The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. HOWARD

Official Blurb

The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was one of the last Conan stories published before Howard's suicide although not the last to be written. The novel was first published in serial form in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1935 through 1936.

My Review

A classic of pulp era fantasy story telling. Conan starts in this story as a king but is soon thrown down to the level of a wandering vagabond. But if you know Conan, like I know Conan, then you know that he won't take that lying down!

This is one of the best Conan stories from the master, it features a great story arc and the unrelenting tenacity of Conan's character comes right through. Yet at the same time, you find that Conan is no machine, he feels fear, and yes even runs from a foe now and then!

If your only experience with Conan is the first film, then you might recognise some the names and places mentioned in this story as the first film seems to have lifted many of the names it used from this story, although not the plot. This story is straight up heroic adventure from beginning to end, a good pace that never lets up.

As to the reading, well. Awesome. Another Mark Nelson classic.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Listen to the first chapter.
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Jetta of the Lowlands by Ray Cummings

Official Blurb

Fantastic and Sinister Are the Lowlands into Which Philip Grant Descends on His Dangerous Assignment.

My Review

That has to be the shortest Official Blurb! I even searched the internet looking for a better one. It doesn't exist! I'm not sure any of the people that are selling this book have even bothered to read it.

Anyway.

This is classic sci fi. Adventure and excitement, a hero who falls in love and nothing, repeat, nothing will stop him from saving his love when she's kidnapped. Classic style, her love for him is as instant and all encompassing as his. This really is the stuff that makes these older tales so good.  I may be a bit of a softy at heart but I love this stuff.

The bad guy knows that Jetta's worth a pretty penny and intends to take that for himself. So we have the good guy sweeping in to burn down the bad guys and rescue the princess but nothing is ever easy and things start to go wrong.

The reader for this librivox story is Richard Kilmer and I love his voice. Sadly in this story his pacing seems off, or maybe it's the original writing (it appeared in a pulp magazine). That aside his voice is easy on the ears and like it, its the audio equivalent of pop corn. :)

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 5/9

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The Sky Is Falling by Lester del Rey

Official Blurb

After dying in a terrible accident at a building site, Dave Hanson finds himself being brought back to life in a world where magic is real, and where the sky is breaking apart and falling. And he is expected to put it back together again. Will he be able to save this strange world, and his own new life?

My Review

This classic sci fi tale is a good 'un. It was birthed in 1954 during the science fiction golden age and appeared in the magazines of the time, that means that the story does all of the normal tropes of the time. A man out of water, a beautiful girl, a problem to be solved. In this case it's a really very interesting problem. The sky IS falling! Our hero has been resurrected in a strange alien world and is expected to save that world as it literally starts to fall apart. It's a world where magic actually works and nearly everything there is made with magic, but the magic is starting to fail. To add to the maelstrum there are opposing factions vying for control and fighting over our hero.

I was hooked as soon as I started listening, the strangeness of the world was original and intriguing from the outset. The story is outrageous and perhaps even silly at times, but I never lost my interest and listened straight5 through without break.

On top of that cool story the reader was outstanding, she brought a voice with marvelous expression and pacing to the story.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 7/9

Listen to the first chapter.
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Blake's 7: Rebel, Traitor, Liberator

Official Blurb

In the third century of the second calendar, the galactic Federation, once a beacon of democracy and peace, has become a corrupt tyranny.

Freedom and Justice are things of the past.

Roj Blake stood up for the ordinary people. When the establishment tried intimidation he laughed in their faces. When they tried to crush him he fought back. When they tried to brainwash him into obedience, he broke their conditioning. Finally they framed him and sentenced him to permanent exile on the notorious prison planet Cygnus Alpha.

The Federation thinks it has seen the last of Roj Blake.

The Federation will wish it had...

My Review

I remember watching Blaske's 7 when it was first run on television. As a kid I was glued to this amazing series. As an adult I saw some re-runs and realised just how low the production values were!

I've been listening to Spotify of late and was rather pleased to discover that it includes some audio books. Mostly these are the classics, some from Librivox and the other free locations, but I was supremely delighted to discover some "new" material too., including this particular presentation.

This full cast audio drama was produced in 2010 by a professional audio company and includes everything that entails. Good acting and great sound effects!

This three part (3 CD's I guess) story starts with Blake breaking free of the Federation and building his team, just like the TV series did. I can't say if this follows the same story path as the TV version as I don't recollect but if was a fun ride. It's a straight up adventure of world building, narrow escapes and brave stand offs. Throw in some space battles and the mysterious ship "Liberator" that has a life of its own and you have everything for a great story.

There are 3 significant episodes in this story. That is, the story is episodic, just like a TV or radio series, it does not follow a single story arc.  And that was where this superb production let me down. I like my audiobooks to have a beginning middle and end, but this is just the first three episodes of an ongoing story. If I'd known that going in, I wouldn't have had the disappointment factor when I reached the end. It was just an expectation thing, and does not reflect on the book itself which is great!

In fact, there are other stories in the series on Spotify, and knowing their episodic nature I'm still interested in them. Watch this space.

In summary, Good.

Reading 3/3
Production 3/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 8/9

Listen for free on Spotify

Deadly Games by Lindsay Buroker

Official Blurb

When you’ve been accused of kidnapping an emperor, and every enforcer in the city wants your head, it’s hard to prove yourself an honorable person and even harder to earn an imperial pardon.

That doesn’t keep Amaranthe Lokdon and her team of outlaws from trying. When athletes start disappearing from the Imperial Games, they may finally have an opportunity to show the emperor that they’re on his side. If she and her comrades can get to the bottom of such a public mystery, they’re sure to get the credit.

But plans go awry when Amaranthe’s own men start plotting against each other, the new ally she’d hoped to acquire tries to turn her in, and her best fighter—and closest friend—disappears.

Maybe getting involved wasn’t such a good idea after all…

My Review

This is the third book in the "Emperors Edge" series and continues the steampunky adventure through a historical-Japanese inspired world. I've reviewed the previous books in the series.

I must be liking this series to have progressed as far as the third book, and indeed this book continues it's romp in a like manner. Sword flash, muskets crash, and magicians cause trouble for the heroes in all kinds of interesting ways.

As mentioned in the official blurb, Amaranthe leads her troop of mismatched outlaws into investigating another strange event, in this case missing athletes. This leads them to discover and be attacked by monsters along with practitioners of the magical arts. As with the other books in the series, the heroes are out matched, out gunned and out manned and have to use guile and a well placed sword point in order to save the day.

As with the previous books, the dangerous moments are never taken too seriously and the peril never gets overpowering, as the characters are always ready with a quip or sarcastic remark to lighten the mood. This gives the book a pulpy feel where the dangers are "real" but you never really feel the main characters are likely to leave this mortal coil. It's really more a case of wondering how they might get themselves out of the jams they're in.

Another great reading by Starla Huchton who puts the perfect voice on this book. I have to say that it's especially nice to have a female narrator when the protagonist is female, it makes the moments we spend in her head all the more enjoyable.

Reading 2/3
Production 3/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 7/9

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The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Official Blurb

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is an adventure novel and one of the author's most popular works. He completed the work in 1844. The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815-1838 (from just before the Hundred Days to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). It deals with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness. The book is considered a literary classic today.

My Review

If I start by saying that I'd been holding off listening to this book until a single-reader version came along, you'll realise it is a book I wanted to hear, and that I wanted to hear done properly. This is actually the third version of the book put out by Librivox, but the first solo version.

It is 56 hours long. Fifty Six! The reader, David Clarke is excellent and pitches a great French accent that brings the text to life.

I stopped listening after 18 hours. Even David's wonderful reading could not induce me to continue listening to this so-called classic. With reference to this book, the word "classic" means long. It does not mean good.

It started so well, with the protagonist being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and a great prison escape. Then...then...Well then lots of boring stuff happened to characters that I didn't feel for nor care about. Was the author paid by the word, it sure felt like it Rambling, disjointed, lack of plot, lack of emotion and in the end, after an investment of 18 hours I realised life's too short for this book.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 0/3

Total Score 5/9 (Only count this score, if you think it fair when I didn't finish it!)

Listen to the first chapter 

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Where Evil Grows by S. Lawrence Parrish

Official Blurb

Where Evil Grows: Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll... from Hell.

It's 1976. The rock group KISS is cool. Every teenager alive wishes they could be so cool. So what would you be willing to do to hang around with the cool kids? Pretty much anything....

Justin Foley has cool new friends; they smoke dope and everything. And now that Justin is just as cool as his friends, an evil and malignant entity as old as time and space also wants to be his friend. And more than that, while it gestates in the service tunnels beneath Justin's school, the thing wants Justin to be its mentor. It wants Justin to teach it all about life and what it takes to be a success in this world.

What better place to learn than in a school? And what better measure of success than in taking control of your own destiny? Of course, along the way you might also learn how to assume control of everybody else's destiny....

Where Evil Grows: When fantasy becomes reality... you'll suffer.

My Review

Spoilers Ahoy!

A disappointment.  Well written on a page by page basis, very good narration, but ultimately lacking...something. Let's break that down a little. The story focuses on a group of school kids and the thing that is growing in the basement.

It started really well, introducing the kids and the "thing" but then seemed to just go on and on and on about the kids interacting and getting high.  Too many time did we here them talking about getting high and , OMG going on and on about the group KISS. Even if the kids were supposed to be obsessed with the group, I am not and I found it rather tiresome. I did wonder if the author was writing an autobiography at one point and the story went into immense detail of the history of KISS.

Anyway...I was really disappointed when the story seemed to be building towards a climax set in the school as the protagonists were to put on an air guitar KISS concert. Yet, in the end the school blowing up was just a throw away scene no more important to the plot that which guitar pick the kids used. Such a waste.

I'm so confused by what happened next. The evil thing from the school turns up at the kids home impregnates a girl and the book ends.  Only it doesn't. There's an epilog where the world ends. As I listened to the epilog, I thought to myself, THIS IS THE STORY, not endless drug smoking scenes. Then the epilog was over, just a couple of pages.

The squib was damp.

Now, having dumped all over the book's structure, let me say that I did enjoy listening for the first two thirds of the book. The narrator is excellent (is it the author?). I listened right to the end, which is more than I do for many books, but I was disappointed. One for KISS fans.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 6/9

Listen to the first chapter 

Download it from the Podiobooks