Interference by Eric Luke

Official Blurb


SOMETHING wants in. To your head. Through this audiobook.

Ethan, a digital sound engineer in Los Angeles, becomes aware that his life is unraveling when the audiobook he's listening to reveals his deepest, darkest secrets, escalating until the narrator addresses him directly, threatening to destroy him from within. Vivian, a single mother running an antique store in San Francisco, listens to her audiobook to distract herself from missing her young daughter, but is shaken when the narrative is interrupted by her daughter's voice, faintly calling for help.

Ethan and Vivian are drawn together as they fight to solve a generation-spanning conspiracy that begins with a boy listening to the Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 and evolves through the latest innovations in digital technology, unearthing the mind-bending concept of a POSSIBILITY PARASITE bent on unleashing an explosion of APOCALYPTIC META HORROR.


My Review

I caught my first wiff of this audio book over on the Audio Drama Talk forums and loved the sound of it so nipped over to Podiobooks and downloaded it immediately.  It was well worth the effort and time.

As the blurb above hints, it takes one of the little moments of coincidence that we experience every day, you know, where the book your reading or the song your listening suddenly matches what's going on around you, and takes that to the next step. That idea of building on the listeners own experiences makes this drama and premise of this story leap almost to reality.

There's a whole "meta" experience to be had listening to an audio book about someone listening to an audio book that is apparently listening to them, that is so much fun. We audio book listeners are like a little community that has its own clique-i-ness.  You're either in, an audio book listener, or your out, a normal person who does not listen to audio books. This audio book seems to panda to that feeling of being-in. By being a regular audio book listener you'll get more out of this audio book.

Quite apart of the "Meta" experience I can safely say that this is a great audio book. Drama, horror and an excellent plot to bind them together, with an excellent reader producing an excellent quality product make this a real treat to stick in your ears.

The creators use of minimal sound effects is just right, adding to the mood when needed.  From the opening titles you'll be hooked, the creators use of sections from the original Orson Wells radio show really bring the show to life, and once again this adds to the "realism" feel of it that I was getting at earlier.

In summary, please understand this, if you don't download this book you're hurting yourself.  It was a blast!


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

Total Score 9/9

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The Night of the Long Knives by Fritz Leiber

Official Blurb

"I was one hundred miles from Nowhere—and I mean that literally—when I spotted this girl out of the corner of my eye. I'd been keeping an extra lookout because I still expected the other undead bugger left over from the murder party at Nowhere to be stalking me." In a Post apocalyptic world, the few people left must be strong. And must not hesitate to kill. Of course, killing another Deathlander was one of the chief pleasures and urges of all the solitary wanders in this vast wasteland. Kill and kill again. But this other was a girl and that brought up the second great urge: sex. Which was it to be today? Perhaps both?

My Review

This is a short Sci Fi story in the classic style.  It's suprised me.  Next to nothing really happens and yet I found myself hooked.

The whole story is more or less a monologue with the odd bit of conversation thrown in. The protagonist lays out the events and the describes everything as the story goes along, all from the first person perspective, and I found it absorbing from the outset.  Radioactive dust clouds, murdering people for a living and living on the edge of survival all make for a quite unusual playground.

Now I said that next to nothing happens, physically that is.  The characters talk, and the protagonist "thinks" to us, and boy does he think a lot of things.  We get to understand the dangers motivations and drives of the lead character as he considers almost every option or possible meaning behinds everyone's smallest actions.

If you want a lot of action in your Sci Fi, this book isn't for you, if you're happy to hear what the protagonist is thinking in great detail you'll like this.  As to the reader, he comes at the book in an upbeat almost jovial style. During the first chapter I found that a little jarring, the upbeat tones versus the rather gritty content, but I soon got over that and enjoyed the book.


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

Total Score 6/9

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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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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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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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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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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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The Scars by William Tennant

Official Blurb

Peter Everett is a man stained with grief, his life becomes a struggle of decisions as he watches the lives of the people around him dissolve and burn.

Mags Donne is a damaged, bruised young girl, reaching out into the darkness, trying to take control of her life.

Their Scars are what begin to unite them, with the people that surround them.

The Scars is a novel of difficulty, hatred, love, intrigue, kidnap, wrongdoing, abuse, laughter and beauty.

My Review

This is a thriller/soap style book with high drama at its core. To be honest I was not sure I was going to enjoy it and only tried it as a punt in the dark.

I am very glad I did try it. The reader has a delicious voice that is like lovely sweet treacle and it was his voice that kept me downloading the chapters.

The story starts out like a love story, and rapidly turns to tragedy that turns a knife in your gut. Part of this is the story itself, and part the fact that the reader has a way of presenting that pain so that you can almost feel it.

The middle section of book started to feel a bit soap-like while I was listening and I thought the author had lost his way for a while but as the story neared its climax I realised just how he had set me up! Nothing was wasted, nothing was "filler".

In summary, this was a tremendous book, and I heartily recommend it, although the subject matter is not safe for work.

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

Total Score 7/9

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Mr Dead Eyes by Roberto Scarlato

Official Blurb

Strange things happen when the lights go down in the shady setting of the Roseville Hospital. Unexplained sightings of a man resembling that of a doctor is known to walk the hallways in search of patients he has yet to help. His name was Derek R. Schillar, M.D. He was a complicated man with a desire to help people, but felt that he didn't do enough. Now, his friend has betrayed him, his wife thinks he's dead, a mysterious detective is on his trail, and the medical staff is perplexed at the growing number of inexplicable miraculous phenomena occurring within the hospital walls. Is there an answer? Why is a dying boy drawing pictures of this man? And just who is Mr. Dead Eyes?

My Review

Set in a modern hospital, we have some very strange and un-medical things are going on! The official blurb above gives you a pretty good idea of how weird these things get.

When I started listening I really had no idea what to expect. If anything I thought it was going to be a horror piece, but what a I got was part thriller, part speculative fiction, part super hero, and part detective, as real mashup.

In the end this mash up worked for me. I like things a little unusual and this story has it in spades.

I loved the protagonist and his family and learnt to hate the bad guys. The author is reading his own work and did a great job, although I think the intro which seems to suggest a nasty Horror, was overplayed a little.

If you want a dark story which probes the mysterious this is for you.

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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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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