William

Gentlemen Beware

Revisado: 08-30-20

I am a twi-hard and a male, so am writing from a male perspective.

This book is Edward's view of the Twilight story. In some ways, it is very well done - in others... Well, not so much. There are a few general concerns and some accolades. The not so good first.

1) It is nearly a 26 hour listen. (Ouch) I did NOT finish listening to the entirety of it. I have ADHD and listened in smaller bites, but gave up. (I eventually skipped to the parts I wanted to hear - Meeting the Cullens, the Baseball game, etc.) I am not sure how this made it off the editor's desk in the incarnation it currently is.. Twilight is a robust (8 minutes shy of) 13 hours of Audio. Given that this has more things related to the Cullen coven, it is reasonable to expect a bit more length - but nearly double? Seriously?
2) The majority of the extra length is owing to Edward being mental in pain, trying to sort out his feelings, and swimming in a whirlpool of emotional imprisonment to Bella. He is attracted to her... (No, wait... OBSESSED with Bella). Even though he considers leaving to "protect her from the monster" he believes himself to be, he so enslaved by the desire to be with her, he simply can't... (So the takeaway, is he is weak and a slave more so than a person who makes a life choice - romantic, or messed up?) Much of this comes across as needy, co-dependant, weak-willed, not confident, and certainly not someone who deserves to have a relationship with the supposed love of his life. Bella is highly intelligent, kind, compassionate, has a great sense of humor... etc... Edward? Meh...
3) His perspective is not male - not even close. This is Stephanie Myers projecting a romanticized version of Edward so that is appealing to the female romantics reading this - She is not simply telling a story, she is zeroing in on her target audience.
4) The writing is somewhat uneven.

Now for the good...

1) The Narrator is wonderful. He does a very good job of reading at a decent pace.
2) The extra information regarding the Cullens' side of things is brilliant. It helps to open up the Saga even more.
(I am sad that Myers has not written a history novella of each one of the Cullens - that would be amazing)
3) When Edward is not drowning in mental conflict, you get to know what it is like inside his head in having to deal with his "special ability". This aspect of things was well done.

Overall, I would recommend this for the average Twilight fan, but keep in mind, it is written as a place to be submerged in Edward's prison of Bella - Romantic in someways, tedious and painful in others.

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Light Entertainment

Revisado: 03-13-19

This book is certainly enjoyable, as long as a person understands that it is not a typical novel.
It follows more of a movie format than it does a novel format.
One concern, is that this book is full of long tired cliches - Were a person interested in actually counting, they would have a rather long list by the end. It is forgivable overall - There are things that are worth going along for the ride.

There is some wonderful character development that happens while the adventure unfolds - It is rather refreshing to be honest.
It is certainly sci-fi and rather well done for the most part.

The writing is even - a consistent balance between description, action - the dialogue.has too many cliches, but overall... not bad.

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I could not finish listening to this book

Revisado: 11-28-18

Not worth almost twenty hours of your life

The author seems obsessed with trying to sell the idea that if you eat according to how she suggests, you will be able to have beautiful babies with straight teeth and they will excel by being leaders and desirable people when they grow up. She seems to be missing the important parts like good parenting and socialization. She also seems to ignore things like neurological disorders and other potential problems that can and do happen during gestation. Eat right and have beautiful children... This is obviously an overstep. It is one thing to say that if your health is optimal, you will give your baby the best potential chance at being healthy, it is a complete other to imply aesthetics through eating based on a current trend in what is attractive. Nature does not care if you are beautiful - Nature cares that you can pass on your genes. Currently symmetry seems be important to us, but that can change.

The author comes across as being self-important more so than confident, so I quit listening. I usually enjoy science-based books, but this seems to have a fair amount of conjecture.

I will not argue that foods/methods for cooking are likely quite sound for good health, but this really does seem like an oversell instead of letting folks make up their own mind.

I am getting my money back on this one.

The book is long and tedious - if you like info dumps woven together with speculation and opinion, then by all means.
No doubt the content is at the very least, worth listening to, the wrapping is not for me thanks.

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Juxtaposition

Revisado: 08-24-18

There were some fantastic facts offered in this book. It is light-hearted in nature and enjoyable overall.

This book seems to swing from hardcore science to extreme speculation that is at best, incredulous.
This book could have been shorter by omitting excessively emotional dialogue. Her style is certainly descriptive and that helps to create a very clear mental visual. There is a fair amount of the mundane day to day kind of stuff, which for me, is really not that interesting.

If you are interested in hardcore science, this is not your book.
If you prefer a fast pace flow of information, this is not your book,
If you dislike airy spiritual speculation, you may be better to pass this one up.
(Not that there is an overabundance, but there is certainly some)

Some things that are crystal clear, is that the author LOVES her animals, and I found she was immediately likable.
She is very knowledgeable and packages the same in mini stories and quips throughout the narration,

It is not a bad book by any stretch, it was just not MY kind of book - I am very much the hardcore science type, and having ADHD, I found that this book required a bit of extra effort. I prefer short bursts of info, rapid-fire - this book does not do that. In fact, I did not actually finish it, but very close.

I doubt I will listen to this book again but am satisfied with the purchase,

The Narrator is pleasant, but sounds like she has a very slight mania towards being happy - You can tell she smiles a lot while reading this book - While this does help to make up for the mundane parts that drag, there comes a point when it begins to become slightly annoying - Not that being happy is horrible of course, it is just that a 9 hour book with Pollyanna is a bit wearing after awhile.

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Moments of brilliance peeking through the fog

Revisado: 10-13-17

Not the best... this book was translated, and it shows. This explains the jagged reading sometimes encountered. However, there are other things of concern that far outstrip the translations.

*Spoiler alert*

There are inconsistencies.

One time, the main character runs into a vampire and she bounces off. At other times, she tackles them, sending them sprawling. Please oh please... any author should be consistent with the physics they try to establish early on in the book.

The author wants us to believe/accept that a young, scrawny, socially inhibited female nerd, who has previously shown zero athletic ability starts training, and in eight weeks, makes HUGE advances in the ability of combat to where she is able to protect herself from vampires... Creatures who could easily dispatch pretty much any human, regardless of how well they are trained... Oh, and it turns out she just happens to be deadly with a gun... though it did take a bit longer for her to master throwing knives... Really?

In one place, vampires move so fast, our main character can't even see it happen, and in another, she not only throws a knife deadly accurate and kills a very old and powerful vampire assassin, but she did so by predicting where that vampire would be as it was moving towards her in a crowded room... ? Sorry, it is a very hard sell.

Along with the physical inconsistencies (and there are many, not just the ones mentioned), there are also the character discrepancies. A five-hundred-year-old vampire, responsible for dealing out death as an enforcer for two very powerful rulers of a large district who MUST maintain a strict code of; "humans must not find out we exist at all costs" does not suddenly decide to hire a human as a secretary because he is tired of writing his own reports... especially when he has already done so for over three hundred years... Sorry, this is simply ridiculous.

In terms of the writing craft found in this book, the nuts and bolts are basically there - and in most cases, very much so. There are very enjoyable passages in this book - very well written parts. Sadly though, it is obvious that the author is female, as this book naturally flows in the direction of a female audience... Sad because as a male, some of this is very hard to relate to.

There is a painful amount of emotional exploration in the internal universe of our main character - as she is female, that may well be appropriate, but as a male reader, it got very tedious. (did I mention, VERY TEDIOUS) It comes across as the character being a whiny teen, more so than a kick-ass heroine. As much as the reader does need to know what the characters emotional states are, there comes a point to where it becomes the author is more so interested in living vicariously through the characters she created, instead of telling a good story.

Frankly, there was too much time spent on what the main character was wearing... I am happy she felt good wearing this or that thing, but really... I am more interested in what she was DOING, more so than what she was wearing and how that made her FEEL.

She is also rebellious and in a more than a few cases, defiant to her vampire boss - another hard sell. He simply has no reasonable motivator to put up with the aggravation.

As far as the length of this book... It would have been 2/3s better by reducing this overly long book by at least 1/5. I stopped listening at one point, simply because of how it meandered on and on. I forced myself to continue simply because I paid for this, and also, I wanted to be sure I was not just simply bored. NOPE - the book is overly long and would be told better with far fewer words. This story is predictable... but it is a good kind of predictable.

In terms of plot resolution... the author breaks a few established rules... and not for the better. it takes forever to catch the bad guy... FOREVER. Far too many near catches/misses as it were.

If you like books geared more so for emotional exploration, then this is a reasonable one - if you prefer a story consistent within an established construct, best to move on from this one.

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Wow - great read

Revisado: 01-24-17

I finished this book in a single day. I usually gravitate more toward the action genre, but have to admit, this is a real gem. The craft (the actual writing) of this book does not disappoint - a great balance between discription

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LONG - LONG - LONG - But Interesting

Revisado: 09-03-16

A great account of history inside the Catholic Church and how they amassed so much wealth - but it is not for the casual listener.

I have studied the history of the Catholic Church, and the beginning part of this book dovetails well - the rest of it, is more recent history.

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Arrrrrrr There Be Treasure Here

Revisado: 09-03-16

What a fun and interesting romp through history.

The author is a considerate guide as we travel down through the hallways of time and visit the various stops along the way. He does a fantastic job of not jumping around too much, but is linear in how he unpacks adventure and mishap on the high seas. So much is covered in this work; I will be listening to this one again at some near future point.

I would recommend this book if you are at all interested in actual history, not the Hollywood gibberish about pirates.

Enjoy

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A stand out from the standard "End Game" novels

Revisado: 01-19-16

Let's start with the obvious: this author has talent. In fact, it is quite likely that M.R. Carey could write a dinner menu for Burger King and hold the reader spellbound.

This book is a welcome change from the standard "end game" zombie apocalypse shtick that seems to litter the fiction shelves of the local bookstores. The writer of this work, clearly cares for the reader in that the story, while requiring a certain amount of the standard suspension of disbelief, does not assume the reader will simply go along for the ride because it is expected. The author earns the readers appreciation as the journey moves forward. (at a comfortable pace it should be noted)

This story will keep the listener contented, it does not disappoint, it IS worth the credit. One does not require a tightrope act to bridge the gap between fiction and reality with this book. The author has a very good working knowledge of of biology, but does not beat the reader over the head with it. Instead, as the story moves along at a comfortable pace, the reader gains insight into how a pathogen could plausibly be the ultimate demise of society as it is now. The concept of this work is based on an existing pathogen thriving in the animal kingdom - It makes the jump to humans - Sound familiar? Perhaps to some degree, but we are in good hands with this writer, and narrator.

The characters of this book to be far removed from the all too familiar cardboard characters found in fiction - I found myself emotionally involved with the story and rather wishing I could meet some of these folks over a cup of Rosy and chat about their experiences. The main character of this book is a little girl, and she wins the reader's best wishes quickly on.

Sit back and enjoy the journey - So well done.

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Chilling

Revisado: 09-16-15

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

The reason is because the author did such an amazing job with this work, that I actually noticed my body tense up after certain sections. It is an amazing book... Scary - but amazing.

Any additional comments?

I have not finished this book yet. Most of it - Yes. I got so wound up in it that needed to take a bit of a rest. I am looking forward to the continuing.

This revue is more so about the mental and emotional impact this topic
(when presented correctly) can have.

Worth the Money - (Shiver)

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