Sumit G.

Another pearl from Malcolm Gladwell

Reviewed: 11-21-24

Learnt more about human nature and alcohol than rest of my life combined. Should be a part of the school curriculum.

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Malcolm’s voice and the thread woven

Reviewed: 11-15-24

Amazing and well written. It weaves different stories together to give modern American digest. Yes, there are learnings about different matters, but what separates this is Malcolm’s unique writing style.

In the end, it’s all about human endeavour is what I got out of it.

Combining lessons from Daniel Kahnaman’s Noise book (less entertaining but more insightful) and Malcolm’s extremely entertaining entry gave me pause.

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How boring!

Reviewed: 09-23-24

Struggling to finish. Loved Anathem by Neal and most of his other books. Excellent research shines at the start of the novel. The Dutch royalty though is plain boring. They are the weakest in the plot yet take up most of the airtime. Red, Laks and Willem are far more interesting. For large sections of the book, little action happens. Unfortunately, a drag.

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Great story!

Reviewed: 01-26-24

Great time twister! A good story ends with you wanting more and this is one of them!

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Melancholy, slow and boring

Reviewed: 09-08-22

I started listening. It got too mopey and boring and I gave up after a few chapters. Maybe it got better later on, but I didn't really enjoy Rick's attempt to write a melancholy female first person.

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Favourite Author travels to the ho-hum of LitRPG

Reviewed: 11-07-19

The thing I always liked about Neal Stephenson is his meticulous research into real world issues.

This isn’t as well researched and so I’d call it more LitRPG, where someone ends up in a game and lives like that.

But here’s the thing. If just a brain is transported and not the reproductive organs, then someone might not be affected by similar organs and enzymes. The functioning of such a brain might be very different.

But, here it is as if the whole person is transported and they just wake up from a very bad amnesia.

So, LitRPG it is. And like most LitRPG, it is a popcorn book rather than a three course meal.

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Penric does something... I kinda forgot

Reviewed: 02-19-17

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes & no. I am a big LMB (author)'s fan. So, it's always great to listen to her main characters.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect is the back & forth between Penric and Des Demona. The least interesting is the story line. Honestly, I barely gave any attention to it, as I was doing busy work when listening, and it really passed me by without really grabbing my attention. Just a very simple storyline.

What about Grover Gardner’s performance did you like?

Grover Gardner delivers a great voice.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not really. The plot line is too simple.

Any additional comments?

Only for LMB fans.

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Good Fun in alternate future

Reviewed: 02-19-17

So, Bob dies, becomes an AI 150 years later, and then ends up as a very powerful self replicating AI who acts as a hero helping mankind. And has other AI enemies. This is a scene setting book, and I really look forward to future book. The only minor criticism I had was that the voices for other AIs should have been more different, but, other than that, this book is eminently readable. The book does slow down towards the end, and I am assuming this is for preserving material for the next book.

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Military sci fi with a twist

Reviewed: 02-19-17

Just when it started sounding like military sci fi with no hope. The book comes up with a twist and turns it into a fantasy novel with nuts & bolts (and some humor). It's a good pass time, but it's military (soft) sci fi.

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Excellent book in the series if you are a fan!

Reviewed: 09-19-16

Another great addition to the lockwood & co series. Personally I thought it was better than the hollow boy (previous book) as it didn't drag in parts.

Still another solid addition to a good series by Jonathan Stroud. Excellent writing style and interesting characters. The lockwood & co series neatly closes each story in the book but the overarching plot across the series has moved very little and quite slowly. There is some movement there but still quite slow with the plot. Minor unclosed story holes, eg what happened to the winkmans' post escape and why didn't the team try to look more in to the capes meant some threads were left open for future books (hence only 4 stars).

However, it's still a fun read and I recommend the book to anyone following Jonathan Stroud or this series.

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