Ryan Whitworth

So well written.

Revisado: 05-14-24

Jennette is an amazing writer and a thoughtful human being.

I've never heard someone be so casually insightful about their own life. I felt this creeping dread as she slowly revealed details of her abuse, and her ability to tell an honest yet compelling story amazed me even mid-read.

I really hope her writing career takes off so we can hear more from her.

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One of my favorite books

Revisado: 06-09-23

This was the first Culture book I made it through, and months later it's still my favorite of them all. I just finished listening, after reading the paperback a while ago.

The reader is good! It threw me off at first how the recording sounded - just a little staticky and old. Sometimes that ruins the experience for me, but it didn't on this one.

The story itself is really interesting. It's got to be hard to write about a board game. In my opinion, Banks does an incredible job at describing the game with just enough detail, and then filling in the gaps with metaphors.

Other Culture novels give us much better looks at the ships and drones, but what I love about this one is the focused study on humanity, and what life could be like after diseases are cured and lives are extended. And then it goes on to contrast it with a more barbaric, but also more dramatic and exciting way of life.

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A bit too much

Revisado: 10-10-22

I love so much of the idea for this story. And of course, I cared deeply about the characters.

But it just felt like a slog. Each problem he faces goes on for too long, and the different problems aren't different enough. The good moments, that should make the story worth continuing, felt few and far between. And the constant surprises left me feeling betrayed instead of excited. I actually spent a large portion of the book angry about it, and waited a few days to gain some perspective before I wrote this.

If the author sees this - I really love the first book. But expecting me to imagine Gal as a villain just felt wrong, and undermined the ending of a story I loved. It kept me in a weird meta-story tension, questioning whether I should trust you with the story. You turn it around in the end, but it was a frustrating ride.

All that said, I would 100% read a third book. I like how this one ends, and would love to see them continue. Just... I don't need to be surprised 24/7 to love these characters.

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It's just not good

Revisado: 06-24-19

The book's poorly edited, and not really that good anyway. The author has an immature voice, with very little nuance. Speaks in a lot of absolutes. I returned it

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My favorite of the Romans/Greeks

Revisado: 06-13-19

Marcus Aurelius' style is so clear and precise, it's amazing. His ideas are more nuanced and self-aware than most old writing I've read. In the end though, I do disagree with him. That's really why I'm bumping it down to 4 stars in the "story".

I recommend this as the one of the clearest explanations of stoicism, and even Buddhist-style "un-attachment" that I've seen. But I'd suggest you question his conclusions. He'd have you think that because life includes suffering, there's no reason to prefer pleasure to pain. He thinks a thing's existence justifies its continuance. Maybe an enlightened person can accept their own pain, be we can't accept the pain of others for them. That's cruelty, not enlightenment. This guy was the ruler of the world, and shrugged off slavery because "that's just some people's lot in life." Easy for him to say. But I guess he was inconsistent, like we all are.

Overall, it's a great book to wrestle with. Just, don't accept it all without question

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Good, but feels incomplete

Revisado: 03-30-18

I like the author’s style and thoughtfulness. He asks the right questions, and mentions all the relevant scriptures... but I feel like he doesn’t interact with all of them fully. At the beginning, he promises to give his take on all the “infernalist” passages, and he even mentioned all of the ones that came to my mind. But I don’t think he actually covered them all. And in the end I wasn’t completely convinced, even though I wanted to be. I guess I wanted more. But all that said, he wrote gently and with love for his brethren, and I respect the guy.

My only other thought is, the voice of the reader is rough. He sounded like an old baptist preacher, but one who never bothered to learn how to say the name Origen. Unless “Oregon” is a valid option? I’d never heard quite a few of his pronunciations. But he didn’t ruin it for me, either.

Good book! It didn’t completely convince me, but it’s got a lot of good points and it’s definitely worth the listen.

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A thought-provoking book

Revisado: 08-03-17

A thought-provoking and interesting look into the culture of biblical times. This, alongside their other book "Paul behaving badly", really helped me reconsider not just my interpretations, but the way I interpret scripture. Read by the "Everything That Will Kill You... From A to Z" video guy.

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Pretty good!

Revisado: 09-20-16

It's a solid ending to a good series. The narrator is a little nasally, but you stop noticing after a few minutes, and he does do a good job acting out the story. I enjoyed it.

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It really is bad.

Revisado: 09-08-16

Amazing story, but it could be unlistenable, depending on how you can listen. If you want to try, use some headphones. Having it played aloud didn't really work because of the insane range of volumes. But noise-canceling headphones let me hear the quiet voices well enough while keeping the volume low, so that I wasn't blasted by the loud parts.

And the voice actors did a good job, I think. So there's at least that.

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Good, and not just for a dramatic reading.

Revisado: 08-26-16

Most of the time, dramatic readings of the bible are distracting to me. But this one is so seamless and perfect that it actually helps! I find that I stay much more engaged because of the dramatic style. I like that different parts are read by different voices (it sounds more like it does in my head, and less like endless droning), and I can listen for a long time without zoning out. The music's good, and subtle enough to not distract. I'd definitely recommend this, for anyone who wants to fill their days with the Word.

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