Just words

19th December 2017

You

By Caroline Kepnes, narrated by Santino Fontana, 11 hours and 6 minutes, published by Simon & Schuster UK (16 June 2016).

I purchased this audiobook following recommendations in audible. It is the kind of book I despise -mostly a monologue of a guy and its thoughts-, an obsession in words imploring me to just close the book or stop the audio, and still, I kept forward, and finished it, and well, kind of enjoyed it without enjoying its darkness at all.

It is a very good book, but a book that I feel as endured, and which I can hardly recommend, if only by how disturbing it is.

BUT it is still very interesting, and while all the characters but the main one are just shallow descriptions, and the main one is completely outbounds, it feels -too badly- real.

30th November 2017

The Witness

By Nora Roberts, narrated by Julia Whelan, 544 pages, 16 hours and 18 minutes, published by Brilliance Audio (17 April 2012).

I plainly love cheese. Almost as much as I loathe cheese excess, and this book is just overwhelmed on its usage for cheesy situations. Remove them all, take out some of the technology over-wisdom, and this would be a fantastic book.

As it is, it remains an enjoyable read, once to fast-forward more often than expected, and a forgetable once at that.

20th November 2017

I found you

By Lisa Jewell, narrated by Antonia Beamish, 352 pages, 10 hours and 28 minutes, published by Whole Story Audiobooks (9 March 2008).

This book is a lovely disaster. The plot is right, but with abominable sewing points.

It is not unbelievable, but almost. But if you can cope with that, well, it makes for a nice story. It is a Sunday thriller, the one to make no questions about, just to digest and have a good time.

14th November 2017

The Woods

By Harlan Coben, narrated by Carol Monda, David Chandler, 528 pages, 12 hours and 9 minutes, published by Whole Story Audiobooks (11 June 2008).

6th November 2017

A Dangerous Fortune

By Ken Follet, narrated by Michael Page, 599 pages, 16 hours and 21 minutes, published by Brilliance Audio (13 May 2008).

It is a good story, although at moments it looks more like a tele novel.

Interesting for the possibly well documentation on banking story, stimulating for the ambition of the characters, but played down for the simpleness of those characters, and the overall artificial background, that makes the book look like a movie to be played, or a cheap romance novel.

The overall result is something that it is enjoyable, but utterly mediocre.

20th October 2017

All These Worlds: Boviverse, book 3

By Dennis E. Taylor, narrated by Ray Porter, 280 pages, 7 hours and 55 minutes, published by Audible Studios (8 August 2017).

Okaysh story, better give it up on book 1

20th October 2017

Executed: Extracted trylogy, book 2

By RR. Haywood, narrated by Carl Prekopp, 396 pages, 11 hours and 38 minutes, published by Audible Studios (6 June 2017).

Fantastic just goes on

8th October 2017

For we are many: Boviverse, book 2

By Dennis E. Taylor, narrated by Ray Porter, 320 pages, 8 hours and 58 minutes, published by Audible Studios (18 April 2017).

Okaysh story, better give it up on book 1

21th September 2017

Extracted: Extracted trylogy, book 1

By RR. Haywood, narrated by Carl Prekopp, 400 pages, 12 hours and 40 minutes, published by Audible Studios (1 March 2017).

Fantastic

This book just redefines what is fast-paced. It follows a very curious line for its travel-time idea, but then it is executed at perfection, paradoxes and all.

Characters are really bland, just simple definitions of its roles in the story, but that goes very well with the style. As in We Are Legion, this is a series of 3 books -but only two books so far- but here the story keeps its suspense all along, making for a superb read. Waiting to see what will be the 3rd book about....

And the narrator, well, he really gives live to the book, playing really well with different accents for each actor.

12th September 2017

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse) (Volume 1)

By Dennis E. Taylor, narrated by Ray Porter, 308 pages, 9 hours and 30 minutes, published by Audible Studios (20 September 2016).

Very original science fiction plot -even if centered around a non novel idea: already used -at least-, in the Foodprints Of God. The author exhibits ample doses of humour, and definitely great knowledge of physics, which makes for a very stimulating read.

It is a series of 3 books, skilfully separated to get the reader to get to the next one. Unfortunately, the story loses quickly its charm, and although the whole series of 3 books is definitely good, it is mostly lingering on the good effect of the initial story.

The scenarios drawn during all the books, of interactions with other cultures, or even with the remaining of the Earth civilisations are almost childish on its naive attempts. I can heartly recommend the first book, the rest are a lose of time.

30th August 2017

The Butterfly Effect

By Jon Ronson, narrated by himself, only audiobook version, 3 hours and 27 minutes, published by Audible Originals (26 July 2017).

I had to get to the wikipedia to reaffirm my understanding of what a butterfly effect is: the concept that states "small causes can have larger effects".

This book is not The Butterfly effect, but The Pornhub effect, the direct causes resulted by the implementation of a free porn site. This book was probably just a series about Porn, or directly Pornhub, later modded into a nicer and less frightening title. But it is still an interesting story, and short at that, so why not educating yourself?

11th August 2017

IT

By Stephen King, narrated by Steven Weber, 1184 pages, 44 hours and 52 minutes unabridged audiobook, published by Hodder & Stoughton (1 June 2016).

I have read this book at least 3 times in the past, two in Spanish, one in English. First time would be around 1986, last time in 2000. Like the story in the book, I must be following some kind of cycle, as I definitely enjoyed once more this read -listen, this time-.

It is formidable, just story after story, stories inside stories, the fertile imagination of Stephen King in full motion. I am not sure what I enjoyed the most, if the narration, the stories themselves, the way each stories would be tight together, or the friendship core, but I really clapped when the narrator ended his performance.

It is a very long story, and just not long enough.

5th June 2017

Gwendy's Button Box

By Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, 176 pages, Kindle edition (ASIN B0723HDL9H), published by Hodder & Stoughton (2 Jun. 2017).

A very short story, very much on the style of Stephen King, but with all the horror removed. Many books from King have a very long prologue, a great narration of events, of lives, of actors, just a presentation before the horror, or the strange events appear.

This little story is limited to that presentation. The authors could have opted for starting with the horror unleashed by the box.... or just end the book the way they did.

Fantastic.

30th May 2017

Miracle Cure

Unabridged audiobook by Harlan Coben, narrated by Scott Brick, 13 hours and 27 minutes, published by Brilliance Audio on June 2013, ISBN 978-1469236087

Fabulous thriller, great story and fast pace, but with poor characters. I guess it will be just one of those forgettable stories, but I definitely enjoyed listening it.

2nd May 2017

Time And Again

By Jack Finney, 399 pages, published by Gollancz in August 2012, ISBN 978-057507360-9

This book took me well over 12 months to read! This says more about my current reading habits than about the story itself, but I was definitely not very engaged with it.

It takes an interesting approach to time travelling; however, the focus is definitely not on the time travel itself, while the story described is all but forgettable. It remembers me poorly to 11/22/63, where Stephen King uses a much more interesting time travelling story to describe a much greater story surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.

17th April 2017

The October Horse

By Colleen McCullough, 800 pages, published by Simon & Schuster in November 2007. ISBN 978-1416566656.

After reading First Man in Rome, the only real possibility was continuing with the Masters of Rome series. So, in -not so rapid- succession, I went throught:

Three Grass Crown (1991)
Fortune's Favourites (1993)
Caesar's Women (1996)
Caesar (1998)
The October Horse (2002)

With the same attention to details, the interesting described events makes these books fast page-turners. The style of The October Horse is rather different than in the previous books in the series, taking a more distant approach to the main character (Caesar). While on the first books the reader becomes one with the described character, in The October Horse I felt more like an spectator in the events.

Somehow it diminishes the pleasure of reading it, and I have stopped the series for the time being, as I do not plan to read for the time being the a seventh book in the series, Anthony and Cleopatra (2007).

22nd March 2017