MJS

Pass if you want normal fiction.

Revisado: 10-13-22

This story is more like one of those LitRPG books in the way that spells and abilities are talked about. About the only thing missing is the characters in the story spending their experience points or skill points. Well, and of course they don't (at least so far) speak to someone leveling up.

The first part of the story is either poorly read or poorly edited. They might even have used software to remove all pauses between sentences. The pace of the reading sounds very unnatural for the first several hours. Sections of dialog are much better but when the story first begins there are no natural pauses or anything. It makes me feel like I am listening to a computer read the story to me. It doesn't sound natural at all.

If you like LitRPGs you will like it, but it is a light version of a standard LitRPG. But if you don't like that type of story then stay away from this one.

I think that if the reading sound more natural it would have been more bearable as Joel seems to do a good job, less he is the one that actually reads with no natural pauses. I have previewed some of his other work and you can actually hear him inhale and pause now and then so I blame the editor(s) of the audio book for Joel's performance being lower than what it should have been.

I regret this purchase.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Bunch of Climate Alarmist Hooey

Revisado: 09-05-22

Good narration of a story that is scientifically illiterate and emotionally driven climate alarmism. Speaking about the Earth, Gia, as if the Earth is a living entity that desires some sort of balance and equilibrium.

Take a hard pass if you have the ability to think at all with your brain and not your feels.

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SPOILERS BELOW....but not too much detail

Revisado: 07-03-20

This book had a pretty good premise and was what good have been a very interesting mystery....until they pulled a Fonzie and jumped the shark.

From a 9 year old girl who is vastly more sophisticated planner, schemer, and manipulator for her age than she should be by a good ten years but is still somehow still appropriately naive for her age in other ways. Well, that and what started off to be potentially a great reincarnation story turned into a 9 year old that was simply joking around at such a level that only someone with an antisocial personality disorder or some other form of psychopathy.

Throw in a single mother who, after all the bad that her daughter does, wants to talk to her about why she did it. In fact, the actual conversation starts off something like this, "I'm not going to punish you. I just want to talk." Um....a person, even a child, that did what this 9 year old girl does needs to be punished and have a psychological evaluation.

Throw in a doctor that was easy to fool who was supposedly an expert in his field and was supposed to help this girl ye t she easily fooled him too. Along with her teachers and a widower who she really harmed emotionally along with his relationship with a friend.

But ok, just talk to her like a spineless parent.

Three and a half hours of the story moved along great and had me really curious about how thing would be revealed. It was read like either the author wrote 3/4 of the story 15 years ago, never thought about it again and then finished it without reading the story so far. Or, perhaps, whomever was in charge of this project was tired of waiting for the book to be completed and forced the book to be completed as is, thus the last couple chapters that completely tanked.

In the same amount of time that the book spends jumping the Happy Days shark it could have been wrapped up and completed in a manner that was consistent with the story up to the....resolution if you could call it that. This story followed a different 5 plot story line. It went like this: exposition, rising action, climax / turning point, lit itself on fire while a top a motorcycle sped off at high speed towards a ramp (falling action), missed the ramp and slammed into the side of the shark tank and died (resolution).

Even the woman who died you wanted to feel sorry for but then you find out that she was cheating on her husband.

The reader / voice talent did a good job. No fault of hers.

Read the story's description and just know that it is completely misleading. What is left out is the part that says, "Second Skin is a turd that cannot be polished that is about psychopathy, manipulation, theft, immoral behavior, lying, and complete disregard for others by a 9 year old girl who was able to do such things at a pretty high level well beyond her years, a spineless mother, and a group of trained adults who were easily fooled.....and truths better left unknown.

Maybe I don't like even the first parts of the book now that I think about it.

I would get more titles that are narrated by Ellen Archer as she is great, but give this book a hard pass.

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Not good writing and not a good reading...

Revisado: 03-20-19

A poorly written story with strange little details and diversions that make no sense within the context of the story.

Some of the writing also sounds, or is written, to come out as sexual undertones.

One of the poorly written scenes that comes to mind is one in which the author is describing our hero running towards a wild animal that blocks his escape to freedom. The simple fact that he is running implies that he is covering distance at a good pace yet he speaks about the closing gap as something like, "Three feet....two feet....one foot away!" I don't know about you, but even running at a modest rate of say 10 mph you would cover 3 feet in around 2/10ths of a second so to try to paint a dramatic picture by forgetting the scale and magnitude of what is happening as compared to the distance and time involved not matching...just took me clear out of the story. As soon as the read said that sentence I thought, "Now how does that make sense?" Running at the wild animal that is out to eat you would have been better addressed as something like, "100 feet....50 feet and closing....25 feet....10 feet and then suddenly I <fill in the blank>" Just take a short walk and look at how quickly you can cover three feet!

The book is ripe with gems like that, but not as obvious, that remind me of something that a creative writing student that has some talent would pen in the 9th grade. Sad because the story idea, while not original, typically leads to fun adventures when in the right hands.

Also, what is with so much on this planet being like Earth? Maybe I will find out in the remaining hour or so that I have left but for now, it is like the writer has little imagination. Take what you know about Earth, change insignificant details and you have a new and unexplored planet filled with....animals and water life that sound all too familiar. Or the most creative thing in it, take two different species from Earth, smash them together to get a new animal with the combined traits of both. How...9th grade.

Waste of my free Audible Original download and needs to go. This kind of writing and reading performance are not good marketing as a free bonus perk to download this kind of poorly written and delivered story.

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Awesome audio / theatrical version!

Revisado: 11-21-16

What made the experience of listening to Battlefield Earth the most enjoyable?

This version is like listening to a movie with your eyes closed with the narrator simply describing the things you cannot see. You hear various actors performing the dialog as well as matching sound effects the whole way through that paint the image of what is going on in your mind's eye.

If you have heard this story before, I believe the version I heard was read by Roddy McDowall, this version will feel like you never heard the story before. Great presentation, sound effects, and voice actors.

I wish there were more audio books produced in this manner.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Battlefield Earth?

The overall presentation. All audio books should be like this.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

An entirely new experience. With the addition of multiple voice actors and all the appropriately used sound effects you are literally part of the story.

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

Um. No. Who has 47 hours straight to listen to anything.

Any additional comments?

Whether you liked the book or not or even if you have heard previous audio versions of this book, give the new version a shot.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Wow, did i expect something different....

Revisado: 12-24-08

If you are willing to listen and accept the author's ramblings about things metaphysical then this book is for you.

After listening to the first hour or so i gave up.

I hope that I just did not read the summary good enough and that others read it fully before spending money/credits on this book.

I did try to find a review on Amazon.com, which I do with all the titles i purchase, but this appears to be audio only as there is no book that is reviewed at the time I purchased this from Audible.

Maybe the content changes in later chapters but I am already not wanting to hear the rest. I am betting that with all the pushing of the belief in ESP, brain-linking, and the etherial energies in the early portion of the audio content, that there is no way that the author will not pull every 'law' of success back to a basis of metaphysics.

I guess I should have researched the author and not the book title.

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esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

Great for some, but not for all

Revisado: 06-26-08

My rating of 4/5 is based on the intent of the book. While I do agree with Jeffry, a previous reviewer, in that I did not learn anything.

However, the book is clearly written for those will little or no experience with investing. The book provides tons of good information and little nuggets for thought.

The book presents the information in simple terms and is (I assume) easy for new investors to understand. This is the basis for my 4/5 stars.

If you have no investing experience or if you are an current but not well versed in investing then the book is a great tool for you.

If you are already an intermediate investor the book will probably serve well as a check and balance to help you keep yourself on track.

If you are an expert investor, the book is not for you as you will learn little or nothing.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas