OYENTE

John M

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Shows the impact of the "True-life" story

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-17-25

Before this book, I knew the bare outlines of the Mutiny on the Bounty but no details. Wow - what a rush and an amazing story. This is the epitome of the trope that no one would pitch such a story because it was so unbelievable. This book also shows the key difference between a "typical" adventure story and one based on actual events. In a good fictional adventure story, the main characters tend to have an arc and act consistently within that arc and their personality profile. In fact, there tend to be plenty of complaints when a character acts inconsistently, e.g. "it makes no sense that he/she would have done that in this situation."
Well, in the real world, this kind of thing happens all the time and the Mutiny on the Bounty is full of such examples. So many times the men shy away from doing the right thing, or do the right thing for a while and then inexplicably make "wrong" choices. It is maddening for those of us used to tidy storytelling, but absolutley fascinating as a character study of the human experience. It is truly unbelievable.
FitzSimons prose is gripping and moves the story along. I have subsequently listened to several other books of his and his research and witty turns of phrase are just as good as in this book. Highly recommend.

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Well Researched, Could Have Taken a Stand

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-09-25

Elaine Pagels is clearly brilliant and each section of the book was well written. The narrator was excellent and the book was easy to listen to. I just found the overall thesis just wasn't that compelling. She does talk in detail about the distinct phases of Jesus' life and then what happened after the crucifixion alongside the miracles that were reported in Paul's letters and the Gospels. It was interesting when she discusses how the story of Jesus morphed between the earliest writings (the letters of Paul) to the first Gospel (Mark) and then to the later Gospels. But she just doesn't drive an overall point home. How germain were the reported miracles to the eventual success of Christianity? Why did these miracle stories survive? Can the miracle stories be debunked? Overall the story doesn't seem to go anywhere. If you liked this book, I would strongly suggest reading some of Professor Bart Ehrman's work (or check out his website). He's playing in the same general vicinity, but his prose and conclusions are much punchier.

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Very Entertaining Until Conspiracies Overwhelm It

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-19-25

I enjoyed Volume 1 (Books 1-3) and half of Volume 2 (Book 4 and some of 5) very much, but then it went off the rails. Prior to book 5, it was what I considered "Apocalyptic Light". Yes, the land was lawless, but there was enough infrastructure around somehow to have a never-ending supply of guns, bullets, bombs, etc. All great fun, and the characters were interesting and mostly apolitical. The reason for the collapse of American civilization is never fully explained, but that didn't really matter to the ongoing storyline.
But then in the middle of Book 5 the author decided the real villains were the United Nations (!) and peacekeeping troops. What!?! The "good guys" were elements in the remaining US government who could now go about killing all the perceived enemies of the US without worrying about any sort of due process or procedures. I'm not sure what got into the author, but it went askew very quickly in book 5.

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It was ok - Standard Preston Book

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-07-24

Extinction was a perfectly fine book that follows a very familiar Preston pattern. There is a mystery that our plucky heroes have to solve and the antagonist seems to have almost supernatural powers and they are thwarted at every turn. There is a science-ish plot that is plausible if you don’t think too deeply. Eventually all (or almost all) becomes clear. I find his writing OK but he’s not a fan of leaving anything to interpretation. A solid, if predictable, addition to the prolific Preston library. If you like his other books, then you will almost certainly like this one.

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Good Story & Terrible Narration (but still listen)

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-06-24

Let's start with the positives. This is a very good story in Bernard Cornwell's excellent Saxon Chronicles series. It has Cornwell's usual elements of decent character building, sound historical underpinnings, and amazing battle sequences. Truly, this is the only way a layperson could make any sort of sense of the political and military goings-on in 9th-century England, which is to wrap the narrative in a compelling story. Cornwell delivers again. It is a great continuation of Uhtred's tale.

But the narration! It doesn't just suffer compared to Jonathan Keeble's masterful narration of books 1, 2, and 4. Rather, it is not a stretch to say it is the worst narration I have ever heard on an audiobook (and I have over 600 in my audible library that I've listened to). The narrator's normal speaking voice is pleasant enough (though he sounds too young to be an older Uhtred recounting the exploits of his younger days.) But his accents and characterizations of everyone other than Uhtred are comically awful. It is like he studied the Swedish Chef from the Muppets to try to figure out what Danish warriors should sound like (I am not joking). I had to set the speed to 1.4x just to try to get through the book.

So, the question is whether the book is worth listening to. Without going into spoilers, the story introduces several important characters and Uhtred goes through some formidable challenges. I'm on book 4 now and I would have been pretty lost if I hadn't slogged my way through book 3. There is an abridged version available (which I have not listened to) which might work out or if you have time to read the actual book to keep up with the overall storyline. Or just set your expectations accordingly and enjoy this great story.

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I liked the dual timeline angle

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-03-24

While this is clearly a Gray Man novel, I liked how Greaney mixed up the format a bit with this two timeline approach. It allowed us to see how Gentry joined the Good Squad but we also got to see current Gentry in action. If you are listening this far into the series, sit back and enjoy. You will not be disappointed.

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Fantastic one volume history of the Civil War

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-20-24

This is a classic book that is still current, provocative, and should be required reading. While there is plenty of military history and battle descriptions in it, I would characterize it more of a political and economic history. As others have noted, the first shot of the civil war doesn’t occur until one quarter of the way through the book. But the whole thing was very interesting and worthwhile. Highly recommend

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Another great story and top-notch narration

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-14-24

This was another solid and enjoyable book in the Gray Man series. If you liked the others then this will be very worthwhile. I would like to call special attention to the narrator. Jay Snyder does his usual amazing job. The accents and male/female voice work is outstanding. He and Ray Porter are my current favorites.

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Better than expected

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-31-23

I am enjoying this series immensely but I was a dubious of the plot summary where there was going to be a Gray Man equivalent battling our hero. It seemed I had seen that plot line many times before. Luckily for us Greaney is too good a writer to fall into the basic tropes. It was exciting and had some very nice twists and turns. Highly recommend.

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Essential listening for anyone interested in WWII

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-03-23

It is hard to believe that I didn't actually want this final 36 hour non-fiction book to end, but that was the case. The entire sequence of events in 1944 and 1945 is just amazing. Japan was destined to lose. Everyone knew it. But they couldn't change course. The battle narratives were excellent (and harrowing!) but what I found quite fascinating was the Japanese perspective. They could not bring themselves to end the war and kept deluding themselves that they could somehow overcome the fearsome firepower of the US with just a little more fighting spirit. The rise of the Kamikaze cult was quite something and amazingly effective. Toll's comment that it was like a weapon from the future (a "smart" missile) coming to the battlefield for which we had no defense was spot on.

In the Epilogue he discusses the demobilization effort and the impacts on the homefront (including women's changing social roles and early PTSD of the returning soldiers). It was fascinating and could have been the basis of another book, as far as I'm concerned. Highly recommend. The narration is excellent.

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