Andres David Valencia

rants and conspiracy theories

Reviewed: 09-19-23

Very disjointed writing. it's mostly ranting and cons
piracy theories without any real analysis

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it's ok as Pathfinder backstory

Reviewed: 09-12-22

Not agreat book, but very useful to learn about cheliax aristocracy and hell knights. I got it to give me a few ideas for the campaign we're playing so it did it's job. the story was ok but nothing remarkable.

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Zombies in spaaaace

Reviewed: 04-16-19

I loved the other Peter Clines books, but this one is a let down, where the other were more on the thriller and suspense side this is more action oriented. It has a lot of concessions to make the plot work and even he has to recognize it.
The orbital mechanics are pretty flimsy and even inconsistent throughout the story. shame because it was a great trilogy so far.

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4 people found this helpful

Adequate introduction to the subject

Reviewed: 01-19-16

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, it was informative but not entertaining.

If you’ve listened to books by The Great Courses and Gary W. Gallagher before, how does this one compare?

This is the first book I have listened from this lecturer.

What three words best describe Professor Gary W. Gallagher’s performance?

Concise, dry, boring

Did The American Civil War inspire you to do anything?

It has inspired me to look for a better source, at least it didn't make me hate the subject

Any additional comments?

It is just a list of facts not very well presented, as opposed to a story which is what I have grown used to, it almost feel like the lecturer is reading powerpoint slides with the pauses in between slides that frankly could have used a lot of editing, it is more a boring traditional class than a great course.

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Loads of information with some narrator quirks

Reviewed: 11-04-15

What did you love best about How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition?

It's given a better understanding of music structure and its evolution through time.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Professor Greenberg is easy to understand and has great understanding of the subject, unfortunately came through as snobbish, arrogant, and often goes on tangents about his pet peeves and mocks others, also his jokes only made me cringe.

Any additional comments?

The book has fulfilled its promise, I highly recommend it as long as you don't mind the quirks of the narrator, but honestly if you went through college, you probably have dealt with this kind of Professors before.

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barely entertaining if you've played the game

Reviewed: 09-23-15

I would have been bored if I hadn't had the game as background before listening

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8 people found this helpful

El peor narrador de audible

Reviewed: 09-15-15

Este es uno de mis libros favoritos, pero el narrador no es de calidad audible

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5 people found this helpful

Very inconsistent storytelling

Reviewed: 05-15-15

Would you try another book from Dietmar Wehr and/or Luke Daniels?

Maybe, it looks like this was his first book so he has a lot of space to improve, I'll wait for a little bit and then if I can't find anything else to read I might give it another go to the second book in this serie.

What was most disappointing about Dietmar Wehr’s story?

The main tool to move forward the story is a really clumsy crutch (Can't say much without spoilers), and he uses it so many times that by the first half of the book I was tired of it.

I got to this series because it was compared to the lost fleet, but I think this is a disservice to Jack Campbell, he mentions offhand lag in communications at the beginning of the book and then forgets about it, uses radar detection at long distances which makes no sense, the tactical encounters are just a bunch of brawls.

I felt like the same story was often narrated twice or more times, first when the events happen, then he goes in detail again on AARs, and then he chats about the events with other people, it got old really quick.

All the factions in the book act in really dumb ways and have never heard of diplomacy, not even one attempt was mentioned in the whole book.

Which character – as performed by Luke Daniels – was your favorite?

All characters were pretty bland, I didn't really like any of them

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Synchronicity War, Part 1?

All the AARs were retellings of previous scenes, also all the conversations about the battles (that were also being retold on AARs)

Any additional comments?

The main premise of the book seems weird, hey somebody is attacking us, they have very similar weapons and technology to us... must be aliens.

The fact that a commander is having such a heavy handed influence in the strategic affairs of the whole fleet speaks very bad of the leadership.

The science part of the book is really iffy, and the author soon demonstrates a lack of basic biochemistry understanding.

The development of the AIs is not very believable.

PS.Iceman and Maverick, seriously?

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not at his best in audio format

Reviewed: 02-28-15

it's a good fun book, but because it's composed of short advice snippets , I don't think audio book is the best way to enjoy it

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Murderer on a Kiliing spree

Reviewed: 02-04-15

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you enjoy gratuitous violence, or like military operations without worrying too much about motivations or logic , there's a lot of nice action scenes to enjoy.

Has Without Remorse turned you off from other books in this genre?

Without Remorse is my second TC book, after reading Red Storm Rising (and disliking it too) I thought I would give a try to the Jack Ryan storyline so I grab this book because it was recommended as the first one chronologically.
After reading this book which provides the story of a Mr Clark, I will not look at any other books in these series, the main character is too hard for me to identify with, and the book is full of propaganda, you'd think that America won the Vietnam war just by reading this book, by the half point I was just pushing through to see if there was anything redeeming, but nothing saved the story

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance is ok, but the edition is strange with some weird long pauses between some scenes and not pause at all between others.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Without Remorse?

Remove the whole revenge plot, leave the rescue stuff, it was ok, even if a little heavy on the political prop for me.

Any additional comments?

This is it for TC for me, now I'm afraid of trying Robert Ludlum again (I used to read some of his books when I was young, now I'm afraid of trying to go back to him too.

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