N. Busse

I have had this book on my short list of books to read for almost 10 years. I saw that audible had it and figured this would be the fastest way for me to finally consume this book - it kept getting bumped down on the list of my exciting fiction.

I work as a software engineer and it seems that every conference or class I have attended has recommended this book, and for good reason. Design as a whole is a very tough job. Non-designers are having to wear designer hats all the time and failing to understand what that means. This book sets out to explain why things go wrong and what sort of questions should be investigated. This book does that but with WAY to much background - it could (and should) have been written as a few page pamphlet and would probably have had wider acceptance and functions has a reference piece.

This book does not spend a lit of time describing the design of everyday things. There are few (when compared to how much material is in the book) actual case studies, or examples of good or bad design. I found the material very interesting but it failed to live up to what I wanted or needed - a guide to one of the most difficult task in any engineers job, interface design.

I found it really interesting how a book from 1988 is not horribly out of time. There are a few points where you can tell (like when discussing the modern type writer) but the logic and points of interest apply to today as much (if not more so) then they did in the 80s and 90s.

It's just fun. Anne Hathaway really gets into the voices, with lots of enthusiasm..

Wow, the book is so much different then the movie - in a good way. Hollywood butchered books even back then.

I would absolutely recommend these books. The dialog was very smart, very real. Either the author did his homework or he's great at making up history - either way, the detail was outstanding.

The obvious choice is The Dresden Files; they are both written in the first person perspective, they both are urban fantasies, they both stare a witty and sarcastic magic user, etc. But how they are different is important too. The tone of this book was lighter...more of a high urban fantasy where Dresden is a dark urban fantasy, if you will. I am sure many will call this book derivative but I wouldn't. There is enough freshness here to warrant reading them. The familiarity only increases their accessibility.

Great with voices. The engineer screwed up a some point because the recording changed drastically for about the halfway mark to the three quarters mark. It almost sounded like it was recorded in a different studio - but I suspect the mic levels were changed and not corrected until later. It doesn't affect you ability to listen/hear, it is just odd when the transition occurs.

I laughed a lot with this book. That surprised me.

Very strong. Not the best voice actor I've heard but close to the top.

Book had a lot of ups and downs as far as my interest went. Some times it was a choir to pay attention other it had my fully.

I haven't read any other books by Weis & Hickman, but I have read books by them individually. Overall, this was a great story that suffered at times from a little ADD. Also, the attempt as 3rd person omniscient was a failure - which is what I blame for more of the slow spots.

I strongly disliked the pretentious pronunciation of the reader. For example, the way he says nauseous, pronouncing every vowel. Or how he over emphasizes the letter H in words like who or where. Very annoying. It's atrocious speech IMO, and it routinely pulled me from the story. His accents were not great (though not bad either) and he seemed to half-try different voices for the various characters, and only succeeded a few times.

I would not recommend this book, but I also wouldn't suggest avoiding it. It is what is it, and it is an immature novel. Immature in that it lacks a good amount polish. Inconsistent tone of the story, even withing the same scene. Wording just seems childish to me at times - not bad, just very un-complex.

Her performance was strong. She did different voices for the characters and seems to do accents well. However, I did not give her the fifth star because her narration voice is a bit monotone and I did not care for all of voices she chose (which I blame more on the writing then the reading). This didn't affect my rating, but near the end there are a few chapters were you can tell she has a stuffed nosed - it was kind of amusing.

No sequel is needed, but knowing there are some, I doubt I'll read or listen to them unless I am desperate for more material. The story was engaging but the author just wasn't up to what I'm used to from fantasy.

This book starts off feeling like a (very-)young adult novel but certain subject matters change my opinion of its indented reader. Now I just think it a book written without an audience in mind and you can tell.