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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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 

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SHAT by S. Lawrence Parrish

Official Blurb

In a post-plague world where plants have suffered as much as animals, a colony of human survivors has gathered in a fortified former-luxury condominium complex they call “The Park”. These remnants of humanity are inextricably bound to their domestic cats, from which Dose (a temporary plague vaccine) is derived.
A forager army is rumored to be heading toward The Park. The Park people must prepare to defend themselves and all they have worked for, because they have made a discovery: not all cats are created equal; while regular Dose only staves off plague symptoms, the dose derived from Simon, The Park’s only Siamese cat, can be refined into SHAT, a super-dose that rejuvenates the growth of plant life. . . and which also may hold the secret to a permanent plague-cure. Problem: Simon is a neuter. If he should die, so, too, dies humanity’s one hope for survival.
Enter Sasha, a purebred female Balinese of breeding age that also produces SHAT. With the sky-rocketing tensions of increasing militarization, Sasha’s humans want to take their cat and leave The Park. But The Park people will use whatever means necessary to make them stay.

My Review

I found this story when I was trawling Podiobooks looking for new sci fi books, and when I saw this revolved around cats I HAD to listen to it.

I was hooked almost from the first instant. Being a cat owner, I found the cat P.O.V. used in some segments totally absorbing.  And that was a major part of the appeal throughout the book.  It seemed like every third chapter or so was told from the a cat's perspective. The animals relationships to one another was anthropomorphic, even to the point of them "speaking" to each other. However by making sure this never crossed over into talking to humans, it didn't ruin the mood of the piece.

Don't get me wrong this is not all about the cats, it has very strong characters who all come across as individuals with their own motivations. They are believeable people in a weird world and I wanted a happy ending for all of them.

A warning of sorts for cat lovers. Cats get torn up in hideous ways in this book. When I was considering this review, I asked myself, who was this book aimed at, not cat-lovers as the poor beasts suffer, nor was it aimed at cat-haters because the cat characters are appealing. Then it hit me. The cats in this book are treated no worse than the human characters who also get torn up in the same way. What the author's done here, is to create a post apocalyptic world that is as horrid to cats as it is to people and we the reader get to see just how horrid it is to everyone.

The book kept me hooked all the way through, the tension kept building towards the finale in just the way you want a book to.  It was a very good reading too,with a neat use of sound effects to help bring the whole thing to life.

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

Total Score 9/9

Listen to the first chapter 

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Dark Currents by Lindsay Buroker

Official Blurb

It’s been three months since former enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon and the notorious assassin Sicarius thwarted kidnappers and saved the emperor’s life. The problem? Nobody knows they were responsible for this good deed. Worse, they’re being blamed for the entire scheme. With enforcers and bounty hunters stalking them, and the emperor nursing a personal hatred for Sicarius, it’s going to be hard to earn exoneration.

My Review

This book is a sequel to "Emperors Edge", which I've previously reviewed. This book continues the story. It's the same great narrator presenting the continuing adventures of the same heroes.

The story develops with an opening investigation that leads to the discovery of a nefarious plot bound up with a magician creating magical artifacts that threaten the whole city.

Like the first book, it's a sword and musket romp through a pseudo Japanese realm that has a lot of western mores and tendencies, and all with a steam punky feel.

I do feel that the plot suffered for having no character development. There were no new characters  to be introduced and no growth or change in those that remained, it was really more of the same.

During one underground scene, that should have been full of dread and fear, the characters were laughing jauntily and poking fun at each other, which kind of destroyed the scene. It removed any sense of real danger.

I mention these two points because I didn't notice anything like them during the first book. the author seems to have dropped the ball, or if not dropped it, perhaps fumbled a little.

That may sound like I didn't like it. That's not the case. I did like it, and I've already queued up the third book in the series ready to start listening. So that recommends it, even if it did have some minor disappointments.

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

Total Score 7/9

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The Emperors Edge by Lindsay Buroker

Official Blurb

Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads.

But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed.

Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down.
Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills... or someone wants her dead.

My Review

I hadn't read the blurb when I first started listening to this so I went through all of the "that's odd" moments you might expect when the story starts off feeling as a feudal Japan/samurai story, evolves into a buddy cop story, then a political intrigue and then in wafts the early steam age.

Sound odd?  It is. But it is good. It's a fun adventure based in a Japan-like steam-punk world. Oh and just a enough magic to keep things interesting.

The narrator is not the author on this book, which is quite unusual for books on Podiobooks, but the reader does a wonderful professional job.

As a bonus this is the first part of a series, but stands very well on its own.

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

Total Score 7/9

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Listen to the first chapter.

Underwood and Flinch by Mike Bennett

Official Blurb


All David Flinch ever wanted was a normal life.

But when you're a member of the Flinch family, normal has never been easy.

For hundreds of years, the eldest male Flinch has been servant and guardian to the Lord Underwood. While the Flinches have changed through the generations, Underwood, a vampire, has been eternal. David had hoped to be spared the horror of serving his family's lord and master, but when he is summoned to the Flinch home in Spain by his dying older brother, he knows his luck has run out. Underwood must be resurrected from the grave in a ritual of human sacrifice, and David must be the man to do it. Because if he doesn't, an even greater evil than Underwood will rise: the evil that is David's sister.

Underwood and Flinch is an epic horror-thriller that spans the centuries. From the teeming slums of 17th Century London to an ex-pat community in modern-day Spain, this is the new novel from Mike Bennett, author of 'One Among the Sleepless' and 'Hall of Mirrors'.

My Review

I was a little tentative about starting this one.  The whole urban fantasy/vampire genre seems to have bloomed out of all control, with vamps sparkling left and right and the vamps all having hearts of gold, it's  starting to get a bit tired.

This book is not like that!

As the blurb says our protagonist is not the vampire, nor even a willing servant of the vampire. This books lead is very endearing. The man is a wreck, with a history that has broken his spirit and as you listen you will "feel" for him and start rooting for him through his trials and tribulations.

Of course it's about a vampire and there is therefore blood spilt, or rather deliberately bled from unwilling victims. It's gory, horrible, at time stomach churning and unsafe for work. However this gore and pain is not a constant ongoing thing but rather well paced, with high moments that set the tone for those occasions where more detail is not required. Truely, I am jealous of the authors ability to write in that style, it's not something I've been able to achieve.

The authors reading perfectly paced in just the right tone for the work. A British accent simply, put to its best purpose.  His voice work is rather good and only slipped for a moment once or twice in scenes with multiple voices in use.

In summary, a very good audio book.


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

Total Score 8/9

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Listen to the first part

ASUNDER by John Mierau

Official Blurb

Twenty years after the American civil war, former slave Marcus Riggs fights for his life in a British harbor, in a world where Invaders came to enslave all of humanity.

They came. They conquered... they died.

Now, new powers battle Empires and Nations in a world torn... Asunder.

My Review

Wow. Cool. Need I say more? What do you mean, "that's not a review!"

Well as the blurb says, this sci fi story is set twenty years after the American civil war and after the invaders of H.G. Wells have passed away. So the lead characters are ex slaves caught in England by the invasion of aliens. What a great concept, that alone hooked me and made sure I was going to listen. Once it started it turned out to be action packed, and as a bonus read by a great narrator.

The heroes are caught up in a society fractured by the coming of the aliens. The British nation and empire is dissolved as warlords have set themselves up are using the alien tech' to make grabs for any and everything.

It's a conflict rich environment that is peppered with so many strange and exciting things that I was totally hooked on that side of things. The characters likewise feel real and are also filled with conflicts that seem designed to hook the reader.

Simply put, I was blown away with how great this story was, and was very sad on reaching the end. This audio book is the first in a series, and the subsequent parts are not released yet ( at least my Googling couldn't find it).

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

Total Score 8/9

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Listen to the first part

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Acts of Desperation by Tim Dodge

Official Blurb

Ray Davis is newly divorced, going nowhere at a dead-end job in a warehouse, and has almost worked off the debts his ex-wife rang up. Then his underinsured brother's need for a liver transplant forces Ray to come up with a lot of money, fast. When he attempts to recover the profit he made with an old business partner, Ray discovers that the partner is dead and his investment has fallen into the hands of a drug dealer. The dealer has used the cash to buy a large supply of cocaine; he and his gun are not inclined to return the proceeds. Ray enlists a crude private eye to help him get it back, and he falls in love with Jenna, a beautiful waitress. His struggle to recover the money soon takes him deep into a swamp of crime, drugs, murder and revenge. Caught in a war between rival dealers, he comes to realize that the stakes have risen beyond the woman he loves or the money he needs to save his brother. He's fighting for his life.

ACTS OF DESPERATION is the new thriller from Tim Dodge. It combines crime, action, adventure, romance and humor into a roller coaster ride of a story.

My Review

The blurb above tells you all you need to know about the story! This is a thriller set in the modern world and features a believable protagonist in a desperate situation. I think most of us can sympathise with the lead characters dilemma, a desperate need for cash to help family member.

I really liked the lead character, he starts off seeming to be just your regular guy, but then slips into the seedy underworld, which at first seemed a little out of character, yet you soon realise that the guy is actually "that sort of guy" and it's no longer out of character. It's a very well done transition.

As with most good thrillers there is a lot of tension intermixed with action and a few good twists to keep you on your toes.

Recommended.

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

Total Score 7/9

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Listen to the first part

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The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan

Official Blurb

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There's no ancient evil to defeat, no orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to kill the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out…and so begins this tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

The Crown Conspiracy is book one of the six-book saga: The Riyria Revelations. Eschewing recent trends toward the lengthy, gritty, and dark, the Riyria Revelations is a return to traditional fantasy combining great characters, humor, and drama in appropriate measures. The series is told through six novels each a separate episode in a single epic tale . Across the entire chronicle, mysteries build, characters evolve, and plots thicken, but each is a self-contained story that can be enjoyed in its own right.

My Review

The blurb above pretty much says everything you need to know about the story and actually says it better than I could. It's a fantasy romp with great likeable characters. I listened happily and enjoyed the experience. It's a light story, with the odd moment or two of gore to add spice.

It was narrated by Nathan Lowell, the author of the "Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" series of podiobooks, and frankly, I could listen to him all day long. This story just seems to match his reading style.

I don't think there's anything to add. It's a fun adventurous fantasy story :)

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

Total Score 7/9

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Listen to the first part

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Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton

Official Blurb

The Throg task force struck the Terran survey camp a few minutes after dawn, without warning, and with a deadly precision which argued that the aliens had fully reconnoitered and prepared that attack. Eye-searing lances of energy lashed back and forth across the base with methodical accuracy. And a single cowering witness, flattened on a ledge in the heights above, knew that when the last of those yellow-red bolts fell, nothing human would be left alive down there.

And so Shann Lantee, most menial of the Terrans attached to the camp on the planet Warlock, was left alone and weaponless in the strange, hostile world, the human prey of the aliens from space and the aliens on the ground alike.

ANDRE NORTON has become one of the highest rated authors of science-fiction adventure now writing. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, a book collector, and s-f fan, Ace Books have had the pleasure of presenting her best novels in newsstand editions.

My Review

This is a classic sci fi story, telling a good pulpy sci fi story including heroes, aliens, battles and mysteries. With that description how could it be bad! As the blurb describes a powerful alien forces attack a human camp on new world, and a young lad is the only survivor.

What can he do? How will he survive? What dangers lurk on this new planet? Will the aliens come looking for him?

Lots of questions, and all the answers are explored in typical sci fi style. I really enjoyed the story. The narrator is Mark Douglas Nelson, one of my favourite Librivox readers, who has now posted this book over at Podiobooks.

My only niggle with the Audiobook, is some of the incidental music which at times seemed a little inappropriate and perhaps a little loud at times too. But this is a minor negative on what is an excellent book.

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

Total Score 7/9

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Listen to the first part
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Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell

Official Blurb

Follow along with Arcot, Morey, and Wade as they discover a revolutionary form of propulsion, visit our neighboring planets, and go up against aliens from a rogue solar system that passes close to our own. These three stories (Piracy Preferred, Solarite, and The Black Star Passes) were originally published as a serial in Amazing Stories magazine.

My Review

This book is a "classic" from the Golden age of Sci Fi. Super villains using new science to feather their nests and Super Genius scientists seting out to battle them. Great stuff. Remember when you listen that these stories were written decades ago and the author didn't have the scientific knowledge we have today. Back then telephones had wires, they didn't VCR let alone DVD!

All three stories are good. In the first, someone is robbing aircraft in mid flight and there are no witnesses as all of the crew are left sleeping. In the second story, the heroes travel into space and find alien civilisations. In the third, it steps up a notch and becomes a full on WAR!

In summary, great stuff, the sort of thing I wish they'd put on the "Escape Pod" podcast occasionally.

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

Total Score 6/9

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Listen to the first part
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Guardians by A. S. Frye

Official Blurb

Guardians is set in the near future and follows the life of a young girl, Kathy, who suffers a head injury which gives her some amazing psychic abilities, and then, through various extraordinary circumstances, ends up in a small town near Roswell, New Mexico. Along the way, she joins up with Megan, another psychic who is also being drawn to that same town.

When they arrive, Kathy is abducted by a UFO and after some alien technological wizardry, she gives birth to a hybrid baby. In the meantime, the aliens are surprised at how strong the psychic force is in some humans and fear that this power could destroy them, so they use the hybrid baby in a plot to wipe out the entire human race before anyone discovers they are here. Kathy dares to resist them and fights to save her hybrid child.

But in the end, it is the child, himself—half alien / half human—who will determine which race will live, and which will die.

My Review

If I was afraid of including any spoilers in my review, I need not worry, as the offical blurb has out-spoilered anything I ever included in a review!

I found this a very interesting book. Even when you know the plot up front the characters themselves are very attractive and the twists and turns in the story itself keep everything fresh so that you are always wondering what's coming up.

The plot revolves around a group of people with strange occult powers that come together and fight an alien influence. That summary is honey to this particular Bee! I was hooked after a couple of chapters. It also took me that long to get used to the reader who has his own style of pacing. Once I settled into his pace or reading I found it very graceful.

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

Total Score 6/9

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Listen to the first part
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Anon Time by Craig Robertson

Official Blurb

What if you weren't who you thought you were, what others saw you to be? What if the structure of time depended on you to keep it steady. What if unseen forces, both good and evil, surrounded you, effecting your life in way's you could not begin to imagine? Well, if that were the case, you'd be Mark De Martel, unobtrusive advertising agent in Los Angeles. Or would you? Possibly you were a Mark, but possibly you would be a powerful warrior, using skills such as the manipulation of gravity itself to save existence.

The answer can be found by listening to Anon Time. It is a science fiction formatted novel with philosophical and spiritual underpinnings guaranteed to whisk you on an adventure of wondrous scope and amazing clarity. Treat yourself to this fantastic story, trust us, you deserve it.

My Review

This was a pretty good story. A man discovers that he's not who he thought he was, or even WHAT he thought he was. As soon as the discovery is made is he finds himself embroiled in a battle across time and space against the great enemy of humanity.

I've said it's a pretty good story, and it is, I really enjoyed it. Yet, I have "But" to add. After it was over I felt that the big-bad was a bit of whiner, that is he seemed more like a spoiled child rather than a terrible enemy to be feared.

Now that I've written that, I fear I may have overstated it. The book was good. It was a fun sci fi story that kept me thrilled and interested right to the end, and yes there may have even been a tear in my eye.

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

Total Score 6/9

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Listen to the first part
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Marco and the Red Granny by Mur Lafferty

Official Blurb

By bringing back the patronage system, a new alien species has transformed the moon into the new artistic center of the universe, and Sally Ride Lunar Base soon gains the nickname “Mollywood.” These aliens can do amazing things with art and the senses, allowing a painting, for example, to stimulate other senses than simply sight. When someone asks a starlet, “Who are you wearing?” she could as easily say “J.K. Rowling” as she could “Gucci.”

Every creative person in the world wishes for a patronage. It’s quite competitive.

Marco wanted one, once. But then his girlfriend got one and shuttled off to Mollywood for fame and fortune, and Marco stayed home, waiting for his own patron. After several years, he gave up entirely. His career faltered. His agent dumped him. And then, one morning, he gets a call. At last he has a patron, at last the aliens want him. But he’s about to find out that an artistic patronage isn’t what it was in the good old days, and that the only friend he’s made, a tiny old woman who’s the star of a blood sports reality series called The Most Dangerous Game, has secrets of her own.

My Review

I had no idea if I was going to enjoy book, it was a punt in the dark! The title kind of put me off, it sounded a bit ... dumb. When you read the blurb it is quite clearly a sci fi story but the last line of the blurb makes it sound like a kids book (remember "Super Gran"?). I just didn't know what to expect.

All that confusion wafted away once I started listening, it was a character driven play in a sci fi story. It's not a high action story, although there are battles to the death in an arena on the moon!

The story is fundamentally a 50's or 60's style one-trick story. In a way it reminded me of [SPOILER AHEAD] "Star Surgeon" where there's a massive plague that in the end is beaten by simply smoking cigarettes. This story has that kind of feel.

I enjoyed the story well enough, but I feel like it's a lost opportunity. If your reading this Mur, I think you need to rename it, and swap out the granny. It seems you were trying to write a satirical piece, but there is no humour in the story, it's a character-play-adventure. Kill the granny and insert an ex-Marine in her stead. (Or tell me to shut-up!)

The production suffers a little, the theme music levels seem at odds with the voice over narration, I had adjust volume every time the theme came up.

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

Total Score 5/9

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Listen to the first part

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Harvey by Phil Rossi

Official Blurb

Television singing sensation Calvin Hubbard has been caught with his hand in cookie jar. An illicit affair with a contest judge costs him not only the competition crown, but his musical credibility as well. Fleeing the media fallout, Calvin exiles himself to the backwoods town of Harvey, Virginia. With a little solitude and a lot of cheap beer, he plans to write the next great rock and roll album and resurrect his career. But Calvin doesn't know that a man has just been buried alive in the woods outside of town, and that this quiet murder is just the first in a string of macabre events. As the town goes silently mad around him, Calvin is unable to abandon the record of his dreams. Drunk on inspiration and blinded by an inexplicable lust, he careens headlong into the maelstrom, only to discover that he may be the town's only salvation. Something is alive in the trees—an ageless, nameless evil—and it's coming for everyone in Harvey. Now Calvin has to decide whether to run or to stay and fight… if it isn’t already too late.

My Review

This is not the first Phil Rossi story I've listened to, and I've loved all of his other books. I liked this one, didn't love it, just liked it.

The blurb tells you everything you need to know about the story itself. What it doesn't tell you is that the characters created are very real and it's easy to relate to them and that helps to draw you into the story. He's got some really nasty characters in there and some loveable ones and I felt interested in all of their individual stories, so every time the POV changed I happy to follow along.

I've said that I liked this story, and I did, but I did not love it, so let me tell you why. Some weird stuff happens in this story, weird and scary, but I never felt it was sufficiently explained. Also I felt the ending was too easy for the good guys, I felt like they didn't have to work too hard to get to where they got. That was only a minor disappointment.

Phil reads his own work, and has a voice to-die-for, perfect for this kind of dark material, I could listen to him all day.

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

Total Score 8/9

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Listen to the first part

Act of Will by M. Darusha Wehm

Official Blurb


Andersson Dexter is a new man, still living his old life.

Part vigilante, part private eye, part cop, Dex is muddling his way through his day job as a faceless customer service rep for a giant firm, while solving routine cases in his off hours. But when a gruesomely mutilated corpse is found, things heat up for Dex and the underground organization he calls the Cubicle Men.

Soon, Dex finds himself racing against the clock to find a killer who seems to be determined to strike him close to home.

In a grim future where people live and work in crowded, utilitarian cities, but escape to an online virtual world, Act of Will explores the capacity we have to choose the directions our lives will take, and the consequences of those choices.

My Review

This is the third audio book by this author that I've listened to and the second starring Dex, the part time detective.

The world the book is set in is very interesting.  In the not too distant future when the "everywhere-net" is ...everywhere, and everyone is on it, enjoying themselves and escaping the drudgery of real live in the virtual world.  In the last book the mystery was revolving around the death of a virtual character, this one is set in the real world, and a serial killer is doing their thing.

The author does an outstanding job of reading in this case.  After listening to two previous books read by the same author, I judge that she has hit her narrating sweet spot in this book.

The characters are once again as interesting as the plot and that plot is very interesting.  As the plot evolves the world is expanded and the characters grow in a way that is very appealing.  This is not a rip-roaring adventure full of high action, it's a slow burner that builds some excellent tension before reaching the very climatic ending.


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

Total Score 7/9

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Listen to the first part

3 Dooms of America by Eugene Fairfield

Official Blurb

"Prophecy is not a prediction of tomorrow. It is a description of the doom contained within today."

Three stories of the end of American society, from one Tuesday, the 11th of September into the near future.

Shock & Awe: "At the end of this story, a baby will be born, and touch off an insurrection. Before that, a woman makes breakfast."

The Greening of Blue England: "It took three-quarters of a ton of plastique to get rid of all the box stores in Taft Corners."

Spider's Dreams: "The rose is still unfolding, a thousand petals and every one scribed with tragedy, with enough grief to end the world."

My Review

Another book I did not like, nor did I finish listening. The first Dooms was written in a strange style; the writer broke the fourth wall to tell us about his story, which ruined it for me. I felt that the story was okay but the distraction was constant and got-my-goat!

Alas I was but half way through the second story when I ceased listening. I can't tell you the second story was badly written, what I heard of it was fine. Frankly I was still feeling grumpy after the first story and just gave up.

Therefore I don't think I can fairly give it a rating.

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Ida by Tim Callahan

Official Blurb
Ida, one of the largest Asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, has finally been colonized. A group of engineers lead by John McVey, Craig Osborn, Gail Trabor, Andrew Dee and Jennifer McGee, occupy the largest space station every built to plan the future of the tiny colony. Sent there by Kennedy Lacombe, the richest man in the world, their only task is to find ways to mine the asteroid as efficiently as possible. John, however, has grandiose plans including riding a comet around the sun to obtain enough water for the colony to one day survive independent from Earth. His ambition quickly shifts when he discovers an accident with the station's birth control pills causes 20 women, including Jennifer, the woman he loves, to become pregnant. The rules on pregnancy are simple; a baby is a drain on resources and must be removed. John, his friends, and a large group of miners will do anything they can to prevent that, including declaring themselves the first independent colony outside of Earth.
My Review
This was one of Tim Callahan's first audio books.  He's since gone on to create and publish the "Arwen" series of books over at Podiobooks.  This book it not a part of the Arwen series, although it could conceivably belong in the same universe many many years before the Arwen.

I was given one of those "oh" moments when listening to this book.  I was a few chapters in when I realised that the sci fi part of the book is almost incidental to the human story at it's core. The characters are the focus here, Tim does not waste a lot of prose telling us about the working of some "flux capacitor" but focuses on people, what they think, what they feel and what they do when driven by those emotions.

That said, the last couple of chapters do hot up with non stop action. I really enjoyed this one, the characters felt real, they made mistakes and made choices that I could relate to.  The sci fi future described was interesting, worrying, and believable.

There were a few repeated lines in there, but no more than five or six spread out across the whole book and really didn't spoil my enjoyment.

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

Total Score 6/9

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Enemy Lines by John Mierau

Official Blurb

In the near future, an alliance forged by powerful men will challenge the US government for control of secret technology. As their machinations gear up, the true owners of that technology will face a challenge of their own, deep in the asteroid belt. At stake? The future of the human race. ENEMY LINES is a science fiction adventure about conspiracies, spies...and aliens... in a future where the lines aren’t as clear as you think.

My Review

This is a near future science fiction book that takes place when humanity has just started mining asteroids. If you've ever wondered about the "Greys" of the popular UFO memes then this story will explain everything.

What if aliens were giving mankind a technological lift. What if someone didn't want you to know that. What if someone didn't want it happening at all. What if the only hope for mankind's survival was a criminal, or a man who's emotionally on the edge?

That's a lot of what-ifs! Well them and a lot more are included in this fantastic story. I absolutely loved it. A good dose of what I call "proper sci fi". If you like a tense story that will keep you guessing and thrilled by action all at the same time, then this is a book for you.

The reader is excellent and fits the pace and tone of the story very well. there are a couple of repeated lines and a couple of clipped sentences but that's all there is to mar this otherwise excellent audio book.

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

Total Score 8/9

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Self Made by M. Darusha Wehm

Official Blurb

Ever wish things were different?

Ivy Velasquez did, so she became someone else. In the 3D virtual world Marionette City, you can be anything you want — but everyone still knows who you are. Driven by her desire for a new life, Ivy takes her future in her hands when she makes another identity for herself. A brilliant designer, Ivy works for one of the huge firms which control the online system the world relies upon for both business and pleasure. But one day, Ivy discovers that her alternate self, Reuben Cobalt, had been murdered.

Since alternate identities are forbidden by the firms which control access to the nets and to M City, Ivy has nowhere to turn — until she finds Andersson Dexter. Part private eye, part vigilante and part cop, Dex sets out to uncover Reuben’s killer. Since the firms control almost every aspect of life, including law and order, justice for average people comes only at the hands of the outlaw organization to which Dex belongs.

Self Made is a murder mystery set in a vision of a future that seems to lurk just over the horizon. But above all, it is a story of how people strive to control their own destinies, and how that desire affects them and the people around them in ways they could never imagine.

My Review

The blurb basicly tells you all you need to know about the story itself,yet...

In the near-ish future everyone still has jobs but also has a life on the "nets". This second life is played out using avatars in a virtual city and everything that can happen in real life seems to also happen in this virtual world, plus a lot more. People apparently spend so much time in the virtual worlds that real life existence is considered secondary. So secondary in fact, that most people survive on food bricks and tasteless drinks. Why spend money or time on real food, when you can have sumptuous feasts for hours in the virtual world for free.

This novel not only investigates the crime that is its plat but also gives us a peek into what the world might be like if virtual reality ( including taste/sounds/feel ) takes off and becomes ... well, a reality.

This is not the authors first novel. I've reviewed the previous novel, "Beautiful Red" a while ago. In Beautiful Red the "nets" were everywhere but poeple were not living in them, so this novel appears to be the same world, but just a little further into the future. This novel has a sequel ( a different story, some of the same characters), so if you like it, you'll be able to have more of the same.

The author is reading her own work here and does a good job, the audio quality seems to have stepped up a notch from her previous work.

In summary, I found the story, interesting and engaging, a good listen.

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

Total Score 6/9

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