xayekim

It Is More Or Less a Boone Lecture

Revisado: 02-05-24

I teach professionally on the subject matter so I am not going to offer any academic critique on the content as much as I am going to offer a critique on the selection of material and the performance.

It was difficult for me to click the 3rd star on the overall rating and a 2 star on the performance because I am a huge fan of the Meateater company and as individuals both Rinella and Newcomb are in my opinion the premier outdoor conservationists, educators and entertainers but here is why I offer such a low rating;

The presentation style took me out of the narrative. The way this audiobook was presented is the reason why I do not ask my students to read a paragraph and then pick another student to read a paragraph and so forth because no one retains any information being read. It takes you out of the cadence and the "flow" of the material. If you have kids or if you read to children on the regular think about the last time you sat down with an adult and red a book to that child, you go back and forth, back and forth. The child is not retaining anything but they are just enjoying the sound of the adults voice. Sure after you read that same book to your kid for the tenth time the child will retain it...

The material presented was very much a lecture style of content but very much presented by two men reading off a sheet or computer. It is difficult to explain but I can hear both Rinella and Newcomb looking at the sheet, if that makes any sense. For a good presentation that material needs to be memorized and spoken passionately and with interest. Maybe they did not read directly from a sheet but it sure sounded like it. It really just sounded like the kid in class that is vaguely interested in the topic. There were moments where a personal anecdote was mentioned and you can tell that was coming from somewhere else... But the presentation was overall flat.

I am not going to just sit here and say negative things about the presentation but Steve and Clay could really use some lecture training and adopt their conversational style that they already have on their podcasts. The speaking needs to sound natural, not rehearsed and certainly not read.

I would also recommend that anytime there is more than one reader you allow that reader to present the entire chapter or section on their own or you have what is similar to sports commentary a "color commentator" and a "play by play" type where you have one person read the information and you have the commentator add "color" to the information by referring to an example that the other person can go into a bit more depth. This is often done with other readers reading longer quoted materials like book references or through living history presentations where people "act out a scene" as an example.

Instead what we got was an audiobook in tennis format where the readers just constantly swatted the information ball back and forth and I often had to rewind because I stopped following along.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not Historically Accurate But Entertaining

Revisado: 10-20-19

Plenty of the content has been disproved since this story was published. It is not so much history as it is a fun little nostalgic run through historical revisionism with plenty of Western romanticism from the 50s/60s.

Blue Jacket- Completely disproved via DNA and historical evidence or lack of.

The native american perspective is one stereotype after another.

The main protagonist is absurdly super human and the story frequently undermines other historical frontiersman like Daniel Boone.

This story is more like one of those Western serials or movies that makes the main character a meta human...I dont know what research was reviewed to write this but I'd guess the writer spent a lot of time reading Western fluff books that derived most of their research from traveling Western Exhibitions advertisements and plays.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Thorough Review of Daily Life

Revisado: 04-23-19

Overall I enjoyed this lecture series. It is interesting getting a glimpse of the daily lives of Ancient culture. The series focuses on the day to day grind, behavior, diet, agriculture, employment and politics of the "non" famous people of ancient history.

The lecture series is very Greek/ Roman centric with a total of 11 lectures dedicated to the Greeks and 13 to the Roman's. The rest is brief run downs of paleolithic and pre recorded history and after the Roman's its Western Europe focused.

I would have loved to learn more about ancient Eastern Europe/ Asian / African cultures and even perhaps North American but overall it was a pretty good lecture series.

The lecturer does occasionally make modern judgements on historical data and cultures but it's not so much that it becomes distracting.

I do recommend it but so far it has not been my favorite of the Great Courses as I could not sit through it in one continuous sitting. I found myself swapping to other lecture series finishing those and coming back to this one.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Solid Continuation with Cliffhanger

Revisado: 02-15-15

What did you love best about Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex?

The performance was excellent as usual with Marc Thompson. Marc really captures the majority of the major canon characters like Han, Luke and what not. The added sound effects really set the mood and the story was a good continuation of the series. Several well placed cliffhangers.

Any additional comments?

Ok, Mr. Denning needs to find another adjective or descriptive verb other than "Furrowed Brow" almost every time a character is emoting something they are doing Furrowed Brow" One author in this series is obsessed with "cafe" which seems to be in every scene involving an object... Mr. Denning on the other hand over uses Furrowed Brow to emote and wow does it get distracting. Leia turned too look at Han and (GUESS WHAT SHE IS GOING TO DO ! YEP THATS RIGHT FURROWING HER BROW"

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Darth Revan Revanchist Etc Good Book

Revisado: 02-15-15

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definitely recommend this book if you are a fan of KOTOR or SWTOR games or related comic books. The only downside is that the story line jumps a bit back and forth in time lines and some of the minor character development is rushed.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Marc Thompson Does It Again

Revisado: 02-15-15

What made the experience of listening to Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived the most enjoyable?

Marc Thompson does an incredible job at narration. The added sound effects by the production crew overall makes it a fantastic production.

What did you like best about this story?

It is the back story of Darth Malgus from the SWTOR universe. Kind of, more like just a one off of him.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wanted too listen to it in one sitting, yes, could I ? No, I have work to do!

Any additional comments?

These unabridged full performances are so nice to lose yourself into.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña