Paul

Sawyer's novels remind me of Ray Bradbury's writing for some reason. His novels work around a fantastic premise and then he builds in very human characters with their own flaws and shortcomings into the scene. His facts are incredibly well researched, rivaling or even outstripping Michael Chrichton in factual detail. He certainly beats Chricton in character development. I find myself learning a little something about the universe every time I read Sawyer.

In this book, Sawyer, is also (perhaps unwittingly) updating and reliving the premise of an old Bradbury short story called "Dial Double Zero", where an intelligence is spawned within the phone system.

In Sawyer's version, a "bicameral" intelligence spawns within the internet, a product of a Chinese telecom blackout -- and like Bradbury's "Dial Double Zero", this intelligence contacts a solitary human being. The irony in this story is that the 'web mind' can see, but can't hear, while Katlyn can hear, but is blind except for a new, web connected electronic eye implant and finds out that this growing web mind shares her one eye - perhaps in future novels we're lining up a modern day threesome of Greae Sisters from Greek Mythology? We shall see. There's still one loose plot thread for the next novel.

Unlike others, I thought the narration was excellent. This is a multi-narrator reading, which is not to be confused with a full cast reading or an audiodrama. The woman reading the voice of a 16 year old girl is also reading the voice of a Japanese coding expert, a middle aged Texas born mother and a quiet, yet kind father with his own issues. I found her voice both warm and endearing to the main character's personality, while quite capable of modulating the other character's voices quite clearly. The other narrators were also similarly skilled. The voice of the web mind could win an award for his performance.

When you listen to this book the title of this review will make sense. I was captivated from one end of this book to the other. Every chapter left you hanging... I almost expected that end scene music from Lost after each chapter. Only this book is what Lost SHOULD have been. The narrator did a great job except for the accent of Veek. He sounded like a male Indian when she was very much a female. Female Indian accents are different from male. Great story. Get this book if you want to be late for work because you're stuck in your car listening to the next chapter on your car stereo.

A great lecture told in story fashion about a guy who pins his problems on everyone around him and blows up at people, including his own wife and kids. It is a story on how to own up to your own actions and how to view things from multiple fascets BEFORE opening your fat mouth. Quite often someone else's mistakes are the result of your own. It's about thinking "outside the box", where the box is your selfish point of view. William Dufris presents this story in a fashion that has you feeling like you're being given a very important life lession by your grandfather. The book is designed for managers, and I've actually used it with some fellow employees who seem to refuse to see things from less selfish angles. Some things said in this little story will really hit home.

A fantasy story for redneck gun nuts about fighting vampires, zombies and every other kind of un-dead! Solid action from one end to the other with plenty of tech talk about guns to peak every gun lover's fantasy... and their vehicle of choice? A Russian Hind-D attack helicopter - ofcourse. Flown by a heavy metal listening "something" that you'll find out more about when you listen. Voice modulation of all the characters was spot on. Great narration. An accountant from Dallas gets attacked by a werewolf (his boss) and manages to survive the attack after throwing his boss out of an office window. He winds up being recruited by a clandestine team of monster hunters and an old Jewish man who lives in his head. Great story. Lots of sarcastic humor as one bizzarre thing happens after another.

Two nuclear physicists have a breakthrough in the design of a quantum computer, only in doing so, they create an openning into a parallel world, only the physicists are neanderthals and one of them gets sucked into our world.

An incredible story is used to draw interesting and well educated comparisons between humans and what neanderthals could have been like. It's not great science fiction... Instead, it's great science... and great fiction.... and a little bit of a mystery.

Great continuing adventure for Eddie LaCrosse who seems to never stop winding up on the wrong side of the sword at the right time... Another fantasy/mystery told in Raymond Chandler style by the deep rich voice of Stefan Rudnicki. No better narrator could have been chosen to give the story it's 1930's mystery novel feel - while being interestingly set in a medieval fantasy. I look forward to continuing LaCrosse novels.

In this story, Eddie is nearly killed trying to help a young girl after being thrown down a cliff with his horse. He takes up the investigation into who these strange men are and what was so important about the girl.

Great story, told in a descriptive and pensive manner that lended itself to the overall mood of the whole piece. There are some points in the story that are so well described, that I feel as though I could paint them in freeze frame. This book is different from any other fantasy novel I've ever read.

This book, unlike most other fantasy novels, is not your typical "quest" novel. There's no quest in this story at all. It's about a Kingdom ruled by a king who tries to control magic through a school that teaches government accepted "politically correct" magic, giving the story a moral. The characters are deep and well developed. The parts are played perfectly by Gabrielle de Cuir. It is by no means a "heavy" novel and sort of parallels "Much A Do About Nothing" in some ways. Nobody dies. There are no battles, only the battles of wits... and the deep emotions of Brendon Vetch, the castle gardener, who talks to plants using magic. If you can't see the mood in the piece, it won't hold much for you, but it's mood is what makes it different from other books. If moods could be painted, this author would be a master!

A series of books written as a backlash to the bra burning era of the 70's. Many readers and listeners of this series compare it to Edgar Rice Burroughs, but at the same time, slam this series because of it's bondage theme. Yet they forget that Burroughs' books were of a nudist theme - which was scandalous in it's day too. In this series, most women are on a leash or wearing shackles and are branded as property. But it should be kept in mind that this is just a fantasy novel and it is in no way suggesting that it be a manifesto for a model society.

In this book, Tarl Cabbot returns to find his home city destroyed. He's a warrior without a city and he finds his way to a city ruled by a woman. Are the tables turned? It's a good story. Slow in some places, but it has some good plot twists.

This was introduced as a new idea of tied in short stories set in a world where the United States is on the verge of economic collapse caused by Republican/Conservative political policies and environmental collapse as the earth is ravaged by global warming (once again due to Republican policies).

The idea of a themed set of short stories has been done in Sci Fi before. Such sci-fi classics like Assimov's "I Robot" and Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles", which are now monumental classics in the sci fi world and are often required reading in many schools.

Though these books are now dated an the timelines when these stories were to come to reality have long passed, they are still classics and are still treasured by sci fi enthusiasts. What Scalzi needs to learn from these two classic writers is a lesson of arrogance.

Bradbury and Assimov were not so arrogant as to suggest that their vision was how it was actually going to be, as Scalzi does in his interstory narratives.

Scalzi's world is a utopian vision based on Joseph Baratz model of Kibbutz aggrarian communes, hippy communes, collectivism and outright Marxism disguised as anarchism, with tiny cameras and satellites watching your every move - and we're supposed to think this is an intelligent answer to a new and more ideal world.

You have government counselors assigning you to a pig tending job from a goverment accepted job bank of job openings based on your aptitude... and if you don't accept your social duty and agree to your pig tending job, there was always life outside the walls of your community. Sound familiar? The Soviet Union had such walls - and they assigned their citizens to jobs and one room apartments.

In this book, the Soviet Union is like a capitalist wet dream as in some of the communes in this book, you can't even own personal property! In this world, you can't drive an electric car without people tearing up your car and calling you a "footprinter"... It is such a screwed up place that people are wearing reality augmenting glasses. You have walk or ride a bicycle everywhere. And we're supposed to think "Wow... This is cool!"

Saying that. Based on the setup, the stories were well done. Ignoring the politics, I loved the stories. They were performed by the best narrators and the plots were great. The same stories could have been told with a little less political finger pointing and a little less environazi arrogance. All the same, I look forward to the next book.

So the stories get 3 stars for sheer arrogance and political fingerpointing. Everything else about the stories was 5 star.

Great story. Much of the ending was predictable from the very start, but it is a childrens book. I would recommend this to my 10 year old neice. Fantastic narration of all the characters by Allan Corduner. Definately a 5 star performance. Imagry is fantastic. The story is fun and thoroughly enjoyable.

Kate plays off the leather duster, gun slinging steampunk cougar babe really well in this spin on the zombie genre. Will Wheaton lends to the whole act with his fantastic sort of "boy wonder" voice that time seems to have not changed since his Star Trek days. Good story. Facts are a little confusing at first in the story, but work themselves out in the end. Great ending. Feels like you are watching a zombie movie in your mind. Every detail is clear.