Russell David Phillips

Kind of torn

Revisado: 09-16-18

Actually the book started out pretty well. I liked the world building and at first the character building seemed off to a good start. And the narrator does a good job. In fact I think the narrator's different voices and way of talking is what tricked me at first about how well the characters were being fleshed out.

But that stopped pretty quickly. The characters were frozen as fairly 2 dimensional. A single sentence can describes any of them. IE: He's a hard ass whose protective of his daughter and hates seeing kids hurt. END that's it. They are pretty meh until one of the 2 or 3 bullet points in their bio happen and then they act in crazy extreme ways. Until of course it's time for characters to start doing it. Then they will pretty quickly abandon stuff because "hey people need to be like doing it and stuff"

As others have mentioned the story goes out the window about halfway into the book. The last third is pretty much repeated unrealistic sex scenes (with light BDSM vibe). Literally not kidding. It's like pound pound (oh yeah more monsters are showing) yeah back to pounding away. I love good sex scenes when they fit but these were just dumb. The people had just met and they were like instantly in love cuz you know doing it and stuff. They read like a 12 year old boys idea of what having a girl friend would be like (even though they have never talked to a girl). See she is all like awesome like would shoot things and stuff and totally crawl all over you constantly with sex and stuff and like love it when you call them dirty slut and think you are like a super hero and (well you get the idea). Really really stupid.

I'm giving it 3 stars for the story because I like the premise and it started out okay but I won't be getting the next book.

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hmmmmm

Revisado: 11-10-17

I dont want to spoil anything but the ending? There were hints and what not but the hints could easily have been read another way. So its not like it was obvious. But neither was it a surprise. It didn't match the feel of the other books. The things i liked about the series is pretty much gone. Wont listen to the next one.

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Nerd loser is "master" to hot chicks

Revisado: 09-04-17

The hero is supposed to be experienced, tough, etc.... taking on a tough mmorpg and winning with innovative and unusual choices (or something) but really the whole thing comes off as a creepy nerd living out creepy fantasies.

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Really good!

Revisado: 08-20-17

Good stuff. I like the characters inventiveness and Dolos is a hoot. looking forward to the next book.

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The second half is worth the wait

Revisado: 04-28-17

The first part of this book is interesting, but when the author steps into the story in the second half, it gets really good.

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I seriously thought about deafening myself.

Revisado: 03-12-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator. I honestly want a feature so I can flag this narrator so I get a big flashing warning in case I accidentally try and buy a book he narrates.

If you’ve listened to books by M. R. Mathias before, how does this one compare?

I have no experience with M.R. Mathias but the Kindle book had great reviews and from what I heard of the beginning the story and characters sounded interesting but I was literally climbing the wall because of the narrator. I plan on reading the Kindle version directly.

Would you be willing to try another one of Chris Dorman’s performances?

No. Never. It's like he's just reading each sentence without knowing what the sentence means. Every sentence ends with the last word being drawn out and spoken with a strange inflection. EVERY....SINGLE... SENTENCE!

Did The Sword and the Dragon, Revised inspire you to do anything?

?

Any additional comments?

no

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KEEP GOING! The last 2/3 is MUCH better.

Revisado: 10-11-16

Any additional comments?

When I first started this book the beginning seemed rushed and unpolished. Then as I get a little further it seemed WAY too similar to harry potter. BUT I['m glad I kept going. That was just the beginning setting the stage part of the book. After that the author seemed to find his stride and their own voice. The last half was way better then the first. And the 2nd book was even better. I have to give it only 3 stars for the Story but in reality it's like 2 stars for the first third and 4 stars for the last 2/3.

So get the book. Get past the beginning and you will be happy. I'd recommend to the author rewriting the beginning some. I'd imagine many of the bad reviews are from people who got ticked off at the beginning and didn't want to keep going. But I've finished the 2nd book now and I'm so glad I kept going.

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Pleasantly surprised.

Revisado: 08-20-12

Any additional comments?

The description sounded interesting but I have to confess I was a little hesitant. The amnesia aspect worried me as I could easily see how badly that could be mishandled and either made meaningless, annoying, ridiculous,etc...

BUT instead I thought it was done really well. In fact the mystery of self discovery (of who she "IS" vs who she "WAS") intertwining with the main plot events, etc.... all worked to make a really good listen.

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Uplifting (heheh)

Revisado: 07-30-12

If you could sum up Existence in three words, what would they be?

optimistic hard scifi

What was one of the most memorable moments of Existence?

Reporter in the blimp.

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of walking down the street and the vr overlay early in the book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions.

Any additional comments?

This is a really interesting book. The story is based on lots of recent trends happening in the world in science and other wise and extrapolating some really interesting permutations of where it could all lead and how the world responds to events. Transparency, the prevalence of cheap and good recording, climate, over population, direct and instant access to information, real time VR overlays, etc...

David Brin goes a different direction than many other books that take one trend or new technology and then postulates some future taking it to some ridiculous extreme. Creating some bizarre future that bears no resemblance to our own history or present. Where everyone is grown in a vat and controlled by the state or everyone lives in isolation never seeing each other, etc...

Instead he (much more realistically) presents a world with literally massive amounts of people all with their own ideas, prejudices and goals all working against and with each other. Many things like improving VR technology, cheap and easy camera technology, social networking and instant access to vast amounts of information, climate change, genetic tinkering, etc... All advance, become part of the world and blend in different ways. Causing problems, solving problems, etc... A very rich world with lots of layers and very believable. You could easily recognize the world he presents evolving from our world.

I also enjoy how he presents different peoples viewpoints. Never mocking the ideas of others but instead embracing them and respectfully presenting the validity of varied positions and the arguments they present. Very mature.

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