Chris

Love Meg Gardiner, but…

Reviewed: 05-13-21

Great story! I almost didn’t make it past the first chapter though; narration is frustratingly slow. She makes sure to enunciate each and every syllable with lots of time for the listener to absorb every single word, as if reading to non- English speakers. I tried speeding up the tempo to 1.2x, and that did the trick (made her sound a tiny bit munchkinesque, but I could live wit it).

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2 people found this helpful

Too Much Cyber Detail

Reviewed: 02-14-21

I love espionage thrillers (big fan of Vince Flynn, Alex Berenson and Daniel Silva, to name a few) and this one has its moments of excitement, however it’s just a bit too cyber-heavy for me. Lots of details that went over my head, including one scene where long lines of code numbers are spelled out and read to me (instead of simply saying something like “the message included lines of code” or whatever). I found myself zoning out so much it was hard to get back into the story once I realized computer class was over. George Guidall is, as always, fantastic, but even he couldn’t save this for me.

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Bad Narrator

Reviewed: 04-30-19

This story could be ok, but the narrator is so dull and droning I can’t follow long enough to care. What a shame.

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3 people found this helpful

Ugh

Reviewed: 07-02-18

Terrible narrator. Hard to determine if it’s a good book or not when this is the case, but anyway it ruins it for me. Also, I really disliked the lead character, Angela, which makes caring about the story that much harder.

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Absorbing, emotional story

Reviewed: 03-21-18

When I find myself talking to the characters as I listen, I know I'm in a great story (luckily I'm alone when I do this!). The harsh living conditions, mental illness and violence, but also the compassion and community molded the story into a compelling tale that is still with me. The few references to the era (70's, mostly) helped frame the story without trying too hard (a common mistake I see too often in stories set in the post-Vietnam years).

Julia Whelan's narration is wonderful, as usual

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Good Intro to Clines' books

Reviewed: 09-05-17

I don't usually go for science fiction, and fantasy even less, but this story works. Good characters and plot progression - the stranger things get, the more plausible they seem. Narration is really good - I'm going to try more by this author, especially with this same reader.

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Slooooow

Reviewed: 03-15-17

Took way too long to get to any kind of point (3, count 'em, 3 separate dream sequences in the first few chapters alone - space wasters in my opinion), and once the point sort of began to swim into view, I found I didn't care. Rebecca Lowman is one of my favorite narrators ( the reason I tried this book in the first place), but even she couldn't save this for me.

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6 people found this helpful

Love this series

Reviewed: 02-02-17

This story is entertaining and engaging from the start; one of the best for me so far. Inspector Erlendur and his detectives investigate a murder in a Reykjavik hotel. Insightful (and colorful) descriptions of characters, situations and conversations ensue. Indridason (and the translator) is at his best with this novel. George Guidall narrates perfectly.

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1 person found this helpful

Long story seems complex but really isn't

Reviewed: 04-13-16

At first set in the early days of super hero comic books (late 1930's, Joe Kavalier and his cousin Sammy Clay come together from completely different worlds: middle class NY and pre-WWII Prague. They become partners in creating storylines, Sammy writing and Joe illustrating. (one of the more interesting aspects for me was the telling of the backstories of their creations - vividly described and easily visualized). In between the comic book business (and it was a big Business - Joe and Sam were so naïve) we get the individual stories of both Joe and Sam, and other characters, both peripheral and key, which makes this such a rich and involving story. The narrator is ok-not-great, but ok enough that I hung in; it's that good of a story.

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Great story and narration

Reviewed: 05-02-15

Well written with really good characters. Eve is one of the best literary villains I've come across in a while - I absolutely hated her! I couldn't stop listening.

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1 person found this helpful