James

My patience is starting to ware thin with Steve. After listening to Capt Nothing, Vol One, I keep singing his praises, yet he keeps coming through with half A** efforts. The majority of this recording is his first story "Leftovers". It has nine chapters and it rambles something terrible. It is like he sits down to write and does not know where the story is going until he has enough words. Leftovers, had a good beginning and a good ending, but everything in between was just rambling bull sh*t. He will says things that are interesting in themselves, but when put in to context with the story, just don't fit.

The next two stories are average and short, which seems to be Steve's best length. Just as I am about ready to give up on the guy, comes "Dopple Dribble". This was a spooky story, that was very well written and renewed my faith in Steve's abilities.

As I have mentioned in other reviews, if you are interested in Steve Vernon, listen to Captain Nothing Vol One first. If you are a fan of South Park or Family Guy, you may like it. If you hate or don't get those shows then save your money.

This is very adult material and some will be very offended. This first story has a rape scene of a little boy that the main character knows is going to happen and lets happen, I did think that was over the line and not necessary.

I will try Vernon one more time, but please have a plot in your next story.

These stories are pretty much as advertised. If this is your type of perversion, then you should be happy with it. There were two stories that turned me off. I Tricked My Husband, involves male on male, not my perversion. The second or third to last story on why his wife taste different almost made me gag. It is very short though.

There are plenty of well hung black men in this.

I did not like this as much as I thought I would, but everybody is different I believe some people will like this a lot. My favorite was the neighbor who ties the main character's wife up and does unspeakable things to her in front of her husband and the last story is good, where I man breaks into the house, ties up the husband and goes at his wife.

This stuff may be fun to fantasize about, but in real life, if my wife gets a tattoo on her back with a different man's name, well I will not be anywhere as understanding as the husband in the story.

Narration is kind of funny. The girl reading has trouble with some of the words, plays with the microphone, pauses in weird places and I believe this was her first run through of the material. Yet I don't believe it really takes away from the stories.

If I had read this in Junior High (We did not have middle school, when I was a kid) I would have liked it and reading it now would bring back good memories.

There is the great description of beautiful women, like the woman who had thighs like white marble. A hero who can tell rather a woman is a natural blonde or not. The fact that when you go from New York to Amber, your clothes change, your car dissolves, but you get to keep your cigarettes.

Woe is me, I did not read this in Junior High, so like weak beer, it was not enjoyable.

I've watched all the t.v. shows and all the movies, but you got to believe this is the real Star Trek. This is from the view of those thousands of crew members that do the actual work, that take the non-sensible orders from the higher ups and make the ship work.

John Scalzi is the funniest writer out there and with Wil Wheaton they are the best duo to listen to. The book starts out with a sort of grunts by the water cooler feel. The new guy treatment is spot on. So even those who are not sci-fi fans will like the first three hours. The story does take a weirder then I prefer turn and I wish JS could have came up with a better explanation. The story actually ends around five hours and then you get the not so funny Coda's. Coda one is interesting, but goes on too long. Coda one also gets a little nasty with the writers of the original Star Trek. As a Star Trek fan I enjoyed laughing at myself and the show during the story. J.S. seemed to use coda one to say, hey if you were to stupid to figure it out, I think the Star Trek writers were lazy or stupid. Scalzi did not do his homework or he would have known that Gene Roddenberry set out to make a non-violent show. During the pilot, cowboys were the big thing and the network wanted blood or they were not going to air the show. The results were Redshirts getting killed. Coda two gives a serious message, but no answers. Telling someone that can't figure out what to do in life, that they need to get there shit together, does not help. Coda three was sweet and warm.

I gave this five stars and it was the best book I have read this year so far and Wheaton's performance makes listening to it better then reading it. I do believe it would have been even better without the coda's.

Before jumping all over me, I want to say that my favorite Fantasy writer is Robin Hobb. I also really like Tess Gerritsen.

Shortly into this I said to myself, I bet that C in C.S. Friedman is a girl's name. This book is very touchy feelie. There are lots of sentences like "He sat heavily in the kitchen chair and wept." This was during a half hour argument this man has with his finance. At times this is very dramatic, almost like a Latin Soap Opera. I pictured in my mind quick close up view of the characters eyes, with dramatic music. Every time someone enters the scene, main character or nobody, we get a full description of everything they are wearing, how the wear it, how fast or slow they are walking and where there eyes are looking. Celia used to be a costume designer. When I bought this, the book had a high rating, but now that I have listen to it, it seems the rating has dropped. I think several other people bought and listened for the same reason I did.

So, what I am saying, is that if you like books written by females with all those things that you girls like to talk about, then this is for you and I believe it is well done.

If you prefer a more manly book on a similar subject, then get Peter V. Brett's, The Warded Man. It is less touchie feelie, but has all the demons and scared of the dark stuff.

If you want true science fiction, then turn to Robert J. Sawyer. This is my seventh Sawyer book and this is the best, but they are all good. If you don't like this, you don't like Science Fiction.

Sawyer explores the question, What if Aliens land in the United States in peace, but one of them commits a murder? Sawyer explores this question and we are along for the ride. It is a great ride with some mystery and lots of twists and turns, along with commentary on the U.S. Justice system.

Sawyer never cops out by having aliens that look and act like us. He examines evolution, figures out what type of creatures would come from certain planets and goes from there. Evolution is explored in this book in great detail and some cool things about humans are explained.

Written in 1997, it is just a little dated. There is talk of VCR's and no mention of cell phones. Blockbuster is even mentioned.

I wish I was more articulate, I loved this book and I want you to read it.

Narrator was absolutely excellent.

This is my third and last Eddings book.

We almost need a new Fantasy sub genre. Books should be listed as "All Talk, but do Nothing Books.

There were plenty of off the wall sayings for me to pick as the title for this, such as: Leave enough ticks on a dog and pretty soon there ain't no dog left or A mechanic is just an engineer in blue jeans or It's the Cowboy Way.

This is Wilson's first novel, not his first book. He has written books on robotics. He has a PhD in Robotics among other degree's. When it comes to robots the guy knows what he is talking about, his writing in this novel can be sophomoric and I agree with the reviewer that complained about the present tense form.

Putting the bad writing aside, the use of present tense, the lack of character development, etc, I still liked the book. Like B.V. Larson's Swarm, the concept and chapter by chapter development kept me interested. I am a sucker for A-I, Robots or Vulcan type characters. There is solid Science Fiction in almost each and every chapter and those of us who have been reading Sci-Fi for a while have grown used to putting up with lower writing skills to get the science we crave. Another good thing about Wilson, is that even though he knows the in's and outs of robotics, he does not bore us with all the technical jargon.

Like Stephen Baxter and Ben Bova, I believe that Wilson has a big career in writing if he wants. He will need to get some help with his writing skills, but he won't be the first writer to improve his skills as he matures. Hell, the guy was born two years after I graduated High School.

The narrator is not terrible. He has a nasal quality to his voice and he does not do voices well, but maybe he can hone his skills also.

Early Heinlein should be required reading in Middle School. His books are intelligent and give kids great advice. What I like most about his books are his love for science and education. Without being preachy, he stresses the importance of working hard and for study. There are so many books out there that have characters who have great things happen to them for no good reason. Kids reading these books believe that great things are just waiting to happen to them, without any effort on there part. When they grow up and find out they are not a Prince or Princess in some other dimension or that you don't become a CEO, by doing nothing to accomplish it, they become depressed. They think that life is not fair. They hate those who did work hard to accomplish there goals. Television and lots of fantasy books have done a great disservice to our youth.

With the exception of telepathy, this is a real good book. It is a shame that telepathy is such a big part of the book. I believe that are brains are capable of a lot more then what we are using them for, but the notion about telepathy, especially over the vastness of space almost put this Science Fiction into the realm of Fantasy.

The main characters are hard working and do study. The wonder of space travel is here. Yet this book is probably more introspective then most Heinlein books. The internal struggles of the main character make this a good book for adults as well as children. Sometimes we don't know are selves as well as we think we do. Getting to know yourself and why you do what you do, can help you to change what might need changing in order to reach the goals you want. Like most early Heinlein books this book is deep on many levels.

If living 5000 years does this to your personality, then kill me at 80 please. THE Minotaur has lived 5000 years, yet he is inept and insecure in all things, except mechanical. Forget the title, he does not smoke. He does not drink, swim, talk or have fun. He is Anal.

The plot is, he works in a restaurant, lives in a trailer park, helps a guy move and that is it. I worked in a restaurant as a kid, you worked in a restaurant as a kid, 95% of the people who read this have worked in a restaurant. The descriptive, lengthy restaurant tripe might be interesting to rich academia types, but not the average reader. Even Koontz did not go to this length with his fry cook, Odd.

Through out the book he is consistently referred to as THE Minotaur. THE writer probably had some deep reason for not giving THE Minotaur a name. THE result for THE reader is that it is hard to empathize with THE Minotaur, since he as no name and in the English language we put THE in front of inanimate objects. His co-workers do call him M, he has no friends. Take THE Minotaur out of the book and you cut it in half. I wanted to give up on this book several times, but kept with it. Despite the lack of story, I did start to feel some empathy for the THE Minotaur toward the last part of the book. If my constant use of THE is irritating you then you do not want to listen to this book.

There are characters here from "My Name is Earl", but not well developed. The Minotaur is so un-minotaur like it is unbelievable. His hips and legs are as skinny as a girl. Even obese people have large legs and hips, from carry the load of there upper body. He has no balls. A bull with no balls. He is one sad bull and you will be sad if you expect too much from this.

I gave it three stars as the writer does show promise in his prose. He has an imagination, he just needs to think things through or maybe not think so much.

Years ago, while reading an anthology I came across "The Signaller" by Keith Roberts. This was over ten years ago and the story has haunted me every since. I had never heard of KR, but I did find a old book called "Kite World" by KR. I never got around to reading it, but I will listen to it since I can get on audible. Gaimen recommended this book, so I went with it first. To my surprise "The Signaller" ended up being the second story in this book. It was still just as haunting.

This is a book of short stories or novellas. The First two "The Lady Margaret" and " The Signaller" are five star stories. Roberts prose is beautiful and very descriptive. I usually don't like descriptive type books, but Roberts is so good at it, that he puts you right into the story. When he talks about a cold night with a full moon in the sky, you shiver, even if you are reading the book on a beach in July. He gives the best description of the death of a loved one I have ever heard. When someone you love dies, it is like the pulling of a thread from your life.

Why, only three stars? The five stories that remain are not near as good as the first two, matter of fact it was painful to get through them. The prose was not as good, the stories not as compelling, they sucked.

Warning: Roberts does not believe in happy endings and he will break your heart.

This is not steampunk, but kind of a precursor to steampunk.

In trying to figure out if this is worth buying, let me say figure on getting about 2 and half hours of really good writing and the rest you may want to skip.