Kim

As usual with this author, you can never be sure whether the main characters are going to survive the book. He also pays attention to factions form and interact with each other. Plus, there's so much that never gets explained to the reader/listener, since the characters never figure it out.

It brings to mind what I think of as the "arbitrary quest" books of Simak (such as Destiny Doll), but is far superior to them. I can't think of anything that's similar in both quality and ideas.

Svetlana.

No. I was interested, but not emotionally invested in it.

Absolutely, and without reservation. There's no shortage of action, but the major characters all have some depth to them. The women are not just damsels in distress or bimbos, and they get their fair share of the action. Even the characters closest to being standard action antiheroes - they're all a lot closer to Han Solo than to Aragorn - do some thinking and planning.

Olivia's reaction when her contact said, '...and then one guy said something like, "Holy s#%*! It's Sokolov!"'

And let's not forget, "Why is it all right for James Bond?"

I think this was the first of his performances that I've listened to.

There were lots of funny moments, and the other folks at the gym may have wondered what I was listening to. Fortunately, I was somewhere else when the colostomy jokes cropped up.

Although there were some poignant moments (e.g. observation of the hand-stitched quilt in the RV), none of them were in the "make you cry" category.

I couldn't bring myself to turn it off during about the last 6 hours of the recording. It had been obvious for some time that the story was heading in a certain direction, and I couldn't wait for the bad guys to get what was coming to them, or to find out which of the good guys got to finish off the leader of the bad guys.

The story and narration were good. However, there were some obvious transitions between what were presumably different recording sessions. I also had some bad audio patches a few seconds long, but that may have been due to having to stop and re-start the download.

I'll admit that I thought the story took a while to really get going, but long before I got anywhere near the end, it was in the "can't put it down" category. It's not often that I identify with characters as much as I did with some of the folks in this book. I also really enjoyed most of the digressions (the math ones especially, stockings/furniture not so much).

Whatever they are paying the narrator is not enough. He was great, and managed to produce a wide variety of accents and emotions.

The story was good, and what I'd expect from this author. The narrator, however, seemed to be rushing through it as fast as he could, sounding almost breathless at points, which seemed generally inappropriate for the story.

This is quite different in style and tone from the usual work of Alastair Reynolds, but the story was good. The narrator delivered the story well, and did a good job of bringing the characters to life.

The story is good, as usual for Brin. Two of the three narrators sounded like they were reading for the Romance section, but one gets used to it and there are portions toward the end for which it seems appropriate.

Most of the books I've listened to have been good, but this was the audio equivalent of "I couldn't put it down".

"We've had a busy day. Kidnapped J. Edgar Hoover..." - or words to that effect. There are a few others that come to mind, but they'd be spoilers.

Hard Magic is the only other one I've listened to, so this one has the same style and most of the same characters. Unsurprisingly, the performance is of similar quality. I love the way he voices the various characters, Dan Garrett in particular.

Angels, demons, and good old-fashioned conspiracies.

I eagerly await the next book in the series.

Yes, I have several more Modern Scholar titles in my wish list, and have a few already in my library.

Now I know why Swiss cheese smells like sweaty feet.

N/A

Now I want to set up a column full of swamp mud and grow my own bacteria. The sections on bacterial metabolism were particularly interesting.

Getting some of the back-story on Revelation Space characters, even if it wasn't always totally consistent with the main series.

The climax of Nightingale. If I say more, I'll spoil the fun.

Not the whole book, but I did want to listen to each story in one sitting.

I loved how some of the stories fleshed out things that were just mentioned in passing in the Revelation Space series.

But which Prefect?

Maybe Dune, due to the Plans within Plans aspect of the plot. However, it's been a very long time since I read that so the comparison is probably imperfect.

The conversation with the Clockmaker.

Nothing's as simple as it seems.

For followers of the Revelation Space series, this book gives some cultural background on the Glitter Band and the Demarchists in general.