Robert

I'm an Adam Carolla fan. I listened to his previous book, listen to the podcast, and enjoyed his movie. This one has a lot of stuff i'd heard before. It was still interesting though, don't get me wrong, but he cut out some of the new material that is in the book and not in the podcast (about his interactions with celebrities) and I really would have liked to have heard more about that. Still if you like Adam's style you will enjoy this audiobook.

It's not bad, but this is the setup for a long series and he spend a good deal of time discussing the political situation and how the technology works. I found the enemies plans a bit dull and the end resolution unsatisfying. I liked it enough that I'll try the next book at some point, hoping that now that things are setup he doesn't need to do it again and the story will thus be more satisfying.

His story more or less from the beginning told by the man himself. It feels like he's chatting to you over tea or a drink. The story is mostly linear but jumps about here and there to address the topic at hand and wrap up a character while they are fresh in mind. Feels very conversational that way. The man lived a charmed life (after a very rough 30 year start) and seems to have a really nice outlook on the world.

He really never has a bad word to say about anyone. I'm sure in private he might, but he has the class to avoid that sort of thing so if you are looking for dirty laundry you won't find it here.

The Elephant of the title is the part of East London he came from. Didn't know it was called the Elephant and he never explains why.

Yeah if you hate his politics you probably wont enjoy it but if you have followed the tea-party movement its a wonderful glimpse inside, and of the methods used to try to paint the tea-party in a horrid light. His outlining of those tactics are worth the price alone. I bought the hardcopy version for my mother after listening to the Audio version. Wonderful stuff.

Alan Cumming does a great job. This novel brings the story to life and makes me want to see the play again, and probably dig up the Nigel Trantor novel for comparison. Really the only flaw in the story was that cover art shows a castle a century or two out of date, still artistic license and all, that's a pretty tiny little quibble and certainly not enough to cost a star. If you ever wanted to know what Macbeth was about without the sometimes difficult shakespearean style this is it.

Loved all of his books when I was younger, now I see the repetition. He may not have the same characters in each one but often uses the same mold and the details used to show who is good and/or cool are generally the same. Anyway this one felt forced, as if he wanted to say something about the suburbanization of Florida but really didn't wrap a good enough story around it to carry the theme. The villains are bland and the heros are a bit bland. For Carl Hiassen this is probably his blandest. The narrator did a good job, he always does a good job. So if you like Carl Hiassen its worth it, if you've never tried Carl Hiassen don't start with this one. Nearly any other one would be better.

This was an absolutely wonderful audio novel. The narrator brought it to life, nailing the different voices so well I could easily tell who was talking without the attribution. The first person narrative from Manny also makes the story ideal for an audio format, its as if Manny is telling us what happened. Now I'm gonna have to get more Heinlein and more by Lloyd James.

I could do without the last chapter or two which deals with romance instead of action, but the rest is pure gold. It is no wonder this one, the first written launched such a large number of sequels.

If you love Kevin Smith you'll love this. If you hate him why are you bothering with a review at all. He wrote the book, he narrates the book. It feels a lot like he's just talking to you and comes off effortlessly.

I highly recommend this audio novel but have one reservation. Blue tooth streaming in my car tends to drop off every time there is a pause in an audio. Between songs you don't notice it, in most audio novels its barely noticeable. In this one, however, it drops off each time they mention the name of the speaker. Not knowing who said what makes the story far less enjoyable. If you don't have this problem, ignore my review, the audio is brilliant fun over the iphone headset. If you do, well you've been warned so you might look for a solution before you buy (perhaps avoid streaming and run it directly).