Kindle Customer

A feeling of fingernails down a very nice chalkboard

Revisado: 01-25-24

A good premise for a tale involving one of my lifetime favorite books.
Things went downhill from there.
Why on earth did the author make Megs a student of mathematics (and occasionally, physics)? This led to some bizarre phrases and pointless gaffes. Einstein and Newton contradict each other, apparently - I am grateful that Ms Callahan only namechecked Prof Hawking and went no further.
I skipped a lot of the second half when I realized I was listening to a YA romance. Not really what I signed up for. I regret that I must disagree with Douglas Gresham's assessment of Ms Callahan's writing ability, but it would be a dull world if there were no differences of opinion.
I struggled badly with the narrator also. I cordially dislike the high pitched little girl voices that seem to be popular now, but I was willing to brazen it out. When I discovered that the composer who wrote the Ring Cycle was a Mr Waggner my teeth started to ache. And when I further heard that Oxford's most famous library was the Bodillian, I pretty much gave up.
I have always believed that one should give real respect to those who mispronounce words since it usually means that they learned the word by reading it rather than hearing it. However, for me that certainly does not apply to professional voice actors.
I really wanted to like this book, but it was like wanting to enjoy a waltz when your partner keeps randomly standing your foot.

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An unexpected gem

Revisado: 02-04-23

Excellent. It can be hard to find well-written and engaging police novels and I was delighted with this lucky find.
Thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the set up and the no nonsense writing, plus truly brilliant narrator.
The following four in the series are also free in the Audible Plus catalog so I'm off to start book 2!

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Just a little disappointed

Revisado: 09-11-22

I read this straight after finishing The Hands Of The Emperor by Victoria Goddard. Perhaps if I'd read this first I would have enjoyed it more, but for me it suffered from the comparison.
Actually I listened to it and that was unhelpful. The names of people and places were inevitably strings of gibberish so I had little idea who anyone was or if perhaps 'they' were actually a city or a building or a job title. A visual reading would probably have made that easier.
I found the plot rather thin. Everything interesting happens in the past (an airship crashes) or in the future (the Emperor has an arranged marriage) or offstage (the Emperor tasks an interesting character to unravel the mystery of the crash ... character vanishes from the text and returns several chapters later with the complete answer).
The Emperor is a Nice Guy. Oops sorry - in this book that is pretty much a plot spoiler.
If you like the idea of Goblin Emperor, do look for Victoria Goddard's book. For me, she wrote the book that this nice attempt wanted to be.

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Just wonderful

Revisado: 07-01-21

Great story, well structured and brilliantly performed.
I always wanted to go to the stars.
Thanks, Andy Weir. I still do, and you helped me remember why.

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Great historical atmosphere

Revisado: 04-30-19

Fascinating view of the late part of Henry VIII's reign and the sad tale of a pretty teenager who had the misfortune to catch the King's fancy.
The reader let it down by not having read the text before she recorded it, and her ad hoc phrasing often made nonsense of perfectly good writing. Her pronunciation of 'arriviste' and 'precis' as 'arreevist' and pressis also made me feel I was occasionally chewing silver foil. Why exactly does one hire a reader who can't recognise or pronounce French to read about 16th century European Court life?

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Shallow and self conscious

Revisado: 07-29-18

Patroclus as a dim, passive, shallow slugabed. Homoerotic soft porn that doesn't have the courage of its convictions. No character development whatsoever.
If this won a prize, what on earth came second?
Homer's story remains brilliant and complex. The rest of this is dreadful.

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Enid Blyton meets Agatha Christie

Revisado: 04-26-15

What disappointed you about Case Histories?

Two-dimensional characters that put me in mind of the Famous Five when they were all grown up. Twee.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Something that doesn't feel like an English Public School creative writing project. And something where at least a few characters are interested in something other than sex.

What does Susan Jameson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She caught the accents of the Famous Five types beautifully.

Any additional comments?

I'm sure lots of people enjoy this kind of style, but it really didn't work for me. I need a fighting chance of at least respecting one of the characters, and I really do need them to come across as real people.

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