Anonymous

Love this story

Reviewed: 05-10-24

One of my favorite dark stories, so chilling and enthralling ever since I was a kid. You know a story is good when it makes you cry. The vocal performance is amazing and adds to the characters. The production left a little to be desired, with some odd cuts, but overall, it was a great reading.

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The racism turned me off

Reviewed: 05-25-23

I enjoyed the story overall, in the sense of the details of daily life and experiences that were fascinating and illustrated the hard work of the author. The vocal performance was good, not great.

Other people have commented about the severe physical and emotional abuse in this story. This 'stand by your man, there were bad times but there were good times too' is often the reality of people in domestically violent relationships. It would have taken a lot of courage to portray that as experienced.

The racism was harder for me to get through. Again, I tried to keep in mind that this person was in the process of being screwed over by a corporation run by Native Americans on a pretext, but it was hard to get through the pretty constant racism. Natives being lazy, not having to work for health care, etc etc etc, If you have a hard time listening to casual racism, this story will not be for you.

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Fascinating

Reviewed: 07-07-22

I'm glad I picked this up despite the mixed reviews. I became very interested by Cathy O'Dowd after listening to Sandy Allan's book about climbing the Mazeno Ridge. It was great to hear about her early start climbing, her doubts in herself, and how she went on to overcome those challenges. I loved reading a woman mountaineer's perspective on mountaineering. They're sadly underrepresented in terms of physical books, much less audio books.

I've seen some reviews critical of Cathy's discussion of her relationship with Ian. Honestly that's vastly overblown. There wasn't any more talk about it than you might find in any mountaineering story where they reflect on family back home. The focus of the book is mostly on the climbs, the mountains, and the challenges.

The narrator was clear and easy to understand. I feel like a little more research could have gone into pronunciations, but that's overall a minor and common issue with this sort of book.

It was a very enjoyable read with great reflections. I'll probably listen to this again.

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Good listen!

Reviewed: 09-06-21

This was a very informative book. The writing was very engaging and it explained complex science in a way even I could understand. The only thing that frustrated me was the narration. While the narrattor was good for every other purpose, the Russian names were a distracting miss.

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Engaging performance

Reviewed: 06-29-21

I rated this story highly because I found the story engaging and enjoyable, despite the parts that annoyed me. Particularly the pronoun issue, which I won't get into here because spoilers. But also the lack of checklists or clearly labeled procedures in the spacecraft, which is clearly a plot device but not consistent with any astronaut biography I've read. And considering the expected amnesia, checklists would be even more important! Regardless, this story was fun and packed an emotional punch, and Ray Porter's narration really takes it away.

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Sandy Allan brings authenticity to this book

Reviewed: 06-04-21

I really enjoyed the authenticity and realness that Sandy Allan brought to this book, writing not just about the glorious parts of this amazing climb, but also the difficult parts with real emotion. I loved how he explained his thought processes and the decisions he and his team made. It's been hard for me to find audio books about Nanga Parbat in English, and it was a real pleasure to get to experience the mountain vicariously through Sandy's epic climb.

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Excellent Book

Reviewed: 05-30-21

I was a little hesitant to pick this up after reading several reviews about the author/narrator's dialect. I had no trouble understanding the author's narration at 90% speed. I always love it when an author narrates their own book, and this book was no exception.

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Great Narration

Reviewed: 11-16-20

I really enjoyed the emotion the narrator put into this reading, almost more verbal storytelling than a reading. I enjoyed the story, too, but I found it a little preachy at times. I'm glad the author was able to find her meaning and way, but the most enjoyable parts for me were about mushing dogs.

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2 people found this helpful

Wow

Reviewed: 08-12-20

To my surprise )with so many good stories to choose from), this ended up being my favorite of the Expanse novellas. The humanity, characterization, and tension were all spot-on. Strongly recommend.

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[clever headline]

Reviewed: 07-02-20

Fabulous story as usual by Corey. Erik Davies isn't a bad narrator, I've just been spoiled by Jefferson Mays.

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