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Narrator ruined it for me

Revisado: 02-28-25

I had to stop listening because I found the narrator so peculiar - the emphasis on certain words made no sense, and the cadence was distracting and prevented any story to emerge. Too bad because i like Josephine Tey and was excited to see it as an audiobook

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Disappointed

Revisado: 09-14-23

At first it seemed interesting but it devolved into repetitive passages of violence each new scene a repetition of the last. i had to give it up and not finish- too much a waste of time.

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Disappointing

Revisado: 10-29-21

I really enjoyed Warning Light, but was disappointed by this book. I felt the first book had some character development and levity, but that Jake and everyone else was devoid of character in this second book. It seemed rather formulaic, even Jonathan Davis couldn't hold my attention.

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Preachy

Revisado: 09-14-19

I almost enjoyed the book, but overall was confounded that it got such good reviews. The good part for me was mostly attributable to the reader, who played the role well.

What worked for me about the book was that it grabbed me and I wanted to continue listening. It had some comical moments, especially at the beginning.
But what was unpleasantly distracting was the preachiness, the lack of attention to detail, and the, well, constantly present ego of the author.

I kept wondering what happened to the idea that the reader comes to internalize the message through the story, rather than being constantly bludgeoned by didactic rants. When toward the end there was a list of 97 homilies for how to live, I really just couldn’t comprehend that people thought this was mature writing. That was my principal beef. Secondarily, there was little attention to consistency about what the alien understood and didn’t understand about human customs – in some ways he was acutely perceptive and in others totally oblivious. As a reader, or listener, you had to keep giving it a pass. And throughout, the author was ever present moralizing.

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Uneven

Revisado: 08-08-19

I was excited to learn the latest and greatest astrobiology from this collection, but disappointed because many of the contributions were about science fiction, and I found them uninteresting. Also I felt several of the readers were very inappropriate for the material. There were a few good contributions reviewing current understanding of the origins of life, and the extra-terrestrial environments that are most likely to exist.

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Interesting material, but ...

Revisado: 05-15-19

The content of the book is fascinating. But I thought it was presented as a sort of compendium of interesting facts and history, including the author’s impressive personal involvement, which is fine if you enjoy that sort of style.

I found the reader difficult to listen to and not well-matched for the material, I found it distracting.

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Couldn't put it down!

Revisado: 03-14-19

Fantastic reading, perfect for the story. I don't always enjoy sci fi books, but this completely captured me. It's clear why it won so many awards.

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Fantastic!

Revisado: 02-15-19

This book is written very clearly for lay enthusiasts, yet it goes deeply enough that you feel you understand something about the field. It doesn't just skim the surface with general statements. It's a real bonus that much of the exciting work was done by the author, but he isn't at all self-centered. This is one of my favorites.

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A strange audiobook

Revisado: 02-13-19

The book (the first 3 hours in any case) is basic math formulas. Makes sense if you want an introduction to information theory, but you would definitely need to use the visuals, if not a video, to absorb it.

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esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

Had trouble with the reader

Revisado: 01-28-19

I was super interested in the topic, and I tried to listen multiple times. But the reader was just too slow for me and I felt there was a mismatch between the reading style and the material. In this case, I yearned to hear what the book had to say, and not be distracted by a lot of drama in the reading.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas