Geza

Wonderful writing and intellectually stimulating. This is my first book I have listened to by Ricahrd Powers, but it won't be my last. It was a feeling and engaging exploration of happiness, genetic engineering, manipulation, and patenting, all through wonderfully drawn characters. Loved it, and listened to it while I cleaned my house this weekend. I wanted to keep cleaning.

The best part of Sacred Stone was the relevance of the plot to today's world situation. The worst part was the narrator.

I read "Plague Ship" and loved it. Sacred Stone was not nearly so good.

The author's attempts at accents and dialects was disappointing. He made all the men with East Coast (USA) accents sound stupid. Very distracting!

It was okay as mind candy, or if you couldn't sleep and wanted something to make you unconscious.

Watch out. Duck!

Entering the alien ship and finding the angels.

Virtual sex.

The plot was more complex than "Altered Carbon," more political intrigue. Sometimes I got lost in who was behind one offensive or another.

Laugh, Learn, Africa

This book reminded me of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" because it was autobiographical, factual, interesting, captivation and so funny I laughed out loud in almost every chapter.

My favorite character was the author, Peter Allison.

No, not in one sitting. Don't get me wrong, it was great listening and I was always anxious to get back to it, but the chapters were complete stories in themselves and I knew that if I only had an hour or so, I would be able to come away satisfied.

This is one of the best books I've heard this year.

I liked the insight into what was actually going on, and how athletes prepare for competition. I've been a Tour fan for about 15 years, and I finally feel like I have some understanding of what these athletes must do both mentally and physically to be contenders.

My favorite scene was during Hamilton's first Tour de France. I watched that race, and it was incredible to relive it from the inside out.

I was moved (to anger) by the way to other doping athletes treated Tyler Hamilton after his bust.

Boy, did I learn a lot, not just about racing strategy, but about physiology and the formulas for peak performance.

The audio version was better for me, because I listened while traveling.

When Jobs and Woz were trying to sell their Captain Crunch black box for making free phone calls, and Jobs was negotiating with the "bad guys."

Dylan Baker brings honesty to the telling of the story. I felt like I was in the room, watching events unfold.

I was moved by Jobs pride for the accomplishments of his son.

I was in the computer business in the late '70's and early '80's - and knew Steve Jobs professionally, though not very well. This book was a walk down memory lane for me, remembering the technological innovations in hardware and software of that period, what was happening politically and economically, especially in California, and all of the key players. I laughed out loud in places and shook my head at Steve's antics in others. Mostly I was intrigued by his obsession with perfection in everything he did. I would not want to be married to Steve Jobs, but I sure wouldn't want to be without my iPhone, my Mac mini, my iPad, my iPod, etc. Well done! Lorraine Mecca, President and CEO, Micro D, Inc.

Like the other reviewers, I agree it was torture to take the ear buds out of my ears and stop listening to this book. I am anxiously waiting for the third book to come out, and already sad their won't be a fourth. The characters are wonderfully developed, interesting, and Simon Vance does a wonderful job with a whole slew of accents.

I wasn't as enchanted as most readers. I think the writing was fabulous, but I didn't take away much from the story. However, I am a non-fiction fan, and those books are usually jam packed with information.

Like many other reviewers, the accent annoyed me for the first two hours (memory is pronounced memowee)and the monotone finish of every sentence would have put me to sleep had I not been on the treadmill. However, you are able to ignore after a while if you force yourself through it.