David Racker

No characters or plot

Revisado: 06-05-24

It comes off as someone going down a Wikipedia rabbit-hole and trying to stitch together a plot from what they skimmed; the characters are flat and rely too heavily on one defining cliché he repeats ad nauseam; and he give no credit to his audience to know or figure out from context terms like 'BOLO' or 'wetwork'.

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Great novel, wrong narrator

Revisado: 09-22-22

I love this book, one of Murakami's best, but this narrator was a poor choice. I read this book years ago and compared with reading it, this narrator's performance changed the feel of the book for the worse. He has a unique voice for each character, but most of them don't fit and are generally annoying-the worse of which is May and Ushikawa.

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Brag much?

Revisado: 12-08-20

While Beowulf is known for how he killed Grendel and his mother, his exploits seem to take only 25% of the word count in this book while the other 75% is him telling others about just how much of an awesome guy he is--and how awesome God is too. I probably could have stopped after the first hour and a half and been good. Especially since the last battle with the dragon seemed like such a troupe (maybe not for back in the 900s, but with the plethora of fantasy novels nowadays, it came off as basic). I think that George Guidall was the good choice of narrator for this story.

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Fluff of the Lowest Calibur

Revisado: 03-13-20

*Potential Spoilers*

Honestly, I wanted to like this book. I grappled with giving it a 3-star but ultimately couldn't justify it. The narrator was horrible and the narrative was lackluster. It had a good premise, but the writer wasn't skilled enough to execute it properly. In fact, strangely, the "protagonists" seemed vestigial to the whole entire book, showing up in the end when everything had worked itself out. I really can't figure why Mr. Tigner included Skylar Fawkes and Zachery Chase in the story at all, other than the need for someone to cheer on since the other characters were rich a**holes that had it coming--though I couldn't say Fawkes and Chase had the moral upper hand either in the end.

They tout the book as being Agatha Christie meets Micheal Crichton, but I would say his work more resembles something by John Scalzi--if Scalzi suffered brain trauma. The book is not as lofty as it makes itself out to be, it's philosophical quandary no more than a surface-level, "with absolute power, comes absolute corruption" story.

As for the narrator, I would say he was THE worst choice for a "fast-paced" thriller, constantly sounding like he was as bored with this story as I was becoming. He didn't have a bad voice per se but was miscast (he might have felt more at home in a dreary noir); though I might say his accent work is MUCH to be desired. I literally forgot between every mention that the fixer, Tory (sp?), was Norweigan (is that right? Can't remember) instead of Russian.

I got this book while it was on sale, so I am not COMPLETELY regretting this purchase. It was tolerable. But for the full price, I would not recommend it at all.

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Like a good 1990s holiday flick

Revisado: 11-28-19

I felt a little apprehensive at the beginning, but feeling like this was going to be clique and boring, but I was only half right. It's clique and the characters are archetypal/cheesy, but in the way that makes some holiday films (primarily from the ninties) feel-good and endearing. It gave me vibes of 'Home for the Holidays' (i.e. the only Thanksgiving movie I can name).

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Highly Relatable

Revisado: 08-14-19

Loved this story. It was comical, but it was the kind of funny that made me feel sad at the same time though as Murata makes a solid case for positions of of the protagonist, Furukura, and society. Furukura's struggle with social norms and personal happiness / self worth pulled me along through the story and I found it (as a person with social anxiety) relatable. It was the quintessential tale of a square being forced into a round hole.

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