Audiobooks
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
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Bronson Pinchot (Balki, the crazy businessman from The Langoleers) does a reading of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree that is absolutely delightful.
I liked the animated film as a kid and picked up the book years later only to not think very much of it. Going through it again with Balki it's just wonderful.
I liked the animated film as a kid and picked up the book years later only to not think very much of it. Going through it again with Balki it's just wonderful.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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Just finished Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Raven Tower.
So, I have a complicated relationship with PKD books. I love Ubiq, and A Scanner Darkly grew on me, The Man in High Castle is interesting. And obviously the movies of Blade Runner are amazing. But a lot of his books just repeat the same themes over and over, or devolve into almost nonsense. Flow My Tears was honestly skippable imo, similar themes to other PKD books, not as well executed, the meditation on fame in society is hilariously antiquated in today's world. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is... complicated. I think if it hadn't inspired Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, I wouldn't like it much at all. There's glaring inconsistencies, the androids themselves aren't nearly as cool or complicated as the film versions, all the religious stuff is actually kind of interesting but is left completely out of the films and given kind of short shrift in the book. I like it, definitely liked it better than Flow My Tears, but it has issues for sure.
The Raven Tower was written by the same woman who wrote The Radch Trilogy, a trilogy of sci fi books about a galaxy-spanning human civilization, specifically about the AI entities and the way that humans have integrated AI into society, it's super interesting. The Raven Tower is her first, I think, fantasy book. It's really good. The focus is told from the 2nd person perspective from a god involved in a decades long conflict between warring nations. The different nations and their gods are very interesting, and the machinations between all of them. It focuses heavily on the meaning of language and specific words, how it influences the gods when their words can change reality. I really liked it, and I like her as an author for sure.
So, I have a complicated relationship with PKD books. I love Ubiq, and A Scanner Darkly grew on me, The Man in High Castle is interesting. And obviously the movies of Blade Runner are amazing. But a lot of his books just repeat the same themes over and over, or devolve into almost nonsense. Flow My Tears was honestly skippable imo, similar themes to other PKD books, not as well executed, the meditation on fame in society is hilariously antiquated in today's world. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is... complicated. I think if it hadn't inspired Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, I wouldn't like it much at all. There's glaring inconsistencies, the androids themselves aren't nearly as cool or complicated as the film versions, all the religious stuff is actually kind of interesting but is left completely out of the films and given kind of short shrift in the book. I like it, definitely liked it better than Flow My Tears, but it has issues for sure.
The Raven Tower was written by the same woman who wrote The Radch Trilogy, a trilogy of sci fi books about a galaxy-spanning human civilization, specifically about the AI entities and the way that humans have integrated AI into society, it's super interesting. The Raven Tower is her first, I think, fantasy book. It's really good. The focus is told from the 2nd person perspective from a god involved in a decades long conflict between warring nations. The different nations and their gods are very interesting, and the machinations between all of them. It focuses heavily on the meaning of language and specific words, how it influences the gods when their words can change reality. I really liked it, and I like her as an author for sure.
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DirkDonkeyroot
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 880
- 1,444
I just finished The Beast Rises series from black library, it's pure undistilled wh40k from book 1 to 12.
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I'm halfway through Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. At this point of the book I am 25ish hours in and he has conquered Poland and is starting to make moves in Norway.
I think the most interesting thing is to learn just how much Hitler lied. To everyone. Literally everyone.
There are a few parts where he is brutally honest to some of his inner party people or some of his top generals at the start of the war, but aside from that he is willing to tell his audience exactly what they want to hear at all times. This seems to have suckered in not only Britain, but Russia as well. Not to mention Austria and Czechoslovakia and Poland and the Catholics and Finland and so many others. He is smart in the sense that he knows how to play to his audience all while never wavering from his ultimate goal.
It seems that he did truly and actually believe that the Jews were the cause of all problems. I have also read Mein Kampf and this point is one of the ones that he seems to be a firm believer in.
I get the sense that his initial pre-Poland expansion was actually slightly brilliant. What he did was to target a land, any land, and then look to see who that land's enemies were. Then he would approach those enemies and offer them the spoils of conquest. He offered Poland a piece of Czech and they took it. Then he offered Russia a piece of Poland and they took it. Then he offered Japan a piece of Russia and they took it. He also had an innate sense that the Western Powers had no stomach for another fight. His moves in Czech and Austria were, in their own way, somewhat magnificent. He knew that if France and Britain would have gone to war over either of them in those early years then his goose was cooked, but he gambled that they would not and he was right. His own generals were plotting a coup but they were proven wrong. The West did not fight.
The other thing that seems to bear out is that when it comes to the art of the agent provocateur, the Nazis were absolute masters. Almost every single offensive maneuver they made, from their days as a small German political party all the way up to the invasion of Poland, was set in motion by an internal order from Hitler himself to commit an act of atrocity so as to make their enemies look bad and then justify Nazi intervention.
To give the book a bit a context, it is written by an American Journalist who was actually in Germany and Czech and Austria in the 30's. He attended some of Hitler's speeches in person. He would listen to German radio propaganda. And to give the book some scale, the author has access to the official German documents that were captured after the war. This means he is able to give not just day by day accounts of events, but hour by hour accounts. The last 7 days before the invasion of Poland take up two whole chapters. This is because the author has to explain every single letter and memo and telegram that passed between the interior of the Reich and the French, British, Russians, Americans, Italians, Poles, and others. To cover the hour-by-hour play by play of these events takes an immense amount of explaining... only to cover 7 days.
I started this book when I was 16 but found it too confusing and daunting and so I put it down. Now that I'm a bit older and more well-read I find that I am able to keep up with in a way that my 16 year old self never could have.
The inner workings of the party and the man are absolutely fascinating. He did seem to have a moral compass in a sense, a compass that pointed at Jews. But in the pursuit of True North, he was willing to do absolutely anything else he had to.
Highly recommended. Written by a guy who was not only in Germany in the 30's but who was at the Nuremberg Trials and who was given access to the captured Nazi documents and memos.
I think the most interesting thing is to learn just how much Hitler lied. To everyone. Literally everyone.
There are a few parts where he is brutally honest to some of his inner party people or some of his top generals at the start of the war, but aside from that he is willing to tell his audience exactly what they want to hear at all times. This seems to have suckered in not only Britain, but Russia as well. Not to mention Austria and Czechoslovakia and Poland and the Catholics and Finland and so many others. He is smart in the sense that he knows how to play to his audience all while never wavering from his ultimate goal.
It seems that he did truly and actually believe that the Jews were the cause of all problems. I have also read Mein Kampf and this point is one of the ones that he seems to be a firm believer in.
I get the sense that his initial pre-Poland expansion was actually slightly brilliant. What he did was to target a land, any land, and then look to see who that land's enemies were. Then he would approach those enemies and offer them the spoils of conquest. He offered Poland a piece of Czech and they took it. Then he offered Russia a piece of Poland and they took it. Then he offered Japan a piece of Russia and they took it. He also had an innate sense that the Western Powers had no stomach for another fight. His moves in Czech and Austria were, in their own way, somewhat magnificent. He knew that if France and Britain would have gone to war over either of them in those early years then his goose was cooked, but he gambled that they would not and he was right. His own generals were plotting a coup but they were proven wrong. The West did not fight.
The other thing that seems to bear out is that when it comes to the art of the agent provocateur, the Nazis were absolute masters. Almost every single offensive maneuver they made, from their days as a small German political party all the way up to the invasion of Poland, was set in motion by an internal order from Hitler himself to commit an act of atrocity so as to make their enemies look bad and then justify Nazi intervention.
To give the book a bit a context, it is written by an American Journalist who was actually in Germany and Czech and Austria in the 30's. He attended some of Hitler's speeches in person. He would listen to German radio propaganda. And to give the book some scale, the author has access to the official German documents that were captured after the war. This means he is able to give not just day by day accounts of events, but hour by hour accounts. The last 7 days before the invasion of Poland take up two whole chapters. This is because the author has to explain every single letter and memo and telegram that passed between the interior of the Reich and the French, British, Russians, Americans, Italians, Poles, and others. To cover the hour-by-hour play by play of these events takes an immense amount of explaining... only to cover 7 days.
I started this book when I was 16 but found it too confusing and daunting and so I put it down. Now that I'm a bit older and more well-read I find that I am able to keep up with in a way that my 16 year old self never could have.
The inner workings of the party and the man are absolutely fascinating. He did seem to have a moral compass in a sense, a compass that pointed at Jews. But in the pursuit of True North, he was willing to do absolutely anything else he had to.
Highly recommended. Written by a guy who was not only in Germany in the 30's but who was at the Nuremberg Trials and who was given access to the captured Nazi documents and memos.
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- 5,977
- 6,642
Ah nice, just picked this up for something like $2.99 on Kindle. Was excited to eventually read it, hopefully sometime this coming year.
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chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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I read this in high school. 100% recommend, it's really amazing to see the chain of events and the level of detail is enough to get an understanding without drowning you.
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gshurik
Tranny Chaser
- 2,517
- -56
I just finished "A little Hatred" by Joe Abercrombie. It was enjoyable, but definitely his weakest book so far outside of his YA series.
I was thinking of starting "The Steel Remains" by Richard Morgan next.
Has anyone got any good recommendations for some decent horror audiobooks?
I was thinking of starting "The Steel Remains" by Richard Morgan next.
Has anyone got any good recommendations for some decent horror audiobooks?
Ritley
Bronze Baron of the Realm
- 16,014
- 35,053
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have trouble with audible randomly deciding to rewind 30 seconds without any input whatsoever? Like I’ll be sitting in my car with my phone in the passenger seat and it will just rewind. It doesn’t happen too often, maybe once every few hours of playtime but it is really annoying.
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Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
- 29,584
- 81,945
The Face of Battle by John Keenan is pretty alright. It goes over in detail a couple different famous battles from as much primary material as possible and from the viewpoint of the people on the ground during the things. He wanks for a little more than I would like in the beginning but in terms of the audiobook it's only like an hours worth of him talking shit about historians. The last battle covered is from WW1 so that may be a little more modern than you're looking for.
it's still good though.
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Audible is pretty great-- if you don't like a book, they will credit you. Their app is pretty amazing. Haven't found any other app that is as good for books/texts, etc. It remembers where you left off and rarely fucks up.
I go through more than one audiobook a month. They often have specials where you can buy 3 credits for about $10-11 a credit. They also have free books almost every month. Some of these are pretty good.
Some of the productions are over-the-top. More like radio plays than audio books. I prefer a straight-forward read without any additional music, other narrators, over-characterizations, etc. that being said; a lot of their fantasy fiction has some serious talent. The Harry Potter books are exceptionally narrated (with character voices by the narrator which are consistent and spot on). The His Dark Materials trilogy is a serious audio play with a ton of character talent. It's way beyond just an audiobook.
I think the only dud narrator I have heard lately was the Dean Koontz / Jane Hawk series. I liked the first 2 novels so I listened to the last 3. Elisabeth Rodgers is completely flat as voice talent. Trying to stay awake when listening takes a lot of effort. Other than that series, audible is amazing.
I go through more than one audiobook a month. They often have specials where you can buy 3 credits for about $10-11 a credit. They also have free books almost every month. Some of these are pretty good.
Some of the productions are over-the-top. More like radio plays than audio books. I prefer a straight-forward read without any additional music, other narrators, over-characterizations, etc. that being said; a lot of their fantasy fiction has some serious talent. The Harry Potter books are exceptionally narrated (with character voices by the narrator which are consistent and spot on). The His Dark Materials trilogy is a serious audio play with a ton of character talent. It's way beyond just an audiobook.
I think the only dud narrator I have heard lately was the Dean Koontz / Jane Hawk series. I liked the first 2 novels so I listened to the last 3. Elisabeth Rodgers is completely flat as voice talent. Trying to stay awake when listening takes a lot of effort. Other than that series, audible is amazing.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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When I was really commuting a lot I was doing 1 credit per month and then getting the 3 credit deal every couple of months or so. Supplementing with those sales. They rarely have a bunch of stuff in those sales I really need, but sometimes they do. These days, the 2 creds per month does me well. tbh I need to put in some work and find some more stuff I'm interested in getting. I went through much of my wishlist, which was a few hundreds ttiles long, but then there are things I had on there that I'm not really interested in anymore, like the black company stuff. I may revisit the abercrombie stuff. I have the remaining Le Guin books that I hadn't done yet, and Chiang's short stories, beyond that I don't have any ideas.
Ritley
Bronze Baron of the Realm
- 16,014
- 35,053
I typically sign up when they have the deals for like 3 months for $5 per month type of thing and then cancel. Usually a month or two after that another deal pops up that I can do. Used to be that they would throw money at you if you tried to cancel (like $10-$20) and you could spend it and then cancel anyways, but haven’t seen that in a long time