LV-426

Interesting

Revisado: 05-31-23

I used my credit on this book without reading any reviews of it beforehand, and I’m glad I did. To all of the armchair critics: did you even listen to the book? The author states at least half a dozen times that she places no blame on anyone but Watts himself, and even Watts says it was his fault alone. As for the Bible verses, I admit I could have done with a bit less of them, but they came from Watts in his letters to the author and not because the author is trying to force religion upon the reader. You bought this book because you wanted to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, and that’s what came out of it. No, there really was no new information provided about the case but I did find it interesting to hear it told from CW’s perspective. I’m still not sure we have heard the full story and we probably never will…but I think we have gotten an account that is as close to the truth as we will ever get. It’s up to the reader to decide for themselves if they believe it or not. I thought the author did a good job in writing about a terrible and extremely sad subject. It kept my attention to the end and the narrator was not as bad as others are saying in their reviews. I say take a chance on this book and make up your own mind.

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Interesting but long-winded

Revisado: 03-21-22

I found the subject of this book fascinating and the narrator was excellent. In the beginning of the book the author presents a “cast” of the characters that was so long it was meaningless. I wish the author had instead just refreshed the reader’s memory of each person and what their individual role was in the Chernobyl disaster as they appeared in the timeline and unfolding of the story. I found it very confusing at times because of the Russian names with little context as to what their relevance was. The information was plentiful and well-researched, and I learned a lot about this tragic event. Overall I recommend this book.

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Four hours I’ll never get back.

Revisado: 08-19-21

I only made it through 4 hours of this storyless monotone droning…I kept wondering, when does the story start? Maybe something interesting actually happens later on, but I can take no more. This one is definitely going back for a credit refund. Books that go over the top on unnecessary details and endless back-stories drive me crazy in general, but this one takes all of that to a whole new level. The first four hours I listened to were so dry and uninteresting I would frequently realize that I hadn’t absorbed a single word of it. The characters are so bland that I couldn’t care less what happens to them. If you have trouble falling asleep at night then this book may be your cure; otherwise I’d skip it.

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Formulaic but not bad

Revisado: 07-26-21

This story follows the typical couple-buys-an-old-house-and-discovers-it’s-haunted formula, with a prescribed and unsurprising ending. That said, it wasn’t terrible, just predictable. The main protagonist female is so annoyingly clueless about her bad marriage that I wanted to scream several times through out the story. The narrator made a decent effort to give life to a so-so story. If you like haunted house stories that have one or two original moments in it, you’ll like this book. Just don’t expect to be blown away by its non-twisty plot.

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Quickly Freefalls Into Stupidity

Revisado: 06-06-21

Started out great...an astronaut can’t get any response from the quickly approaching Earth, with just enough hard science sprinkled in to keep it realistic. Then, before you know it, you’ve spiraled into a cheap B-rated horror flick complete with (SPOILER ALERT!) zombies, of all things. Really?!?! Zombies? That was the cleverest apocalyptic ending to humanity this author could come up with? Dude, the whole Zombie thing has been done to death, and frankly there’s nothing remotely original or interesting about them in this book, either. Save your credit!!

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Best Alien Book Yet

Revisado: 05-11-21

Out of all of the Alien books I have read or listened to, this one was the most interesting and deliciously scary. A lot of the other books in the series get too caught up in military and/or corporate drama along with an excess of boring, non-relative characters cluttering up the plot. This one keeps it relatively simple and the plot unfolds in a clear, timely manner. No stupid memory flashbacks, no pages and pages of unnecessary back-story. Just good, clean suspenseful horror that only the Xenomorphs can produce. One caveat: the ending is a total cliffhanger that left me pretty exasperated. Why not just give the reader a little closure? Instead I am left wondering: well did he or didn’t he?
Despite this it’s a great book, worth the credit.

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Just OK

Revisado: 04-12-21

This story has promise, and initially appealed to me because it involves space travel, a new and uncharted planet. and the essential hostile, indigenous creatures of said new planet. I thought the narrator did a great job of portraying the various characters. The only problem is that the story becomes a little repetitive with the same man vs beast scenes playing over and over with little variation on events. It pretty much goes like this: Evil beasts sneak up on men, men fight hard with little hope of victory, a couple of characters die. Sadness, anger, then a new plan and everyone moves on. Repeat about a dozen times until the end of the book. If you like this kind of mindless action then you’ll probably enjoy this book. Overall it did keep my attention to the end, but just barely.

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Wish I hadn’t

Revisado: 03-06-21

This is the type of book that I normally love: hard science, space exploration, alien beings.. Unfortunately the narrator totally ruined it for me. His tone is more fitting for reading comedies or feel-good stories, not what is supposed to be nail-biting, suspenseful science fiction. I could barely get a sense of when something dire or life-threatening was happening because the narrator just kept on in his “this is all good, everything is great” voice. Ugh!!!!!! The author also devoted way too many chapters to the development of the equipment that wasn’t used until the last 1/4 of the book. I felt disappointed that the description of the final destination, Enceladus, was severely lacking in comparison. I would not recommend this book.

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Kept my attention!

Revisado: 09-30-20

Maybe I'm getting old or maybe it's yet another side effect of the ongoing pandemic and living life in a bubble, but lately every audiobook I've purchased has lost my interest within the first two or three chapters and I end up exchanging it in an endless quest for something to grab my attention and distract from the real-life psychological thriller we are all living out these days.

I wasn't going to buy this one after reading a number of reviews that complained about the narrator's butcher job of the female characters' voices. Nothing ruins a good audiobook for me more than a bad narration. I was intrigued by the storyline, however, and after listening to the sample reading I decided I could stomach the reader's voice. I spent the credit and hoped for the best.

I'm not going to say that this is THE best book I have ever read, but I really was happy with it overall and didn't feel bored after 15 minutes of listening, as has been the case of late with other books. Although it's a pretty horrible and macabre idea that the two main characters are secretly murdering women in their community, the way it's told firsthand by the husband is compelling in that he is conflicted by the delicious thrill he gets from the heinous acts he and his wife carry out, alongside with trying to keep life as normal appearing as possible for the sake of his children and his community standing. I greatly appreciated that the actual acts of murder were quite vague in description and didn't go into any horrific details. (When I crave gory stuff I just watch the news for 10 minutes and I'm good.)

As to the narrator, there must be a loose wire in my brain, because I thought his performance was outstanding. I actually got a kick out of his female characters' voices and found myself smiling whenever he spoke the parts of the two teenagers, one a boy and the other a girl. He really nailed the smart-ass, whiny adolescent dialect that is so prevalent today. In my opinion this narrator's performance is the reason you will enjoy the book, as he does an excellent job of breathing life into the characters and using just the right tones and inflections to render what is an odd but interesting story.

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Excellent!!!!!!!

Revisado: 08-13-20

Initially I hesitated to spend a credit on this audiobook, largely due to other reviewers complaining that the narrator, Thomas Harris himself, ruined the experience with his flat southern drawl. I read this book years ago and recently decided I wanted to revisit the story, so I went ahead and kissed my credit goodbye, expecting to feel some buyer's remorse. I admit, the first chapter took some getting used to, as I already had a preconceived idea of how the tone and characters should sound. To my surprise, Thomas Harris did an excellent job at reading this story that is as beautiful as it is chilling. His German, Lithuanian, and French accents necessary for most of the characters were very convincing and breathed life into the dialogues. By the end of the book I did not notice at all when he spoke in his native southern accent. I found his voice to be very pleasant to listen to, and I'm so glad I didn't let other reviewers rob me of this experience.

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