Stainless

Listen to understand

Revisado: 03-31-25

You'll understand what's going on in the USA of 2025 a lot better after listening to this. It's interesting to hear some of the inside machinations of bureaucrats opposed to Trump during his first term. This tells a side of the story you won't hear from the usual media outlets. After listening to this you can understand how the entrenched DC bureaucracy secretly undermined the President. For instance, the current emphasis on catching "leakers" in the government makes sense when you hear how un-attributable leaks were used to smear individuals. What I appreciate most is Mr. Patel's presentation of legitimate solutions that would help fix the problems he details. As an example, each bureaucratic organization had their own security classification system allowing one entity to classify incriminating information regarding their own activities, placing that information beyond outside oversight. Mr Patel's solution -- a unified security classification system. As another of many examples, the FISA courts used self-referential "proof" to wiretap American citizens (you need to read / listen to understand how they worked this). Mr Patel presents a solution -- have an attorney assigned to advocate on behalf of the citizen who will be the target of governmental spying -- unbelievable as it is that this doesn't happen currently! Even if you hate Trump you need to listen to at least get a different, insider perspective.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I just could not get into this book

Revisado: 09-06-24

For those of you who are familiar with Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International series, this seems like a less polished knock-off. There are way too many similarities to make what I read interesting or surprising and given that MHI was published in 2007 and this was published in 2016 we know who's copied who. I just couldn't get into the book or the characters.

Now I know that you have to suspend disbelief with urban fantasy, but this book has so many coincidences that I just think, yeah, right... And then there is the attempt to make the setting both somehow hidden and secretive and yet over the top and super-powered. Let me give an example that's right at the start of the book.
MINOR SPOILER: As in MHI, the existence of the supernatural is kept hidden from most of humanity. One of the historical events that has shaped this version of the world is related early in the book. It's a demonic incursion in the western USA. Several brigade combat teams' worth of US troops are sent to fight the demons and in the end nearly 30K troops are killed. Now we're supposed to believe that over 30,000 troops died with more wounded and psychologically wrecked, and no one in the US knew anything about it? I'd guess the families of alot of those 30K troops would be contacting their Senators to get some answers. For the sake of fiction you can make me suspend disbelief about the presence of monsters, but not about the reality of human nature.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Exciting book, fantastic production

Revisado: 09-06-24

I enjoyed the story and character development of this book. For individuals with a genuine military background the dialogue is very realistic. You really get attached to the protagonists and are rooting for them throughout. What sets this apart, though, is the audio production. The quality of this is just amazing! The sounds effects and voice acting are top-notch. The producer's done a good job of picking people with very distinct voices as I find that oftentimes it's difficult to distinguish individuals in some audio productions. I'm hooked on Mark Greaney though I think this is his only book with an Audible Original production.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Fun and fast moving with a great Narrator

Revisado: 04-13-24

First, this 3 book collection is a great value. It's funny, fast moving and adventurous with enough twists and cliffhangers to keep you listening. If you liked the TV series Psych this is the vibe I got from the first 3 space team books. Phil Thron absolutely knocks this out of the park with fantastic narration, I'm amazed at the range of voices he's able to pull off. Highly recommend it!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

A Hidden Gem!

Revisado: 01-19-24

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Grog is brute (read half-orc) pit fighter who has been raised as a slave to fight in the arena, until purchased by a cleric to serve in her party on a noble quest. But wait -- if you think you know what this book is about from that description, you'd be so wrong! Grog is proud of serving in his Barracks of the Ebon Blade; and when freedom comes he's not so sure he likes it. While Grog proclaims himself to be "stupid", his simple observations are filled with wisdom and nuance. The book is fun but there's a lot of character development. The descriptions of the fight scenes are amazing, and the pacing of the book is fantastic. I do think that the narration is a little slow and I had to list at 1.2 speed to make it tolerable, but I honestly can't imagine Grog's voice any way other than how AT Chandler portrayed him. I hope that the next audiobook in the series will be out soon!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of my all-time favorites!

Revisado: 06-17-23

I'm writing this review on the first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I've listened to the 5th book which is the most recent one available and can't wait for #6 to come out. This is one of my favorite series of all times. The writing and the characters are so incredible that you really are rooting for them to survive and "win" this alien-created dungeon on what was once Earth. There's a lot of humorous situations especially in the early books when you see the RPG tropes introduced but there's so much more going on here; there's layers of plot that is still being woven in book five. What puts this over the top as one of the best audios I've ever heard is the Soundbooth performance with sound and multiple voice actors. Overall just a stellar audiobook!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of my all-time favorites!

Revisado: 06-17-23

I'm writing this review on the first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I've listened to the 5th book which is the most recent one available and can't wait for #6 to come out. This is one of my favorite series of all times. The writing and the characters are so incredible that you really are rooting for them to survive and "win" this alien-created dungeon on what was once Earth. There's a lot of humorous situations especially in the early books when you see the RPG tropes introduced but there's so much more going on here; there's layers of plot that is still being woven in book five. What puts this over the top as one of the best audios I've ever heard is the Soundbooth performance with sound and multiple voice actors. Overall just a stellar audiobook!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Karen in Space

Revisado: 06-17-23

The premise was promising; a space academy wash-out being sent on a black-ops interstellar mission with a misfit crew. The various crew members are interesting though a bit caricatured (i.e. the obligatory "red shirted crewmember" gag). The narration was OK but I felt like it was a little strained doing the different voices. The main issue that ended up really annoying me was that this is a very two-dimensional "woke" fest where the main character really got on my nerves as a preachy "Karen". There's a place for addressing issues of intolerance and prejudice, but this was out of control and a little off-putting in what's supposed to be a humorous sci-fi adventure. Let me give you some "for-instances": the main galactic bad guys are a race of mean little squirrel-aliens who are... Nazis. Yep, those Nazis are everywhere! The other group of bad guys? Intergalactic white supremacists! I kid you not. The main character goes around virtue signaling most of the story. Every time he talks to the Alien Squirrel Nazi he's got first say how much he abhors their system of government. Talk to the space pirates? He's got to comment on how they're miserable racists. There's a crew member who smokes cigarettes and, you guessed it, he has to make snide comments about that. In fairness, I stopped listening about 2/3 of the way in, so maybe the main character realizes he's an obnoxious troll; and, maybe this stuff won't bug you as much as it bugged me. But once I started hearing the constant virtue-signalling, it was like listening to a TED-talk where the speaker says "Um" over and over; you get to the point where it's really annoying.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Needs a different narrator

Revisado: 03-31-21

This is actually a pretty decent book which includes a collection of tales from various corners of the world, all of which are wrapped in a narrative that points you to a final confrontation with eldritch evil.

My big issue with this is the narrator. The author does a reasonable job of mimicking the style & voice of HP Lovecraft. However, the narrator sounds like someone you'd hear reading a public-domain book on Librivox, where he's trying to properly enunciate each word. When you combine that with the intentionally archaic language it leads to very stilted narration. In addition, there are a huge number of characters in this book and frankly the narrator is horrible with accents, even with differentiating two American voices in a dialogue. He's just not up to what this book demanded.

I'll probably read more of the author's works in the future rather than listening on Audible.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Troubling in a few ways

Revisado: 02-15-20

I'm not a huge fan of crime fiction or true crime so perhaps I wasn't the best audience. As a scientist I was interested in some of the latest ways that science is being used to help solve crimes. The author gives a good overview of these disciplines, including entomology, forensic anthropology, blood splatters and DNA; though I would have liked to have had a bit more in-depth discussion of several of these topics. I enjoyed the narrator and would recommend her as a narrator; I think she's probably a lot better with fiction where her range of voices and accents would help make characters memorable. Since we only get cameos of various crime experts in this book it's not as valuable. Two things trouble me:
1. The author's bent is clearly as a crime fiction novelist where the goal is to catch the bad guy. She relates many instances where a tiny bit of DNA on a minute fragment of material in the victim is used to convict someone. While she points out the inherent flaws in the system, she really doesn't seemed concerned with the possibility that these technologies may actually be convicting innocent people since much of it is circumstantial. When she does discuss cases where the forensics led to the wrongful conviction of someone, you get the feel that she's not so much sad that an innocent person went to jail but that forensic science got a 'black eye' (my words).
2. The depth of depravity of the crimes was also difficult for me. As I said above I am not a true crime fan; if you're like me and are not used to this genre, the stories here will be deeply disturbing to you. If that doesn't bother you than you'll probably enjoy the book more than I did as there are many classic criminal cases and investigations presented.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona