Phillip Brown

A Horror Story

Revisado: 01-10-15

I've liked other stuff by Eggers, but I think this is his magnum opus to this point in his career. It's not a dystopian story... it's a dystopia's origin story. It takes its main character, and the reader, from a near future that is completely believable, step by reasonable, logical step into a horror story. To me that makes this an incredibly valuable book to have out there in the world - paranoid government states like that of 1984 or obviously horrifying, but I at least have always been able to discount them by saying, 'well, that would never really happen.' I'm not sure I can say that after listening to this book.

I think this is the sort of novel that's perfect for an audiobook, as well - the narrator is great, and he compensates for dialogue that reader-reviews have noted as repetitive and obvious. Reader reviews have also noted that the characters seem one-dimensional, but I didn't get that feeling at all - a good reader brings the characters to life and adds dimensions through subtle reading choices. The symbolism is maybe a little obvious, too, which might have seemed condescending in print but I think in audio format you need them to be obvious enough to pick up on them on first listen, at speed.

All in all, I think this is a great, important book. How well it ages probably depends on what actually happens in the future, though.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

STAY AWAY FROM THE CITIES

Revisado: 01-03-14

I was looking for popcorn entertainment here, but I just kept rolling my eyes. Cline brings nothing new to either the superhero genre or the zombie genre, he just puts the two of them in the same story.

And honestly, the plotholes... for one thing, these people have obviously not learned the first lesson of The Walking Dead: STAY AWAY FROM CITIES. In the face of a zombie apocalypse, our fearless heroes hole up in a movie studio and go on dangerous raiding missions throughout L.A. to get supplies, when it's fairly obvious that if they just packed up and moved out to a farm somewhere, there would be many fewer zombies around and lots more land on which to grow food, etcetera.

Also, one of the superheroes can literally kill any and all zombies (or bad guys) by frying them with his electric power, but he doesn't, because he doesn't like the way it feels. Cry me a river... he could literally go fly around and kill all the zombies but of course, then there would be no plot.

And the characters were pretty boring. You get your all-american good-guy superhero, a couple brooding, damaged superheroes, and a couple hot girl superheroes. The girls, of course, wear inexplicably tight/skimpy clothing, even the one who wears a helmet so that people won't know how beautiful she is. Ultimately, it was entertaining enough that I made it through, but I'll have to be pretty bored to pick up the sequels.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Love the story, vast improvement on the narrator!

Revisado: 10-24-13

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

Definitely. I immensely enjoy Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer series. I think anyone who enjoys urban fantasy, especially peppered with action, time-travel, and a healthy dose of humor would enjoy this series. Like the first five books in the series, "Tempt the Stars" does not disappoint.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I think it's tough not to love Cassie's tenacity and sense of humor, so I would call her my favorite character. However, both of her paramours have their strengths and weaknesses, which make them lovable...but when it comes to choosing a love interest for Cassie, I'm Team Pritkin!

Have you listened to any of Allyson Ryan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I will seek out other books Ryan has narrated now that I've heard this one! I think she did a fantastic job.Also, I seem to be in the minority, but Cynthia Holloway's narration of the first five books in the series grated on me to the point that (after reading them in print) I only listened to one of the other Cassie Palmer books on audiobook ("Curse the Dawn," if that makes any difference). I've heard other series narrated by Holloway, and felt the same way about her narration if those. Not enough differentiation between characters, obnoxious female voices, and not enough variation in tone of voice between male and female characters. An irritation of mine specific to Holloway's reading of the Cassie books is that she didn't read Pritkin with a British accent. I might have forgiven that in the first book, but Holloway should have corrected it after that, because Pritkin and his accent are repeatedly described as English! It drove me nuts. Especially because, having read the series in print, I always imagined Pritkin with a sexy British accent in my head, and I felt kind of cheated by the error. Thank god Allyson Ryan has entered the picture and finally corrected that! I think Ryan took over for a subpar narrator, and improved the overall quality of the reading without substantially changing other characters voices, other than to make them a bit more unique from one another, thereby making it easier to tell who is speaking. She took familiar voices and improved upon them without totally changing them. I normally hate it when narrators get changed mid-series, but this is a welcome exception. (Another excellent narrator swap was changing from Joyce Bean, whom I actually like generally, to Natalie Ross and Phil Gigante in the last two books of Karen Marie Moning's Fever series--it's not always bad to make a change mid-series!)I do concede that Allyson Ryan mispronounced "stalactite." Fortunately, the word only comes up two or three times, and I'll take that over Holloway's mispronunciation of Pritkin's accent in the other five books in this series any day. Well done, Allyson Ryan! Here's hoping she sticks around for the remainder of the Cassie Palmer series.

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

I had already read "Tempt the Stars" in print a few weeks ago when it was released, and I still listened to this audiobook in one sitting! It was that enjoyable.

Any additional comments?

If you love Karen Chance, give this book a try. Even if you're devoted to Cynthia Holloway like many reviewers seem to be, I would still encourage you to listen to "Tempt the Stars." You might be surprised at how much you enjoy Allyson Ryan's narration, regardless of which reader you ultimately decide you prefer!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas