Maria Cuculiza

I simply love audiobooks; however when asked if I consider an audio edition better than the print version, I am at odds to respond. An audio edition has such beautiful and expressive reading by great specialists. They are moving, exhilarating, funny, sarcastic ... and yet a printed version, internally read by our own voice, also has its very personal touching and endearing features.

The final encounter by the-long and painfully separated Natalie and Byron, and their son Louis. Though the scene is not necessarily highlighted in the book and is to some extent plagued with practical details, the built-up suspense and suffering of these people make it so significant and moving that make it one of the most memorable moments in the book.

I liked too many scenes to say I had a favorite one. There were extraordinary scenes at the Russian Front, so many romantic scenes with Victor Henry, wonderful feeling around Italian landscape and culture in connection with Aaron Jastrow, hair-rising suspense around Natalie's many attempts at escaping Europe, peculiar Rhoda Henry's many couple and family scenes, ...there is no end to enjoyment.

Victor Henry and Natalie Jastrow are the two main figures in the book, I think. So noble and yet so human in the many facets they have as the rich characters they are. However, other characters are so interesting in their transformation, like Leslie Sloat and Aaron Jastrow, and in their depiction, like Rhoda Henry. Again, it's hard to decide. It takes all kinds to make a world.

The historical comments in Winds of War and War and Remembrance are not to be neglected. They provide important context to these two books, a fresco of those hard times.

Diamond's original and well documented points of view.

Scientific interest tied to human future.

I was very much impressed by biocide in islands and the Americas due to humankind.

Meet your close relatives and start thinking.

Yes. It is a true world in itself, as good novels should be.

Inventio.

It was very much into each character. More than plausible.

Moving and full of life.

Simply loved it.

The sharing of knowledge between Ayla and The Others, all over the series, actually.

Ayla, which in this book showed a very marked "foreign" accent!

It's also a very heart-warming and intriguing book for those who have close ties and care for animals.