Phil from Downunder

Excellent narration. A wonderful “next book” when you move on from introductory Buddhism.

Revisado: 04-07-23

This book takes an already distilled down set of the most important Buddhist teachings, and makes them very accessible. The ideas are the same as with Jesus, “be a light to the world and servant of all”. But Buddhist teaching has been able to continue developing freely, over the last 2,600 years and has more explicit guidance on how to get closer to these goals in day to day life. After this book one is more prepared to take on more profound, and less readily “accessible”, but excellent books such as Pema Chodron’s “No Time to Lose”, and Norman Fischer’s “Training in Compassion”. The narrator has a gorgeous voice and seems to intonate perfectly with the ideas behind the words.
“No Time to Lose”: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva.
“Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings in the Practise of Lojong” (Seven Points and Fifty-Nine Slogans).

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Did the job nicely, thank you.

Revisado: 03-06-21

Soothing and affirming book, good for relaxing and sleeping, and dozing on after I started to wake up. The narrators voice was pleasant, but it took a little while to get use to the pronunciation, and then was fine.
Only one story I was awake for until the end had anything unsettling (... behind the rainbow, or something like that).
Would definitely recommend.

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Terrific. Don’t get put off by the slightly “clunky” start.

Revisado: 02-28-21

It’s very imaginative and clever, set in the late 1950’s with a wonderful cast of characters and happy endings, after a complex and mysterious plot. Makes one think a bit deeper about other people’s lives.

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Informative

Revisado: 09-30-17

Informative, particularly what must be the memoirs of one of his younger wives. As this book has been so thoroughly approved by many prominent areas of the worldwide Muslim community, I presume they would recommend it as introduction to their faith.

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Obscenities stopped me giving it 5 stars

Revisado: 09-13-10

It's a great book, and very enjoyable and interesting. I have always been fond of Agassi whenever I've seen him interviewed. And his and Steffi's is a great love story. The obscene language could so easily been handled by saying things like "effin" instead of the real words, and there is much worse. On audio you couls always bleep! Some of us get offended by such things. I don't think Andre will be so proud when he has grandchildren ( he probably wont mature fast enough to think about it for his own kids) and wouls like them to read the book.

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Disappointing

Revisado: 04-18-09

Someone I don't know all that well was raving about this author, so I thought I would give him ago, especially after reading the other reviews. But although there are some original ideas, it's basically, a fairly predictable science fiction soap opera. Like watching B grade movies on TV if you're bored, it's Ok to listen to if your stuck with nothing else better. I was hoping it might come close to other Sci Fi greats like, the Enders Game series, or some Asimov (the Police Detective guy things), Dune (but not it's sequels), Philip Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electri Sheep) or Rama by Arthur C Clarke. But no unfortunately. This author's hang up about sex, although not getting in the way of the book too much, is pretty weird, as some other review writer said. In fact Sci Fi writers seem pretty messed up in this area except for Orson Scott Card, which is why the Ender's Game series is the best (especially Speaker for the Dead, the second book). The Narration is good but not fantastic.

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New metaphors, not a theological treatise

Revisado: 02-20-09

Yes, it is a very unusual book. Yes, it comes from a Christian worldview perspective, but it also clearly states that God may be revealing himself in other religions. Yes, the author is not the best writer in the world. What he dose do successfully is take a lot of the great ideas from C.S. Lewis (and others) and try and deconstruct them into metaphors that us "dumbed down" 21st century people might grasp better, than when we try and read the "Problem of pain" and "Miracles". Warning! For those of us who have been through immense personal tragedy, the first quarter of the book, all about Missy's abduction and murder are terribly painful. But Young is trying to show he has earned the right to share the things he puts in the book. The Narration is good. I saw somewhere that Eugene Petersen (Author of the Bible paraphrase translation, "The Message") thinks it may be as influential and long lasting as Pilgrim's Progress, and I agree. I will be buying a case to give away.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

For lovers of physics and engineering.

Revisado: 01-24-09

This is a very unique style of book. A suspenseful, interesting science fiction tale. The characters are very two dimensional and predictable, but it's a story about scientific ideas, with a world constructed using the modern day levels of physics and engineering. Hard to put in any genre really. If you enjoyed the Apollo space missions, and the landing on the moon, and dream about similar human trips to other planets, you'll really enjoy this book. As seems the usual pattern with these spoken books, the narrators voice very slowly picks up speed and more interesting tones as the book proceeds, to help build the intensity. So, though a little slow early on, the narration doesn't get in the way of the book. (Except for us Australians, perhaps, because the accent isn't very good of the lead Australian character, and is quite annoying to someone from the true land downunder!)

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Lord of the Rings for the 21st Century, Part 1?

Revisado: 08-24-08

This book is the first part of an astounding series of four books; Ender's game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. Although interesting, deep and often fun in itself, Ender's Game serves a greater role of introducing the child Andrew Wiggan, his sister and brother Valentine and Peter, and the concept of another rational (the books use "sentient") Alien Species, known unaffectionately as "The Buggers". Ender is a sensitive but brilliant young boy whose combination of intelligence and desperateness for survival, and extraordinary empathy make him invincible in any setting, physical attack, mind games whatever. And hence set him up to be the potential saviour of the the human race in their war to the death against the Buggers. But this book is really a lot like "The Hobbit" is to "Lord of the Rings", and establishes characters who are in the later books a vehicle for astounding ideas and insights ranging across science fiction, physics, religion, psychology, romance, courage and self sacrifice. With a few small tussles between good and evil thrown in. I feel certain that in 100 yrs after their writing these books will be considered a pinnacle of a style of literary creation. Get listening ...

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Interesting and Weird

Revisado: 07-07-08

After the first two books I found this disappointing, although there is a fantastic twist at the end, that the autor has been keeping you hanging out for. But a bit disappointing as there is an unhealthy preoccupation with sex and also some obsession with toilets (personals). Asimov must have been going through an "funny" phase of his life. The unhealthy attitude and obsession to sex would stop me recommending this book to anyone. I was stuck on a long trip without an alternative to listen to and interested in the culmination of the Elijah Bailey tale, but was tempted several times to "ditch" it. Narration magnificent

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