JT

Propaganda not journalism

Revisado: 10-31-24

I was really interested in learning about the 1985 MOVE bombing in history of what led up to that. because it's something that should have never happened and there's an interesting backstory there. but this is not journalism this is flat out propaganda. it starts off promising with appearance that it's going to be somewhat even-handed. but by the second episode and very much into the third it's just blatantly massively one-sided. there are no independent testimonials, there's no one from the mayor's office, no one from the police department, not even a neighbor giving their testimony. It gets absurd talking about the "eloquence" of the move leader when they're not even using English words correctly. Ultimately this was a waste of my time listening to it.

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I feel sorry....for anyone who believes this book

Revisado: 09-16-24

Jacobsen wrote an interesting tale but she ruins the book by trying to create an impossible scenario.

in the book, North Korea somehow does everything right like getting a sub to the West Coast of the US undetected (almost impossible), their ICBMs are pinpoint accurate (they're not) and everything is perfect. The US systems, which are light years ahead of NKs, all fail. I'm surprised that she let a stealth bomber even get off the ground given how inept she makes the US tech to be. Every countermeasure fails and fails badly.

Then it gets more absurd. Things that would NEVER happen like a While House staffer holding up the President chopper for precious minutes while there's an incoming missile are flat out absurd. The SS agent in charge would physically remove the staffer in about 10 seconds as they're trained to do that. During an evac they will use lethal force if someone delays the President even slightly. The same goes for the subsequent parachute scenario - this would NEVER happen. It's not even part of the playbook to jump before the nuke goes off. The Russian tech all breaks as well, lending more absurdity to it all. While the Russian Federation tech isn't as good as the US's, they'd still be able to determine the trajectory of ICBMs headed for some remote part of the country vs heading for Moscow. Shame she rendered a good premise with such outlandish, unbelievable events.

Then she gets to the outlandish EMP scenario. No small or even midsize nuke could take down the entire power grid, never mind the small device she gives the North Koreans. She fails to mention any ASATs (anti-satellite) countermeasures from the US. Frankly, if it was that easy to take down the entire US infrastructure it would have been done decades ago. Nor does it cause the runaway effects she describes in the immediate aftermath. This is where I gave up on the book.

In short, the entire last half of her book is plagued by inaccuracies and scenarios that are so implausible as to defy belief. I think she painted herself into a literary corner and rather than re-work the situation, she just made crap up that could and would not happen.

Her performance isn't great either. It's amateurish. Could be worse but someone should have paid for a professional voice actress or actor. If you're going to try to listen to this - and I don't recommend it - put it on 1.25x speed.

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The Magic Well, The End

Revisado: 09-10-24

This is a review for book three only. I very much liked the first two as the world was interesting, the characters were being developed and it was an interesting spin on vampire tales. But the series has in tenancy to not want to let go of characters and there are already been multiple occasions of characters who should have died somehow miraculously survived. Book 3 is much slower. The characters really aren't being developed. It's more of a vampire romance novel than an interesting suspenseful story. Then I hit the part of the magic well... not trying to spoil it but it's such an absurd and convoluted way to not let go of a relatively minor character that it destroyed my suspension of disbelief. I immediately turned it off because it's just so stupid. it is drama for drama's sake because the story can't carry itself anymore.

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Abridged and Not Noted - Shame on Audible

Revisado: 01-21-24

The book itself is great but you're only getting about 1/2 of the book and SHAME ON AUDIBLE, it's not noted as an abridged title at all. The original book is 494 pages, which should take about 20+ hours to read. This is done in 6 hours. There's so much lost and the transitions are jarring enough that it made me wonder why things didn't flow so well. So I looked it up and found that Audible owes me another half a book! Returned to Audible and this is a pretty major omission on their part.

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Don't Understand the Positive Reviews

Revisado: 10-29-23

I don't understand the positive reviews on this title. The book is a series of short stories - some of them linked, some of them are not. Morpheus the god of Dreams is not an uninteresting titular character. The stories begin strong with Morpheus trapped and the various outcomes and issues that has caused. It's also fairly well acted with some decent voice performances.

But the stories themselves often lack depth and often contradict themselves. For example, our hero has to go to hell at one point and he's all worried about being too weak. There's free buildup to a big confrontation. Instead of an Epic showdown we get a riddle game that pales in comparison to Bilbo's. In the last half of this series of stories the book loses all punch altogether.

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Touching Story with Issues

Revisado: 03-21-23

I'm a disaster weather junkie, so a book like this is right up my alley. Chronicling the April 27, 2011 Alabama super outbreak of tornados, the author takes us into the impacts of the storm with a focus on the human effects. She does a good job of explaining the conditions, the personalities she chose to focus on, the storm development and a very touching part of the book about the devastating effects that the deaths of loved ones had on their families. I'd be tough to read this and not tear up during that section. Overall, I really enjoyed it with a couple of caveats, hence the 4 star rating rather than a 5 star.

(1) You'll read that some people were offended by the narrator's choice to imitate a southern accent at times. Some have gone so far as to call it "offensive". It wasn't - that's how people talk in that area of the country (45 years living in the South). It's a bit jarring because the soft accent that the narrator normally has makes the transition a bit jarring. She probably would have been better off not trying to do it but it's not that bad (and those who are hopping mad about it need to get over themselves). Her tender narration during the emotional after-effects of the storm are really well done and more than makes up for the Southern accent attempt.

(2) The author focused on certain people and places as would any good author. However, she descends into far too much Christian imagery and discussion the further you get in the book. By the last couple of chapters, you'd never know that anything was hit by the tornados beyond a couple of houses and many churches. She mentions numerous churches and interviews pastors and priests but rarely mentions any other buildings even being touched. You''ll never hear about the Piggly Wiggly being wiped off the face of the earth in Harvest or bank employees taking shelter in a vault. But she can take time to talk about this or that church being damaged. As such, the last couple of chapters seemed to dive unnecessarily into religion which was a puzzling choice..

(3) Furthermore, everyone she interviews is Caucasian as well. The exclusions and inclusions become very apparent as the book goes on to the point you start to wonder if there's some sort of agenda to paint the entire zone that was hit as white and Christian. You don't hear about any black churches or communities impacted. I'm not one for forced inclusion but the lack of diversity is again a bit puzzling.

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Apologist and Poor Format

Revisado: 06-08-22

The Only Plane in the Sky is supposed to tell a blow-by-blow narrative of 9/11 from the many points of view of the people who experienced it. It's not terrible but there are two main problems with it.

1. The format doesn't work well on an audiobook. The way it's told is an introduction of the person and then their comment. So it is like " Bob Smith Director of Communications and on that day we heard a large noise and looked out the window. " As such it is very disjointed and jarring to try to listen to.

2. There are perspectives from the Bush Administration personnel. While these are certainly valuable and I am glad they were sought out, too many pseudo political quotes that attempt to defend of the administration make their way into the book. Not only are they largely unnecessary some of them are mistruths solely spoken for political spin. Those don't belong in a narrative history and their inclusion should make the reader wonder why they are there.

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Mixed Bag

Revisado: 06-08-22

I am one who is old enough to remember the Jonestown Massacre. I've always had a little bit of a fascination with it - after all how does one convince a thousand people to take their own lives?

This story is told in a factual in chronological order. so the reader will learn what happened in a thorough manner. I think what is lost here is the drama and the emotion of the event. The story is too clinical and unless you have a great interest in the subject matter it may come off a little stale.

Furthermore while the author seems to have a great deal of sympathy for the residents and draws conclusions that they are blameless victims, in reality there's really little sympathy to be had here. the way the story is told it's very difficult to conjure much sympathy beyond the very innocent children who were victims. Ss such any emotional impact falls flat.

As for the reader she is okay but again there's a lack of energy in the telling of the story.

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Good narrator, OK story

Revisado: 10-05-20

I am a bit of a weather buff so I like Tales of weather disasters. This one describes 2013 tornado that devastated the town of Moore Oklahoma. With any event like this, due to the relatively brief time a tornado is on the ground, there is going to be a lot of "background" information. This story goes into great detail about the local weather personalities and their histories, as well as some details about the people involved. It is not done in a poor manner but stories like fall and Rise dealing with 9/11 did this kind of exposition in a more entertaining fashion. For example we get a lot of detail about weathermen when it wasn't all that pertinent. Instead it would have been better if we had received more history in details about prior storms including the mid-90s tornado that hit Moore that I believe reach 300 miles per hour.

Some later chapters are done very well including the agonizing wait for the parents of the deceased children in the elementary school. One thing that drives me nuts about books like this and especially this one is the author keeps referring to the tornado as some sort of living entity. It is described as a monster or a beast countless times as well as breathy descriptions about how it aimed for certain locations. It was weather and it does not need to be described as some sort of living Terror.

I did like the narrator's presentation and thought they did a very good job. As far as disaster books go this one is pretty good.

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Book of the Year, Both Awesome and Terrible

Revisado: 11-10-19

Columbine was an event that I knew of but remained on my periphery. It occurred long after I graduated HS but before I had children. It occurred across the country and, like most people, I chalked it up to a couple of neo-Nazi wannabes who weren't raised right. But after Sandy Hook, VT, Parkland (much closer to home) and countless others this raised my awareness. So I purchased this Audible book fairly blind.

This book is a captivating and gut wrenching account on what happened during that dreadful day. The back story of the assailants, the confusion and horror of the event, the sympathetic portrayal of the parents and the anger of those who sought to profit (politically or socially) of this event all come through in this book. Dave Cullen has created a meticulously researched and thorough account of this terrible event. He dispels common myths, like that the parents had to be horrible people, or that Harris & Klebold were hunting jocks or that the girl who said yes wasn't attributed to the correct victim. Cullen's account is horrifying in that it could have been so much worse and hopeful in how people can recover. But he never preaches, rarely speculates and only judges when there's a mountain of evidence to support it.

It's a brilliantly written book, one that will likely make you cry and want to continue to read. Easily my book of the year.

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