Desirae Waters

Yes.

Reviewed: 06-16-25

The twist at the end changed the whole book for me. How do I describe it. I can’t.

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But why?

Reviewed: 03-12-24

This author did very little to describe why the Dutch would invest and risk in western hemisphere trade. Tell me the numbers, read me the minutes of the WIC meetings. Do something to explain why.

How was adequately covered. When was covered, but why was not covered at all.

Why did the WIC go bankrupt?
Why did the Dutch moment end?
Why did it start?
Simply stating that one successful voyage there and back again made a shitload of money and had the potential to create generational wealth would have been better than what was stated. In fact we are left to wonder, given how much time was dedicated to the failures why they did it in the first place.

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2 people found this helpful

Is this what passes for the work of modern social scientists?

Reviewed: 04-13-23

The bright ages proposes that the time period ~500 AD - 1500 AD was not a dark and dreary time while never providing evidence to the contrary. The work barely, ever discusses why the dark ages were called the dark ages in the first place. The only explanation was those that introduced the idea were prejudiced and ethnocentric without ever attacking the actual work of these historians. There was never any evidence presented that the time was a golden or “bright age.” In fact the authors were much more concerned spending, 10-20% of the book, attacking modern political fringe groups. If someone were to read this book in a thousand years one would get the impression that white supremacy is a major political movement and that Aryans and the KKK were massive political movements instead of fringe groups.

What was missing that could have lent power to their thesis was information showing dramatic improvements in agricultural production, economic output, architectural, cultural and scientific discovery. I believe only one scientific discovery discussed in 10 hours of listening. Fledgling democracy had a partisan discussion but nothing on why democracy created an environment that fostered growth.

The authors do discuss several events where the breakdown of centralized government caused severe disruptions to society. The civil war of the grandsons of Charlemagne, the decentralized raiding of the Vikings, the Black Death. All of these events caused massive economic, cultural, and scientific retardations. They don’t even attempt to tackle these issues.

Overall a highly politicized history that doesn’t answer its own propositions.

This type of work would never pass as serious work in the hard sciences.

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1 person found this helpful

Cliff notes

Reviewed: 10-19-22

Why would I want cliff notes on the next book. Now there is nothing new in the next book?

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Fantastic YA fiction.

Reviewed: 05-12-20

I keep seeing critical reviews because B sand won’t drop an F Bomb. I didn’t know the word fuck was so instrumental in making a storyline excellent. I am pretty sure there are entire segments of the internet focused on that one thing so b sand can leave it to them to cover that subject.

B sand is a Christian that seeks to promote his beliefs through his artistry. You don’t have to like it but recognize that he is not less of an artist because of it. He is also not trying to use his art to convert you. The only way you would know that he is a Christian is by reading his work and realizing that none of it is adult in nature. He still manages to engage and stir the reader emotionally. I think he is a fantastic artist and I am happy that there are many, many others that feel the same way.

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Poor performance

Reviewed: 01-26-17

I think the narrator would be a fantastic nonfiction narrator but it is very hard to distinguish who is who in the first half of the book. I think I lost a lot due to the lack of variety in the narrators performance. Great story though. Unfortunately I may avoid Anthony Ryan in the future if he maintains this narrator

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18 people found this helpful

Wow

Reviewed: 04-06-14

Where does Words of Radiance rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Tied for first with the first one in this series

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of them collectively made this story

Which character – as performed by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading – was your favorite?

Both were amazing, I probably identified more with the characters that Michael Kramer was performing but that is because I am a man.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Awesome

Any additional comments?

The series has eclipsed all other fiction titles I have ever read. Sanderson has more talent than any contemporary fiction writer and there are a lot of good writers out there. The only thing bad about this series is that eventually the 50 hours are up an you are left hollow. If he can finish this series like it was started he will have performed a major accomplishment. Robert Jordan had a few great books but most were just mehhh and Robert Jordan was why I started reading.

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