Gary

My second Hemingway in a month in a life that previously had ignored this great man. Lovely performance by Mr Scott. I guess that's in his genes.

Because of this book I have been to Wikipedia so many times, from articles on the Spanish Civil War, to the page dedicated to Spanish profanity. When you listen, you 'll see why. This book is entertains and moves you, but also broadens you knowledge of world history. What more could you ask for? I thought about the famous Chapter 10 for days afterward.

Now I am moving on to The Old Man and the Sea.

I recently saw a picture taken in the 1970s of a garden with trees and a decorative pool in Kabul. The picture showed young girls playing. Then alongside another photo from the same vantage point today. There is nothing but bare ground and rubble. Although this story is fictional, it depicts the events that create the Afghanistan we see today.

My teenage niece read this book at school, which surprised me as there are some disturbing parts in it.

I didn't like the author's voice in the beginning, but it grew on me and in the in end he does a fine job. It general it's a net-positive when the author reads his/her own work.

No fan of bullfighting here. If anything I came into this with a negative opinion. I choose this book, because I felt Hemingway would do something great with it and he doesn't disappoint. Boyd Gaines delivers a fantastic read, with perfect Spanish pronunciations. It doesn't change my opinion on bullfighting much, but maybe a little on life and death.

Dan Suarez creates stories in which he imagines technology that's a little more than one step ahead of where it is today in 2012 (a statement like that needs a time stamp!).

This book follows on from earlier work, depicting a frightening abuse of a new technology. Today many countries have drone programs including Iran, and groups like Hamas. Very few Americans care when a US drone missile wipes out a terrorist and his family. It's about "bad guys" and it's a new warfare, detached, remote, fire and forget. Suarez takes this paradigm and turns it around, forcing us to consider how we'd feel being on the end of those missiles.

The plot and storyline are superb, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as Daemon and Freedom, Inc. For me it boils down to the "John Wayne" dialog, and the perpetually astonished female protagonist. I think the author can do better. The dialog started to really annoy me and became reflexive reaction as the book progressed.

That said, I really did enjoy this work and recommend it wholeheartedly. Dan Suarez embraces and extends the genre created by Clancy and Larry Bond in the 80s. Looking forward to the next one.

The definitive novel of the Lost Generation. Fast, promiscuous lives in Paris, Spain. Bullfighting and infighting, told in Hemingway's trademark understated, elegant way. Simply outstanding.

William Hurt's choice of emphasis on parts of the sentence struck me as odd at first. Pauses and emphasis where you don't expect it give a feeling of awkwardness, like Macon Leary was reading this book.

As he is vocalizing Hemingway's inner voice I am not sure this is entirely out of place, but it took me a while to get used to it. Overall I really enjoyed the narration. The character voices were simply superb. Mr Hurt does a mean Scottish accent.

Donald Sutherland's tired, smokey voice is perfect for this reading. You can almost feel the tired, aching old body. Loved it.

Very moving story, superbly told. I really enjoyed the accents, but also the way he captures the first person.