Flavius

'Lions of Kandahar' brings the combat close--sometimes too close for comfort. It's a gritty, valiant look at one man's experiences in the recent conflict. This unique focus has its advantages and disadvantages. The author's intimate knowledge of the subject makes for a detailed and compelling read, and because the team is so small, it's easy to keep track of the various participants in course of the battles. However, at the same time this narrow focus does not lend itself to an understanding of "the bigger picture" regarding Afghanistan, or how the events depicted in "Lions" fit in to that bigger picture.

The narration is excellent.

I downloaded this book four and a half years ago, and have listened to it at least twice since then. However, it's taken me a while to articulate my thoughts about this book, which is very often derivative, but which I clearly enjoy quite a bit. I felt I owed it to this book to at least make some sense of my thoughts on it.

Part of the problem is that I can't help but compare the book to Stephen King's far-superior "Salem's Lot." "They Thirst" is heavily influenced by King's earlier novel (which admittedly, owes a debt itself to Bram Stoker's "Dracula"), but takes King's notion of a vampire fiefdom to a grander scale, replacing gothic for action movie.

But for its flaws, this story of a determined group of ordinary Angelenos fighting a growing tide of vampires is pretty good. It's competently, if not spectacularly, written, and never lags. Ray Porter's voice acting is, as is so often the case, wonderful.

Somewhere down the road I'll probably listen to this again.

This book was so much fun to listen to. It seems so often that a series begins to decline by the fourth or fifth book, but I found CF5 to be as enjoyable as any other book in the series (although if you're just coming to the Critical Failures, start with CF1--you'll be glad you did). Bevan keeps the book fresh by introducing new characters and by making ancillary characters into full-fledged cast members.

I really appreciate the humor in these books. Its so fresh and unforced, ranging wildly between lowbrow locker-room ribaldry and sophisticated witticisms and everything in between. There is, of course, a surfeit of cringe.

Bevan has created a world much richer and deeper than what I expected after reading CF1. It's been a long, long time since I've been so eagerly waiting the next installment so deep into a series. This is a fun book.

If you've listened to the other books in the series, I probably don't need to tell you what a great job Jonathan Sleep does with narration. I can't imagine the series with any other narrator.

I enjoyed this brief exploration of the fantasy genre. Michael DC Drout is knowledgeable, and just as important, enthusiastic about his subject material.Before listening, I worried that the lectures would be too dry for my tastes, so I was gratified to discover that they did a good job of holding my interest.

This course is a great overview of fantasy and its 19th & 20th century "origins," but could have--and perhaps SHOULD have--been longer. Because of the course's brevity, the discussion is largely limited to a handful of authors, although those authors are discussed in some detail, particularly Tolkien.

Hell Divers is an interesting new addition to post-apocalyptic fiction. For several generations, the survivors of Earth's last great war haven't actually lived on Earth, but live far above it in a single colony in a massive aircraft called the Hive. Only a handful of colonists have even set foot on the planet, and every one of them has been a hell diver, elite operatives who plummet to the surface of a very inhospitable planet to search for supplies to keep their ship aloft.


Quickly-paced and entertaining. RC Bray does an excellent job of narration.

I like a book with a well-defined and authentic sense of place, and it was the desert & Southwest themes which attracted me to "Bad Country" in the first place. In this, neither the author nor the narrator disappoint. The novel is populated with believable (if not always likable) characters.

One character I very much did like was the protagonist, Rodeo. There's a profound sadness to the character, but also a quiet dignity. He seems to be a guy who's been kicked in the face all his life and expects to keep receiving kicks as long as he lives. For all this, though, Rodeo doesn't come off as a loser (not to the reader, anyway), but something of a hard-luck hero.

"Bad Country" is a world of mean people and casual cruelties where friendship never runs very deep and love isn't even mentioned.

Mark Bramhall's narration was my favorite aspect of this production.

This book was a lot of fun, and kept my interest throughout. I haven't followed wrestling since I was a kid, but had no trouble following the story despite all the "new" (to me) wrestlers in the last 25 years or so.

There are a lot of fun stories, anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stuff from the last years of the WCW. I felt I came away with a deeper appreciation of professional wrestling than I had going in, and a more nuanced understanding of these athletes as human beings.

At times it did seem like the authors were taking a little too much delight in WCW's extravagant foolishness. Sometimes this seemed like "piling on."

Still, it's clear that the authors have a real love for professional wrestling, and that shows in their knowledge and enthusiasm. A good listen.

I wasn't sure I'd have the stamina for a 48-episode course on Ancient Egypt. I thought I might become confused by the sheer scope of the timeline or be bored by professorial flights into minutia. Happily, I couldn't have been more wrong.

This is a very worthwhile course. Professor Brier is knowledgeable, engaging and obviously enthusiastic about Egyptology. After listening to the course, I feel I have a better understanding not only of ancient Egyptian history and customs, but also how ancient Egypt has helped in the development of our modern society.

Despite the progression of names & dynasties, Prof. Brier does an excellent job of reviewing important information from previous lectures. This helps to keep the myriad of historical figures (many sharing the same or similar names) distinct from one another.

The course breathes life into a too-often lifeless period in history. Highly recommended.

"The Eaton" is a fun, novel twist on monster fiction. It's filled with largely likable, sympathetic characters trapped in a grim and perilous environment. I liked the flashback element of the story, which gradually forms our understanding of the situation. As some reviewers have pointed out, the flashback-within-a-flashback technique can be momentarily confusing, but this doesn't present too much of a problem.

What I found most intriguing about this novel was the air of mistrust that the antagonist is able to create among the characters. This element, in which the reader is every bit as in the dark as are the protagonists, adds a suspenseful and gripping element to the story.

I really enjoyed this book, and came away from it with a better knowledge of the submarine war in the Pacific during WWII. The book is gripping, and never drags, depicting the harrowing experiences of several sailors during their lonely and secret war.

Although the book concerns itself with a number of sailors on several boats, the author does a good job for the most part of reminding us who everybody is.

Central to this book are the hunts, when a sub will attempt to sink its target. These are also the most exciting moments of the book. They definitely gave me a new appreciation of the many challenges in targeting and hitting an enemy ship.

This was one of those books in which my interest never flagged. Although the murder mystery is entertaining, what I found most compelling about "Tinseltown" was how vividly it depicted the fledgling movie industry circa 1920. This is an era I knew nothing about, but Mann tells so many stories from the era (including the tragic story of "Fatty" Arbuckle among others) that I've come to have a better appreciation of the times. This book is full of scandal and skulduggery, but also with warm & decent characters. The final chapters detail the lives of many of the principle characters in the years following the scandal--I found this very satisfying.