Saturday 5 January 2013

Origin of Legends: Crush Depth by Jeff Lane

Official Blurb


A novella by Jeff lane called Crush Depth starts off his Origins of Legends series:

Marylou Kelsum is a young scientist about to embark on the journey of a lifetime on-board a first-of its-kind research submarine on its maiden voyage to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.

But not long after they get under way, Marylou’s professional dream come true turns into a nightmare. A face appears, looking into her cabin porthole at the impossible depth of 5,000 meters below the ocean’s surface. And worse, she thinks she recognizes the face as that of a fellow crew member.

Crush Depth is narrated by the author and brought to life with a full cast.

My Review

This is a fun little sci fi story set not in space, but under the sea.  It has a little bit of mystery, a little bit of horror, a little bit of sci fi geekery and the mix is just right.  I really enjoyed the story.  I can't say too much without giving away a lot, it being a novella doesn't leave a lot for me to tell you about without despoiling the whole thing.  Story wise this is great, sound production wise, ahhh, that's another story.

The opening/closing credits and the narration are fine, the acting by the full cast is also pretty good. Where this falls down is the sound work. I get the impression that whoever put this together was doing their first audio drama/podcast because the actors keep either breathing on the microphones or on some occasions blowing the levels.  The levels have been calmed down so you won't lose an ear drum but sadly that doesn't fix the sound where half the vocal tones are missing. It seems a real shame that this little little problem has slipped through. As I said great story, and I really hope they make a second version, with all the same people but with a little more attention to mic' work.


Reading 3/3
Production 1/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 7/9

Download it from the Podiobooks
Listen to the first part

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