samy

Could have been great, but wasn't...

Reviewed: 05-23-25

This is a book about elementary pile of alchemy fun facts, romantic details about meal ingredients, and a run-on of one uneventful clue after another. Murder used to be a big deal in novels... People blandly died here. People gave massive backstories with no plot relevance here. People chiche the heck out of immortality here. You guessed it, she met Issac Newton, Nicholas flamel, on and on. I wish the murder was significant in the plot, not a meet cute. I wish the characters had more depths and relatability, not bland predictability. I wish this lead novel could turn to gold.

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What a poor story...

Reviewed: 11-23-24

the common voice is nice, but if you think it's like the first book, you're wrong. no good action, no classic mass effect stuff, nada. just an autistic girl, boring lad settings, and a story that could have been 20 pages long. not worth the time, credit, or money...

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Like listening to a gameplay!

Reviewed: 11-21-24

Big mass effect fan, this was a good story with a few high points. as good as a fake novel spinoff gets.

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Anyone could write this book...

Reviewed: 07-04-24

This story is very hard to listen to. he constantly speaks in either Portuguese or the native language in the audiobook and then translates what he just said. The actual stories in this book are very mundane. From people getting sick and dying to making their way down river for medical help to catching monkeys and spiders to eat. There is a difference in culture both in values morals and lifestyle but nothing that surpasses anyone's curiosity or imagination it's simply different.

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Nothing happens... idk why

Reviewed: 06-21-24

This story of a woman who seeks the arawana. lots of facts (cool), meets many different people (all useless), and travels the world (achieves nothing). she finds them in the wild. that's it... I wish there was a point bigger than that.

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Almost amazing, but might be for you.

Reviewed: 05-02-24

It was wonderful to see the inner workings of finding a needle in an ocean. This hunter walks you through the detective process of locating a place to look, then mounting a full expedition recovery mission. However... it floats away, going on and on about history, the wars ships where involved in, and the people who served on them. This MIGHT be for you, but it lost me. I wanted some semblance of story that ties this mysterious world to something, and someone, I can follow to navigate through it with. Much like Luke Skywalker was ignorant to the galaxy and we went on a journey of learning and adventure with him. This story reads like a reference book, towing you along with the histories you don't realllllllly need to know. if this sounds like your cup of tea, feel free. It was a cup of luke warm, salt water for me. what I ended up loving most was the process of mou ting an expedition, logistics, future and history of hunting itself, and overall a new profession I knew nothing about.

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An true, and accurate, way to get into the day to day of antipoaching, conservation, and Africa itself.

Reviewed: 03-16-24

The transformation of Zambia through a HUGE journey using the locals help, government backing, and actively fighting poachers. Pilot's flying, guns shooting, lions in their camp, constant dead elephants, poachers arrests, it could be an action movie! great read!

The main guy, Mark, doesn't have a nice voice. His S's whistle and it gets annoying. Although he's half the narrative (his wife narrates the other half), it's not the worst thing.

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1 person found this helpful

Good narration, no mystery AT ALL, NO twist, NO surprise.

Reviewed: 12-14-23

I wanted this story to be as deep as the British voice reading it, as many twists in the plot as my eyerolls, as much mystery as I had wondering why it was published in the first place... Nothing happens here, friends. sounds like Sherlock, feels like Holmes, isn't either. Take your lust to Agatha Christie rather than this.

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No mystery, no twists, just a regular tale...

Reviewed: 12-14-23

I WANTED this to be the second book that saved the first from mediocre, watered down Sherlock. That's not the worst part, the worst is that there is no mystery, no trail of clues, no twists. There was no mystery at all... Anyone could see it was the man with the grudge. NO other suspects existed. But the weird bit is this, it read well... It felt like the Sherlock we all k ew and loved, just on his most boring and mundane cases. not worth reading unless you miss the British voice of beautifully worded sentences.

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A book that's steals your attention!

Reviewed: 07-23-23

Quite literally, I couldn't put it down. I made the mistake of beginning this book in my car on my way to a hike. I instinctualy took it in my ear amongst the woods to substitute bird songs for one chapter after another. Then at the grocery store, then the ride home, before, to my regret, it ended in one sitting. Not easy to do that to a reader.

It's a story, not spoiling anything you don't learn chapter 1 by the way, about a man obsessed with possessing art. The skills he masters are truly impressive and his daring evolves to be bold. His arrests, his lies, quiting theft and the rekindling of it, the thrill, the fear, the accomplices, all of it. At some points I stopped walking and cursed to myself at the surprises the chapters delivered. Then again at the next, and again. The story is amazing, the Thief is not.

I found myself wanting him to succeed like the movies and book I grew up with. Then I remembered this is a true story, hated myself a bit, then was stunned at the thefts all over again. This cycle repeated for the whole book. I'm moving on to more true crime art theft, the thrill passed through me like voltage. Please read it if you enjoy art, crime, psychology, collecting, or have a pulse.

But why the 4 stars then? Simply this; I felt bad for him. He was exposed as a skilled nobody. Barrowing money, getting arrested, getting lazy, and, of course, stealing. I feel like there is no hero when he had the amazing chance to be. In a way, I was let down by him as some of his family and friends where. I WANTED him to win by being something he's not. Even Arsen Lupon was a gentleman. That's seperate from the story, narration, and the way this book reads. It's a tragic oil painting in audible form.

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10 people found this helpful