Dreadful narration undermines the book

It’s hard to know what to rate the narrative of this book because the narration is so bad that it distracts from the text. So many names are pronounced incorrectly that eventually I just gave up, because it became too irritating. de Tocqueville, Francois Hollande, BNP Paribas, Silvio Berlusconi… on and on it goes. It’s not like these are difficult names, or that it isn’t well-known how to pronounce them. But when it’s just one wrong after another, it emphasises the extent to which this book is read like it’s a manual, rather than a narrative. There is no understanding from the narrator as to what is being read, and as a result, if there is substance to the text it just washes over you.

Rarely do I get hours into a book and am unable to tell you a single concept that I have taken out of it; almost never do I give up on a book. But in this case, both of those things were true.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Geopolitical masterclass for the world today. .

An exceptional history of the current geopolitical issues in Ukraine and energy issues to come.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Helen is a boss

She is an intellectual titan. Joins a lot of dots coherently and compellingly to explain how we have ended up where we are. Read this book now!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great book, shame about the reading

This is a brilliantly written, in-depth, yet accessible look at geopolitics, spoiled by a mediocre reading performance. Mispronunciations and badly-scanned readings of sentences regularly made it a struggle for me to understand what the author was trying to communicate. I often wondered if the reading was being done by an AI, rather than by a human being who actually understood the sentences she was reading.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

The reality of the complexity of geo politics

This is a very important book. It looks at the complexity of global trade, energy and politics. It shows how democracy walks a regular tightrope and that the recent problems with “losers consent” in the U.K., EU and especially in the US are a risk that needs to be dealt with. The history of energy is particularly important as it explains the relationships versions countries have to supply oil, gas etc. it looks at the fault lines in the EU and NATO which help explain many if the problems we see today.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Outstanding

An incredible piece of work, that brings together so many elements to empower the reader to make an informed judgment on the current major geopolitical issues.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

fantastic book but terrible narrator

Superb book. I had to buy and read it in print because the narrator is so poorly educated that there are no end of mispronounced names and phrases. They have obviously never listened to any current affairs. I would have sent it back but the content is so important and thought provoking that it would have sent the wrong message. Author was poorly served

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Very good!

This is a very good and very important to understand what is actually happening around the world these days. Disastrous consequences of politics.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

thought provoking but flawed

fascinating read, but worth taking into account fair but critical reviews from Howard Davis and Matthew Klein

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A fascinating and important book

This is a fascinating historical perspective on the current global situation. It breaks down the geo-political world we are familiar with into threads and concepts many of which were new to me, but very useful in analysing where we are and how we got here. Much of the economic analysis is very technical and beyond my understanding, but I found it worth persevering with as the surrounding material is so illuminating. It’s a shame about the narrator who didn’t seem to understand what she was reading and so makes it harder to follow. She mispronounced several words all though the book (e.g. eschew pronounced estew!) but I still loved it and will re-read much of it after some more research. I would like to have heard her analysis of the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon in the UK but this is sadly missing. Still, you can’t have everything and my thinking has been changed on several things after reading this book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful