Robin P’s Comments (group member since Feb 20, 2014)

Robin P’s comments from the Audiobooks group.

I'm very sad that I gave up on Out of the Ashes about halfway through. The earlier books in this series took place over a long timeline, so it wasn't important to remember all the details of the previous one. But this one is set immediately after the last one, and it's been maybe a year since I listened to that, so I found it hard to be interested in characters I didn't remember. I should have relistened to the previous one, but I didn't want to take the time. I might go back and do them in print sometime. The story also seemed a bit drawn out. I don't know if this had to do with the fact that it is by a co-writer. I really like the work of Michael J. Sullivan in general, but nothing has ever approached the Royce and Hadrian books. The narration by Tim Gerard Reynolds was excellent as usual.

Now listening to Captain's Share, the next in the "cozy" sci-fi series by Nathan Lowell. The pleasure of the series is in all the little details of the trading ship and the camaraderie of the crew. So I was a bit taken aback that the author skipped over at least 10 years of Ishmael's development from 3rd mate to 1st mate about to be promoted to captain. He also has a wife, and neither he, nor his wife (who wants him to "settle down", nor I can understand why.)
In the previous book, the crew was decent but the officers were terrible - abusive, corrupt, lazy. In this one, the whole crew is passive and resistant to correction. Of course, Ishmael will whip them into shape.

Black Friday? Cyber Monday?

MissSusie wrote: "Finally listening to Platform Decay Dramatized Adaptation : The Murderbot Diaries 8 by Martha Wells I think this series is perfect for a dramatized version!"

My favorite part is Murderbot's thoughts - how do they do that in a drama? Like - "Aargh, stupid humans, I need a shutdown and restart", he/she/it wouldn't say that out loud.

I started to listen to The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, but the narrator, Nicola Barber, has a lisp that I found very distracting. I assume I bought it on sale and it was too long ago to return in any case, but I'm surprised I didn't notice that in the sample. I decided to read it in print.

Wil Wheaton is a big reason of why I love Scalzi. I was fortunate to hear Scalzi speak and read at a local event, and I was afraid I would be disappointed that he didn't sound like Wheaton - but he does! They are from the same part of California and that is why Scalzi chose him. Maybe I will watch for a sale and try more of the series.

Besides his books, which always have humor but also heart, another thing I admire about Scalzi is that he has been very vocal over the years in calling out racism, sexism and homophobia in the online SF community.

I love everything else by John Scalzi, but Old Man's War just seemed like a guy's fantasy of getting a perfect youthful body (and great sex) and fighting bad guys. If the rest of the series is different, I might be interested.

I have done 3 of the Emma Lion and they are light entertainment, but I feel like they are dragged out to get you to buy more books. I got the whole series, I think, in a recent Audible sale where the total for all of them was about the same as one regular book.

At this point, there are at least 4 men interested in Emma.

I am starting Three Hands in the Fountain. Christian Rodska is perfect as the gruff, uncultured Falco. I loved him in the first book. Unfortunately most of the others are read by Simon Prebble. He is an excellent narrator but his voice is much too polished for the role. In a recent sale, I bought all the ones narrated by Rodska and I just read the others in print.

I am struggling with Dungeon Crawler Carl. The narrator is great, doing the many voices, but it is the same as other books structured like video games. It is necessarily episodic and random. The characters enter a new floor/room/hall and encounter some kind of monster/trap/danger - over and over again. I assume the challenges get harder as the story goes on but it's still the same thing. I find fighting of any kind boring, especially when it's obvious the hero will survive at least to the end of the book.

Announcement - GR has added the option to rate books by half and even quarter stars, after insisting for years they would never do that! I don't know if it was rolled out to everyone, but I have it, and I was able to go back to earlier books, touch the rating and it showed an option to move it to 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, etc.

I checked it out and tried several samples. The narration is flat, as I expected. You didn't even bother to provide a British accent for the Sherlock narrator. Many of those classics are already free or close to it, on multiple platforms, including some by professional narrators. And if your service is free, how do you make money? You said no ads.

I've bought so many in recent sales that I don't think I would spend another $40 in time. But I also got the $15 for 3 credits so I'm sure I'll use that.

Ha, ha, for me it was probably still JFK era when I read The Hobbit! My family moved from a rural library to Philadelphia. The children's room alone was huge! I think I actually remember finding it on a shelf there. I know I enjoyed the runes inside the cover that were a kind of code and trying to write them. I loved fantasy as a kid but the only things out there were Narnia and a few others.

I posed a question in a different group about specific memories of books - like where you were when you read them (or listened to them in our case.) Mostly, they blend together and sometimes I don't even remember the book at all. But I will never forget where I was walking when I was listening to The Martian and found out that someone back on Earth realized he was there.

Fran wrote: "John wrote: "I've not read Ivanhoe, but my mother has mentioned it as a book she disliked as required reading in school."

That makes total sense. I'm a retired English teacher and I really dislike..."

Ivanhoe is prose - but no way I would recommend it for high school students. It has both 19th century writing and invented medieval language.

I am starting Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian. This is one of her semi-historical books, that is set in 1960, a time I actually remember. It's a road trip/odd couple/enemies to lovers story. One of the heroes is from a New England family known for its wealth and political clout, à la the Kennedys, while the other is an impoverished would-be journalist from Tennessee. I think the different accents should have been stronger between those characters, but narrator Joel Leslie is generally good.

The Gentleman was disappointing. The description says it's funny and action-packed, but I found it neither. It seems like a great adventure is going to happen but in the end nothing does. The narrator is good but the material is weak. Also the story and narration are slow. I went up to 1.5, while I generally use 1.2 speed.

Fran wrote: "I'm tackling Ivanhoe to complete a personal goal of reading/listening to a few classics every year. So far my tackle feels more like a fumble. This is going to require a bit more concen..."

The best thing about Ivanhoe for me was that the one I listened to was by narrator Michael Page, who I really like. But Ivanhoe himself is out of the action for a lot of the book. Fortunately, Robin Hood makes an appearance and is a more interesting character.

Jen J wrote: "I loved every inch of The Guncle, especially how I felt reading it. Its throughline, characters, dialogue, messaging, and humor are smart and well-constructed. It strikes a perfect ..."

I saw your mention of this in one of the other groups we have in common, but I didn't know if you had done it on audio, I'm glad you did. It was great, as was the sequel.

John wrote: "After several years' hiatus, I've returned to the Inspector Lavender series with Murder in Park Lane - Michael Page is perfect for the series, though I understand the latest book ha..."

I've gone through book 7, I didn't know there was a newer one. I don't think I want to change narrators. I have always liked Michael Page in various genres.

Kristie wrote: "John wrote: "Fran wrote: "My husband and I have been listening to I See You've Called in Dead while traveling around Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We're almost finished and both of..."

I got that book in a recent sale but maybe I will pass on it now!

I am listening to Red Clay which is free in the Audible Plus catalog, at least right now. Narrator Dion Graham is excellent, as always. It looks like this is the author's first book and it's based on his own family history. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and find it quite good.