James C

This is an interesting book that gives a good summary of the current state of affairs in terms of asteroid tracking & mitigation technology. If you're interested in astronomy you'll probably enjoy this. The reason that I only gave the audiobook 3 stars is because the author refers, on numerous occasions, to graphs & charts that are supposed to be included in a PDF with the audiobook. The lack of these visual references is frustrating, and though I e-mailed Audible customer support about this issue several weeks ago, the PDF is still not available through their website.

Like many people, I have an interest in UFOs, SETI etc. but have steered clear of books on the subject for many years because because most exhibit the less-than-objective hallmarks of authors who have clearly 'swallowed the red pill' (to quote the Matrix) and surrendered their credibility to the world of conspiracy theorists.

Kean's refreshing work documents several incidents that aren't widely known and, most interesting to me, discusses the surprisingly extensive investigations that nations other than the U.S. have conducted into various sightings. Her sources are, for the most part, identified by name and possess good credentials; much of the book is actually their verbatim testimonials rather than Kean's editorial. Most reports and discussion were precise and specific, with counter arguments considered and rebutted.

I don't think that every argument was rock solid but, generally speaking, the quality was far better than any other book or documentary that I'm aware of. As a military pilot, I can say that she does a pretty good job of representing the technical aspects of many reports, though she does seem to be rather easily impressed by the "Top Secret" security clearance credentials that at least one of her interviewees possessed (these clearances are so common as to be almost taken for granted among Air Force pilots and in certain other military career fields as well).

I'm not going to completely revise my worldview based on this book, but I would say that it re-opened my eyes to the subject of UFOs to the point that I'll at least critically evaluate such reports rather than casually dismissing them as conspiracy babble.

Regarding the narration: rather than the simple expedient of using two narrators, a female and a male, to read the author's discussion and the eyewitness reports respectively, the producers employed a single, relatively monotone female voice. As a result, it's often quite difficult to distinguish between the author's discussion and the eyewitness narratives, to the point that it actually does detract from one's comprehension of the book.

I optimistically chose to listen to this book despite the mediocre reviews because I'm interested in national security, CIA, spy aircraft, etc., but was greatly disappointed.

First the Good Stuff: Jacobsen actually did a lot of interviews for this book and was welcomed (past tense, before the book was published) into the network of retired contractors and military personnel who ran programs or flew planes at Area 51 over the years. To that extent, it's very interesting because she presents some interesting (and probably true) stories from pilots who flew the A-12 and other aircraft at Groom during its heyday in the mid-1960s. One particularly interesting event that I've never heard of before (and I've done a lot of reading on these subjects) involves a pilot recalled being scrambled in an A-12 to intercept a Soviet balloon that was overflying the U.S. in 1965.

Now the Bad... The book begins with a story that could most generously be described as highly implausible about the Soviets crashing a Nazi-built flying saucer near Roswell in 1947 to scare Americans and proceeds into a surprisingly non-critical (or insightful) recounting of Bob Lazar's even less believable tales. The book then transitions from utter fabrication to a poorly written history of the Nevada Test & Training Range, atomic testing, etc, during which the author and her editor repeatedly demonstrate that they neither understand basic concepts about science and technology that any college graduate should know nor apparently have the ability to cross-check their historical information against wikipedia. The author/editor repeatedly describe historical events, technology etc. in a way that would seem unnecessarily simplistic to a high school student, their explanations running the gamut from kind-of correct (as in, what's said isn't WRONG per se but anyone who actually understands the subject matter can tell that the author clearly does not) to simply off the mark. For example, Jacobsen feels like she needs to explain the concept of stealth aircraft to her readers (whom she assumes have never watched CNN) using a poorly-chosen analogy about how animals use skin color to blend into the environment. I felt my intelligence insulted on many occasions, not the least of which was the (second) time she explained that OXCART, the code name for the supersonic spy plane, was chosen because it's ironic (get it? an oxcart is SLOW but the A-12/SR-71 was really FAST!!!). In another minor-but-annoying error that typifies the book and erodes any credibility that survived the first chapter, the author describes an Area-51 employee flying to the Site in a Constellation aircraft and then says something like "...then the twin-engine aircraft banked and..." I want to shout, "Annie, have you ever seen a picture of a Constellation? It would take you like 5 seconds to google it and find out that it has four engines."

To summarize, her book is really a travesty to the men and women who worked on these projects over the years. It's truly disappointing that that their fascinating stories got blended into this melodramatic and otherwise poorly-written book. If you're really interested in classified projects or Cold War history then parts of this book might be interesting to you, as they were to me, but be prepared to wade through a lot of nonsense in the process.

One final note: the narration was usually fine, I didn't even realize that it was done by the author until I came to write the review. However, I did notice that, unlike every government official, newscaster or person around the country, Annie pronounces "NASA" as "Nasaw."

I was hesitant to download this because there weren't any reviews- but I took the plunge and it was worthwhile. It's an interesting look into the criminal world and the politics of law enforcement. Narration and pacing was excellent, definitely recommend.

If you've only seen the movie, read the book. It's totally different but fascinating and gives more perspective/content to some of the stuff from the movie.

This is a fascinating story that hasn't received a lot of coverage in the media! Highly recommend both for the content and narration. Interesting from both psychological and cultural perspectives, the authors describe their experiences over five years of captivity in the jungle in a very candid manner.

I'd give this three and a half stars. The first 2/3 of the book is really interesting, both in learning about the author's background and what the Merchant Marine industry is like. The last couple of hours describing the actual hostage incident are a bit monotonous and confusing, and by the very end you have a lot of questions that aren't clearly answered (it needs a better epilogue). Not the best I've read but probably worth the time.

I'm almost finished with the book and I have found no problems with the narration or editing. I can see what other people mean about it being a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters and figure out who is talking, but keep in mind (for those like myself who are new to the Foundation series) that the book moves from epoch to epoch, with each story having a manageable number of characters. I also agree that the narrator (Scott Brick) doesn't do the best job I've heard him do of distinguishing between characters, but it's really not bad.

On the content side, I'm a fan of many Star Wars books and a few others by authors like Kevin J Anderson and Timothy Zahn but had never read much of Asimov. I'm already hooked and looking forward to the rest of the books in this immense series.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the Pimsleur program and have started using it for Spanish as well as Indonesian; unlike some books/systems that begin with monotonous pronunciation of various letter groups, Pimsleur jumps right into conversation and by the end of the first lesson you can combine a few phrases. The program itself is broken into five thirty-minute lessons. You're supposed to do one a day, though I often repeat them. The only drawback is that the last five minutes of each lesson is pronunciation of words in the student guide, which obviously isn't included from Audible.

I got this to impress an Indo girl I met and to that end I've been very satisfied, in that it quickly and efficiently teaches some basic conversation and expressions. I highly recommend it as an introduction to the language, but having finished the second down available (lessons 6-10), I can say that if you're trying to learn this for a vacation or something you'll need a MUCH bigger vocabulary to be of any practical use.

I discovered this book after watching League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and learning that Sean Connery's character in the movie, Allen Quatermain, is taken from HR Haggard's books.

This story is unlikely to disappointment fans of Indiana Jones-type adventure; the plot is well-written and only occasionally requires suspension of disbelief to get through. The narration as well is very good. Overall, a remarkable novel from a different time.