MustangRifleman

Good Story

Revisado: 09-26-24

Well written story and the characters are well made. You really benefit from Gaunt's compassion for his soldiers as he really builds the characters even those that don't live too long. My only stick is that its so short but my Warhammer friend says I just dont understand how these were written.. but idk 16 books in a series choerographed to only last exactly 10 hours all equal to other longer more meaningful books in price (1 audible credit) is just a mark of cheaper money grab to me, but they are good and I'm going to keep reading for now.

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2 Star Because it could be worse

Revisado: 08-16-24

The Good: The situation is interesting and there are many drastic changes to the same environments that seem plausible and interesting. Further, I've read other books that have multiple generations and this book does well by reusing names so you can almost always know who someone is in their relative time frame. This is typically a major source of confusion in other books.

The Bad: The story is way too predictable and told in too much excruciating detail. The spiders are basically perfect, and every situation can be predicted by, what is the perfect solution, even if it would require a miracle. Meanwhile, humans are evil and you have to guess what is the worst thing they can do on the flipside. There are exceptions, which are the most ridiculous exceptions imaginable. So the spiders are very sexist against their men, but not like any sexism on Earth, literally year round open season cannibalism on men. Which is hilarious and painful when they have a male rights movement and it is just the same dialogue over and over again and little movement even when the males can completely usurp the female position until just barely the spiders decide to be perfect. The humans, when they can do good, just don't say anything while the other people continue to do bad. There is also a painfully obvious and poor romance that kinda does good, but by the end I could not take anymore "trying to find the women through the wrinkles" or "old man" that is expressed ad infinitum every time the characters finish a sentence.

Too much detail comes from the authors flawed scifi lore. I get this is made up but when you base it on real science, the author should check that the theory was disproved and no where near the complexity described. Otherwise, just explain the basics and move on. But insane technological leaps shouldn't be explained in detail, they are obviously just plot points that don't need to have paragraghs explaining, cause it doesn't make sense even accepting magic. These spiders are perfect at everything they do and the explanations just make that fact more jarring plot armor.

Finally, the narrator. I've never had a complaint for narrators, even monotone or heavily accented ones. But this narrator hurt. She has her normal voice and one thicker accented one, and then yelling at various levels. Or a chronic smoker for males. It is just painful I'd rather monotone. Plus while the spiders get no accents, which is good, all female engineers have the same one which is really confusing and all males have the smoker or yelling one, which is annoying.

There is one other human female, with maybe a unique accent, but she barely talks until the end and she is also just a weird character that goes back and forth and truly represents the worst scientist I've heard fictionalized. I am a scientist so it really hurts to hear a made up one from a popular book be unable to follow the most basic tenant of science, the scientific method. Just because we don't have evidence does not mean we know anything, especially when in front of them is contrary evidence to the prevailing theory.

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Excited to Replay the Games

Revisado: 06-10-24

I believe this story did a great job detailing the rise and fall of rapture, giving the characters much greater depth than the game had the opportunity to do. For one, I actually dont want to kill the little sisters now, but thats because, like everyone else, I understand how their roles came to be. Leadheads and the various splicers didn't stand out too much before, though Big Sisters aren't explained but that is fine. Really I couldn't imagine how rapture ever existed as intended and now I can. The author manages time well, the exciting beginning, the warning signs, the constant slow fall towards total collapse and its temporary solutions to the Brave New World that only reminded Raptures residents how far things had gone. Would recrommend if you liked the games.

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Forced a Difficult Topic

Revisado: 04-02-24

I'm a big fan of Dan Carlin and his past work in his podcasts. I wasn't sure what to expect from a book, on audible no less, but I thought I would try it. While some of its value is missing for me, because much of the book is spent recalling stories and quotes he's already covered in other podcasts, I still found it hard to follow. While his goal in past works was simply to tell a story, this book is dedicated to the discussion of how the world can end and historical examples. Carlin then is at liberty to jump between many historical events to make his point, but to me, it all just felt a rambling discussion, tied together by repetitive visions of dead bodies. Some factors do seem not to be historically or currently relevant, like invading barbarians or "generational toughness", though Carlin makes a good point that these issues can worsen greater concerns dramatically. These greater concerns, however, seems to just be nukes, which saw a signifigant portion of the book dedicated to repeatedly explaining that Nukes are powerful and a near complete summary of his Logical Insanity podcast. Overall, it was kind of interesting seeing Carlin try to compile much of his previous work into one discussion, but in the end I felt the question was either too vague or just not very good. Yes, I am well aware of nuke's destructive power and plagues ect. and their historical element, and felt like all this book added was a few random details. If Carlin was looking for a perfect opportunity to flex his dramatic dialogue continuously, then he succeeded, but as for a discussion, I found it boring (also a little like talking with a tired Socrates, he spends a lot of time explaining how the world falling apart isn't actually bad thing which somewhat confused the narrative further).

Of course, I have the benefit of listening to most of his previous work. This book may be much better to someone who is not familiar with Carlin and doesn't want to spend dozens of hours catching up, but I would still recrommend the podcasts.

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Future Plato's Republic

Revisado: 11-16-22

This took me a bit to realize, but a lot of this book comes off as a modernized and global retelling of Plato's Republic in the shoes of those living in the cursed utopia. Excellent read, if you are wondering if you should read it, you should. Plato's Republic stands as a foundational text for literature and this book relates it to our modern understanding. The start is confusing, but madness only shows itself to the sober of mind, and besides so is Plato's Republic. Regardless of preference, I'd say this fits in the realm of classics everyone needs to read.

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Zoomed in Too Much

Revisado: 11-16-22

Gives an interesting, often undiscussed side to the American bombing campaigns in WWII a decent telling. Honestly, this book is entirely worse than the podcast Logical Insanity by Dan Carlin, which is longer, cheaper, and goes into greater detail. This book does go into some unique stories not covered by Dan. Gave 3 stars because it isn't bad, it's just not competitive.

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Why so Short

Revisado: 11-16-22

Excellent story. This is the first 40K book I've read (though I am familiar with the universe) and I was completely astonished. 12 hours flew by in 3 days. Story lays the foundation for the Lunar Wolves becoming the Sons of Horus under the Primarch's leadership. As I continue the series, I do feel the story did an excellent job of covering very little. You can tell time is being jumped around to better tell the story of the Horus Heresy while also adding character development in small filler scenes. My feelings are very little was covered overall and if the Horus Herecy happens, I would need 2-3x the content to understand the transition. I don't want to chastize the author for breaking it up into so many books, perhaps I'll understand better later, but it seems like a way to force extra money out of the readers. I'm used to one good book to prep the scene so it's disappointing that I won't be able to read this series straight through because it'll be a waste of a lot money in the long run.

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A True Classic

Revisado: 09-01-22

Excellent story, and as it is well known already, I'll focus on the narration. The narration was great, once you get used to the low audio quality. Some of the noises are so naturally disgusting that I fear to see what the author had written, increasing the realism of someone gagging. Beyond that, it almost seems there are times characters voices change significantly. Just makes it more difficult to follow when you are working. Still it's a 4/5 and I definitely recommend.

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Needed critique of CRT

Revisado: 05-20-22

As a scientist, I don't just accept criticism, I look for it. As a human, I have come to accept my lack of perfection and how easy it is to make mistakes even with diligence. These mistakes can be small or huge, and it is my greatest hope to find these before publishing, since such mistakes will impact my results when trying to solve a problem. Unfortunately this is not a sentiment shared by all and the results have ruined lives and priceless, unreplaceable historical relics. When the inventors of Critical Race Theory (CRT) made this system, they hoped it would eliminate the lingering scars of racism. They designed the system to make individual experiences trump good ole logic, in which it's fatal flaw must be obvious. If you can't guess why such a position may be laughable, consider how many criminals think they are in the right while performing the most atrocious acts. Feelings are often cheap and fleeting, though not always, and should be used as a guide but not the only available compass and map. Proponents of CRT are described as pushing the noble cause of ending racism, but fail to consider the facts along with their judgements. Yes whites have been historically racist, but so has nearly the entirety of human kind which continues to do so in places all over the world. In the US, Canada, and Europe, unprecedented efforts and legislation has sought to limit and eliminate racism in our cultures, while foreign countries continue to genocide those born into the 'wrong bodies'. Such a fact is disturbing and should be foremost in our minds when trying to bring equality to all of the world, but for some reason the institutions that are and have been committed to creating this future have recieved the most scrutiny. While this seems good natured, Douglas Murray points to the terrible failures of this cultural phenomenon. While we cannot say our history is perfect, we must respect it and try to build a better future for all, but instead we waste our time ruining people and their legacies who are either innocent or simply a product of their time. Murray points out that these seemingly spontaneous attacks form a pattern which wishes the destruction of all that white men have achieved. Even if you believe justice is nothing more than a crime to correct a previous one, even in cases where the due has been paid back certifiably in full, if not overpaid, further crimes are piled on the forgiven as if nothing was done. This is because those who use CRT, see that no fact matters when I feel offended or want power. This book is just about a declaration of a defensive war against CRT, in an effort to prevent racism from defeating and replacing racism, and to focus of the true racism which continues to proliferate our modern environment. It is astonishing that white men, which dedicated and gave their lives to fight slavery or racism are declared racists, not because they were heroes, but because they are white heroes.

This book has a lot to unpack and I am cutting this review short of what it deserves. My only complaint is that the book seems to be more white and black than I'd prefer, as the authors arguments are portrayed in a much better light than his opponents, though mostly in tone. Even this is a minor critique, since Murray does not describe his perspective with the perfection the antagonists do, I feel this may prevent those most difficult to sway from doing so. Either way, it is more a declaration of a cultural war in which soldiers generally fight to their deaths, but this is not necessary.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Okay Story with a Fantastic Epilogue

Revisado: 05-17-22

The story itself is okay but frustrating in areas. People do unspeakable crimes casually and openly, while stupid but tame people go along with the most bizarre routines and ideas. There is a great deal of repetition and you really feel like something else is going on. You follow two different characters each attempting to switch places and come across the most frustrating blockades. With small steps, our protagonists discover the reality of their situations, but unable to save their simple minded communities.

The epilogue explains the why for a lot of the books extractities and reveals the power of censorship. We discover the authors had created an entire universe, as parts were cut out by the editors, they had encased their ideas within a larger frame work in which the removed sections lived in secret. The Strugatsky's had made it very difficult to discern their interpretation of the story, to save themselves, but also allowed the tale to carry different meanings for their readers. I personally had gathered an entirely different interpretation and was awestruck when I heard the original intent of the creators. This only ads to the story in my eyes.

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