Richard Nielsen

I am going to write this review. Like the reader. Read. It. Throughout. He would start each sentence with a normal flow. And then. At the end. He. Would. Add. Pauses. This has the effect of making the sentences sound. Like. They had. Periods. Where there were. No. Periods. It would not have been so annoying. If. He only. Did. It. For. Emphasis. But instead, he did it on just about. Every. Single. Sentence.

I almost could. Not. Make it. Through. The. Book.

Couldn't finish it. This was one of the worst books that I have tried to read in a long time. She tells you something, and then tells you it again, and again, and then she has the character tell another character, and you hear it again....then that character tells someone one else and you hear it again. I've listened to 10 hours of this audiobook, and this is what I've learned....she is sick. It may be the plague, but she doesn't have any of the symptoms of the plague. She was on a white horse, but the man's horse is black so it couldn't have been white. She might have the plague, though. But she doesn't have any of the symptoms of the plague. She knows that from when she fell off the white horse. But there wasn't any white horse. Why isn't her translator working? She may have the plague. If she had the plague though, her fever would not have broken... and it did, so she must not have had the plague. But she may have had the plague when she was on the white horse. But there wasn't any white horse. And there is no swelling in her armpits, so she couldn't have the plague. But maybe she caught the plague. But no; she was inoculated against the plague so she couldn't have the plague. But she was so sick when she was on the white horse. But no; there wasn't a white horse because she was so feverish with the plague. And why wasn't her translator working; but it was working, cause it translated the Latin, but it wasn't working, because she couldn't understand them. But I understand them just fine, but they don't understand me. So the translator must be broken. But it wasn't broken, because the priest understood my Latin. But they are asking me yes and no questions, but all I can do is ask then questions in response. I don't want to nod my fricken head or shake my fricken head to let them know that I understand them. No. Instead I'm going to answer their questions with questions of my own, like "where is the man with the white horse?", but no. The horse was black.

There. I've summed up the first 10 hours of the book. Spend your credits somewhere else.

The reader is ok, but his cadence gets to you after about 60 hrs of it. It is his short staccato delivery that grates on one's nerves. When.... he.... talks.... in.... short.... lit.... tle.... bursts.... emph..... a...... siz..... ing..... each..... in..... di..... vid..... u..... al..... syl..... a..... ble, all you can think of after 50 or 60 hrs is that you could have been done by now had it been read more smoothly. I don't think it is a computer, but just an older man. I wish I could post process the file and cut the space inbetween sounds in half. It would probably cut it from 87 hrs down to 50ish.

I have no comment on the content of the book.

As usual, reviews of Audible books are broken into two categories…the writing, and the narration. First the narration. Excellent. In my opinion, the best narrators are the ones that are so seamless that you don’t even notice them and can immerse yourself in the book, and Paul Michael is like that.

Now the book: Dan Brown makes, in my opinion, two large mistakes in this book (large enough where they break through the suspension of disbelief). First he writes a “brilliant” person, and then makes her the dumbest person in the room. She continually has to have things explained to her, often in a painstakingly step-by-step manner. I’m talking about things so simple and obvious that even this reader has figured them out.

The second big mistake is that if the government made some crypto device so wonderful as to be able to break any codes, the very first thing they would do is build another one….no matter how much it costs (oh, and he keeps referring to the 2 Billion dollar price take like it is some huge price tag).

That all being said, I think this book warrants at least a couple of stars. The romance portion of the book was well done. One extra star for the excellent narration.

I liked the book. It was fast moving, and the characters were well developed for the most part. I don’t quite understand everybody’s complaints about the reader…do you all not have controls on your audio equipment? Simple adjustments in volume, bass, treble and such will make those little mouth noises go away. This is a spoken word media…..you don’t need to hear every little nuance, do you?

Now for my complaint. The NRO does not launch their satellites on “NASA launch vehicles”, they and the other government agencies interested in putting things in space (Air Force, etc.) buy their launch services from the Launch Service Providers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Orbital Sciences. The only vehicle that could be considered to be a NASA launch vehicle, or that is “launched” by NASA is the Shuttle. So if (just as an example) a Titan IV launch vehicle built by Lockheed Martin, launched by Lockheed Martin, with Air Force and Aerospace Corporation oversight blows up on the pad and destroys a billion dollar NRO payload…..how is that NASA’s fault? And since when does commercial satellite companies fly their payloads on “NASA Launch Vehicles"? The idea that NASA provides launch services “at a loss” to keep down the Beals and Kistlers of the world I find humorous. When the Kistlers of the world show that they can launch something with low risk, I’m sure DirectTV will be right there buying their services...NASA too.

I understand that these errors might have been needed for the plot, but I think that Dan Brown just didn’t do his homework. The errors made the plot a little unbelievable to me, but I am probably in the minority (I work in the space launch business). These errors have not prevented me from getting another Dan Brown book.