Damon Shaw
- 16
- reviews
- 8
- helpful votes
- 26
- ratings
-
Titan
- Gaean Trilogy, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Varley's monumental trilogy - Titan, Wizard, and Demon - has achieved cult status, hailed as a modern triumph of the imagination by critics and fans. It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling - because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers...and transforms all who enter.
-
-
First of Varley's classic Gaean Trilogy
- By David on 05-30-09
- Titan
- Gaean Trilogy, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
fantastic world building and a classic story
Reviewed: 11-26-24
Great story, characters and ideas. Pure sensawunda. I would love to see this as a movie or series. IMO it's a shame the narrator sang the Titanides voices. I'm sure a lot of thought and work went into it, but in the process it lost the easy dialogue and humour that is classic Varley. Still highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Rest Is Entertainment
- By: Goalhanger
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Entertainment pulls back the curtain on television, movies, journalism and more with Richard Osman and Marina Hyde using their years of knowledge, enviable contact book and wit to bring you what’s hot, and what’s not in the world of entertainment.
-
-
More adverts for Sky than content
- By Damon Shaw on 10-18-24
More adverts for Sky than content
Reviewed: 10-18-24
I feel a bit queasy hearing the hosts, who generally appear ethical, enthusiastically advertising Sky. Thursday 6th March episode seemed to have more adverts than content. Enshittification much?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Green Wing: Resuscitated
- By: Victoria Pile, James Henry, Oriane Messina, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Chris, Olivia Colman, Pippa Haywood, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They’re back! The all-star cast multi-award-winning cult hit comedy returns, with more surreal goings-on in the lives and loves of the doctors and staff at East Hampton Hospital (warning: contains very little medical content).
-
-
The kinda amazing that only comes once in every few years
- By Myra Mirza on 06-24-24
Fantastic reunion
Reviewed: 09-04-24
Managed to be completely comprehensible and very funny while maintaining the style of the original. Really good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Tigana
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight of the nine Palm provinces of the Peninsula have been overcome by warrior sorcerers Brandin and Alberico. But the sorcerers don't know that a small band of survivors is plotting their removal. With tensions mounting, the sorcerers become increasingly at odds as each decides where his own path - and that of the land - should truly lie.
-
-
A little self-indulgent
- By Diana M. on 05-31-20
- Tigana
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
Ugh maybe it's me
Reviewed: 06-08-23
I have enjoyed a lot of this author's work. His characters are always well developed with good arcs and he writes with varied and profound emotional depths, but... I just got bounced out by the homophobia as plot device. In his later books he often has gay or lesbian relationships sensitively handled, but here I got bored of it. It hurts to read people being insulted, tortured, belittled, defined by being gay. It's dull. It's boring. I read this book years ago and probably enjoyed it, but now? I'm too old for that shit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Sea of Tranquility
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Dylan Moore, John Lee, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lives separated by time and space have collided, and an exiled Englishman, a writer trapped far from home, and a girl destined to die too young, have each glimpsed a world that is not their own. Travelling through the centuries, between colonies on the moon and an ever-changing Earth, together their lives will solve a mystery that will make you question everything you thought you knew to be true.
-
-
Beautifully written- the matrix without the darkness
- By Derek on 12-22-23
- Sea of Tranquility
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Dylan Moore, John Lee, Kirsten Potter
Time travel deliciousness
Reviewed: 06-08-23
So I love time travel stories, how everything interlocks and is revealed, casting new light on earlier chapters. This book satisfies that itch. It is intricate and lovely. The characters are subtly drawn and compelling. I could have listened to hours more of this novel. I liked how the Moon Colonies never were overshadowed by sci-fi wowness, but were revealed through the characters' dilemmas. This is a really satisfying read/listen. Top marks to all!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Binding
- A Novel
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a bookbinder - a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community, but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born.
-
-
Just wow
- By RUKiddingMee on 05-18-19
- The Binding
- A Novel
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
Great Worldbuilding beautifully wtitten
Reviewed: 02-27-23
Its dark. it got a bit angsty even for me and there's a gratuitous bit of cruelty that went too far, but it's a cracking story with well drawn characters. The narrator tended to sound like Worzel Gummage but that's not a bad thing. Top quality story and narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 31 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia. One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong.
-
-
This is TERRIBLE
- By Ron on 06-20-19
- Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
A very dull singularity
Reviewed: 02-11-23
Strange choices, not to have communication between realms, to not have processes aware they are code, lead to many missed opportunities for depth in the plot. Bitworld is a dull and petty afterlife. This isn't the most thought out Stephenson book. It's flat and one dimensional towards the end. Entertaining enough but without much point.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
- By: John Green, David Levithan
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Nick Podehl
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with...Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage.
-
-
Unlikable, unrealistic, cliché characters.
- By Zee5 on 03-27-25
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson
- By: John Green, David Levithan
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Nick Podehl
I wish I had this book as a teen.
Reviewed: 12-28-22
Really good. The narrators do their absolute best and in general achieve fabulousness. I just wish it was about 3 times longer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Distress
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness - "Distress," or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He's on his way to the artificial island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy.
-
-
A good book ruined by a poor (and strange) reading
- By David on 12-06-13
- Distress
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
Narrator blues
Reviewed: 12-02-22
Sadly, I'm joining the ranks. The narrator isn't up to scratch for Greg Egan. He has a nice voice, but lacks experience and Egan is complex. The narrator doesn't know how to pronounce a good few words. He just said the word inexorably as inexORably and has shown his lack of vocab a few times so far. I have 8 hours to go and I'm not sure I'll manage it. The story is fascinating but the narrator's accents impose so much, the text turns into a wall of sound. The australian one is especially unfortunate, but the indian accent is almost equally insufferable. With a less complex, idiosyncratic and fiercely intelligent work (think Brandon Sanderson) the narrator would be great. Here, he is not doing the author any favours at all.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Still Good
- By Bill S. on 03-24-10
- The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
Hmmm problematic
Reviewed: 11-26-22
I read this when it came out and loved it. I'm finding it hard to enjoy in audible. Partly it's the narrator being a bit intense and melodramatic. But the main reason is the casual homophobia and racism. I'm only an hour or so in and queers have been insulted three times, once conflating gayness with paedophilia. The n word is used in connection with what seems like the only black person in the book. It's amazing that I used to find this normal, and just accepted that I would be dismissed, belittled and insulted in my fiction. Today, after the first two insults, I gave it a three strike rule and as soon as the lisping, effeminate eunuch chef appeared I decided that despite the nostalgia factor, the book wasn't worth enduring any more. So I've stopped listening. Shame, as I love the central conceit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!