The Official Blurb
[None]
My Review
Once again, this is not an audio book but rather an old time radio series available for free download.
This is quite a short series and is made up of individual stories that do not interconnect, the only thing they share is that they are all science fiction.
Some of these stories are really quite good, some are what you might call boring. A couple are VERY GOOD. I found a couple of them far too muffled, meaning that I couldn't make out the words for much of the episode. If you find yourself listening to these episodes, I reccommend just skipping to the next. All of them suffer from noise but most of it is acceptable.
Reading 2/3
Production 1/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 5/9
This series if available from Archive.org
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Children of the Old Stars
The Official Blurb
The Cluster is a vast alien machine that destroys starships indiscriminately in its quest for something or someone. Commander John Mark Ellis, disgraced and booted out of the service when he fails to save a merchant ship, believes the key to stopping the Cluster is communication. His mother, Suki Firebrandt Ellis is a historian who believes the very leaders of the galaxy are withholding information about the Cluster. Clyde McClintlock believes the Cluster is God incarnate, seeking retribution. G'Liat is an alien warrior whose own starship was destroyed by the Cluster. All together, they set out to solve the mystery of the Cluster before it finds the object of its quest.
The events of Children of the Old Stars follow those of The Pirates of Sufiro
My Review
I have not read or listened to the prequel of this book so came at it knowing nothing of the background or history. I do not believe I suffered at all because of that in my listening. I certainly did not notice any holes in plot or character.
It's a space opera in the full sence of the term. A bit star trek-like in its investigation of the unknown.
We have alien races, unknown entities and men driven by a desire to understand. All of the parts need for a great story. Unfortunately I found that it didn;t quite come together. The story just didn't have a big-bang it was missing the climax it deserved. This may be a factor of being the middle of a trilogy.
The reading was perfectly good and the story had enough twists and character to keep me listening, it was only after it was all over that I felt a little let down.
That sounds pretty negative, dont mistake me, it is a good enough story and you wont be bored and it's entirely possible you'll enjoy it a lot more than me.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
The Cluster is a vast alien machine that destroys starships indiscriminately in its quest for something or someone. Commander John Mark Ellis, disgraced and booted out of the service when he fails to save a merchant ship, believes the key to stopping the Cluster is communication. His mother, Suki Firebrandt Ellis is a historian who believes the very leaders of the galaxy are withholding information about the Cluster. Clyde McClintlock believes the Cluster is God incarnate, seeking retribution. G'Liat is an alien warrior whose own starship was destroyed by the Cluster. All together, they set out to solve the mystery of the Cluster before it finds the object of its quest.
The events of Children of the Old Stars follow those of The Pirates of Sufiro
My Review
I have not read or listened to the prequel of this book so came at it knowing nothing of the background or history. I do not believe I suffered at all because of that in my listening. I certainly did not notice any holes in plot or character.
It's a space opera in the full sence of the term. A bit star trek-like in its investigation of the unknown.
We have alien races, unknown entities and men driven by a desire to understand. All of the parts need for a great story. Unfortunately I found that it didn;t quite come together. The story just didn't have a big-bang it was missing the climax it deserved. This may be a factor of being the middle of a trilogy.
The reading was perfectly good and the story had enough twists and character to keep me listening, it was only after it was all over that I felt a little let down.
That sounds pretty negative, dont mistake me, it is a good enough story and you wont be bored and it's entirely possible you'll enjoy it a lot more than me.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
The 39 Steps
The Official Blurb
Richard Hannay’s boredom is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. This exciting action-adventure story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic film of the same name. John Buchan (1875-1940) was Governor General of Canada and a popular novelist. Although condemned by some for anti-Semitic dialog in The Thirty-Nine Steps, his character’s sentiments do not represent the view of the author who was identified in Hitler’s Sonderfahndungsliste (special search list) as a “Jewish sympathiser.”
My Review
I love "The 39 Steps", if you've read my review of it's sequel ( also available from Librivox ) you know this already. This version has just this month been released by Librivox and the moment I saw it I was hitting the download button.
I find the story exciting, thrilling and a real joy. The hero is a man of action, not a trained spy, not a dyed in the wool hero, just Johnny on the Spot who's prepared to do his bit.
There are chases, disguises and secret codes to top it off with all of the standard spy story requirements. It's an excellently put together story and I have to say the reader in this case was just as excellent as the story itself.
The story opens with the protagonist bored out of his skull, and the reader portrays this perfectly. Later when things start to liven up, the reader lives up to that as well with excitement and threat(!) in his voice. As a huge bonus his voice characterisations are a delight.
This is a MUST LISTEN title from Librivox.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
Richard Hannay’s boredom is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. This exciting action-adventure story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic film of the same name. John Buchan (1875-1940) was Governor General of Canada and a popular novelist. Although condemned by some for anti-Semitic dialog in The Thirty-Nine Steps, his character’s sentiments do not represent the view of the author who was identified in Hitler’s Sonderfahndungsliste (special search list) as a “Jewish sympathiser.”
My Review
I love "The 39 Steps", if you've read my review of it's sequel ( also available from Librivox ) you know this already. This version has just this month been released by Librivox and the moment I saw it I was hitting the download button.
I find the story exciting, thrilling and a real joy. The hero is a man of action, not a trained spy, not a dyed in the wool hero, just Johnny on the Spot who's prepared to do his bit.
There are chases, disguises and secret codes to top it off with all of the standard spy story requirements. It's an excellently put together story and I have to say the reader in this case was just as excellent as the story itself.
The story opens with the protagonist bored out of his skull, and the reader portrays this perfectly. Later when things start to liven up, the reader lives up to that as well with excitement and threat(!) in his voice. As a huge bonus his voice characterisations are a delight.
This is a MUST LISTEN title from Librivox.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Planet of the Damned
The Official Blurb
Once in a generation, a man is born with a heightened sense of empathy. Brion Brandd used this gift to win the Twenties, an annual physical and mental competition among the best and smartest people on Anvhar. But scarcely able to enjoy his victory, Brandd is swept off to the hellish planet Dis where he must use his heightened sense of empathy to help avert a global nuclear holocaust by negotiating with the blockading fleet, traversing the Disan underworld, and cracking the mystery of the savagely ruthless magter.
My Review
This was a fun story. High SciFi in the best traditions. As the blurb says a hero is whisked away from his home world to help interfere in the impending doom of an entire planet.
The main character picks up a few friends along the way and gets involved in the rebellion on the planet. From the moment the hero lands on the planet the action starts and as a reader/listener you're not left wanting. His mission has equal parts of must-keep-going, running-out-of-time, enemies-surround-me, alien-investigations. It's a kind of Star-Trek meets Indiana Jones adventure and very enjoyable.
The readings are excellent and pretty well put together.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
Once in a generation, a man is born with a heightened sense of empathy. Brion Brandd used this gift to win the Twenties, an annual physical and mental competition among the best and smartest people on Anvhar. But scarcely able to enjoy his victory, Brandd is swept off to the hellish planet Dis where he must use his heightened sense of empathy to help avert a global nuclear holocaust by negotiating with the blockading fleet, traversing the Disan underworld, and cracking the mystery of the savagely ruthless magter.
My Review
This was a fun story. High SciFi in the best traditions. As the blurb says a hero is whisked away from his home world to help interfere in the impending doom of an entire planet.
The main character picks up a few friends along the way and gets involved in the rebellion on the planet. From the moment the hero lands on the planet the action starts and as a reader/listener you're not left wanting. His mission has equal parts of must-keep-going, running-out-of-time, enemies-surround-me, alien-investigations. It's a kind of Star-Trek meets Indiana Jones adventure and very enjoyable.
The readings are excellent and pretty well put together.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
7th Son Book Three : Destruction
The Official Blurb
As day four in the 7th Son adventure begins, John Alpha's quest for anarchy and genocide enters its final stage.
At every turn, the global terrorist has been triumphant. The world is reeling from a nuclear attack. An unprecedented energy crisis is upon us. Alpha himself has exclusive access to the White House, and secret weapons primed to propel his conspiracy into the endgame. The goal: planetary chaos.
Amidst this turmoil, the 7th Son's four surviving Beta Clones -- John, Father Thomas, Kilroy2.0 and Jack -- must defy their creators and hunt Alpha on their terms. Their mission: to stop the greatest assassination plot in history. The secrets John and his brothers discover will press them toward a final battle with their progenitor ... a battle in which the clones are outgunned, outnumbered and out of time.
Alliances will be made. Heroes will die. The end is nigh.
My Review
Wow! What can I say, it was totally beautiful. An excellent end to the trilogy. Its hard to think that a story that includes a few Nukes popping off half way through can raise the game for a tremendous endgame. 7th Son somehow manages it.
The previous two books that I have reviewed on this blog were outstanding and the author has carried on when drawing the trilogy to a conclusion. The characters that you come to love and loathe are fully formed when the book starts and this makes the events of this final part all the more momentous.
When the characters are hurt you feel thier pain, when they struggle to win through, you strain with them. You know the odds, you know how much of an underdog the good guys are and you really really want them to win through, but can't see anyway to achieve it.
Simply put this whole series is excellent and a must-read-listen.
Reading 3/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 9/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
As day four in the 7th Son adventure begins, John Alpha's quest for anarchy and genocide enters its final stage.
At every turn, the global terrorist has been triumphant. The world is reeling from a nuclear attack. An unprecedented energy crisis is upon us. Alpha himself has exclusive access to the White House, and secret weapons primed to propel his conspiracy into the endgame. The goal: planetary chaos.
Amidst this turmoil, the 7th Son's four surviving Beta Clones -- John, Father Thomas, Kilroy2.0 and Jack -- must defy their creators and hunt Alpha on their terms. Their mission: to stop the greatest assassination plot in history. The secrets John and his brothers discover will press them toward a final battle with their progenitor ... a battle in which the clones are outgunned, outnumbered and out of time.
Alliances will be made. Heroes will die. The end is nigh.
My Review
Wow! What can I say, it was totally beautiful. An excellent end to the trilogy. Its hard to think that a story that includes a few Nukes popping off half way through can raise the game for a tremendous endgame. 7th Son somehow manages it.
The previous two books that I have reviewed on this blog were outstanding and the author has carried on when drawing the trilogy to a conclusion. The characters that you come to love and loathe are fully formed when the book starts and this makes the events of this final part all the more momentous.
When the characters are hurt you feel thier pain, when they struggle to win through, you strain with them. You know the odds, you know how much of an underdog the good guys are and you really really want them to win through, but can't see anyway to achieve it.
Simply put this whole series is excellent and a must-read-listen.
Reading 3/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 9/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
There is an Audio Promo for the book.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
The Seventh Mountain
The Official Blurb
A dream, surreal and frightening, begins the path of 12 year old Mark Young's future; a path set long before he was even born. Fortunately, it's not a path he's doomed to walk alone. His course leads to true friends, fortune, and a place where he learns to wield great power.
This place is The Seventh Mountain, the place where Magi train. The Seventh Mountain conceals the direst legend known to man. Mark's fate lies within.
My Review
I have never seen or read any Harry Potter, but even I can see that this story is like Harry Potter, but with a slight Christian twist.
It's an episodic story that follows the exploits of a young lad as he discoveres his heritage and the Magic that is at its core. The young lad ends up at a Magic College where he is taught the arcane arts.
We have sporting adventure and a couple of small doses of actual danger, and the mysterious unknown is threaded throughout. We discover a bunch of small teasers which are never followed up and are obviously there to be furfilled in the remainder of the series. As yet, there has been no sign of the rest of the series.
I feel that this is a YA novel or perhaps even younger. I listened all of the way through but never really felt drawn into the story. The Christian elements were what hooked me, I kept thinking to myself, "how is the author going to pull this one off".
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3
Total Score 5/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
A dream, surreal and frightening, begins the path of 12 year old Mark Young's future; a path set long before he was even born. Fortunately, it's not a path he's doomed to walk alone. His course leads to true friends, fortune, and a place where he learns to wield great power.
This place is The Seventh Mountain, the place where Magi train. The Seventh Mountain conceals the direst legend known to man. Mark's fate lies within.
My Review
I have never seen or read any Harry Potter, but even I can see that this story is like Harry Potter, but with a slight Christian twist.
It's an episodic story that follows the exploits of a young lad as he discoveres his heritage and the Magic that is at its core. The young lad ends up at a Magic College where he is taught the arcane arts.
We have sporting adventure and a couple of small doses of actual danger, and the mysterious unknown is threaded throughout. We discover a bunch of small teasers which are never followed up and are obviously there to be furfilled in the remainder of the series. As yet, there has been no sign of the rest of the series.
I feel that this is a YA novel or perhaps even younger. I listened all of the way through but never really felt drawn into the story. The Christian elements were what hooked me, I kept thinking to myself, "how is the author going to pull this one off".
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3
Total Score 5/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
65 Below
The Official Blurb
After twenty years hunting terrorists under orders to "render harmless", USMC Master Sergeant Marcus Orlando Johnson, Mojo to his friends, settles into a quiet rural retirement on his childhood home in the Alaskan backwoods. But the idyllic retirement is shattered when Marcus comes across soldiers of America's staunchest enemy who are about to unleash a nightmarish biological weapon on the world from the most unexpected of places.
With the help of his ex-fiancee, the beautiful Korean born State Trooper Lonnie Wyatt, and the chance reunion of his old special operations buddy Harley Wasner, they race to stop a potentially devastating terrorist attack with worldwide implications but even nature is against them as the temperatures plummet to 65 below.
My Review
The author has written a very good thriller and produced a very good podcast version!
The story follows two timelines in parrellell following the same characters but about 10 years apart. It's very well done, the two stories weave to explain the reactions and motivations of them in the modern part of the story. Both threads are exciting, the "old" thread serves to action-up the beginning of the modern story.
The characters are well written, the action is tense and dramatic and the way the story has been constructed keeps you hooked because you want explanations for the mysteries set up at the beginning.
A very good story.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 7/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
There is an Audio promo for this book.
After twenty years hunting terrorists under orders to "render harmless", USMC Master Sergeant Marcus Orlando Johnson, Mojo to his friends, settles into a quiet rural retirement on his childhood home in the Alaskan backwoods. But the idyllic retirement is shattered when Marcus comes across soldiers of America's staunchest enemy who are about to unleash a nightmarish biological weapon on the world from the most unexpected of places.
With the help of his ex-fiancee, the beautiful Korean born State Trooper Lonnie Wyatt, and the chance reunion of his old special operations buddy Harley Wasner, they race to stop a potentially devastating terrorist attack with worldwide implications but even nature is against them as the temperatures plummet to 65 below.
My Review
The author has written a very good thriller and produced a very good podcast version!
The story follows two timelines in parrellell following the same characters but about 10 years apart. It's very well done, the two stories weave to explain the reactions and motivations of them in the modern part of the story. Both threads are exciting, the "old" thread serves to action-up the beginning of the modern story.
The characters are well written, the action is tense and dramatic and the way the story has been constructed keeps you hooked because you want explanations for the mysteries set up at the beginning.
A very good story.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 7/9
This book is available from Podiobooks.
There is an Audio promo for this book.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Edison's Conquest of Mars
The Official Blurb
Edison’s Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P. Serviss, is one of the many science fiction novels published in the nineteenth century. Although science fiction was not at the time thought of as a distinct literary genre, it was a very popular literary form, with almost every fiction magazine regularly publishing science fiction stories and novels. “Edison’s Conquest of Mars” was published in 1898 as an unauthorized sequel to H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, but did not achieve the fame of its predecessor. The book was endorsed by Thomas Edison, the hero of the book — though not by Wells.
My Review
I was drawn to this book because I'm a big fan of the "War of the Worlds". This story couldn't really fail to be a good story, spaceships, aliens and warfare litter the book in a loverly pile of SciFi crunchiness.
The book starts off with a very short ride through the recovery of mankind from the Martian attack up to the mounting of an Attack on Mars. Then it slows down to a more normal narative pace as the human forces are mustered and set force to cross the gulf of space.
At that point we have a space opera type adventure as they discover the unknowns of space suffering setbacks and discovering the amazing.
Once the human fleet reaches Mars the pace picks up and the action is non stop. Of course being such an old book, many of the assumptions made by the author are complete nonsence but this really adds to the "Classic" feel of the tale.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. And considering that it's free, the price was a bonus!
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio promo for this book.
Edison’s Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P. Serviss, is one of the many science fiction novels published in the nineteenth century. Although science fiction was not at the time thought of as a distinct literary genre, it was a very popular literary form, with almost every fiction magazine regularly publishing science fiction stories and novels. “Edison’s Conquest of Mars” was published in 1898 as an unauthorized sequel to H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, but did not achieve the fame of its predecessor. The book was endorsed by Thomas Edison, the hero of the book — though not by Wells.
My Review
I was drawn to this book because I'm a big fan of the "War of the Worlds". This story couldn't really fail to be a good story, spaceships, aliens and warfare litter the book in a loverly pile of SciFi crunchiness.
The book starts off with a very short ride through the recovery of mankind from the Martian attack up to the mounting of an Attack on Mars. Then it slows down to a more normal narative pace as the human forces are mustered and set force to cross the gulf of space.
At that point we have a space opera type adventure as they discover the unknowns of space suffering setbacks and discovering the amazing.
Once the human fleet reaches Mars the pace picks up and the action is non stop. Of course being such an old book, many of the assumptions made by the author are complete nonsence but this really adds to the "Classic" feel of the tale.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. And considering that it's free, the price was a bonus!
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio promo for this book.
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