Michael

I finished it

Reviewed: 12-17-24

I finished it. That is the best I can say. I found this mostly boring, when it was not annoying. I am not a prude, but I found the sexualization the female characters quite off putting. There were some mildly interesting Sci-Fi ideas, but I found nothing engaging.

The narration was fine but could not help the story.

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Yech

Reviewed: 12-17-24

A great dystopian novel involves interesting human characters facing the challenges of the dystopian environment. This book is not that. The protagonist seems to be a self centered, misogynistic, bigoted, paranoid, Ahole who had been planning for (and perhaps hoping for) dystopia to descend. The prose are poor, the characters one dimensional, and the story predictable and plodding. He would clearly shoot any looters dead, but easily excuses his own looting. Drug addicts are “soulless”. Spanish speakers untrustworthy and he is always right. The books decline from one to three.

A key to understanding the author’s perspective is he believes for every good person, there is at least one balancing bad person.

If this were simply a short guide to ideas for disaster preparedness it would have been somewhat useful. Unlike some prepper stories, many of the details of prepping were reasonable (but with a severe over emphasis on guns and ammo). He keeps a plethora of guns and several hundred thousand rounds of ammo in his basement. His love of guns is extreme.

I did finish this compilation of books one to three of the series, but will certainly not go on, nor reread this volume again.

The narration was good and did all it could to improve the characterizations.

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Nice

Reviewed: 11-08-24

Providence is set in the universe of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series including Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy. You can read Providence before or after the Ancillary series. I found it a good introduction. I really enjoyed the world building, races, and characters. The action was largely cerebral which some reviewers found boring. I found it fun. I was doing chores, and listened to it three times in a row and enjoyed it each time.
I then read the Ancillary series and enjoyed them as well.
The narration was outstanding, with great voice work which added to the characterizations.

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Astounding yet Unsurprising

Reviewed: 11-08-24

This is a must listen for anyone who wants to understand Trump. This is just Woodward attempting to ask Trump good & fair questions, and what Trump says in response. Unsurprisingly, Trump is completely Trump. It is astounding that Trump spent so much time doing these many interviews.

Actually getting to listen to these interviews was so much better then reading the books they led to, or the text of the interviews.

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Detailed and Interesting but a bit Dry

Reviewed: 11-08-24

This is a deep dive into the political transformation of the charismatic Christian movement over recent decades. It focuses on NAR (beliefs, practices, and people) and its relationship to Trump and January 6th. If you have asked yourself (or others have asked you) “Why do the evangelist Christians support a guy like Trump?” This book very clearly explains this seemingly odd pairing. The book does not speculate on what Trump’s side of the relationship was for him. The book warns that the politics of the NAR is likely destabilizing to a democracy.

This is a little dry (both writing and narration) and more detailed then most readers will need or want.

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Mildly funny fluff

Reviewed: 10-27-24

This was light, mildly funny, short, fluff with a little SF. The narration was fine.

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Reasonably good

Reviewed: 10-27-24

There is not a lot of “conspiracy theory Koontz” in this book and I am not sure why Koontz hates Moby Dick, but otherwise this is a pretty standard old style (pre-conspiracies) Koontz. The characters are good, with a compelling story and good ending. Strong female introvert protagonist, which I found fun, but it seems others found boring. The narration was good.

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Light but Satisfying

Reviewed: 10-27-24

I have liked every book in the Bob series. This is HUMEROUS SF! It is not a deep and thought provoking classic SF, it is light and fun, has a good length, fine characters, a compelling story, and a decent ending. I don’t look forward to Bob like The Expance or Captives War, but I will continue to grab the Bobs as they appear. The narration was excellent and added to the story.

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1 person found this helpful

Short but very good

Reviewed: 10-27-24

Quite different in many ways from The Mercy of Gods (the first book of the series) it gives a delishious taste of what is to come. Follows a military team wearing “Livesuits” a semi-permanent, semi-living, form of battle armor through their training and deployments. There is excellent character development, story, action, and ideas. The worst review I read was that it was too short for the money. I disagree, it was quite short, but it was so good I listened to it four times, enjoying it each time. So far, this series seems as promising as The Expanse and I look forward to many books to come.

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Informative

Reviewed: 10-27-24

Woodward has been writing about presidents for most of my life. He interviews many around the president and reported on what they say. After reporting on, and digesting the myriad of interviews (most of deep background) Woodward forms a rather brief summary of that president’s goals, ideas, and methods. Although being totally unbiased is, of course, impossible, Woodward does very well supporting his conclusions. Some readers believe Woodward is biased against Trump because of the conclusions he reached about Trump after his many interviews (including interviews with Trump). It seems to me Woodwards conclusions about Trump are well supported by his reporting. I recommend all of Woodward’s books, including this one.

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