right thing and everything will magically fall into place. He completely avoids the reality of how the govt. regulations that he speaks against have been put in place because people DON'T just naturally do the right thing. I completely agree that we need to pull back the influence of government, but it needs to be done in a realistic way. In this first look into Libertarianism I can see why it's not taken that seriously. The ideas are compelling and I don't know who wouldn't want to live in that world, but then again that's what a utopia is all about.
I found the narration to be smooth and flowing, Craig took what could be considered a fairly dry subject and moved it along well. I give it 4 stars because I got the book to find out more about the subject and the book delivered.

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Narration almost stopped it for me

Revisado: 06-29-11

I am between 3 and 4 stars for this book, I went to 4 because the actual story had a lot of pull for me. I bought this book because of all the recent hub-ub with the new movie, I figured it would be cool to listen to the book and then watch the film (I'm halfway there at this point).
The book, though slow at first, really tells a very simple and straightforward story of seeking to bring someone to justice. The only thing I had to go on as far as the story was the trailers from the new movie and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised that, in the book at least, these characters were a lot less 2 dimensional than I had anticipated them to be. As far as story goes I thing my favorite thing was that it was a simple story, and I mean that in a good way. It wasn't convoluted with sub plots or anything else that took the story in a direction where it didn't need to go, it was very focused.
The narration is what brought this down a little for me. When Tartt gets on a roll, she's very good and the story flows nicely. However that pacing is sporadic, much of the book is filled with choppy dialogue, pregnant pauses and a lot of "behind the scenes" sounds like drinking, swallowing and ruffling of pages. In her defense, the choppiness might have been a result of the writing (a lot of two word sentences ending with "He said, she said", etc.).
Overall I'm very happy with this book, I've thought about it quite a bit since finishing it and I'm looking forward to seeing the film and comparing the two.

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Don't avoid because of complaints of narration

Revisado: 03-26-11

If you liked the first book and you're in for the long haul I would definitely recommend continuing on with this one. First off, I've been listening to audio books regularly for close to 10 years now and I can tell you I consider Oreskes to be a great narrator. If you go straight from book one to two it can be a bit jarring, and the production value does seem to be a bit less this time around, but it's nothing that will distract from the story. If you don't consider yourself to have a fan boy mentality, then you'll be safe listening to this.
The actual story does move at a slow pace for most of the book. The title of the book reflects some dark times that our heroes and humanity are living through and the main gist of this volume is watching them try to keep their heads above water. There is a lot more back story about the vampires and some characters and, I can only assume, that much of it is being set up for the final book.
If you picked up the first book like I did, wanting to listen to a full trilogy, then this is a must. However if you were just looking for a quick, action paced horror story you might want to think twice about continuing on with this series.
I take one star off for this book for the same reason I did with the last one. There are just enough horror movie cliches in this to make me roll my eyes and wonder if this is being written specifically for a quick translation to a typical horror flick. But, I didn't start listening to these because I wanted to learn something, I wanted a good horror story that would entertain, and it does just that.

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A great horror adventure, but sometimes cliched

Revisado: 03-25-11

Overall this was an excellent, fun book to listen to and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something entertaining. Ron Perlman does a great job narrating and has distinct enough character voices that by mid way through you don't even need to be told whose talking based on his accents. The blend of science and myth to explain these supernatural events is pretty fascinating, keep in mind that a lot of those explanations don't come until later books.
The one thing that distracted me about this was some of the cliched elements that took place. I can't recall one off the top of my head, but they were akin to seeing someone fumble with a set of keys and the car didn't start as the bad guy approached type of thing. There are enough of these elements in the book that it almost seems like it was written to go straight to the screen, but not enough that it really ruined the story for me.
Overall, if you're looking for a good, entertaining horror book to listen to I'd definitely recommend this.

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