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Amber Benson is a terrible narrator

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-22-24

I majorly disliked Benson's narration. She should not do character voices. I was expecting a nice lightweight Scalzi story but it was just way too stagey and overdramatized and the voices, other than the main character, sounded like a kid trying to sound like a character. I think she is a good actor but this was a terrible fit for her talent. Boo hoo.

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Penny making a quick buck

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-11-24

Louise Penny exploiting her own characters. So disappointed. I am glad i didn't waste a credit and even gladder that I paid less than a dollar for it.

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Wheaton is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-30-24

I love Scalzi, everything he writes. And I have tolerated Wheaton as Scalzi's go-to narrator. Now I am done. Enthusiasm is one thing, but the relentless volume and how all the characters kind of laugh while they are talking -- at full volume -- and they all talk!!! with triple exclamations!!! at the end of every sentence!!! it makes me nuts.. It makes my head hurt.

Have I mentioned the volume?

I cannot believe that Scalzi's listeners are so enthralled with Wheaton's SF cred that they would actually enjoy listening to this ongoing shrieking. There is no subtlety, all characters shriek exactly alike and at the same -- yes, I will say it again -- volume.

Credit where due: Wheaton's management of epic filthy cursing, especially Kiva Lagos in The Last Emperox comes to mind e.g. "feculent festering douchenozzle" [sic]. [Even that could benefit from reduced decibel level. Her character would be a lot more interesting if the filth sounded more like her just talking. She actually isn't shouty-angry all the time. But that's a different book. Moving on.]

Beyond that, Wheaton just hurts my ears. Boo hoo. Scalzi's writing deserves better.

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Valentine is annoying + beware the end interview

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-15-24

I love the Ender stories. I prefer to listen than reading, but in this case I felt like I was going to scream. Nevertheless, I persisted for the sake of Ender.

Specifically: I am not sure who decided it would be good to give Valentine her own narrator, but it was a lousy decision. She is really stagey and melodramatic and i kept feeling like I wanted to shake her and say, "Just read! Do not act! You are not an actor!" I hung in through it, but every time she started in I ground my teeth.

Also, I beg of all audiobook producers, PLEASE stop putting author interviews immediately after the book ends! Endings need a moment to absorb. They are important, and they are art. Just give me a moment, willya?

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not a "great course" per se but worth it

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-15-23

i enjoyed this. it was not a great course as i understand them--she isn't a professor who has earned a reputation as both a scholar and an educator--so it was more like a long article. nonetheless i hadn't heard of any of these fabulous women who we all should have known about, and for that i am grateful. wish there has been more included.

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Fiona is cringeworthy, Greg an irrational snake

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-11-23

Until this book, I liked Fiona. She was mysterious, bad*ss, leader of knitters, voice of reason, &c. Now I never want to see her name again. What on earth was Penny Reid thinking? The main characters -- Fiona and Greg, but especially Fiona -- had no internal consistency. If former CIA superspies acted like that in the field, they would never make it off the airplane, let alone home from a mission. What a sap. And Greg's character never made sense. He is a sociopath by even the most generous definition, and the Fiona I met in the previous books would never have married him. This book needed an editor with a firm hand because as far as I am concerned, Reid blew up the series with this title. I understand how love can make you do the crazy, but these two made my skin crawl.

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem Audiobook By Joan Didion cover art

Keaton is a surprisingly bad choice to narrate

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-13-23

Didion's sentences are so full of story and detail that they do not require the kind of stagey, over-emphasized reading that Keaton gives them. I'm bummed. I stopped after the first story. I wish I could find a version read by someone else, because I love this book.

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Unnecessarily Goddy

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-01-23

The story was a good one, and clever. The writing was okay but suffered from too many tingles and waves of various types rushing or flooding over our heroine.

The references to God, and the Bible quotes, started showing up well into the book and were unwelcome and unnecessary and, in truth, were out of nowhere given there was no reference to a Bible in her father's belongings or a chaplain from her childhood or any clue at all where this came from. I was offended by this sudden religiosity for many reasons, but primarily because (a) I wasn't prepared to read a Christian romance novel and frankly wouldn't have, and (b) all the praying and so forth could have remained key to her personality without beating me about the head and shoulders with it. Lots of people, myself included, pause to receive wisdom when we are confused or looking for direction. Lots of people are good and charitable and care deeply for others without the Bible telling them to do it.

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i am reeling--what an experience

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-23-22

my first experience of this classic. the last chapter was gorgeous and heartbreaking. i listened to this version, narrated by simon vance, because everything i read declared his to be far and away the best, most skillful of all the many recordings. i have no basis for comparison but i cannot imagine how anyone could be better.

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wowzah, so very good and yes, even enlightening

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-14-22

i didn’t know what to expect and i was amazed. i learned so much! dr muesse was so humble and appreciative of his subjects that it was just a pleasure to listen. not for one nanosecond did i feel any holier-than-thouness (sorry, heh) — just a true pleasure in being able to share the lives and teachings of these sages with me.

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