John

A plot. Any character development. About 1/2 the length. A few paragraphs of something other than constant middle-east bashing. About 75% less smart-alec dialog.

I didn't even make it 1/2 way through this book (and I remember enjoying previous books in the series).

Oh and did I mention the constant gratuitous blood and gore?

Reading Creole Belle. What a contrast.

It's ok but it tends to amplify the bad writing. For example the smart-alec dialog contains a lot of the response "Right" which the guy says in a exaggerated smart-alec way which gets tiresome really quickly.

Clearly these characters have all run their course. John Corey is tiresome. All the stereo-typed middle-east characters are shallow. Really I can't think of anything worth saving.

Seriously, can I get a refund? This thing was really really bad

The author is pretty famous here in Boston but I didn't know she had a book series (I don't watch the channel she is on). The plot seemed interesting but it was inspired by a number of local references, so us locals may have a slight positive bias.

The writing wasn't bad. She's no Lehane but the characters and the dialog were ok however with the bad production its a little hard to tell.

No. As I said in the subject: bad production. Might recommend the print version although not strongly.

Really really bad. The novel has a lot so short chapters cutting quickly between characters and scenes and this reader does no voices and almost no tonal changes so it is very hard to follow. Around the middle of the book she at least gets some emotion in her voice during action but that's about as far as it goes. To compound matters there are often no pauses between chapters so one chapter ends. The next chapter begins with the different character talking with no tonal shifts, no pauses..you're like wait a minute. This is a completely different character/scene.

On top of that this particular book resets to the beginning every time you pause. You have to keep track of where you are yourself and skip all the way from the front every time you play it. I've had problems with other books but never this bad. Even pauses (not stops) reset to the beginning.

It was ok. Nothing special. Very very annoying from a usability point of view.

Well the setting and the concept was interesting, particularly to us New Englanders. There is enough of a plot there to keep you going and although the character development is pretty minimal, at least the main character is somewhat engaging.

Overall I was very underwhelmed by the book. The plot was obvious and superficial. The characters where very artificial and they were only there to shore-up the weak plot. If you know anything about technology you will find the technical descriptions and dialog to be similar to something you would hear on a television drama: a recitation of buzzwords that make no sense to a technologist.

No and its not likely I will be investigating their other books any time soon.

Yes. I never cared for him anyway but he is particularly inappropriate for this book. His overly dramatic reading style makes this marginal plot sound even more hokey.

Hmmm. I listen during my commute so time isn't that big an issue, however if I had paid full price for the thing I might be upset. It was almost worth the $7. Free would have been even better.

The first half was particularly hard to get through. Almost gave up. No plot and extremely unsympathetic characters. I might even go as far as to say uninteresting characters. About 1/2 way through the plot kicks in and it makes the book a little less tedious but still...at the end of this fairly lengthy book I found myself thinking, "why did I waste my time on these horrible people?"

I am sure it gets good ratings because the woman is a very good writer and the character development is exceptional, particular for this genre. But still. Do you really want to know all the innermost thoughts of the couple from hell?

No surprise here.

Unlike the previous audio book that I listened to with a male/female pair the formula really works for this book. In other books I found it to be pretty artificial and inappropriate but for this book it is actually much better than having a single reader because you associate the sound and style with the personalities as they develop.

Absolutely not.

I will definitely be checking into previous books by this author because she is clearly quite skilled however it they hint of containing more of the secret life of narcissists then I think I'll skip them.

This book has almost no plot and much of the dialog is so tedious that I finally couldn't stand listening to it. They are sitting in a car just spewing exposition most of which has little impact on the plot or the character development. Perhaps I just don't care for these all action-no plot types of books.

This is my first and last purchase of this authori.

Her male voice(s) are pretty bad. Almost insultingly bad (for the male audience)

The other is good at writing action sequences. The problem is that you can't sustain something the length of a book with only action sequences.

I have only watched a few episodes of the Dexter television show and this is my first exposure to the books and I really enjoyed this audio book. I think I would rank it as one of my favorite audio books of all time. The writing is clever and funny and the author does an absolutely excellent job of reading the material. I admit that I enjoy Florida school of craziness but I think as an entertainment this book is top notch. If you are expecting the gore and intensity of the TV series this is not the book for you. This book is funny funny funny with quirky character and good writing to boot.