Whole Series – Just OK

This is a single review of all 13 episodes. The narration is very good throughout all the episodes.

I really enjoyed Old Man’s War and several other Scalzi novels, but The Human Division stories left me a bit unsatisfied. These were not at all bad stories and included pleasant story elements, humor, and sarcasm but lacked the touching aspects and strong story that made Old Man’s War more fulfilling. The Human Division was 13 short stories weakly bound together, lacking the character development and cohesion of a novel. This felt a little like a bunch of episodes of a TV series with a strong world framework and continuing characters, but lacking a strong continuing story. I was quite annoyed using the iPhone Audible app where titles are shorted excluding the episode number, and the episode details don’t include the episode number, so I had to query the internet to figure out which title to listen to next.

28 people found this helpful

Obumwe said, Eagan said, Wilson said, Rickney said

Would you consider the audio edition of The B-Team to be better than the print version?

Can't say, I haven't read the print version. But, I really enjoyed the audio performance.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The B-Team?

Ambassador Baer's demise.

Which scene was your favorite?

Just liked the whole shebang! Love the snappy banter.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

One of the beauties of a well performed audiobook is that with the different vocal characterizations the listener doesn't have to be told who is saying what. I really enjoy John Scalzi's work, but, can somebody (like his editor, maybe) please tell him to cut out the innumerable "he said" and "she said"'s? It's like almost as annoying as like, you know....like, you know?

29 people found this helpful

Best $0.69 spent in a long time...

Highly entertaining!

A great first episode. I wish Ep.2 was already out.

15 people found this helpful

Old Man's Friends

This is a great story about some of the lesser explored characters from the Old Man's War series. They are all great and the story is excellent! Jump right in, you will enjoy Harry and the others as much as you do Perry & Sagan.

BTW - It is best if you have listened to the first 5 novels in the Old Man's War series. That is about where these stories pickup. If you haven't gotten that far, you will get some spoilers in these stories.

3 people found this helpful

Great Short Story (and for 51 cents!)

Short but very entertaining sci-fi. Not a complicated performance, but it was well done.

This is my second Scalzi book (the first was a much longer Fuzzy Nation). He writes with constant "he said" "she said" at the end of sentences which gets annoying, but his stories are good enough that you still enjoy them.

I plan to listen to all the books in his Human Division series.

3 people found this helpful

Monsieurs Scalzi & Dufris: Well Played Sirs

Would you listen to The B-Team again? Why?

I will certainly listen to it again. Scalzi's stories are enjoyable to reread, and Dufris hits all the notes perfectly. I might just go listen to it again when I finish this review. The nice thing about Scalzi is that the story is fun even when you know exactly what is going to happen. Speaking of which, as Scalzi has warned, this series does contain spoilers for the Old Man's War books. If you already know Scalzi, it's moot. You've already read that series and you've probably already purchased this audiobook because Scalzi just rocks. But if you don't know Scalzi and don't want to risk a credit on Old Man's War, my advice would be to buy this audiobook (I mean, 99 cents) and listen to chapter 1 (about 15 minutes) which doesn't give away any major prior events and/or characters. If you like it, you are going to like the Old Man's War books, so go ahead and beg, borrow or steal three credits and listen to the following: Old Man's War/The Ghost Brigades and The Lost Colony before finishing the rest of The B Team. (And if you got so engrossed in the story that you forgot to stop listening after fifteen minutes, never mind. Spoilers aren't so bad.)

Who was your favorite character and why?

Harry Wilson! Who else? That guy is just fun to be around.

Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

William Dufris has narrated three of the four books in Old Man's War. He was a great choice and I'm glad he is narrating this series as well.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

As with all Scalzi, there's a moment when I settle back with a satisfied sigh. For Red Shirts, he had me at "The rich are different." This time it happened while the ship was readying itself for a skip drive & Scalzi was judiciously sharing enough backstory so newcomers could keep up. Though he never took his eyes off the dialogue, he had a small smile on his face that we old Scalzi fans knew was meant for us. It told us he knew we knew all this stuff and to just relax & enjoy the ride. :)

Any additional comments?

Scalzi wrote a short story called After the Coup which features these characters & which takes place shortly before the events in The B Team. The ebook version is on Amazon (http://amzn.com/B003V4B4PM) and I wish there were an audio version. Pretty please?

5 people found this helpful

Consequences.

You read previous books and you know how it ended.
Trading was established and Earth's Iron Curtain was finally dropped.
and everybody lived happily ever after? NO, YOU ARE WRONG !

It's time for some reality Injection.

18 people found this helpful

Grew tired of waiting for more chapters

Where does The B-Team rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The series started off well enough, but I grew tired of waiting for more episodes to come out. The piecemeal release of each episode is how tv networks operate, I don't want the same thing in my books.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The B-Team?

The first book in the series.

What does William Dufris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great narration.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My extreme reaction caused me to preorder the whole series.

Any additional comments?

After the ninth episode, I canceled the rest. I decided not to put up with having to wait. If a full book is published, I'll be one of the first to order it.

4 people found this helpful

Short but fun

Good for 50 cents, don’t spend a credit on this. Amusing light weight science fiction. This is what sounds like the 1st in a series, I won’t likely follow up with the next books.

1 person found this helpful

B Team

hard for me to keep track of all the characters otherwise it was pretty good very descriptive exciting

1 person found this helpful