Charles

The narrator is frankly awesome but the story moves a little slow for me. Lots of description of the uplift universe but the plot develops at a snails pace. Still it is worth reading since it won the Hugo.

I enjoyed this book. I was new to the author and the series. The characters and the background to the culture are developed as a byproduct of the story which I like. This allows action to be intertwined with narrative. Well narrated.

Hard science fiction with very few frills. Direct and to the point with very good narration. Introduces the Heritage series, answers a couple of questions but poses more. I really enjoy this type of science fiction and will listen the the next 3 books.

The narration is adequate but not great. Mia Barron has a clear and distinct voice but a couple of character voices were very irritating. A teenager turned vampire seemed more like a preteen, whiny and such with no rebellious edge. I do think the narration was effected by the story and writing style. I bought the book having read a Greywalker short story. I could not tell if I liked it so I tried the first book in the series. It is rather dry with long expository sections explaining the "grey". It would have been better, in my opinion, to just let more things happen and learn about the "grey" as a by product of the story. The central character, is very stereotypical and frankly hard to care about or engage with as she goes about solving the mystery. Supporting characters, such as, Quinton, just appear and have the skill set she needs at that moment. Again cliched. I read other urban fantasy and tried this but I was disappointed as the book, to me, is very blase. Average.

I enjoyed this audio book ok. The strength is the reading. Clear with good depiction of the voices, especially the aliens. The reading is also very clear. However, I can't get by the bad science represented in this novel. l was particularly bothered with Brins basing a major driving social force to von Danikens fabricated work which has little or no credibility. Having said that, the idea of uplifting are intriguing enough that I will listen to the next books but I expect better writing.

I have believed for a long time that Atlas Shrugged would be outstanding read aloud. I wasn't disappointed. Scott Brick does a good job in bringing the characters to life without interfering with the ideas presented in the book. He uses consistent voices for the characters so I found it easy to tell who was talking. I had read the book twice but I enjoyed the audio even more especially in the difficult long passages. Like I said this is worth a listen. An outstanding presentation of one of the most important books of the twentieth century.