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Complex story, good action

Revisado: 04-15-24

I was a bit turned-off by the up-font number of characters, politics and snooty/catty dialogue so early on in this book, but after couple of attempts to re-listen, that all sort of melted away and I become immersed. Now I want to listen to the next in the series.

This series is loved by a lot of people, and fantasy genre but this book contains enough calculated action to keep the story moving. Well written and superbly-read.

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Moderate Portraits of Victorian England

Revisado: 03-12-22

The lecturer (Patrick N. Allitt) is very engaging, and produces listenable material, This set of lectures is 18 hours, but will not fail to keep your attention all the way through. Lots of interesting tidbits and small studies of the conditions of life of various social groups in England, accompanied by complementary historical backgrounds of wars and politics. He introduces multiple levels of events going on in the time period of Queen Victoria's reign, which provides three-dimensional context for topics being explored. Very solid, moderate political view, and a fair treatment of the subject (it's a BIG subject, as Britain is steeped in Victorian culture and cultural artifacts.) A real pleasure to listen-to!

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Whirlwind tour of immune system

Revisado: 01-24-22

Not enough can be said about how much work it must have been to craft a listenable description of a system with this complexity in a way that can be easily digested by biology-naive people in 10.5 hours. People study years to know this topic, and it's a real accomplishment to condense it in such a small space to enable laypeople to become familiar with it.

A 5-star explanation. I feel I can understand a little more about what epidemiologists and virologists are talking about after listening. The author kept things contained in good metaphors and tactical explanations. He covered everything of importance across the board. Plus there many were genuinely humorous moments. All with minimal pain.

The narration was excellent, and I was able to follow along (with some difficulty at times) all the crazy process descriptions of various cellular interactions. The concepts came fast and furious, and I occasionally had to re-listen to a chapter to fully grasp what exactly was going on. I loved the two-factor authentication metaphor, the differences of the two immune systems and their roles, and infection scenarios.

Anytime you describe process (aka: to inform), it is automatically very difficult to keep audience interest up, but this book was able to keep mine. So if you are looking to ramp up your knowledge so as not to be completely out to sea when someone mentions memory T-cell immunity or how HIV works, this is your book.

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Deep dive into medieval daily life

Revisado: 12-05-21

You probably are listening to this book to understand daily life of average people in Medieval times. For the most part that is delivered. I was impressed about how much baloney and myth-based silliness medieval people were immersed in. Falsehood, story and myth dominated the existence of everyone. There's not much story here, but some Chaucer is woven into the essay, to serve as a platform for reconstructing people's existence. It's a long listen, and a lot of religious myths are explored. Perhaps too much.

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A pandemonium of aristocratic politics

Revisado: 10-21-21

Involved interpersonal plot, the origin story of Pocket, our Fool and protagonist,

Lots of good twists in the story, and plenty of witty, bawdy dialogue.

I enjoyed The Serpent of Venice a lot more, probably one of the best audio books you can get. This is good backstory.

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Navy Procedural

Revisado: 02-27-21

This was a middle-ground work from the 'Big Battle Boat' genre. A navy procedural.

The central character is alpha male captain, cliche and wooden. Add a cold, prickly, efficient XO, kind of shallow. The plot line was linear and predictable. Character empathy was somewhat maintained, but goals for the characters weren't ambitious enough. The worst character flaw any of them had was moderate alcoholic addiction.

Not much adventure either. Only one time did they exit the ship to explore anything on the surface of a planet. Almost everything was staged on the ship, on the command deck. There was much procedural banter. "press this button" --- "Aye Aye, Pressing button." The enemy wasn't even very interesting.

Despite all of this, the book was actually very listenable, and I had no problem finishing it. I even looked forward to sessions listening to it. The author and narrator are both capable of sustaining enough engagement to bring readers through the story. It was only 8 hours long but felt like 20. I don't know if this a good thing or bad thing.

This book isn't bad, I'm not left with a bad impression at all. But it contains nothing special and can probably be missed unless you have an academic dedication to this genre. Listeners new to Big Battle Boat sagas, (and almost nobody is who saw Star Trek) would benefit from visiting B.V. Larson first, whose books are above average, then judge other works by that standard.

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You can't go back

Revisado: 02-23-21

I pretty much loved this book. The story was really good. Given the standard miserable quality of most sci-fi, this is more of a compliment than it sounds. I genuinely looked-forward to each listening session with this audio book. It was a real pleasure.

Despite one big logic trench, about earth time passing vs. evolutionary time, the whole thing held together quite well. I mean in 800 years, not much can evolve. But the character development was incredibly good. Emotionally engaging, no real heroes, no real villains. Just survival and hard choices.

It would be a shame if this book didn't get an award for something.

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Action with diminishing returns

Revisado: 02-18-21

Can a book can have too much action, too many good guys, too many villains?
So much so that you can't bear to listen to the last 4 hours because you're bored?

I guess so, because I almost finished it.

What I liked: The narrator. Mark Boyett did a fine job, handling French accents and female voices seamlessly with standard male characters, of which there were many. Initially, a confounding number. There was also lots of action. That's a good thing, right? Well, there is action here, so much that character development couldn't really be bothered with too much. Plot was straightforward and linear,

This book has a British twist. In the future did you know humankind's cities on all the planets will be named after British towns like they are on the East Coast of America? Did you also know the last survivors of humanity will be a bold group of British army/sailors/flyboys and a royal? I did not know this.

What could be improved? Fewer characters, more character development, less action. I think the constant battles and graphic mechanics of battle could be reduced. Things feel scattered and fragmented, and it doesn't go away. There are too many heroes, too much swashbuckling. There are even 'Pirates'. The Bad Guys are obsidian clad humanoid blue meanies with no humanity. There is something lacking here.

Overall, listenable for the first 10 hours. But ennuie sets in, the disappearance of anticipation. I don't want to listen any more.

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Not his best work

Revisado: 01-09-21

An OK listen. Nothing earth-shattering.

The story is told like a Koran reading, very declarative and droll. Crichton's faux academic investigation, (whether false or not) is not very convincing. He's either genuinely making a case for Neanderthal late existence or he is faking it. Either way it feels fraudulent, Piltdown man-like.

Nonetheless the cover has the author's name in bigger letters than the title of the book, so we all know it must be good right?

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One of a kind, outstanding prose

Revisado: 01-09-21

I really liked this book.

If for not anything, for Peake's prose which present his ideas like a walk through the Uffizi. It's gorgeous, mesmerizing, admirable. There are just not many authors who can write like this.

One of the main criticisms I have of this book is the plot. It's flat. The key to overcoming this disappointment is not to expect anything out of the book early on. If you have to ask "where is this all going?" you are asking the wrong question. It's not about the destination, but the journey. Keep in mind you will experience undulations, not crescendos. This is by design, I'm certain. The story has no morals to derive. There is no point being made. Things happen, and they are odd but plausible things (in the context of fantasy), but that is all. Clear your mind. Expect no revelation and you won't be disappointed.

The second criticism (a minor one) was the dialogue of the two countesses. Irritating twaddle. It broke immersion.

If you can forgive these two challenges, you are due a unique literary experience. To spend time absorbing and reflecting on the author's kind and artful words, while the blur of the story recedes into the background, is enough of a reason to read it.

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