e.good

I love Orson Scott Card -- in fact Ender's Game was the first audio book, and the first sci-fi book I remember enjoying. Stefan Rudnicki could read the telephone book and make it sound like poetry. But I have been disappointed by the Empire duet.

Some parts read like a top notch thriller, but this is a book lacking the heart, character, and subtley of OSC's usual style. The characters on all sides commit acts that make them unsympathetic -- as a listener I didn't know who the good guys were, even when I was told.

I'm giving it a 3 because of Rudnicki's narration, but I'd skip it unless you're an OSC junkie.

Scott Brick is at his best when he's reading DeMille's smart-ass John Corey. This was a fantastic, tightly plotted, well written, well read thriller.

Highly recommend.

I love DeMille, and Scott Brick is my favorite narrator, but this audio book is painfully slow. I am in part three of four (it has taken me several months to slog through this many hours) and there's no indication that the plot is going to pick up any time soon. I feel like I've listened to the same two hours of audio 15 times.

My recommendation is that you skip this one and go listen to the John Corey series.

I was left with an extra credit and used it on this short collection of stories by Sedaris -- I laughed all the way through and my only complaint was that I wish it hadn't ended so soon.

Sedaris is one of the most intelligent and sly humorists out there, and is best appreciated when he's reading his own material.

Recommended.

This book was the worst thing I ever bought on Audible -- I deeply regret wasting a credit on it. Rubbish and nonsense.

A book written with grace and beauty, and read with feeling and perception. Highly recommended.

It's not for nothing that this book is required reading in many schools now. Besides being a fantastic story, it's one that thinks deeply on the nature of leadership, morality, duty, honor, love, friendship, and power.

Many people will shy away from Ender's Game because they don't read sci-fi, but they shouldn't. I read it 5 years ago as a 20 year old woman who'd never picked up a sci-fi novel in her life, and loved it.

Not only was it the first sci-fi I'd ever read, it was the first audio book I'd ever listened to. It got me hooked and is still the gold standard. Rudnicki and the rest of the cast are pitch perfect all the way through.

Very highly recommended.