C. W. N.

AI Narrator

Revisado: 03-02-25

The story is a familiar one, and I enjoy hearing the background and exploits of the Vietnam War and the brave soldiers who actively participated in the fight. That said, the AI narrator is a sad example of failure to provide the story the respect it deserves with a human reading it. Mispronunciations, inaccurate sentence translation (stopping as if a complete sentence after an abbreviation, i.e. “Col. Smith”), mixing military abbreviations and literal spellings (145th Arty pronounced as one four five tee aytch arty) etc, etc were obvious and repeated throughout the book. My suggestion would be to find a few VFW lodges and get some narrators who would very likely do it for free.

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Headwinds

Revisado: 12-26-22

Well read by an engaging narrator, and a story about a little known Vietnam battle, make this book a compelling listen. There are a few headwinds which faced me in listening, however. I won’t belabor the points: first, I am a US service member and veteran. I deeply resent the blatant disrespect and disregard for all things “Yank” in this work. There aren’t many examples but from the Johnson Administration down to grunts being lazy and unskilled, uncommitted dolts relying solely on technology, it is distracting. Second, it has taken more than ten hours of the book to even get to the battle. The book is mistitled; it should be “The Australian Army in Vietnam and the Battle of Long Tan”. I like reading about individuals and their experiences, but half the book before any combat whatsoever?

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

When is the War?

Revisado: 12-05-22

As the name implies (and the cover photograph), one might purchase this book to learn more about the actual Boer War. Instead, I am more than 3 hours in, just about 20% of the book, and the detailed coverage of the wheeling and dealing of the colonists and imperialist powers during the pre-war 19th century continues (after a lengthy introduction). I'm all about background, but make it a chapter, not the first quarter of the book. Even now I'm only up to 1890. I keep thinking, "Just another 20 or 30 minutes and the war will start." Not so.

To be fair, if you're interested in the pre-war history and (I assume) details on the various causes of the war, this may be for you. The narrator does a good job, and it is to his credit that I have maintained as long as I have. But I'm done, and only wish I could return this. Alas, no dice there.

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Really Enjoyable Book

Revisado: 10-09-22

This is a nice history of Mr. Kranz and the space programs through Apollo. I found myself wanting more detail, but therein lies the danger of being boring, so I’m sure “moving the work forward” took precedence. That said I learned a great deal about the various missions, and about mission control. The narration was good. I wonder what the author would think about Artemis and the Martian missions?

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Not Max’s Best

Revisado: 09-16-18

I enjoy Max Hastings works, generally. This work is a mixed bag at best. A combination of the British experience and not so thinly veiled anti American narrative, the book was a struggle for me to get past the latter and take value from the former. The narrator was very good.

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