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Better as a book

Reviewed: 10-07-24

Good story and great narration, but really this title is better as a book. Too confusing to listen to add an audio book. Especially when the author keeps doing flashbacks without notification and you have to guess if it is current or in the past.

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Breaks my heart, but I'm returning this book

Reviewed: 10-31-19

The Reaper of Mars. As narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, the original trilogy is one of the great masterpieces in the world of audio books. A perfect synergy of author and narrator. 5 stars across the board, no question. It is absolutely my favorite story of all time. But this? What actually happened here? What led us to this travesty, where much of the story is now in the hands of sub-par uninteresting narrators? Book 1 of the 2nd trilogy introduced us to the new paradigm of multiple narrators. It actually wasn't bad. Each narrator carried their own weight, perhaps with the exception of the warp-speed narration of Lysander. But even that was fairly good if you listened to it at 80% speed. The Lyria narrator was wonderful once you got used to her. Gritty and raw, just like what you'd expect from a Ruster. Full of passion.
However in this, the 2nd book of the 2nd trilogy, they decided it would be wise to throw out all of the narrators except the Master Tim and start over again. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY. The new Lysander narrator is just - awful. It sounds like they invited a homeless man in off the street and said, here go ahead and read this story for us. Not a fitting voice to match the young and vibrant heir to the throne of house Lune and perhaps the entire Society. It is truly a Dark Age in the Republic. The beginning of the end of this audio-book adventure. It is time now to find solace in the written word, not the spoken.

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A bit more serious than his other books

Reviewed: 05-16-19

I've always enjoyed his books but to be honest most of them are pretty silly and it's more like telling tall tales with your high school friends or something. This one however is it a true novel with a serious side even though a lot of his humor still shines through. This one shot to almost the top of my list of favorite audible books.

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5 people found this helpful

Stop being cheap and hire a professional narrator.

Reviewed: 03-03-19

okay so I've listened to his other books and didn't have much problem with them. Thought that he did a decent job narrating. the problem is he sounds exactly the same in every book. He doesn't have the level of skill that other narrators have to really bring out the nuances of a story. It's clear now that he is just being cheap and trying to save money on a narrator which is killing these stories. Aside from that the story is pretty weak I spent the first few chapters wondering why the hell it takes someone 5 + 10 + years to freaking walk halfway across the continent. Are you serious have you ever done any hiking? You do realize this would not take more than a year or two even with a small child right? Basically I just lost interest in this story and decide to return it cuz it's boring and poorly narrated. typos in my review are because I'm narrating on my phone.

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2 people found this helpful

Slooooooooooow burn

Reviewed: 07-17-18

First off, I highly recommend this book. It is entertaining, full of well thought-out characters, and well written. Plus it has one of the best narrators in the business.

But...

Don't expect to see resolution to any of the main plot lines in this book. I powered through it on Audible, waiting for things to really come to a head. But they don't. My advice to you is to not take this as a negative, but to see this as an entirely different sort of book. It does not hold to many of the norms we have habituated ourselves to.

Dive in, enjoy the ride, and I'll see you in book 2!

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WOW! This author really hates Christians!

Reviewed: 07-16-18

I'm really sad to be writing this, as I am (have been) a HUGE Bobiverse fan. In fact, I've been working on a side project to help new Bob readers track where everyone is at any one time. Now not so sure.

Before diving into Singularity Trap, it is worth mentioning that the Bobiverse had a secondary enemy in the form of the FAITH Enclave. This was a very cliche Christian Fundamentalist government that was so unrealistic, that it was fairly easy to ignore despite it being a bit annoying. I kind of figured that would be the end of hearing this kind of thing from this author, but boy was I wrong!

In this book, the author decided to dive fully into his utter hate and disgust with all things Christian. He made it clear early in the book that "Christian Fundamentalists" were the cause of most of the angst happening back on Earth. Then in one key chapter, he launched into a long tirade, describing all of the rioting happening on Earth and putting the blame squarely on several groups. These groups: Christian Fundamentalists, "Preppers" (in our age these are mostly Christians), Baptists, and a few other groups. (Awesome! Lets display our hate for Christians, by choosing multiple Christian groups so we can spread our hate out!) His tone was bitter and condescending, making you feel like Christians are less than human and responsible for suppression of science and the cause of doom for the world.

It's really quite sad in a way. You can really sense that this author does not really know anyone with deep Christian faith. His personifications and descriptions of these groups can only exist when viewed from a distance. It would probably be worthwhile to get out of the bubble and spend time with people who think differently. Plus there is the financial implications. If you choose to write in such a way that you alienate entire groups of people, your business will suffer. I suppose that is fine if you view writing as nothing more than art, but most authors dream of writing full time and making money off of their work.

Aside from all of that, I can only report on the 3/4 of the book I read before giving up. The story was passable, but not very focused. Some interesting science, and most of the space science was pretty good, with a few exceptions that were probably necessary to move the story ahead. The narrator was first class, as always.

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A perfectly orchestrated Adventure

Reviewed: 06-12-18

first things first. if you don't like the sound of a Caribbean accent then you should probably move on. For me I love the accent. In this book it is prevalent and the narrator seems to speak the language / accent perfectly. I don't know if the narrator grew up in the Caribbean or is just an expert in his field and can carry it off.
the story is just a really fun adventure. the type where you can just turn the book on and listen and Drift Away and not really think about much. you know it's a great book when you don't spend any time thinking about the book you just dive into the story and it carries you away. This is that type of story.

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A big step down

Reviewed: 01-08-18

if the first book was an A, this follow-up book would be a C-. not nearly as cohesive and entertaining as the first book. Worth listening to if you're fully invested in the universe. otherwise feel free to skip it.

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damn. amazing.

Reviewed: 08-29-17

a perfect combination to an amazing story of what might be. pay attention and do not let this be your future.

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Terrible narrator - Great story

Reviewed: 05-06-17

I originally read this entire series on my nook. Loved just about every story. The narrator on The Tomb was decent but not great, so I was looking forward to a better narrator.

But it didn't happen. This guy is worse - much worse than the last narrator. you know it's BAD when Jack and Gia sounds exactly the same. Plus there is this awful background hum and the soundtrack is very heavy on bass. I tried downloading an equalizer to see if that would help but it didn't.

The story however is top notch - your typical Repairman Jack. I'm going to see if I can find my nook and start reading it again because I'm returning this horrible soundtrack.

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