Zeus the Irritable

Good story, but...

Revisado: 02-13-25

The story was good, and weird, just as I had hoped and expected, but the narration really brought the whole package down.

When simply reading the main, structural text, the narration is very good. Clear and well enunciated without sounding lifeless and dull as sometimes happens. It's the dialogue that's the problem. For some reason, whether by choice or direction, the narrator uses wildly overblown affectations for nearly every character and it made it really, really difficult to concentrate on the story a few times.

Glen Runciter sounds like Evil Universe J. Jonah Jameson from the 2000's Spider Man movies. Jory, the villain, sounds like the weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Joe Chip, the main character, while voiced mostly normally, swings crazily between calm and intense with no clear narrative reason to do so.

This would easily have been a five star from me, but It was very hard to follow the motivations from the characters when they were performed without any kind of consistent tone.

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Excellent, with one flaw.

Revisado: 12-04-23

A very well written book, crafted with a journalists eye for a story and a scientists mind for complexity. The presentation is clear and well done, (and the accent is sexy as hell, in my opinion), but I nevertheless had to deduct a star from the performance. I simply cannot let the pronunciation of the word DISORIENTED as DISORIENTATED slide. It is a strangely low-brow mistake that occurs many times throughout the book, and if you're an assh- I mean pedant like me, it will get in your nerves early and often.

Excellent book and performance otherwise.

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A must-read for every prude and perv.

Revisado: 06-07-22

This book takes a serious, science based look at the very controversial, contradictory, and sometimes weird nature of human sexuality in an extremely lighthearted and accessible way. The authors exuberant and enthusiastic performance is very genuine, which lends the whole book the feeling of a story being told by an old friend, rather the analysis of human biology and psychology that it is. I even laughed out loud several times.

I wholeheartedly recommended this book to everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, or whether you're a stuff prude, or a anything-goes sexual hedonist. We can learn something about ourselves and others by viewing all of humanities filthy and fantastic sexuality with a humourous and non-judgmental lens.

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I couldn't un-hear it...

Revisado: 04-25-22

The story is decent, and it is definitely cool to see one of my favorite supporting characters in the Parker books in his own adventure, but there was a rather big issue with the narration for me.

Don't get wrong, the guy puts in performance. He makes each character sound unique, and manages to do Mexican accents without drifting into caricature territory. Overall, a very good, if by-the-numbers performance.

My problem with the performance is purely the result of me being a fan of the Futurama TV series. Anyone who has seen a fair amount of the show will be familiar with Calculon, the over-the-top hammy Soap Opera actor robot. Almost as soon as the book began, the narrators performance of Grofield made me think of Calculon, and I spent the rest of the book picturing the cartoon character, instead of the guy I had always seen in my head when reading or listening to a Parker book.

It didn't really hurt the experience, but it did make it hard to take the story seriously when I couldn't get the image of a scenery-chewing yellow robot in place of the main character out of my head.

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Good story, but...

Revisado: 04-22-22

The story was good, but the narrator just isn't a good fit for Parker. Not bad, just not good for this type of story. He puts too much emotion and humanity into Parker, and it just doesn't mesh with the cold, mechanical nature of the character. Also, his accent is a bit distracting. It isn't heavy, or thick, but he pronounces words like "got" as "gut", and it's really noticable. Still worth the time, but this might be one to read rather than listen to.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Wild, uninformed claims and leaps of logic.

Revisado: 03-24-22

The author takes information that he didn't understand and runs completely wild with speculation.

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Wow

Revisado: 12-04-21

A beautiful, shockingly prescient, snapshot of the future as seen through 1980's smoke and neon.

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The Best One

Revisado: 05-30-21

I've been burning through these rapid-fire, and this one is absolutely the best so far.

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Interesting, but...

Revisado: 04-22-21

The reading was top-notch. The narrator's speech was clear and expressive, even adding a bit of personality flavor when quoting historical figures.

As for the subject matter, the concepts presented here are very interesting, and no doubt have some truth, are very speculative, with often little documentary evidence. Any successful leader with any kind of symptom is presented as evidence, while successful leaders without obvious symptoms are dismissed away, or not mentioned at all.

Worth the listen if it's included in your membership, but otherwise, give it a pass.

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Helpful for some.

Revisado: 04-20-21

The clinical facts presented here are well researched and helpful, the writing is good, and the reading is excellent. The tragedy of this family is genuine, and everyone should be able to relate to the broad strokes.

All that being said, I almost stopped listening several times because of an issue I'm sure the author wasn't even aware of; This entire book is an illustration of the privileged lives of the rich. Nearly every time the author describes anyone, she goes into great detail about the quality and class of their clothes or vehicle. She goes on and on about vacations to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and other places. She talks about their beautiful home in california, the apartments that she invested in, the parcel of beachfront property that she owned, and the $200,000 that she had sitting in her savings account.
As she talked about the possible devastation that her divorce, (and the later death of her husband), would cause, I had trouble summoning any sympathy.

A few times, as she described the hardships that she and her daughter had to endure I hit pause in disgust. I'm sure it never entered into her mind how things like this effect poop people. At one point, she tries to relate to a poor person from a rough neighborhood, saying "I get it. I understand", but she absolutely does not.

I don't mean to take anything away from the author and what her family went through. I'm sure she is a lovely person, and would never want to intentionally insult anyone, but as someone who has tried to navigate america's mental health system without anything close to the resources and support system she has, I couldn't help but feel as such while I listened. I still absolutely recommend this book, but if you aren't rich, you might not find it very helpful. Those with money and those without might as well live on different planets when it comes to mental health.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas