Dora

Well told story

Reviewed: 05-28-25

The narrator’s characterizations were imaginative and gave wonderful clarity to the story. This was another excellent Ishiguro tale that kept me fascinated and questioning throughout the book. There’s enough Science to make you wonder about the future implications, and enough fiction to cause you to care. Enjoy!

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James Patterson “Factory Work”

Reviewed: 09-27-23

It seems like for the last five years or so, Mr Patterson has churned out mediocre stories and shorter length works. It doesn’t even feel like he wrote most of this. The latter two stories are not worth your time. The Women’s Murder Club was the reason most of us bought this and like other people have said, it was too short. I feel a bit duped. I realized it was multiple stories but figured the established story line would be the longest. While it’s a critical piece of the WMC story arc, in hind sight, I would have skipped this purchase. Not worth a full credit.

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Such rich storytelling!

Reviewed: 01-15-23

This is just a fabulous novel with deep and rich storytelling. I could envision myself there with Philbet, learning about families and their complex dynamics, life, hardship, the struggle of recognizing that you’re different than others when all you want to be is yourself. I found the novel thoroughly heartwarming; laughing out loud in parts and tearing up a few times in others. It’s been a while since a novel touched me in this way…

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1 person found this helpful

Not what I expected from a Patterson book

Reviewed: 08-04-22

I know that most of the Patterson books are now “co-written” / ghost written but this one was the clearest sign - to me - that he had little to do with full writing. (See that in many places, Barker is listed as primary author, but Audible lists Patterson first so regular readers will jump at it.) The book was long, dragged out, repetitive, and over-used the time-skipping throughout the book. Several times I almost gave up, even at the ending because I just didn’t care anymore. I think I finished it because I had invested so much time.

I’ve read most Patterson books and they have changed after his mega-deal to put out so many books each year. Personally, I wish HE would write fewer books (by himself) so readers could expect a certain level of engagement throughout each one. Proof that more isn’t better, it’s just more to sell.

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Could have skipped.

Reviewed: 01-25-21

I read the reviews, as well as previous reviews of these Cassiopeia Vitt shorts. I thought by buying the most recent one, some of the reviews may have been taken into consideration. I was wrong.

As with previous reviewers, I feel like the narrator had never read any of Berry’s previous full novels that had Cassiopeia in them. There was nothing about this that seemed similar. I do realize narration is *acting* and that is what the narrator brings to an Audible book. A narrator can often make or break the believability of the author’s work. Nothing here seemed like an attempt to capture the quick, thoughtful, action-oriented character of Vitt. Nowhere has it been mentioned she has an English accent. She grew up in Spain and now lives in France - not a trace of an accent that hints the narrator took time to get to know the character. It also sounds flat, read mostly like a woman in a romance novel or historic dream sequence. Read the books and find the character! Yes, the story is also off - likely written by the co-author more than Berry - but don’t add insult to injury by making a kick-ass, independent woman of Berry’s novels into a weak, private detective style caricature of a woman.

The art background was interesting and clearly something the co-author knows, but it’s not enough to make me think this Cassiopeia is the same one from the Berry novels with Cotton Malone.

I certainly won’t spend any further credits on these short stories. I hope others don’t waste time or money/credits either.

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Narration is far-fetched

Reviewed: 05-01-17

I'm a huge fan of audio books and have been an Audible subscriber for probably 10 years. In the hundreds of books I've read, this has to be close to the worst narration. Over dramatic with poor accents, the actors' performances were completely distracting from the story. If I want to read more of this series, it'll definitely be from a paperback ore book!

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