James R ONeil

Great storytelling, sloppy research

Reviewed: 01-17-18

In many ways, this is an great listen and some extremely important history to learn. Great narration, easy to listen to.

There are a number of lazy mistakes on mostly very small things; as a history buff I find these very distracting. Example: The White House Residence (the actual mansion) is not the same thing as The East Wing. This mistake is repeated many, many times. An editor could’ve spent 15 min doing a few Google searches to get this right. The East Room is in the residence. The East Wing is a separate, though connected building. Two completely different things and the author gets this wrong over and over.

I would still recommend this because the good far outweighs the annoying mistakes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Bad editing error towards the very end.

Reviewed: 09-16-15

I hope they catch it and fix it. Otherwise, this is my kind of geeky history. The White House's history is so incredibly interesting. It so perfectly embodies the strength, resiliance, and many imperfections of the country itself. But it has also gotten better over time.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great audiobook adaptation, but bad plot flaws.

Reviewed: 07-18-15

What did you love best about Terminator 3?

This is, stylistically speaking, exactly what I want from a "Terminator" audiobook. Lot's of great verbal descriptions of what the Terminator characters are scanning, thinking, deciding. They did a great job of putting into words lots of little visual details from the film. There are some parts of the story elaborated on that are left out of the movie; that seems to be the purpose of doing a novelization of a film/screenplay in the first place. However.... there are some really BIG plot flaws: logical inconsistencies, almost as if different parts of the book were being written by different writers. Spoiler Alert: Earlier in the book, there are scenes of John Connor sending the Terminator, T-850, back in time to protect John and Katherine. On their own, these scenes are fine, and are actually a great addition to the story that we do not get from the film. However, later on, as in the on screen version, The Terminator states that he/it killed John Connor in the future, before being re-programmed by Katherine and sent back in time. I went back and re-listened to these chapters to make sure I did not miss some key detail, but I am now sure that I did not. I think that someone: the author, editor, publisher etc... made a huge mistake, or just was completely negligent in their proofreading. This seems like a huge mistake. I do not understand how no one caught this before this novelization and the audiobook version were published.

What other book might you compare Terminator 3 to and why?

As a fan of pretty geeky genres, I think that this audiobook reminds me of the good (although there are many not very good) audiobook versions of Star Trek stories. In both cases I really enjoy hearing the narrator explain what the characters are doing on their computer systems, helping to get the listener more in to the heads of the characters and their strategic thinking. I love that because those are details that you just cannot get from the few seconds of information on the screen in movie versions of these stories.

What about Jonathan Davis’s performance did you like?

Good pacing, good job giving the characters different voices without being over the top about it. Just an overall solid narration/performance of an audiobook.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

There is no fate but what you make... just kidding, John Connor is doomed and Judgement Day is unavoidable.

Any additional comments?

The author occasionally falls into some pretty lazy characterizations of the people we see only very briefly: particularly the TX's victims. There is more than a hint of misogyny in these descriptions; it is reminiscent of bad horror movies where the "hot" girl really has it coming to her for being too sexual, and then we see the monster (Terminator in this case) kill her.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

Not worth an audiobook credit

Reviewed: 05-30-15

Some interesting history here, but very little narrative connecting a bunch of historical accounts. Not a good listen, maybe a good coffee table book, or something classy in a waiting room. The narrator is boring, but it's probably more the material than the performance.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Amazing insight into the Presidency

Reviewed: 04-08-15

This memoir is well written and truly provides insight into the daily life of the president and all of the complexities of doing that job in the modern world

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

President Clinton makes a great argument

Reviewed: 12-13-11

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. A great crash course of the important political issues of today. He is always interesting to listen to.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!