Hooga Chacka

WHERE ARE THE SEQUELS?!

Revisado: 04-27-21

I haven’t had good luck with female authors or narrators, but “Grass” is one of the five best books I’ve ever read. There are parts I hated, like Catholicism being allowed to spread off the Earth rather than being contain on this planet like the dangerous disease it is, and humanity being ruled by useless nobles in the future, but over all it was amazing. I very much want to read the sequels.

So where are the sequels, Jeff.

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The writer is a poor historian...

Revisado: 06-10-19

How does any historian treat the events of the Old Testament as historically accurate, but the story of Romulus and Remus as a myth? There are about a dozen sources corroborating some version of the story of the founding of Rome, and literally none supporting the existence of the ancient Jewish kingdoms or the Exodus. She also omitted the Maurian reforms, which are kind of important.

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A bit young-adulty

Revisado: 05-17-19

I bought this book because I was interested in the aliens in it, but they’re very lightly covered. While the performance is fantastic the story itself is surprisingly slow and boring for such a short book. I’m debating not even finishing it, and will be returning it regardless. The writing comes off like young -“adult science fiction, despite predating that genre.

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No "Shadow over Innsmouth"!

Revisado: 03-24-19

How do you sell compilation of H. P. Lovecraft's works without the "Shadow over Innsmouth"! I will be returning.

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Returned for medical reasons

Revisado: 12-03-18

The female narrator’s voice is too high pitched. I suffer from migraines, and high pitch voices are one of my triggers. The Audible app needs an equalizer function to deal with this problem. Every time the narrator says a hard “s” it is literally painful, even with the treble on my car stereo turned down to minimum. I made it under an hour into the book before I couldn’t stand anymore.

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Peak of the series, but I would have done things..

Revisado: 11-08-18

But I would have written things differently in the Bug War.
(1) The Federation would have rearmed the Thebans and made them the 4th member of the Grand Alliance. They would serve as foot soldiers and damage control personnel until the Federation trusted them, and then been given their own fleet units and commands. After this point the Thebans would be more active in the series. This story thread would also follow the waining years of the life of Admiral Landaue, and his acceptance by and repatriation to his home world.

(2) Federation scientists would have switched to chemical weapons targeted at the bug's genetic codes after they gave up on biological weapons. These weapons would be deployed during one of the planetary assaults instead of antimatter weapons.

(3) With Thebans still confined to a few systems, and with the gas weapons in mass production, the Theban member of the Joint Chiefs would argue that the bug worlds should be gassed to wipe out the bugs and Thebans be allowed to colonize the relatively intact bug infrastructure. After consideration by Lord Telmaza, the request would be rejected with the Lord being forced to reminisce more about the Theban war.

(4) When linked up to the Grand Alliance, the Star Union would object to the use of gas until they absolutely needed it.

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Haven't Finished Yet, Will Edit This When I Do...

Revisado: 09-30-18

In a civil war, the side that is more just is right. How do you tell which side is more just? It is the side that seeks to reduce the suffering of others, to put power in the hands of more not less, to give freedom to the oppressed. So in this book, the Fringers are more just, and therefore are right.

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Made me doubt Mueller more.

Revisado: 09-29-18

If your primary sources of news are corporate owned local and cable news stations, you might very well learn something, because of how little the establishment media actually tells the American people. But if like me you get you news from sources that aren't owned by the major corporations, this book is more like a review section in a textbook. From my perspective, the hype was not deserved. Just watch the Young Turks on Youtube.

There are also severe problems with Bob Woodward's reporting that prevent him from telling, or seeing, the whole story. Contrary to what republicans, trumpists, and the Fox "News" cult have been saying for years, the "mainstream" establishment media does not have a liberal bias, it has an establishment and pro-power bias. A bias towards the status quo and America's traditional ruling class and the wealthy. That's why CNN's news actors are always so vicious and pigheaded towards progressives. Notice they never ask republicans and corporate democrats how they're going to pay for tax cuts for the rich or increased military spending. Anyway they also have a bias towards civility, always treating wealthy and powerful people with kid gloves. These biases are definitely the main character of Woodward's book. Maybe he's been in the circles of power too long, maybe he doesn't want to hurt his friends, or maybe he thought that presenting insiders who spoke to him the way they see themselves was useful, but the way he wrote this book presents people who are plainly evil (secular definition: one who works to do harm to the well-being of other people) as if they're actually earnest public servants working to protect the American people rather than a pack of thieves and parasites just trying to make themselves richer. Here are some examples:
(1) Steve Bannon is a disgusting hate monger, and considering he compared a career criminal like Trump to Graccus the Elder, one of the greatest progressive thinkers of the ancient world, clearly delusional.
(2) Gary Cohn is the epitome of the parasitic rich. As a Wall Street banker, all he has ever done is extract wealth from the lower levels of the economy and help crash the economy. His "New York Liberalism" is really just a desire for the social contract to be dissolved and wealthy parasites like his friends and himself to be able to do whatever they want with their money without paying taxes. He was angry about the tariffs because they might cost him money. And just recently he seemed to be unaware or uncaring that FRAUD is a crime; for instance the massive Wall Street frauds that caused the Bush Recession.
(3) Rob Porter is a self obsessed serial wife beater
(4) The war in Afghanistan IS completely pointless. We aren't trying to win or build a stable country. We're still there after 16 years so our arms merchants can continue making a killing.
(5) James Comey committed PERJURY before Congress in October 2016, TWICE! The FBI never found any significant evidence to justify reopening the EmailGate investigation, and they never really reopened. The true story is that a group of right-wing extremists in the FBI, working with Roger Stone, wrote a blackmail letter to Comey and forced him to make up the BS he told to Congress, sinking Clinton's campaign. Aside from that, Comey is a right-wing lunatic and political opportunist with a messiah complex.

But by far the biggest problem with this book is that it instilled in me whatever the opposite of hope is. Right now in late 2018, most of the American population, and indeed the population of the entire civilized/free world, are counting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to remove Trump from the White House before he starts a nuclear war or blunges the world into another Great Depression. But if the stories relayed from Trump's legal team are any indication, it seems to me that Mueller is just another member of the member of the Good Ol' Boys club, and not actually investigating Trump. I hope I got the wrong impression.

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Political Illiteracy or Trolling

Revisado: 08-15-18

Liberal progressives are against war, corporate power, and cutting taxes on said corporations. So I can't tell if the use of the political alignment "liberal progressive" as the corporate-backed bad party is meant as a deliberate act of trolling, or simple political illiteracy on the part of the author's.

Other than that this is one of the best books I've read in the last year, and I will be rereading it immediately.

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Next time, get Scott Brick

Revisado: 04-29-18

Aron Ra is not a good narrator. His voice is generally monotonous, speaking in a bland midwestern accent. At least in his videos you have visuals and his "Disney villain Klingon appearance" to hold your attention.

Overall this is a good book, but he wastes too much time talking about his own experiences with creationists.

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