Erik K

Great stuff for fans, but definitely not a place to start with Ender (well, the original novella is a great place to start, but that's just a third of this download). Without knowing some details from the books, the resonance of these first meetings would probably be greatly diminished. Without an understanding of the larger structure, some listeners would likely not appreciate the full story.

I'm including an open plea to all audiobook producers: Please please please, if you must include music that overlaps the narration, LISTEN TO IT BEFORE FINALIZING THE PRODUCT! Often, this is a minor annoyance. In this book, it absolutely ruins the end of the Ender's Game novella. You can't hear half of what's being said. So a meaningful quiet moment is completely spoiled. I've never read a review where someone likes these musical overlays: I'm begging you to stop using them. It created a sad, sour experience at the end of an otherwise enjoyable listen.

Long but engrossing

Stephen King usually creates great character sketches, both with characters you get to know throughout the entire book and those you only see for a little bit. This book may be the best of his books for this.

Great voice work for the characters, and great acting as scenes shift from quiet to frightening or high action.

At 30-some hours, I don't think I could possibly listen all at once. I did like to listen to a bit each day, and get as much as I could during those listens.

As others may note, there is a scene of a sexual nature that I felt deeply uncomfortable with. I almost never feel this way about language or sexual content, but given the age of the people involved and also the (to me) unconvincing and spurious reason for the act it seemed, well, wrong. As I listened, I was ready to forgive these things, but as the descriptions continued to increase in their graphic nature, I felt incredibly uncomfortable with the act. I'm one who gets irritated with other reviewers who trash a book once they hear the F word or sex enters in, but this one... well, you'll have to make up your own mind.

If you come to this expecting to find something along the lines of His Dark Materials, you'll be disappointed. But I get the feeling some people rate this lower because it's a different sort of book than they wanted... you can't blame the book for misplaced expectations. This is beautifully read with sound effects and effective music which, for once, doesn't overwhelm the reading. This is definitely a children's tale in the great fairy tale tradition, with truly nasty villains, supernatural forces, plucky heroes who triumph over their own foibles, and a happy ending (I'm sure that isn't a spoiler). I've listened twice and thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have all of Philip Pullman's books. Come in expecting a charming and fun tale and you won't regret that you did.

This is even talkier than Speaker For the Dead, but no less riveting for those who enjoy the Ender Wiggin series beyond just the boy soldier theme. It's compelling listening.

That is, until certain passages involving the people of the world of Path come in. How could a producer possibly not realize how offensive the Chinese accents are? The Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan actors of old might feel that the accents were a bit much. This isn't a matter of political correctness, it's a matter of bad choices, irritating accents and a bizarre need to overlay the story with a sometimes thick and insulting accent. Kind of an Enderverse Jar Jar Binks.

Not a reason to not listen to this one. I loved it... maybe some day they'll re-record those bad passages.

One of the few books I've been tempted to abandon, there are enough small insights to make it worth slogging through. Still, the author's snarkiness wears thin quickly, his "exaggerations to make a point" get tiresome and his reading tone does not aid the experience. The chapter on intellectuals is perhaps the least interesting thing I've experienced in a long while.

He also, as has been pointed out, mispronounces words often enough that it grates. As a bobo himself, he should know how to pronounce "mores". If the author is reading, it's pronounced "morays," and I hope knowing this spares you future embarrassments.

I realized quickly that thought this was the earliest book in the series available on Audible, other books had come before. For quite a long time, the book mostly looks back on previous events... some sort of witch war and its fallout, reintroducing characters, etc. Though I would have been lost without it, I think a long-time reader might have been frustrated by the exposition. Myself, I was thinking "that must have been what happened in the last book, when will we find out what's happening in this book?"

Not terribly, much, really. A sniper mystery with a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. Lots and lots of supernatural types lusting after our heroine (a bit overplayed, that). Lots of talking about what happened before this book. Some private detectives that show up and then vanish forever (maybe they come back in the next book, but it irritated me to have them played up heavily and then vanish).

A very good reader, a reasonably engaging story despite its flaws and somewhere, an interesting larger story. Not enough to bring me back, but I had a pleasant time listening.

Clarke is more on the Hard SF side of things, which generally means that his characterizations are, shall we say, lacking. You have a hard time caring about most people you'll encounter in these... though you'll find the ideas compelling.

This is an uneven collection, featuring some excellent work and some iffy inclusions. Examples include his "White Hart" series which are really only shaggy dog stories ending in bad puns. Other stories are just preachy and predictable. In one introduction, Clarke states that he doesn't write message stories, and the one we are about to hear is one of his few. But message stories abound, mostly about how humanity is going to destroy itself (with twist endings easily seen, such as a child watching the rise of a planet destroyed by war... and that planet is Earth!! Gasp!). The very short closing story is another strong example of this tendency.

The readers are similarly uneven, some good, some adequate. A very big problem is the spacing of the stories. Many times, the stories end on a portentious note, and the next begins so close on its heels that you might think it's part of the same story. As some stories feature multiple narrators, this becomes even more confusing. Honestly, some start with less than a full breath's pause after the finish of the last, dampening the impact of a story's climax.

If you love hard SF, add a star.

I almost gave up a few minutes into the book. Sometimes producers stick music on, and usually it's okay. But the opening of this book is played under some African guitar, and it sounds as if the author is struggling to be heard. And it went on, deep into the narrative, and at the end, it came back, spoiling the ending for me.

That said, the writing is wonderful, the piece on the tigers and the travels to Bhutan are real high points and the afterward is touching in the extreme (until you can't hear her over the music). Recommended, but with a plea to audiobook producers to remember that the words are the most important things, and not to drown them out.

Though the book kept me listening all the way through, there were points I wanted to fling my iPod against the wall. Case in point, when the bad guy is threatening our hero, he repeats the same phrase over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Later in the book, as the hero remembers this you go through it again.

Reasonably exciting, and with questions you want to hear the answers to. Without spoiling too much, though, the big question of how the cops are going to explain their actions in defeating a supernatural psychopath goes unanswered. They even mention it, and the need for a story is discussed. But what that story was, we'll never know. Instead, Koontz gives us more of the dog to distract us from this cheat. *Interesting*. If you listen, you'll recognize that *Interesting*. You'll hear it often enough.

This book is like the little girl from the nursery rhyme: When she was good, she was very very good, but when she was bad she was horrid. Slow to start, it starts to get good just before you might think of giving up. Quite exciting for long sections, but with just plain dull sections stuck in for good measure. Imaginative in places, quite flat in others.

Many characters are stock King (and possibly stock Straub, though I haven't read as much of his work). Old black people are wise and somewhat mystical (see also The Shining and The Stand). Folks in small rural towns are ignorant and racist (see most anything). Large slow witted people are good and loyal friends (see also The Stand).

And the book is long. Much too long. Filled with characters saying the same things over and over again in a long string (literally: see the main villains "what does it gain you to win the world" inner and interminable monologue and Jack's "I am the herd" stuff). Characters talk in irritating ways (Speedy's old bluesman patois gets old quickly, and Wolf's need to say "right here and now" and "wolf" in the middle of sentences gets old very very very quickly."

Finally, there's the narration. Good in places, but sometimes the narrator sounds like he's trying out for a Clint Eastwood role, with breathy drawn out sibilants at the end of sentences. But overall good.