D. Richardson

Story good, narration okay

Revisado: 02-16-24

I recognize John C. Reilly’s voice. It prevents me from totally immersing myself into the story. I’m reminded of his voice in the movie, Chicago. That’s all I hear. His voice is so familiar that it is like listening to Shatner or Walken. The story is great. But be warned, there are quite a few racial insults.

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Excellent origin story for Dox

Revisado: 12-19-22

Dox is my favorite character. He always seemed easy going until he wasn’t. After reading his origin story, I understand how he could get serious. I like the narration except for his “British”. That was terrible, but I’ll overlook it because the story was very good and felt like a quick read.

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Nice!

Revisado: 12-15-22

Among Starfleet captains, I liked Janeway the least. She was too much like Kirk, which would have been fine except for her “Federation morals”. What a hypocrite she was. So I prepared myself to hear Janeway’s side of the story…her life. No excuses.

Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised with the story, I almost said pleasantly surprised with Janeway. She had regrets. And she got just a bit, well she was Janeway. I’m going to watch a few select Voyager episodes and then reread this again. As for the narration, Mulgrew didn’t do that whispering she’s known to do on the show. That was nice.

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Hard to finish, YUCK

Revisado: 12-14-22

This wasn’t good at all. First, the narrator seemed to have difficulty pronouncing Margo. It was more like Marco, as in “Marco, Polo”. That was driving me insane. Second, the beginning plot was ridiculous. The character’s reactions to each other seemed impossible believe. They disliked each other so much that they had sex immediately! There was no tension between the main characters, but they’re in love. Finally, the sex scenes were very explicit. I’ve read all three 50 shades, and this story reminded me of it. Put it all together and it’s terrible. I was disappointed because I’ve read much better from the author.

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You Can Die and Come Back to Life

Revisado: 11-19-16

What did you love best about The Dispatcher?
It was a nice and tidy sci fi short story were people can die and come back to life.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Dispatcher?
The elevator shaft.

What about Zachary Quinto’s performance did you like?
I liked his range: young, old, male, female. There was a back and forth scene between two characters and the dialog was pretty fast. He gave one of them a slight accent, not sure what it was, but I could discern between the two. That was especially nice.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Not really, but I liked the question of dying and coming back to life. Is it a miracle?

Any additional comments?
Resurrecting the dead was an interesting premise and immediately grabbed my attention. It works best when someone else causes your death first. And I liked that it also was a simple detective story. Zachary Quinto was great. I would listen to him again.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Just people

Revisado: 06-20-16

This was a really nice listen. It seemed like any NPR segment. In retrospect, Ari Shapiro doing the narration was probably the reason. Now whether you agree or disagree with their lifestyle is not the point. At least it wasn't for me. The people who shared their life stories for StoryCorps are brief, but they are important stories of fear, shame, triumph and most importantly love. With the recent attack in Orlando, I think it's important to recognize how much hate (and love) is still directed to members of the LGBTQ community.

Apart from the StoryCorps oral interviews is a history of the Stonewall Riots. Also mentioned is the story of Kitty Genovese. I recognized the name but didn't realize until listening that there is more to her story. Both are brief, but they encouraged me to have a Wikipedia moment. Ultimately I was able to recognize that there's no big difference between their voices and mine. No gulf. Just people.

Even a day later I remember the stories of "the adoptive parent", "the war widow" and the really old lady and her f bombs! Very moving.

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Mind blowing tale

Revisado: 06-02-16

Wow, this book was a fantastic thriller. It is unlike anything I can remember reading. It read almost like a movie with twists and turns, characters you could identify. It was totally unpredictable and that's a good thing.

The narrator took a while to warm up. Her voice is pleasant; most of her female voices are good. But she doesn't differentiate between the male voices. I can remember three distinct voices: one with an accent, another with an accent, and all the other males. In the beginning of the story, there were three men speaking. I couldn't really tell them apart because they all sound the same. Even when she did the six year old boy's voice, she narrated it like a grown male. Eventually I recognized the male characters more by what they said than how they sounded and it became much easier to listen to.

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Confusing character names and drab story

Revisado: 05-29-16

I wanted to like this story but it was difficult. First, the names of the brothers were basically identical as they were two different nicknames for one name: Alexi and Zander. Did the author know this? Who would name their children the equivalent of Will and Billy? My child's name is Alexander, so naturally it took a while took to separate the brothers in my mind. Not a good start.

Second, there was too much drama were there was none really needed. Okay I get that character A was blindsided by action B. It's understandable. But that's when grown ups act like adults, if they "love" each other and move on. Nope, more nonsense happened. I mean, if you're making such a great connection with someone why can't you tell the truth? Or why not share something that no one else knows? That's intimacy right? It's ridiculous the nonsense these characters endured. I actually cared more about the secondary characters, like Tamsin and Jasper, than I did Abbie and Alexi.

As for the performance, both narrators were more than adequate. However, either one could've handled the job alone. Having two narrators did nothing to enhance the story because they each performed male and female parts.

Overall the story and performance could've been much better and left me a little disappointed.

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A Stepford Campfire Tale

Revisado: 05-20-16

Yep, I liked the first two books in the series, but this book was hard to finish. It seemed that the closer I got to the end, the harder it was to read (or listen) because it was really unbelievable.

Basically the main female character, Devon, escapes from a cult-like group and moves to Thunder Point, AKA, “Stepford Beach”. These Stepford citizens rally around this stranger and totally embrace her. Acts of kindness include coming over and cleaning up Devon’s filthy apartment and giving her furniture. She even shares an au pair with the local physician who gives her a job. Do they really know Devon or her background? Nope! But that’s okay. She’s now one of them and everything is terrific! Devon even finds a steady guy and BOOM they are in love.

So in the back of my mind, I kept wondering if it would’ve enjoyed it more had I only read the book and not listened to the audio. Why? Because the characters and situations were a bit unbelievable. Second, the dialog and actions didn’t make sense. Read previous paragraph.

Some of the questions I asked myself were: (1) If the FBI took you away for questioning, in an ongoing investigation, how many times would they let you contact friends and family to let them know what you are about to do, where you’re going…none of which is an attorney? (2) How often would the FBI let you visit, at length, with another buddy that’s also being questioned in the midst of the same ongoing investigation? (3) Would the FBI be concerned that you might discuss certain events and possibly alter your recollections to more closely reflect each other’s? (4) How does Cooper know so much about Rawley when Rawley can barely speak two sentences a day?

Back to the story. Everything is fantastic in Stepford Beach, but it can’t stay "Stepford" forever. Danger ensues, and oddly, the narrator’s voice and cadence suddenly turns uber-dramatic, I thought she might hyperventilate. Her breathing got really heavy and thick. She panted through sentences like, “He was DRIVING right down the RIVER. She shook her head in confusion, standing up to peek over the bridge and YES, HE WAS DRIVING down the river! She continued a bit later, “…she struggled and fought. ‘No, no, let the child be…leave her alone. No’”. My favorite line was “Don’t be afraid, I had a breakdown, that’s all.” Just so you know, it wasn’t a mental breakdown per se, I wouldn’t laugh at that, but in the context of the entire dialog, it was kinda silly. I giggled a lot in this chapter.

This story felt like listening to a bedtime story – albeit with adult subject matter. Most of the story was okay, but the ending was not great. The last unbelievable act was when the friends and neighbors jumped into their vehicle, guns blazing, and drove off to locate a missing person. And where was the FBI? Who knows, I can't even remember, but they weren't there.

Those were just a few examples of why I didn’t really like it. But I will say this: the narrator, Therese Plummer does excellent voices. I like her a lot! I prefer her male voices to her female voices. She's generally fantastic!

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I read it and forgot it

Revisado: 02-02-16

Oh my goodness. I saw this in my library and forgot I read it ... 4 days ago!!! Sadly, I had to read the description to remember. That's not good. I now remember thinking one thing is going to happen and totally change everyone's outcome. That's when I realized I was giving the story more credit than due. The story was dull, kinda mediocre. I hate to say it. The narrator was okay. Overall, if you can't remember a book four days later, then that's really telling.

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