Michael D

Just read this a second time

Revisado: 04-06-23

First off Mel Hudson is an amazing narrator - one of the best I have listened to. I'm thankful that she narrates all of the books in the series. It was a while since I read this and recently picked up Book 3 (Children of Memory) and realized how much of this I had forgotten. I decided to re-read (something I really am not a fan of) to get up to speed again and found myself as enthralled as the first time I read it. Very original and out-of-the-box concepts with regard to subject matter. There are two separate story lines that are destined to meet at the end, The contrast in the passing of time between the two makes for another great wrinkle in the story. I'm about to read the second book again so that I'm ready for the third one. Not often that I would spend close to 30 hours of reading time to prepare for the final(?) book in the series, but these are some of the few books that seems to read well a second time.

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Not the first Iain M Banks book you should read

Revisado: 07-06-22

I remember starting to read this before I knew who Iain Banks was, It took a while to get going and at some point I stopped listening and moved on to other books and authors. Better to start with Book 1 of the Culture Series (Consider Phlebas) and work your way through the series from there. If you make it through those then you will have a better mindset to appreciate this one.

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Brilliant!

Revisado: 04-29-21

If you are a true science fiction fan you need to read this. Hard sci-fi in an approachable, intuitive way that is entertaining and amazing. To not read it is to have a gaping hole in your library.

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Too much hard work due to narration

Revisado: 09-12-20

This is a much less ambitious novel than Tchaikovsky's Children of Time books, but might still have been an entertaining listen had it not been so hard to follow the narration at times. The narrator is very talented (hence the three stars) and I'm sure she's very proud of her ability to produce authentic accents but this serves no purpose if so much of the dialog is so heavily accented that the listener has to work hard to understand, sometimes having to make the choice between a rewind in an attempt to comprehend what was said or just moving on. If I'd realized it would take this much concentration to understand what was said I would have given it a pass.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

This should not be three books

Revisado: 06-26-20

These are three parts of the same book, and there is not enough in each of them to justify making you buy the three instead of one. You could probably shave off a good couple of hours just on the recaps from the prior books necessary for those who have read them when they first came out and then waited until the next one and therefore needing a refresher. This smacks of a cynical attempt by the author to maximize revenue as opposed to what is good for the overall story, hence the two overall stars.

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Tedious

Revisado: 10-11-19

I enjoyed Ancillary Justice and was looking forward to this second book in the series. There is a clear and pervasive thread in Justice regarding the inequities between the ruling and the “lower” classes which fit both the storyline and the overall setting up of the environment for future books. Unfortunately the author obsesses over this class injustice in this book to the point where the storyline pretty much grinds to a halt as the entire book focuses on various versions of this heroic subservient-class group/person of inevitably high moral character being treated badly by that ruling-class group/person of inevitably of low moral character. This is not helped by the narrator’s insistence of using shrill, scratchy, almost cartoonish voices for any of the “bad/upper-class” people which was bearable in the Justice but just plain irritating in Sword. Eight hours in I realized that there was not much hope of things getting any better and gave up.

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Classic Steinbeck

Revisado: 05-01-19

Can’t think of an author who writes with such a degree of humanity and insight as Steinbeck, and this book is no exception. This story of the protagonist’s struggle with moral relativism and the cost to his soul is beautifully written and the narrator is extremely well-chosen for the part. Criticism about the production from the perspective of zero time space between chapters is valid but is minor and takes nothing away from the experience of this book.

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Not as good as I hoped

Revisado: 09-22-17

Any additional comments?

There’s no question that the premise around which the book is based is original and really smart. Unfortunately for me as the story progressed it became more and more formulaic in the manner similar to movies like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow (thought the plot totally different). Maybe fun for a few hours in a movie theatre but in a 20+-hour book not so much for me. As the end approached I found myself caring less and less about how things would turn out to the extent that I almost stopped listening to the final two chapters.

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One of the best Sci Fi books I have read

Revisado: 02-19-16

Any additional comments?

The title does not do justice to the scope of the book (though not sure that it could have been named anything else). Wonderful, complex story, well written and well narrated. You will not regret this listen.

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Slooooow

Revisado: 11-19-15

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I loved Lonesome Dove and intend to read the initial books in the series with the strong hope that they move faster than this one.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

There's a good story in there but the continued digressions into the background and psyche of everyone with any relevance meant that the flow of the story could never really get off the ground. This would be one of those best read in book form so that you could skim over these parts.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

People have complained that the narrator was one of the reasons the book moved along so slowly, but I think he read at a rate appropriate for the story. The story was slow -- not the narrator.

Was Streets of Laredo worth the listening time?

No.

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