MaMcBeth

WTF? Right there with you.

Revisado: 03-19-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Full disclosure: This is not the kind of book I would ever have picked up on my own, but I know the author, got a free copy, and had followed his journey in writing this, so I really wanted to hear the final product.

First off, the narrator does a tremendous job bringing Turner and his inner voices to life. Aside from accents, the women all blend together, but in some ways that is appropriate for this memoir. There were plenty of times the narrator gave a WTF, and I was right there with him.

I applaud the openness of this book. Not many people could put themselves out there like Turner does, emotionally, and physically. I feel for the author, and some of the women, especially knowing how it all ends. I appreciate that he is honest about his desires, and doesn't try to sugar-coat his impressions of women. He is brutally honest, as are some of the women.
There are some points where I wish I could have been there to interpret the woman-speak side of things for him, but in the end, it doesn't matter. It is a unique male perspective on the dating world that is hard to find.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Spectacular performance of a cheeky space fantasy!

Revisado: 02-10-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Normally a book that opens with a smart-ass protagonist getting the crap kicked out of him wouldn't be my cup of tea. But then a dwarf was thrown into the mix and I reluctantly thought: Okay, I need to see where this goes.

Where it goes is a spectacularly built world involving a space station and first contact with a species of sentient bears. Yes, you read that right; a dwarf, and sentient bears. But wait, there's more!

Like the space station the novel centers on, full of disparate alien species, the book itself has a smattering of wildly different literary ideas: clever, futuristic tech; engaging personalities; space super heroes; bad-ass women (and bear women); ancient cultures; a love story; checkered pasts; misunderstood scientists. Seriously, it's all in there, and it's seamless, not so forced you get whiplash.

I only have two minor complaints. A lot of the dialog takes place over meals-not in itself bad, but having the food described as thoroughly and often as it does gets distracting. Every time he ate breakfast I found myself wanting farm-fresh eggs. There is also an overabundance of pop-culture references that seem out of place for something so futuristic (though the one dwarf/Thor reference was superbly dropped). But who knows, maybe comic books will survive the centuries!

The audiobook narrator is superb; one of the best I've heard. He brings the character emotions (or flatness for the AIs) to life with a wide range of accents and voices. Slow and heartbreaking when appropriate, and energized and gripping for the action sequences.

An excellent, highly recommended listen or read.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great box set with a smashing narrator!

Revisado: 09-29-23

First off, I loved this narrator. She has an amazing range of characterizations, and not a bad singing voice either! There were a few minor production issues, but nothing to detract from the overall enjoyment of the audiobook. Shame the production company didn't pick up on these and fix them before release.

The first book kept me intrigued, but at the end of the day, I got a little tired of everything just coming down to a fight. Granted, some of the fighting utilized special weapon techniques, and the related twist at the end was a nice one. I should have seen it coming, but I did not. The timeline of what was happening with the legendary warriors was a little confusing, but I enjoyed the main character nonetheless. It was a great introduction to this world. I loved how a minor character in each book tied into the next in the series, which worked great for me because the Art of War was by far my favorite character in the first book.

As the main character in the second book, I loved her. Instead of constant fighting, wit and strategy win the day. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of fighting for the people who are into that, but things don't all just devolve into a fight. The main character is flawed and desperate and so much fun to follow. This is by far my favorite of the trilogy.

The third book follows two new characters, but another minor character from book two joins in for some fun in this rag-tag bunch of found family warriors. This was a nice mix of clever use of fighting and extra powers. The backstories that gradually trickle out add nicely to the motivations of the main characters. I wish Guang used his power more often, but then things might have been too easy. Cabbage!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Surprisingly engrossing listen.

Revisado: 02-18-23

When I started reading this book I thought: Oh great, another story with a supposedly practical, frugal girl dating a rich, over-protective loser. But I stuck with it, and somewhere along the way the author shattered those illusions and I found myself addicted.

I think the big difference that made the book work for me is that the relationship between the protagonist (Zoe) and her fiancé (Cole) is organic and fun. There is this unspoken tension between the lifestyle he grew up in, and the lifestyle she occasionally forces him to experience. But he doesn't talk it down, and she accepts that this is part of her life now. Together, alone, they are just two regular people, flirting, teasing, and loving each other.

By the end of the first chapter Zoe is kidnapped, and although it may not be stylish or trendy to have a down-to-Earth response in that situation, it works. She's scared, she takes calculated risks, she tries to get out of the situation. But it's not like she grabs the gun when she has the chance. I honestly thought the whole book would be about the kidnapping, so I was surprised when that resolved early on. In fact, that probably could have resolved earlier, but I understand why she needed the time in custody.

I would have liked a little more science, for a book that labels itself sci-fi, and one of the reveals wasn't much of a reveal because you're kind of hit over the head with it again and again before the reveal is actually made. I know mysteries are supposed to give you hints so you feel smart when you guess right, but I have to reveal that this was a bit much.

The book basically does not end, and at the time of my reading, there was a sequel, but not an audiobook sequel, cause I was ready to hit that immediately to see how things resolved. So, if you're not ready to dedicate yourself to the sequel, be prepared for disappointment. But given what a quick and engrossing read the first one was, I have high hopes.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I'm so in love with Bek.

Revisado: 01-27-23

The concept of this universe-the ability to weaponize emotions-leads to some interesting characterization. One society takes advantage of this power, another sedates their citizenry to eliminate all emotion. For its not just an Empyrean's emotions that can be used, but those around them. At the surface, this is a really cool mechanism, and lends itself to some interesting introspection on the value of emotion itself. There are some lovely explorations of the value or harm in releasing or suppressing emotions. How those choices or lack of choices reflect on the characters and their development over the course of the book got me rooting for the team before long.

I absolutely love the character of Bek. He exhibits this internal contradiction of being the least human of the three main characters, but the one with the most humanity. And the accent the narrator gives him is brilliant. The relationship between him and Palia felt more believable than the relationship between Ferrash and Palia, but without giving too much away, what happens to them all in the end really mustered my...emotions.

The book ends on a major cliffhanger, which makes it basically unreadable as a standalone. You've been warned. Though there were some slow parts, I'm into it enough to check out the 2nd installment, which hasn't been written yet. Mostly, I just want to listen to the narrator's voicing of Bek and his exploits some more. He can fly my spaceship anytime.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

No Wool, but not bad

Revisado: 07-24-20

If I remember correctly, this is Hugh Howey's first book, and it shows. The writing lacks the finesse and style of his later work, yet he still somehow manages to hook me with a compelling story. It reads like a young adult novel, but is not saturated with unrequited teen love angst. Molly is mature, yet naive about the real world, as you would expect a former Naval Academy student to be. He drops in just enough reminders that she's just a teenager without making her seem like a typical teenager. By the end, I was hooked and I have already added the second book to my library.

The narrator leaves much to be desired. As others have mentioned, her voice is breathy and there are awkward pauses and pacing. Her intonation in places makes you question the characters motives. She doesn't create enough of a difference in voices, so it's hard in certain parts to know who is speaking. She pronounces "chaff" incorrectly, which drove me up a wall. I'd forgive one or two occurrences, but the use of chaff and the aftermath comes up throughout the book, and in a battle scene it was distracting enough to ruin the tension for me. Most people probably won't even notice, but it bugged me. I hope the new narrator in the next book is better.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Backwards exposition

Revisado: 06-20-20

First off, loved the narration. The variation in accents and ages and types was very well done.

The story itself has a few short comings, but I'll start with what I liked. The structure of time travel itself, in the glider, was well thought out and made perfect sense (as much as time travel could). The early experiments, his descriptions of the thought processes and progression of creating a glider were very well done. It felt exactly like the sort of process an engineer would go through. I can't say too much more without spoilers, but the first major time trip-fabulous! Could not stop reading at the point if I had to.

Just a couple of bad things. There's a fair amount of lecturing in the beginning on the dangers of time travel that anyone familiar with the genre knows very well by now, and almost had me give up on the book. The explanation of what happens with timelines when someone does go back and forth was not quite well thought out enough. In itself, it's an interesting and unique take on different timelines, but there are too many occasions where he breaks his own rules. So if you're a stickler for that sort of thing, you might be bothered. Otherwise, it's a pretty cool idea. Overall, well worth a read!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Underwhelming

Revisado: 12-05-19

I liked the idea of this book and really wanted to enjoy it more than I did. Some of the backstory was a bit tedious and mostly unnecessary. Perhaps it was the narration, but the final conflict resolution was very anti-climactic. There was very little build up, and unfortunately the solution basically came down to someone doing something stupid that worked out in their favor. Oh, it's over? Yep, that was it. I also had trouble empathizing with most of these characters. I can sort of appreciate that the monsters are all too perfect and the humans are flawed in comparison (but stumble their way into being useful) from a humor standpoint, but it makes for a dull read. There's no sense of real danger at any point when you can fall back on your perfect friends for support. Oh, and yes, isn't it funny that all your friends are monsters.

As others mentioned the lack of breaks in scene changes threw me the first few times. I won't blame the narrator for this so much as Hachette Audio producers. Seriously folks, this is not that hard a concept to implement. It was a bit difficult to follow who was speaking at any given time, other than the female lead. The narrator barely seemed to make an effort to give characters different pitches or accents or really any identifying qualities. I did however like her general tone throughout the book.

Overall, I have no desire to finish this series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Narrator saved it

Revisado: 09-06-19

I've heard other people complain about John Scalzi's use of dialog tags, and it is definitely noticeable in this book. It is a shame, because William Dufris is actually a great narrator. He creates such distinct voices that you could probably remove half of the dialog tags and still perfectly follow who's speaking. Dufris does a good job of dropping them, but it still gets annoying. He has great inflection and emotion and characterizations.

I loved the idea of this book. Scalzi makes great use of humor from typical human foibles to create entirely relatable characters. You can see yourself reacting to certain situations the same way his characters do in their own, flawed ways. The different alien races are interesting and he creates some interesting tech.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Disappointing

Revisado: 09-06-19

I think the best part of this book was the intro by Stan Lee. I really did not care for the narrator. Her voice was rather monotone and a bit breathy and halting. Someone else suggested listening to the book at 1.5x speed and I wish I had seen that before I spent nearly 12 hours listening to this. The pacing made it sound like every sentence was the most...important...sentence... in the book. So when events did start to approach a climax, there was no build. Cameron sounded drunk all the time. The production was also not so great. Music started each chapter, and just sort of faded away for no reason. A few other chapters also had random bits of music that just distracted from the story telling. There was no consistency to it.

As for the story itself- it's okay. Cameron's power is cool, and the stunts he and Nia pull are fine. Juaquo almost seems like an after thought. He's in very little of the book, so I'm not sure why he's featured on the cover as a main character. Perhaps he'll be more important in the sequels, but it was a poor job of character development if that's the case. The villain is pretty interesting as a species. Other than that, a lot of the book is predictable and there is far too much description in some of the scenes. Perhaps with a different narrator it wouldn't have bothered me as much, but I just kept thinking "get to the point."

If you've got a free credit, I still wouldn't waste it on this. Get the ebook instead, when it's on sale.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas