Anthony

Great immersive production

Reviewed: 08-29-24

The narration is very strong, and the use of extra actors and sound effects in a sparing way makes them extra effective when they do come in.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Some of the best author-read books

Reviewed: 05-23-23

Robert Rankin’s books are in some ways, a bit old-school and dated, but in other ways, the subjects and the humor are completely on point for today, and he does a great job of humorously reading his own work.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Overall I enjoyed this but "book 1" is mislabeling

Reviewed: 09-26-22

So, this book is not perfect, but it had a lot of interesting elements and I enjoyed that the main character is more driven by experimenting and exploring than battling, as I often find LitRPG that gives lengthy descriptions of battles with details about how many HP and mana points every step takes can get tedious. This story, like the idea of the Alpha Test itself, seems like it had some plot holes and other things that might have been worked out in the "Closed Beta", except the book ends somewhat abruptly, and then gives the news that the author passed away soon after it was completed. I get the feeling perhaps there was a notion that someone else might take the story forward but that does not appear to have happened.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Hack revenge fiction aimed at JKR's critics

Reviewed: 09-20-22

When I read the early Harry Potter books, I was really impressed by what a great mystery writer JK Rowling was, and I was excited when she graduated to actual mysteries after the HP series ended. I have mostly enjoyed the titles in this series prior to this one, but this book is a horrible disappointment and a rather transparent screed against a cartoonish depiction of JK Rowling's critics online. On top of that, a huge chunk of the book is dedicated to online chat room transcripts and readouts of imaginary Twitter posts, and in spite of Robert Glenister's excellent skills, those parts are perhaps the most annoying things I have ever heard in any audiobook, short of those poorly produced author-read low budget titles where they have not edited out all the breathing. Actually, it might even be more annoying than that. Hearing someone recite a chain of 20 "@s" in a Twitter reply is borderline mind-melting.

Her depiction of the way that characters speak to each other in chat rooms shows about as much understanding of real online communities as the horrible made-up lyrics of her pop songs in the HP book showed of songwriting. It is clear this is how she likes to imagine the people who have genuine real-life critiques of her online comments, but the real prize-winning transparent move in this book is when an online critic who sounds *remarkably* like some criticism leveled at the Harry Potter books turns out to be hunting for teenage girls online.

Plus, this is probably the worst thought out mystery JKR has ever written. No spoilers but there are about a million possible suspects and the final resolution is closer to random than justified by the 32 hours that come before it. This may be the last chance I give this author, no matter what pen name she uses.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Juvenile sadistic fantasy

Reviewed: 05-31-22

The protagonist of this work is a sadistic sociopath who never pays any price for his actions, and in fact is rewarded for them. While the story does a long slow buildup to it, his actions toward those who 'deserve it' are described as increasingly graphic and by the end are very clearly at the level of "torture porn", and the author never shows a single hint that what the character is carrying out are anything other than his own fantasies. Additionally, the way women's bodies are discussed throughout is equivalent to the education a 12-year old boy might pick up from other boys in the school locker room,

I give the story 2 stars only because the actual world building and narrative structure are fairly interesting and original, but the interior life and exterior actions of the main character are either under formed or explicitly sadistic, or at times both. The excellent narration by Todd Haberkorn is sadly wasted. Unless you are someone who felt like Dexter was "too nice", I strongly recommend you avoid this title. I only stuck it out to listen to the whole thing because I kept thinking at some point the main character *must* either experience some kind of redemption or else suffer consequences for his actions, but neither ever occurs.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Cartoonish view of liberal politics

Reviewed: 05-08-22

I don't know the author's actual political positions, but this story projects the most cartoonish, uniformed stereotypes of liberal politics into the far future. Just starting from the fact the government is always referred to as "The State", which is a staple of right-wing and libertarian anti-liberal rhetoric, but also in the way things like having a binary gender or white skin are explicitly treated as if they are undesirable, and that a foetus has been given the term "Viper" (for VIable PERson), the world built in this story sounds like it was imagined by people posting on 4chan at 3am.

That said, the narrative, such as it is, is interestingly told and does get you invested in the resolution of the story, and the language is mostly well-crafted, which is why I give the story 3/5 rather than a lower rating.

I rate the narrartion 3/5 because most of the readers do a good job with their characters, but on the other hand more than one of them mispronounces words (someone who is supposed to be a man well over the age of 100 doesn't know how to pronounce "jalopy", and later pronounces the name of another character as "de-bore-ah" even though the name is pronounced correctly by the voice actress who actually reads that character. Partially this is the fault of the voice actors, but also this is bad production/editing work, as it should have been caught and fixed by someone even if the actors missed it at first.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Unapologetically fun story and narration.

Reviewed: 03-22-22

From start to finish this book is just fun. A great mix of pop culture, original sci-fi ideas, likeable characters and fast-moving story combined with a deeply enthusiastic reading by Wil Wheaton. I kept noticing that I could feel myself smiling as I listened. I wish it could have been longer, even though it was the perfect length to tell the story it contains.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

Still funny and avoids feeling dated

Reviewed: 04-19-21

Fredric Brown is one of the "golden age" authors who is sometimes a bit too golden age. His sci-fi tends toward the funny side and a lot of the basis of humor 60 years ago are things that fall flat or even are fairly offensive to modern ears, but this book manages to avoid a lot of those pitfalls, and a great deal of the story is told in such a way that the time of the setting is barely noticeable. Interesting to read in the time of COVID, that he anticipates the chain reactions to the economy that might come when events lead to the shut down of most public gatherings, though for a very different reason. Given it is part of the free books for members, this is definitely worth your 5 hours to listen to it!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Not all narrators are up to it

Reviewed: 06-02-20

It's tough for anyone to sound really great when there are chapters narrated by Ray Porter that keep reminding you what an excellent narrator sounds like. Some of the rest of pretty good but a few are just a bad match for this genre.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A bit more action would have been nice

Reviewed: 04-17-20

This book is roughly 95% dialogue. Most of the action in between dialogue goes by very quickly in order to get to the next clever conversation. I like Scalzi’s wit just fine, but I would have preferred a better balance because 8 hours of clever back and forth with little to break it up lessens the value of the cleverness after a while.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!