Saturday 8 December 2012

Interference by Eric Luke

Official Blurb


SOMETHING wants in. To your head. Through this audiobook.

Ethan, a digital sound engineer in Los Angeles, becomes aware that his life is unraveling when the audiobook he's listening to reveals his deepest, darkest secrets, escalating until the narrator addresses him directly, threatening to destroy him from within. Vivian, a single mother running an antique store in San Francisco, listens to her audiobook to distract herself from missing her young daughter, but is shaken when the narrative is interrupted by her daughter's voice, faintly calling for help.

Ethan and Vivian are drawn together as they fight to solve a generation-spanning conspiracy that begins with a boy listening to the Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 and evolves through the latest innovations in digital technology, unearthing the mind-bending concept of a POSSIBILITY PARASITE bent on unleashing an explosion of APOCALYPTIC META HORROR.


My Review

I caught my first wiff of this audio book over on the Audio Drama Talk forums and loved the sound of it so nipped over to Podiobooks and downloaded it immediately.  It was well worth the effort and time.

As the blurb above hints, it takes one of the little moments of coincidence that we experience every day, you know, where the book your reading or the song your listening suddenly matches what's going on around you, and takes that to the next step. That idea of building on the listeners own experiences makes this drama and premise of this story leap almost to reality.

There's a whole "meta" experience to be had listening to an audio book about someone listening to an audio book that is apparently listening to them, that is so much fun. We audio book listeners are like a little community that has its own clique-i-ness.  You're either in, an audio book listener, or your out, a normal person who does not listen to audio books. This audio book seems to panda to that feeling of being-in. By being a regular audio book listener you'll get more out of this audio book.

Quite apart of the "Meta" experience I can safely say that this is a great audio book. Drama, horror and an excellent plot to bind them together, with an excellent reader producing an excellent quality product make this a real treat to stick in your ears.

The creators use of minimal sound effects is just right, adding to the mood when needed.  From the opening titles you'll be hooked, the creators use of sections from the original Orson Wells radio show really bring the show to life, and once again this adds to the "realism" feel of it that I was getting at earlier.

In summary, please understand this, if you don't download this book you're hurting yourself.  It was a blast!


Reading 3/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 9/9

Download it from the Podiobooks
Listen to the first part