Official Blurb
The human race was expanding through the galaxy … and so, they knew, were the Aliens. When two expanding empires meet … war is inevitable. Or is it …?
My Review
This short sci fi book , which is only an hour and twenty minutes long, hits all my favourite buttons in sci fi. It's set in space, it has space battles, it has aliens and it has tension and mystery. Hit hit hit hit Ding!
It's a typical pulp era sci fi story in all of the best ways. mankind is spreading across the galaxy and keeps coming across evidence of another space going race but they have never met... until now, so that makes this a first-contact story.
The author has handled the situation well, and the aliens have a different tech and mind set that make the situation that the story is centered around all the more interesting.
Even in so short a time the story introduce an array of character all with different motivations which dont fit into the "star trek" mold of all being good guys, which it a nice change.
I don't really want to say too much, the story is so short that if I go on I'll end up giving the plot away. That would be a shame as the book is a treat for sci fi fans. Download it.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from the Librivox
Listen to the first part
.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Leviathan Chronicles
Official Blurb
A hidden city called Leviathan lies deep within the dark trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The city is home to a community of immortals that sought to create a utopia over 1,000 years ago. For a millennia, they lived in peace and secrecy, gently influencing world events to aid the advancement of mankind. But a terrible secret has been kept deep within the catacombs of Leviathan that threatens the existence of the immortals, and quite possibly the entire world.
One woman named Macallan Orsel, a young genetic scientist in New York, discovers she is descended from a group of immortals that rebelled against Leviathan and are now waging a civil war around the globe. As the immortal war spills into the realm of mortal man, Macallan realizes that she holds the key to stopping the battle and bringing peace to Leviathan. But a clandestine government agency called The Blackdoor Group is trying to exterminate the immortal population and has identified Macallan as their critical target.
The Leviathan Chronicles is a revolutionary science fiction audio drama podcast featuring the voices of over 60 actors, professional sound effects and an original music soundtrack.
My Review
This is a sci fi story set on modern day earth. Is reveals all of the tropes of a sci fi novel but as a hidden world in and under the world as we know it. As the blurb says the story is presented as a full cast audio drama, and it’s done quite well. The music, sound effects and acting is pretty good. At times you can sense the actors struggling with the text which was written as for a book rather than for audio presentation, but that is something you get used to as the story draws you in.
The characters are well put together and having a separate actor for each really makes the plot easy to follow, which is a blessing when you consider the story jumps from one party to another and even occasionally through time. The voices keep it all straight.
It is exciting, it’s an audio experience, it’s fun. It’s all good stuff. I love the full-on audio movie style of presentation, especially the fight scenes you hear the crunches the cracks and the punches all with a simultaneous narration that makes it all very visceral and attention grabbing.
So having said how great this book is, what’s wrong with it? Only two things as far as I’m concerned. Firstly the narrator seems to have taken breath breaks mid paragraph and then come back. It means the audio doesn’t quite flow as well as it should but after the first half hour you won’t even notice that. The real bugbear is that this is part 1 and ends with me wanting more. I had the same feeling you got at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back.” It’s the “What? You’re stopping there?” feeling.
A quick look at the home page for the book doesn’t reveal any current activity on the next part which I found a disappointment, especially as the first part is so well done. The story does work standalone, only I wish they hadn’t stuck me with the hooks for the next part!!
Reading 2/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
Download it from Podiobooks
Listen to the first part
.
A hidden city called Leviathan lies deep within the dark trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The city is home to a community of immortals that sought to create a utopia over 1,000 years ago. For a millennia, they lived in peace and secrecy, gently influencing world events to aid the advancement of mankind. But a terrible secret has been kept deep within the catacombs of Leviathan that threatens the existence of the immortals, and quite possibly the entire world.
One woman named Macallan Orsel, a young genetic scientist in New York, discovers she is descended from a group of immortals that rebelled against Leviathan and are now waging a civil war around the globe. As the immortal war spills into the realm of mortal man, Macallan realizes that she holds the key to stopping the battle and bringing peace to Leviathan. But a clandestine government agency called The Blackdoor Group is trying to exterminate the immortal population and has identified Macallan as their critical target.
The Leviathan Chronicles is a revolutionary science fiction audio drama podcast featuring the voices of over 60 actors, professional sound effects and an original music soundtrack.
My Review
This is a sci fi story set on modern day earth. Is reveals all of the tropes of a sci fi novel but as a hidden world in and under the world as we know it. As the blurb says the story is presented as a full cast audio drama, and it’s done quite well. The music, sound effects and acting is pretty good. At times you can sense the actors struggling with the text which was written as for a book rather than for audio presentation, but that is something you get used to as the story draws you in.
The characters are well put together and having a separate actor for each really makes the plot easy to follow, which is a blessing when you consider the story jumps from one party to another and even occasionally through time. The voices keep it all straight.
It is exciting, it’s an audio experience, it’s fun. It’s all good stuff. I love the full-on audio movie style of presentation, especially the fight scenes you hear the crunches the cracks and the punches all with a simultaneous narration that makes it all very visceral and attention grabbing.
So having said how great this book is, what’s wrong with it? Only two things as far as I’m concerned. Firstly the narrator seems to have taken breath breaks mid paragraph and then come back. It means the audio doesn’t quite flow as well as it should but after the first half hour you won’t even notice that. The real bugbear is that this is part 1 and ends with me wanting more. I had the same feeling you got at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back.” It’s the “What? You’re stopping there?” feeling.
A quick look at the home page for the book doesn’t reveal any current activity on the next part which I found a disappointment, especially as the first part is so well done. The story does work standalone, only I wish they hadn’t stuck me with the hooks for the next part!!
Reading 2/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3
Total Score 8/9
Download it from Podiobooks
Listen to the first part
.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Gallipoli Diary by John Graham Gillam
Official Blurb
Major John Graham Gillam, British Supply Officer, wrote in his World War I "Gallipoli Diary" that when he sailed from England for the Dardanelles in March, 1915, he had visions of “trekking up the Gallipoli Peninsula with the Navy bombarding a way for us up the Straits and along the coast-line of the Sea of Marmora, until after a brief campaign we entered triumphantly Constantinople, there to meet the Russian Army, which would link up with ourselves to form part of a great chain encircling and throttling the Central Empires. . . We little appreciated the difficulties of the task,” he continues, in potent understatement.
Gillam’s charge was shepherding supplies--food and munitions--from beach depots to the trenches for a brigade of 4000 men. Since it was his first experience with “real war,” he decided to keep a diary, which he did from the day he landed at Gallipoli (April 25, 1915) until he was evacuated at the end of the campaign in January 1916. He aptly states in the preface to the published version of his diary: “those who desire to survey the whole amazing Gallipoli campaign in perspective must look elsewhere than in these pages. Their sole object was to record the personal impressions, feeling, and doings from day to day of one supply officer to a Division whose gallantry in that campaign well earned for it the epithet “Immortal.”
As the campaign intensifies, Gillam’s entries mature. Early on (May 30), a sample entry: “This afternoon I ride . . . to Morto Bay, and on the way have a delightful cross-country canter. I have difficulty, though, in making my mare jump trenches. She jumped hurdles at Warwick race-course like a bird.” A month later, on June 30,“The smell of dead bodies is at times almost unbearable in the trenches, and chloride of lime is thrown over them. I know of no more sickly smell than chloride of lime with the smell of a dead body blended in.” Another month, and respect for the Turks, and also for the rugged terrain of the peninsula is evident (August 29): “Behind me, purple Turkish hills, every point of which is held by the enemy. Then in between our line and the hills the scrubby low-lying country. . . I look at it hopelessly--for I know now, as we all do, that the conquest of the Peninsula is more than we can hope for. All that is left to us is to hang on day by day. . . Death in various forms walks with us always . . .”
Today, the Turkish Government maintains a war memorial and cemeteries at the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park. Memories are very much alive there. Preserved trenches and the sad graves of many, many soldiers from both sides of the conflict are made especially poignant by the beauty of the setting-- the sea and high hills beyond.
My Review
This book caught my interest in history. I had a vague idea that the WW1 Gallipoli campaign was unsuccessful but that was about it, so I downloaded this book and gave it a listen.
The joy of this kind of history is that it's personal. It's not some high minded historian presenting his interpretation of historical facts with the benefit of hindsight. Instead you get the facts from the horses mouth as such, and even better from my point of view, its not some grand strategical overview it's through the eyes of someone who was there, first hand, literally in the trenches.
When you get personal viewpoints you really get a better idea of what it felt like to be there. You get to know what matters to the men on the ground. You get to hear about how much pleasure could be gained from managing to light even a small fire while snow lies all around, or how getting a simple drink of water can be a genuine risk to life! How reaching a treeline is a massive achievement, even though its just a few yards away.
The author in this book, is a supply officer who finds himself constantly under fire and struggling to get the food and ammunition through. You get a real feel for the difficulties suffered by the men on the ground.
As well as the difficulties the author suffers in doing his job you get a feel for his hope and high expectations during the opening of the campaign. Then you can feel that change to unbelief as he slowly comes to realise that things are not going well.
All in all I found this a terrificly interesting listen, a genuine history lesson from someone "who was there". The reader was excellent, having a pacing and tone that suited the tone of the text very well.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first part
.
Major John Graham Gillam, British Supply Officer, wrote in his World War I "Gallipoli Diary" that when he sailed from England for the Dardanelles in March, 1915, he had visions of “trekking up the Gallipoli Peninsula with the Navy bombarding a way for us up the Straits and along the coast-line of the Sea of Marmora, until after a brief campaign we entered triumphantly Constantinople, there to meet the Russian Army, which would link up with ourselves to form part of a great chain encircling and throttling the Central Empires. . . We little appreciated the difficulties of the task,” he continues, in potent understatement.
Gillam’s charge was shepherding supplies--food and munitions--from beach depots to the trenches for a brigade of 4000 men. Since it was his first experience with “real war,” he decided to keep a diary, which he did from the day he landed at Gallipoli (April 25, 1915) until he was evacuated at the end of the campaign in January 1916. He aptly states in the preface to the published version of his diary: “those who desire to survey the whole amazing Gallipoli campaign in perspective must look elsewhere than in these pages. Their sole object was to record the personal impressions, feeling, and doings from day to day of one supply officer to a Division whose gallantry in that campaign well earned for it the epithet “Immortal.”
As the campaign intensifies, Gillam’s entries mature. Early on (May 30), a sample entry: “This afternoon I ride . . . to Morto Bay, and on the way have a delightful cross-country canter. I have difficulty, though, in making my mare jump trenches. She jumped hurdles at Warwick race-course like a bird.” A month later, on June 30,“The smell of dead bodies is at times almost unbearable in the trenches, and chloride of lime is thrown over them. I know of no more sickly smell than chloride of lime with the smell of a dead body blended in.” Another month, and respect for the Turks, and also for the rugged terrain of the peninsula is evident (August 29): “Behind me, purple Turkish hills, every point of which is held by the enemy. Then in between our line and the hills the scrubby low-lying country. . . I look at it hopelessly--for I know now, as we all do, that the conquest of the Peninsula is more than we can hope for. All that is left to us is to hang on day by day. . . Death in various forms walks with us always . . .”
Today, the Turkish Government maintains a war memorial and cemeteries at the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park. Memories are very much alive there. Preserved trenches and the sad graves of many, many soldiers from both sides of the conflict are made especially poignant by the beauty of the setting-- the sea and high hills beyond.
My Review
This book caught my interest in history. I had a vague idea that the WW1 Gallipoli campaign was unsuccessful but that was about it, so I downloaded this book and gave it a listen.
The joy of this kind of history is that it's personal. It's not some high minded historian presenting his interpretation of historical facts with the benefit of hindsight. Instead you get the facts from the horses mouth as such, and even better from my point of view, its not some grand strategical overview it's through the eyes of someone who was there, first hand, literally in the trenches.
When you get personal viewpoints you really get a better idea of what it felt like to be there. You get to know what matters to the men on the ground. You get to hear about how much pleasure could be gained from managing to light even a small fire while snow lies all around, or how getting a simple drink of water can be a genuine risk to life! How reaching a treeline is a massive achievement, even though its just a few yards away.
The author in this book, is a supply officer who finds himself constantly under fire and struggling to get the food and ammunition through. You get a real feel for the difficulties suffered by the men on the ground.
As well as the difficulties the author suffers in doing his job you get a feel for his hope and high expectations during the opening of the campaign. Then you can feel that change to unbelief as he slowly comes to realise that things are not going well.
All in all I found this a terrificly interesting listen, a genuine history lesson from someone "who was there". The reader was excellent, having a pacing and tone that suited the tone of the text very well.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first part
.
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