Kendall

I am a long time audible user. I was looking forward to much more from this title. Since I have an interest in entomology, it serves as a distraction. But for the regular listener, I think they will get bored fairly quickly between the interesting tidbits of historical excitement offered. I seriously thought that the narration was by a digitized computer voice when I first hear it--very monotone. The voice would probably be okay for a PBS documentary which used it only in snippets, but does not add anything to a full length book.

Sound advice that works--not a gimmick, but a description of real principles that the author has distilled down to five love languages. I appreciate the author reading his own work--I think that a "good" reading by a sincere author beats a "great" reading by an unaffiliated narrator, since there is passion and knowledge and authenticity from the author. I believe in this so much that I have purchased the book, CD's, or mp3 audio files of this work for 7 of my siblings and in-laws.

The author uses "area 51" as a fulcrum to summarize many of America's clandestine operations during the past 80 years. I take everything like this with a grain of salt--just like I do statements from the U.S. Government about its own "secrets." Nevertheless, this provides thousands of documented "facts" that are woven into known U.S. history in a very intriguing way. This isn't a late-night a.m. radio rant on governments secrets, but a well-researched, well-documented presentation that is probably "on the money" a good deal of the time. But even if there are errors in attributing recently unclassified "secret" documents to exactly where they fit, it is not the author's fault primary, but that of the U.S. Government for keeping vast quantities of documents 'classified.' I considered this well-worth the listen. Regardless of whether you agree with everything, it will contribute to your knowledge base, making you better able to evaluate stories you "hear" about black ops. I give kudos to the author for reading it herself. What little she may lack in comparison to Audible's "best" professional narrators she surely makes up in passion and expert knowledge about the content. I prefer a good reading by an author to an academy award winning reading by an unaffiliated narrator.

I was worried about some reviews that considered this more sensational then scientific. The authors try to convey the science in an interesting way. I was satisfied.

I have listened to ALL of the previous Mary Russell novels and appreciate having yet another to keep me going. This one took 20 chapters (half of the book!) before it got into anything resembling a Holmes/Russell novel, spending most of the time on the day to day happenings of a dysfunctional ~1920's film crew and cast. There was a more-than-typical nod to homosexuality in the previous century, which really didn't add much. I enjoyed the book as a whole, nevertheless, though it would probably not be very good for someone that has not listened to previous books. The first half was a little tedious. Thankfully, the same great narrator (Jenny Sterlin) has done all of the books!

The story was great, science nerds making a play on Vegas. I understood that when quoting the college kids that there would be some swearing--though perhaps more than I would have liked. However, the author made a point to describe the sexual depravity of the city in a manner that would have merited an R-rating if a film.