The B-Team: The Human Division, Episode 1

This is the second audio book/story i have listened too, and i have to say that so far i am rather impressed by audiobooks. I chose this "Book Segment" due to its price more than anything. it was cheap and therefore i could experience another story in this format without it costing a small fortune, less about pointless background and more about "The B Team by John Scalzi Narrated by William Dufris "



Story - In this short story Scalzi provides an interesting (it wasn't hugely original or unpredictable), relatively fast paced, introduction to the "The Human Division" and the "Old Mans War Universe." I felt the story was clever and explained some complicated ideas (How the ships "skip" the idea Scalzi uses instead of warp speed or the jump gates in babylon 5) really well and never dips into complex explanations. Which at least for me, is a real blessing.

my only criticisms really are: 1) i wasn't really surprised by anything and could see how the story was going to pan out. 2) This is probably due to the short story nature i felt that although i got to know Wilson and the other central characters reasonably well (and i hope these characters return through future episodes) i feel the wider universe is still a bit of a mystery to me...



Narration - I agree with some of the other reviewers, William Dufris is a fantastic narrator that captures the mood and feeling of the story and then relays that back, whether it be a conversation or description. i will be looking for other books that he narrates as he is a pleasure to listen too.



I immediately downloaded and listened to the next volume which is even shorter but just as sweet. This series is starting off well i recommend!

It made me chuckle quite a lot - there's a fair amount of humour in it. This is helped by the narrator who does a good job. As someone else mentioned, the word "said" can become extremely annoying - and it IS unnecessary on quite such a scale. I have (perhaps rashly) bought the rest of the episodes whilst on sale as the length of the stories will be good for a short trip/listen.

Pretty much a short story, this took a morning to listen to and I quite enjoyed it, I think I'd have enjoyed it less as a traditional book since the constant (and I mean constant) "he said" lines would likely have driven me to distraction. Oddly, read out loud, that works better than it does when you're reading it.



An enjoyable, if very short, introduction to a series.

Good interesting short story, good humor, interesting characters and plot. Audio quality is OK, all words are heard clearly. It is well read with different accents given to each character to the extent that the word 'said' need not be used so often and it is used a lot, annoyingly so at times. But still a good listen on my journey to work.

While the story is good, but not brilliant, what makes this book is the narrator, he is just INCREDIBLE, from the inflections of his tones during descriptions of actions, to the way that the characters talk, the diversity of the characters, I can't believe how good he is - I would find other books that he reads just to hear how he reads them!



I will be getting the other parts of this series to see where the story goes (quite a good setting), and to see where the characters develop, I'm loving Wilson, especially the way he's given depth by William Dufris' reading



Since this is small & quite cheap, it's a good way to dip into a new story, but a fabulous way to find a great narrator



If the story was more engaging this would get 5 stars, but as it is I'll give it 4, and most of that is from the reading

This is a great short story, in a collection of intertwined short stories.

I will look for more title by this author.

The story is simple, but interesting. It reminds a little bit the of the stories of the galactic diplomat James Retief (Keith Laumer).

I'm looking forward on how the authors develops the plot and the figures!