Barry

Having read this series long ago I was pleased to renew an acquaintance with an old love. This is a great series and this first book is performed flawlessly. The tale of science fiction that improves with age is rare. A wonderful book with a great narration.

This is a masterpiece of TERRIBLE by a writer with all the sensibilities of a boy with diminished capacity. Amazing that something this bad could find a publisher. The writer must have a family connection to the owners because no one would pay the cost of recording something like this
The action scenes? In the middle of a bizarre attack by a Jihadist in a Venetian Palace during a costume ball held by the leader of the Jihad the protagonist is asked by his friend "how's it hanging"? A Jihad out of a Venitian Palace using autistic children with brain implants? Are you serious?
The dialog is so dimwitted and absurd the only reason to continue is to discover if the writing can possibly get worse. A story that makes no sense whatever A plot - if you can call it a plot - that strains - no breaks through any semblance of credibility. Characters you could never dream up who sound like escapes from a remedial reading class.
I would never imagine that Audible could possibly have something it the catalog as lame as this thing. Note a couple of the reviewers have only review the two books by this author so the rating has been fixed. Don't even think about buying this JUNK. I'm truly ashamed at myself for being sucked in by a review that is much more worthwhile than the mess it represents. This is TRASH.

I am a 60 something who probably shouldn't enjoy these computer game books as much as I do. But this genre has grown on me since William Gibson and Neal Stephenson became a part of my reading pleasure. This is a compelling love story with a lot of action and a great fight between some likable geeks and a nasty corporate entity. Well worth the credit and the time it took to listen - 2 days - because I could not turn it off once I got into it. Buy it and you should like it.

This one is great fun and could only be improve by targeting Murdock & the Koch Brothers or a crew of Wall Street financial officers for real. John Rain is eliminating the real enemies of the American people for a change and does it with flair.

This is a delightful and interesting work of fiction that is pleasing to the ear and mind. Such a rich tapestry of the afterlife in a graveyard community democracy. This is a lot of fun.

One of those horrible experiences that has the listener screaming at the speakers. "Stop this inane babel and get on with it". .The plot line and detective work are of some interest but not enough to waste the hours in the insufferable dialogue of the protagonist who's sexist strutting wise-cracking stupidity encourages one to punch him out and remove his tongue.
This guy doesn't need to shoot the hideous villains - he can just talk them to death with some of the lamest dialog ever written. I pity the poor performer for having to read this garbage and hope he got hazard pay. The only thing I got out of this series sale book was the knowledge that I never have to purchase a book by this author at the member price to know how bad it is.

THIS AUDIO BOOK IS THE WORST EVER - I actually hoped the wounded "hero" cop would die and save the world from his revolting attitude. What a jerk - he must be written in the self-image of the author. It's the only way to explain this irritating waste of time. I had to make myself suffer through it because I could not believe it would never get better. It doesn't . I hate this fictional character. How senseless it that? The author drove me to it.

I plead a little Prince Roger fatigue after a couple of weeks of Marching Upcountry, to the sea and to the stars and I got my fill about the middle of book three in the series. This does go on and on and it fills the time I guess. Still enough is enough Mr. Weber. Try trimming a little fat and moving your stories along with more dispatch. I'm beginning to feel like I'm mired in slowsand (as opposed to quicksand) sinking slowly into boredom as the snails pace of your work keeps me just interested enough to see it to the end.
This Prince Roger series could have been better in three parts instead of four just like the Safehold series that has now bogged down to a tedious crawl after an interesting first 3 installments.

Clancy's politics pretty much destroy an entertaining terrorist killing story. He types his non-right wing characters as if he had a High School educated T Party member mentality. In the post 9/11 world it would be very difficult to find anyone who would not applaud the deaths of some Afghan Taliban Al-Queda nut jobs in cave. Much less a President who would prosecute some soldiers for eliminating them in their sleep. Simply beyond belief and so very silly. I doubt you could find anyone in Washington now who isn't fulling in support of eradicating every one of those murderous nut jobs.
For Clancy it seems if you have a care about the environment and decry the thieves on Wall Street you must be against the young mostly minority people who defend the nation and that's really just too stupid to stomach.
Still I enjoyed reading the exploits of the young mostly black men who took out the people responsible for state sponsored terrorism and simply ignored his ignorant and transparent wing nut BS. Clancy could be so much more subtle and accurate and still score some political points but anybody that buys his characterizations is already past any reason or intelligence so what does it matter?

Some great characters and an interesting story line extended a bit beyond optimum but worth the credit and a satisfying thriller none the less. It could have been trimmed a bit but that's a quibble that cost it one star IMHO. It's quite unlike the more dynamic Snow Crash still it shows Stephenson's range and he is quite at home with this rather convoluted series of crisis inducing mistakes.

Ender's Game and Shadow are those rare works that can be enjoyed by adolescents and retirees. Great writing of an extraordinary story. This has been around a long time and I'm glad I finally found the time to enjoy OSC's signature works.