Nicholas

13 hours of "I want my baby back" cuddle bunny

Revisado: 08-30-22

I loved the Monster Hunter series, but I am so, so, sorry I gave this a chance. Couldn't possibly be more repetitive and boring. And if I never hear the phrase "cuddle bunny" in that stupid kiddy voice again, it will be decades too soon. I'm still going to get Book 8. Hopefully it will go back to prior quality without Sarah A. Hoyt ruining the series.

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This one's a must buy

Revisado: 02-01-17

This kept my interest all the way through, and Ray Porter is a perfect narrator for it.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the one thing that bothered me is the part where...

...Someone did [something] and that caused the feces to hit the fan. I have an idea, let's not try to undo what he did, let's go up to the roof to have a look!

Other than that, it was an excellent listen.

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Holy Participles Batman

Revisado: 12-13-16

Being a fan, I wanted to read Ghost Run. Being anxious to hear it, I pre-ordered it. Using a credit, I ordered it on Audible. Having been busy, it took me a long time to get to it. Using the Amazon Echo, I asked Alexa to read it to me at night. Making use of the sleep timer, I listened to 30 minutes at a time. Listening, I noticed an overly frequent and annoying use of participles. Editing being a former job of mine, I wondered why an editor didn't send this book back for a rewrite. Hoping to make a point, I wrote this review.

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Slooooooooooow

Revisado: 11-07-16

I'm not sure I can make it to the end of this book. It's soooooo sloooooow.

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Meh, too hokey for me

Revisado: 07-20-15

I was disappointed, starting with the fact that Andrew Dennison is a linguist, yet neither he nor "Bub" seem to know that Beelzebub is a mocking name for the devil and means "Lord of the flies" (equivalent to a pile of crap) vs. Beelzebul, which means "Prince of demons".

It held my interest long enough to finish it, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you get it on sale or something.

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Buy this book NOW

Revisado: 07-07-15

I enjoyed J. L. Bourne's day-by-day armageddon series, and recommend them. But this book beats them all.

The details of this adventure, if one can call it that, drive the story. But it's the all too possible scenario that is frightening. I'll stop there so you can enjoy it, yourself.

But here's a paradox for you. This is a compelling story in spite of the fact that about 99.9% of us won't be able to identify fully with Max, the protagonist. Most of us don't have the level of combat training, an ultralight aircraft, access to all the right weaponry and ammo including grenades, a home with acres of land and a cousin with a backhoe to dig out a spot at a moment's notice for an underground bunker, and so on. Max also has almost superhuman endurance, given the amount he accomplishes in hours.

Maybe you fit this description. I don't. I would probably end up in the FEMA internment camp or worse, dead.

It's also an incredible stroke of luck that Max could find high explosives and that he accidentally runs into a communications expert holed up in a train car with essentially unlimited access to water and soup (and later, meat!).

So, with all of these elements bending credulity well beyond the breaking point, it is a testament to Bourne's writing skills that this is still such an engaging page turner. It was a test of will to make myself press the pause button.

Indeed, if I can find any real flaw in this book, it's that the ending wraps things up too quickly. I wanted several hours more. I want to know who planned this disaster, and why. Hopefully we'll get those answers and many more hours in follow-up books.

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ARRRGH!! Decent Book with World's Worst Narrator

Revisado: 06-23-15

The pace of this book is excellent, and the story is engaging, albeit a bit overdone.

But holy crap, who hired Angela Dawe as this narrator? I almost can't follow the story because she's so monstrously bad. I'm shocked to see how many books she's narrated. I don't know how anyone can stand to listen to her.

Hear for yourself. Listen to the sample. Unless it's a question (or unless she's speaking for another character), her intonation is exactly the same (especially the END of every sentence), no matter what the context.

And she clearly punctuates her sentences with pauses so that you get the full impact of each annoying repetition in the way she speaks. I find myself wishing she'd just run two sentences together so I wasn't drawn into to focus on her nightmarish delivery.

Everyone's different. If her delivery doesn't bother you, get this book. It's almost too much for me to bear.

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Tired of the over-the-top villains

Revisado: 06-09-15

Headline says it all. There are things I like about the Joe Ledger novels, but Maberry seems to love to make his villains so over-the-top, it's like watching a bad cartoon show. I'm halfway through the book now, and I've already lost enough interest that I don't rewind it if I fall asleep midway through the hour timer.

Ray Porter is one of the best narrators alive, so there's that. He even makes the villain voices as excessively dramatic as they're descriptions and personalities.

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Definitely worth a credit

Revisado: 05-28-15

(First, I apologize for posting this same review on the wrong book.)

1. As with any mystery, you want to see if you can figure it out as the story progresses. You might as well give up on this idea in the series. The writer builds "suspense" by having his characters constantly withhold critical information they knew from the start, disclosing it only in dribs and drabs. That's not suspense. It's annoyance. It would make sense if these characters were enemies, but they're supposed to be part of the "good guys" hoping to solve the crimes.

2. I gave the performance 5 stars, because I love this narrator. But she talks too fast, and runs the main character's thoughts together with her speech so it's difficult to tell when the character is thinking and when she's talking.

Now, the good:

1. Despite the problems, these stories are JUST. PLAIN. FUN. The characters are fun. The banter is fun. The ideas are fun. This is especially appealing to people like me, who like the "film noir in an alternate universe" style.

2. Abandoning the idea of solving the mystery based on the same clues the main character has to consider doesn't mean you can't figure out who's doing the killing. I managed to guess simply based on the writing style.

3. The narrator's style of storytelling grabs you and keeps you interested.

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Just OK

Revisado: 05-28-15

I enjoyed this book, but it is not without problems. Standard Joe Ledger fare: Evil secret shadow government organization tries to take over the world. On his way to kill the bad guy, Joe describes in detail his super ability to win fights. In the meantime, Joe meets a love interest who is set up to be centrally integral to the plot, after which she becomes totally irrelevant when Joe finds what he's looking for in the bad guy's office.

One of the biggest problems is that you'll figure out where the plot is going hours before Joe figures it out. Once you get it, it seems like the story is simply padded with irrelevant situations while you wait for Joe to get on the same page.

Another problem is that the story introduces a new gun that would make short work of most of the fight scenes if Joe would simply use it. Pok - enemies destroyed. No need for intricate fighting strategies. So how does Maberry make sure Joe can still describe his fighting skills? He simply decides for Joe not to use the gun in most situations. Problem solved, except it leaves us wondering WHY Joe wants to do it the hard way.

Oh, well. Still a fun ride, for the most part.

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