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John S

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The Last Crypt Audiobook By Fernando Gamboa cover art

Reads like a Dan Brown Novel

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

Reviewed: 03-02-16

If you like any of the Dan Brown novels such as the Davinci Code or novels such as National Treasure you will like this. It has many of the same themes such as the Templar knights, intrigue in the Vatican. and a vast buried treasure. Not wanting to spoil the book, I won't give away the ending. Instead of wandering around the cities of Europe, the action is diving in the Caribbean, travelling through Mali in Africa (I had to look that up because I had no idea where Mali was),and the Jungles of Central America. The book moves at a fast pace and is a quick guilty listen.

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2 people found this helpful

If you like Clive Cussler novels you will enjoy

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

Reviewed: 03-02-16

This is a fascinating read of as the title says, of pirate hunters. Although it is a nonfiction book, it reads like fiction, mostly like any of the Clive Cussler diving novels. Based on a true life hunt for a sunken pirate ship the characters are real life people with fascinating backgrounds. Besides being some of the best deep sea divers in the world, one grew up in New York City on the fringes of the Gambino Mafia family. That part, although nothing to do with pirates, was fascinating as well. Two of the men actually had a deep sea diving program on the history channel. I found some online and watched them. Quite interesting. This book is well worth the credit. The dive takes place in Samana in the Dominican Republic. I have been there. Although quite beautiful, quite sketchy. Just like the characters in the book, our driver kept a pistol in his belt at all times.

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8 people found this helpful

Tedious listen

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

Reviewed: 03-02-16

According to the description there are only 1000 women left in the world. This book has some of the them living in a prison being treated like serial killers. Why? There are countless hours of a basic description of prison life including 30 minutes of a woman locked in solitary confinement. Although the initial premise started out well, after 5 hours I just gave up. Nothing made any sense whatsoever. If I had used a credit for book, I would have returned it. If you want something to your your insomnia this may be just the ticket.

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34 people found this helpful

A Man Called Ove Audiobook By Fredrik Backman cover art

Best listen in a long time

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

Reviewed: 01-25-16

This book starts a little slow, but gets better as you listen. Superb narration by George Newbern and writing skills by Fredrik Backman. Although sometimes sad, it will make you smile.

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8 people found this helpful

Unseen Audiobook By Karin Slaughter cover art

Too much of book spent rehashing previous books

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

Reviewed: 01-11-16

I enjoy most of these series. Although they are rather graphic and violent, and the subject matter is usually torture and rape, they have a fast pace and good characters. This book is about child abduction and rape, so it is even more disturbing.

The big issue with this book that about a third is spent explaining what happened in the earlier books in series. So if you have read them you may get pretty bored with hearing the same stories all over again. If you have not heard any of her books, choose another one to start with. This is one of the weakest in series.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent Narration and Not Your Typical Ending

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

Reviewed: 01-11-16

This is a very good listen with an unusual twist. The hero is going to die in the end and you know that from almost the first page. Forced into an act of heroism as he is contemplating his suicide, Nate Overbay is your typical ex marine who knows how to use a gun, but is reluctant to do so. Since he knows he is dying there is not much that can really scare him, and he actually prefers a sudden end over a long painful death from illness. When the bad guys threaten him, he could care less, and it is only when they threaten his family that he becomes violent. If you like Jack Reacher books, you will probably like this. As usual Scott Brick does a great job at narration.

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1 person found this helpful

Graphic violence. I would prefer a trip to dentist

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

Reviewed: 11-21-15

This book starts out fairly good. Interesting characters, Well thought out plot most of the book. But the author does not know when to stop her descriptions of graphic violence. Out of 20 hours there must be over 5 hours of detailed narration of mutilations, murders, rapes, torture, etc. If this was made into a movie without serious editing it would easily win a triple XXX rating. By the end I was skipping entire chapters.

There are whole chapters narrated by the father of a girl who goes missing, and not to spoil plot she has been murdered (not big surprise.) I skipped these chapters as well. They are quite secondary to the plot. The author adds a last chapter narrated by father that is not needed.

One of key issues of book is depiction of the major female characters. They are shallow,stupid, and selfish. In the end they morph into homicidal maniacs, If you want a better book set in the south with inspiring women roles listen to the Help or To Kill a Mockingbird.. Silence of the Lambs looks like Sesame Street compared to this novel.

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91 people found this helpful

Unfortunately dated

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

Reviewed: 11-18-15

I loved the book and movie twenty years ago. Now as a work of fiction it is rather "dated". No cellphones or Internet here, the major piece of technology is the teletype machine. The underlying story is good, but it is just difficult to get past the "cold war" mentality of the book. However, there is some good "biology" in the book that is still relevant today. The author (same as Jurassic Park) does go to some lengths to explain to the listener some of the science behind technology such as electron microscopes and X-ray crystallography .

I purchased this on sale and not sure I would pay more than the $9.95 that it cost me.

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4 people found this helpful

Combination of The Martian and 2001 Space Odyssey

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

Reviewed: 11-18-15

There is a lot of science in this science fiction book, but also a decent story. It does get sort of weird near the end, bur you should expect that from any book in the genre, you always need some aliens. The more "other worldly, the better.

Better known for his Lucas Davenport (Prey Series), this a a new genre for John Sanford. You probably need to like science fiction to enjoy this, and if you are a woman who likes science fiction maybe even more so; many of the major characters are women. The book's major theme is a race between the US and China to explore an alien sighting in the rings of Saturn. This leads to some good tension-filled moments.

If you are really into the science part of Science Fiction make sure to listen to the addendum after the book.It has some really interesting discussions on different approaches to interplanetary rocket propulsion systems.

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24 people found this helpful

This all works so well. A lesson in humility.

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

Reviewed: 11-18-15

Normally I don't like short stories, but this is the exception. It combines some great fiction,some of the best narrators on Audible and commentary by Stephen King. I have read most of his stories and some I love and others not so much, but on average he is an A category writer. His commentary on his stories is my favorite part of this collection. Although he is probably the best selling writer in the world, he is so down to earth with his stories of shopping at Walmart and riding his Harley across America.

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12 people found this helpful