Happy Holidays everyone! SFFAudio won't post till the new year, probably on January 3rd. We wish everyone a peaceful holiday season!

Until then...






A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Chapter 1 - Marley's Ghost

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail... -MORE-
7:01 AM -- (0) comments

 


A Coyote In The House
By Elmore Leonard; Read by Neil Patrick Harris
3 CDs - 3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Children's Audio
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0060728825
Themes: / Fantasy / Anthropomorphic Fiction / Movies / Crime /

This dog was cool for a homeboy, an older male who had peed all over this big yard, marking it to let everybody know this was his turf and nobody else's. Keep it, homes. Live here and get food handed to you. Believe you're somebody in your pitiful kept world, no better than a slave."

Buddy's the aging movie star, Antwan's the streetwise hipster and Miss Betty is the showgirl. Buddy also happens to be a German Shepherd, Antwan is a wild and wily Coyote and Miss Betty is a bouffant Poodle. A Coyote In The House is a kid's book in the tradition of Jack London's The Call of The Wild. In essence this it is the same story, simply with a sub-urban as opposed to an arctic setting - that and Elmore Leonard's patented prose. It's not just Leonard's dialogue that's distinctive; it's his story structure, characters, and cadence that all scream Elmore Leonard. And that's very disconcerting. Leonard hasn't written anything but adult crime novels and westerns so to hear this audiobook was truly odd. I think kids and adults who listen with together will both be pleased. It's a fun story but it's a strange experience for fans of Elmore Leonard's other novels.

I couldn't get over how Leonard completely ignores the impossibility of the situation he's created. I know it's a kid's story, and kids won't likely see it the way I do, but this story is utterly impossible. It basically ignores everything we do know about animal intelligence and replaces it with hipster lingo and human motivations and then marches on, oblivious to all the impossibilities those things entail. As an example, Buddy, the aging German Shepherd movie star, watches his old movies all day long - every animal in A Coyote In The House is intimately familiar with movies and movie stars - this despite the story logic that these canines, felines and avians can't understand most of what humans say (and vice versa). Further, the animals can't manipulate objects with their paws like in a Disney movie say, and yet somehow Buddy is able to - off screen - grab a VHS tape of one of his movies put it in the VCR and watch it, rewind it and put it back before his owners get home and see him. "Oh come on," you say. "It's a kids story, it doesn't have to make sense." Maybe. It didn't ruin the experience for me but it didn't let me fully enjoy it either. I just think that it'd have been a far better story to tackle, realistically, the animal's perspective head on.

One other curious thing of note. The use of the word "bitch." In any other Leonard novel it wouldn't be a novelty - here it refers doubly as a slang term (for adult listeners) and as a female canine for children. Some adults may have a problem letting their kids hear such words, when the usage is not clear cut but I think that'd be the wrong attitude to take - the word is legitimately used here and I'd be far more concerned about kids thinking that animals are just like people - when they aren't - than learning a "bad" word. Performed by Neil Patrick Harris, A Coyote In The House has a goodly number characters with distinctive voices. Harris is quite impressive as a reader! His audiography seems to consist mostly of children's novels, perhaps a legacy from his child stardom. In any case he'd be a good reader of adult novels too.

posted by Jesse Willis 2:26 PM -- (0) comments

 


Cally's War
By John Ringo and Julie Cochrane
Read by Christine Marshall and William Dufris
1 MP3-CD - Approx 13 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Paperback Digital
Published: 2004
ISBN: 1584390034
Themes: / Science Fiction / Alien invasion / Secret agent / War /

She walked over to the body and tilted her head appraisingly a moment before carefully and deliberately spitting on it. "The name's Cally O'Neal, and that's for trying to kill me when I was eight."

Cally is a member of the sisterhood of the Bane Sidhe, which is a group of underground warriors. It's immediately apparent that she is a warrior who can withstand all manner of assault on her body in the name of completing her mission. I couldn't help but to mentally insert Uma Thurman in the role of Cally, as the character's complete indifference to violence and sex (both of which appear in this book in copious amounts) is reminiscent in ways to characters from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.

Cally operates in this novel in a complex post-invasion world. She meets all manner of interesting folk while solving a mystery of her own. The events in the first chapter provided a good running start into the novel, but the rest of the book never matched that potential. I was never interested again as the story took a decided turn for the expected.

The audiobook itself is done in a style that at first turned me off, but then won me over in a big way. Christine Marshall and William Dufris take turns narrating, depending on the point of view of the story. This is a technique that I generally enjoy. But during each other's narrating duties, the other plays a role. Whenever Cally speaks, for example, it's Christine Marshall doing the speaking whether she's narrating at the moment or not. This is a technique that I generally abhor - I find it annoying and distracting nearly every time it's tried. But... it works very well here for two reasons - first, they didn't follow up every piece of dialogue with he saids and she saids - words which are as transparent with a single narrator as they are on the page, but with dual narration can become annoying. Second, the sheer skill of these two narrators makes the dialogue portions of the audiobook work wonderfully. Both narrators performed several believable characters each, and there was never any doubt who was speaking. The dialogue was snappy and well paced.

This is definitely science fiction of a sort that I don't sample too often in print, since I feel like I get enough of this kind of story on the screen (big or small). The technical production, though, was absolutely first rate - among the best in the business - which makes me eager to hear titles from Paperback Digital that are more to my taste.

posted by Scott D. Danielson 10:44 AM -- (0) comments

 


CBC Radio One's program "IDEAS" did a two-part 2-hour special on Ursula K. Le Guin entitled "The Word For World is Imagination"
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/leguin/index.html
which was broadcast on October 4th and 5th 2004. In this documentary producer Kelley Jo Burke explored the work, methods, and magic of one of speculative fiction's most important, and mindful writers. It looks like CBC Radio One has CDs of the program available too! Find them here.

2 Audio Excerpts are online:
Ursula K. Le Guin talks about being a writer.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/media/leguin_1.ram

Ursula K. Le Guin talks about why people are uncomfortable with reading science fiction/fantasy.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/media/leguin_2.ram
9:54 AM -- (0) comments

 


Here are the New Releases for December!

AUDIO RENAISSANCE
The Dragon Reborn, Book Three of The Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan, Read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
Unabridged

The Shadow Rising, Book Four of The Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan, Read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
Unabridged

I've listened to Book 2 of this massive (and massively popular) epic fantasy. I enjoyed it, but not so much that I would be eager for all ten (currently) volumes. I do know that Kate Reading and Michael Kramer did a wonderful job with the material, and can be expected to do so again.

Jesse:
Absolutely, Michael Kramer is a truly excellent reader.


Crystal City, Book Six of Alvin Maker
By Orson Scott Card, Read by Stefan Rudnicki, M.E. Willis, and cast
Unabridged

Ender's Game: Special 20th Anniversary Edition
By Orson Scott Card, Read by Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, and cast
Unabridged

Ah, Orson Scott Card. Audio Renaissance is re-releasing some of Fantastic Audio's old titles, and this version of Ender's Game is one of the most heard in my collection. I read Crystal City in print and enjoyed it, so the place your bets that the audio is going to be good too, since it's in the safe hands of Stefan Rudnicki and cast.

Jesse:
That 20th anniversary one may actually make me read an Orson Scott Card novel. I like his short stories but I somehow never read Ender's Game back in the 1980s.

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BLACKSTONE AUDIO
Citizen of the Galaxy
By Robert A. Heinlein, Read by Lloyd James
Click here for a sample
Unabridged

Who is this Heinlein guy, anyway? :)

Jesse:
Blackstone has made my wish come true! Lloyd James is the definitive voice of Heinlein on Audio and Citizen of the Galaxy is one of Heinlein's best juvenile novels (juvenile as in starring a teenager not juvenile as in peurile)and the story concept is so fresh and new as to be singularily unreproduced to this day. I remember enjoying the heck out of it when I read it in paperback I expect it will be as good if not better on audio. The original cover art on this one looks amazing too by the way. This will surely be among the best audiobooks released in 2005. Thanks so much Blackstone!


Magic Time: Angelfire
By Marc Scott Zicree and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Read by a full cast
Click here for a sample
Unabridged

This is volume 2 of a new fantasy series that I don't have a full grasp on yet. I just starting listening to this volume last night, and am hoping it makes sense without hearing volume one, which is also available from Blackstone Audio.

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BOOKS ON TAPE
Fahrenheit 451
By Ray Bradbury, Read by Scott Brick
Unabridged

Fahrenheit 451 read by Scott Brick? Gotta get my hands on a copy of that. Books on Tape is still going through come changes over there - their website says that they won't be resuming comsumer sales until January 3rd, 2005. I checked Audible.com for this title and it wasn't there.

Jesse:
I believe BOT has released this title previously with a different narrator but I copuld be wrong. I think this Scott Brick version probably become the definitive edition. I thought that Harper Audio's version from a couple of years ago, with Ray Bradbury narrating would be it, but I was disappointed in Bradbury's reading. He's an excellent author, and 451 is his most enduring novel but his performance didnt
enhance it at all. Scott Brick may bring a freshness that Bradbury couldnt muster.


The Runes of the Earth
By Stephen R. Donaldson, Read by Scott Brick
Unabridged

The return of Thomas Covenant! I have not read any of Stephen Donaldson's books, so I can't say anything there, but Scott Brick is a top narrator.

Jesse:
Nice title! Donaldson is almost as merciless with his tortured characters as is George R. R. Martin but I wish they'd release the original novel in the series first. I hate starting in the middle.

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CRAZY DOG AUDIO THEATRE
Diabolic Playhouse
By Roger Gregg, Performed by a full cast
Audio Drama

Roger Gregg and all the lunatics at Crazy Dog Audio Theatre have released a very nice looking MP3-CD containing all 6 episodes of their Diabolic Playhouse drama series, which broadcast on Ireland's RTE Radio 1 earlier this year. The product is available at their site (based in Ireland) or at the ZBS website if you're in the USA.

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HARPER AUDIO
The Wee Free Men
By Terry Pratchett, Read by Stephen Briggs
Unabridged

Another Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett!

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PAPERBACK DIGITAL
Reflex
By Steven Gould, Read by Christine Marshall and William Dufris
Unabridged

Nightmares on Congress Street - Part 4
By Rocky Coast Radio Theatre
Audio drama

Paperback Digital cruises along, with two more new releases. Their products are available for download on their own site or on Fictionwise. Hardcopies are available at Amazon.com or at Paperback Digital itself.

Jesse:
I've never heard of Gould nor his novel but with the Marshall and Dufris team working together it might be worth a blind buy.

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RECORDED BOOKS
State of Fear
By Michael Crichton, Read by George Wilson
Unabridged

Michael Crichton has stirring up some scientific controversy with this one. If I understand correctly, the environmentalists in this one are the bad guys.

Jesse:
I've liked Crichton's early work, but have been tuning out since Jurassic Park.

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Happy Holidays, everyone! And thanks for reading SFFAudio.
7:29 AM -- (0) comments

 


Fruitcake Theory
By James Patrick Kelly; Read by James Patrick Kelly
FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD (link to jimkelly.net) - 30 Minutes (14.33 MB) [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: www.jimkelly.net
Published: March 2004
Themes: / Science Fiction / Aliens / First Contact / Christmas / Immortality /

"This one hears much of the information of fruitcake."

Maggie is a tour guide. Her job is to escort an alien that looks like a rooster, and acts as dumb as one, during the yuletide season. The rooster is just one of two kinds of aliens from a bifurcated species visiting Earth. This is a story that posits some very interesting aliens, something Kelly is good at, but the heart of the story is the Christmas theme. It's a bit silly, but I liked it that way. Told in the first person, Kelly does a great muppetish voice for the alien rooster that creates some great mental images to go along with the description. The reading concludes with a very appropriate Christmas music. It was great!

First published in the December 1998 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, "Fruitcake Theory" and this great recording of it will certainly get you in the mood for Christmas. As with the all the other audio stories of Jim Patrick Kelly's we've reviewed, "Fruitcake Theory" is available for download on Kelly's website for FREE - you'd have to be as nutty as a fruitcake not to try a deal like that! Kelly only asks that if you enjoyed hearing the tale you consider making a donation to his PayPal account. Donate as little or as much as you like, but seeing as the Christmas spirit is fast approaching be generous.

posted by Jesse Willis 9:37 AM -- (0) comments

 


NPR has posted a brief snippet of Frederick Pohl reading from his novel The Boy Who Would Live Forever.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4226073
2:59 PM -- (0) comments

 


From Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski comes a new limited series The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al to be broadcast on CBC Radio One. Straczynski, says that it is an 80-minute audio drama (made up of 20 five minute episodes) and will be produced and co-directed in Toronto by himself. He describes it as "comedy/action, very noir, with a supernatural bent." This sounds great to me I'm a big fan of his short lived anthology series City Of Dreams produced for Seeing Ear Theater. The series is scheduled to air in 5 five-minute segments weekdays for four weeks, with half hour recaps on the weekend (presumably collecting that week's broadcasts). The scripts have been completed so casting and production are sure to start soon. Straczynski suggests it will be syndicated worldwide, "to the BBC and elsewhere," and he assures us it will be released on CD "down the road". We'll let you know when we know more about airdates.
7:03 AM -- (0) comments

 


Dead Until Dark
By Charlaine Harris; Read by Christine Marshall & William Dufris
1 MP3-CD – 10 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Paperback Digital
Published: 2004
ISBN: 1584390018
Themes: / Fantasy / Horror / Mystery / Romance / Vampires / Telepathy /

Roadhouse waitress Sookie Stackhouse has a problem: she can read minds. And who wants to go on a date with a guy when you can't get near him without seeing the images of yourself flitting through his head. It was just easier to stay home and watch TV. Until the night she got a bottle of beer for a new customer and found one man whose mind was a blank wall to her. What difference did it make that he was a vampire?

Dead Until Dark is the first book in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mystery series.

Told in the first person through our viewpoint character Sookie Stackhouse, we get a slice of life story small town southern USA. The only difference is that’s part horror, part fantasy and part mystery. The horror element comes in with the vampires.

Sookie, our southern belle viewpoint character, lives in a pretty normal world with her grandmother in an old house. She waitresses at the local bar. There are just a few things that make Sookie different from thousands of real life women like her. She’s "disabled" with telepathy and has been since childhood. Oh and vampires not only exist but are quite common. You see, vampires, in this otherwise normal world have 'come out of the coffin' as it were, and thanks to new federal legislation are to be treated as regular human people with rights and responsibilities under the law. It’s now illegal to kill vampires, either by staking them or draining them for their healing blood. And of course they’re not allowed to attack humans and this is all possible thanks to the new artificial blood products designed to keep them alive. But not everything is in equilibrium in this world, a few human "fangbangers" slavishly worship the vampires and some vampires want to keep their old status and be outlaws. So when “Bill,” a civil war veteran, returns to his home town and wanders in to Sookie’s bar the community isn’t exactly ecstatic – but they figure if he’s willing to “mainstream” they’ll let him be, for now. But soon old family feuds and carpetbagger Vampires stir up trouble for Bill and Sookie both. And when poor young women all over town end up murdered all eyes turn to the vampires and those who sleep with them.

I really enjoyed this novel; Charlaine Harris made a brilliant decision to tell this story first person through Sookie’s eyes. Sookie is a bright, fun character who loves the life she leads - even if she is a little lonely. Every other character in the book stands up too. The mystery elements start slowly and the plot creeps up on you. What I liked best is the originality, vampires and telepaths are nothing new, but the way Harris puts it all together is fresh and fun. I don’t know if I’d continue enjoying the characters in their further adventures, but I enjoyed the heck out of them in this one. I should also mention there is one historical celebrity, never mentioned by name, who turns up in a minor role, that performance alone made the novel worthwhile. It’s hilarious. One heck of a lot of the enjoyment came from the masterful performances by lead reader Christine Marshall. Her southern belle voice is so just much fun, she truly inhabits the role like no other reader I could imagine. But she didn’t do it all alone; she’s assisted by veteran reader, the always enjoyable William Dufris. Dufris shows an even broader range than I’ve ever heard from him before. You’d swear there were half a dozen male actors reading his lines. Sound quality is as good as anything I’ve heard on mp3, this is high bit-rate easy access fun listening in a slick package. Recording levels are high and Paperback Digital has their own introductory music. Track spacing is also good. Together they do an absolutely marvelous job in performing Harris’s sparkling prose. I’d venture to say this is the best novel yet from newly minted audiobook publisher Paperback Digital.

Paperback Digital hired artist Jason B. Parker to do the cover art for each of their novel releases. When I first saw them I wasn’t too impressed with Parker’s covers, but the more I see the more I like them. Either he’s getting better or my tastes are changing! I’ve here reviewed the mp3-cd version this is audiobook, it is also available via download from both Fictionwise.com and the Paperback Digital website. Hardcopies (mp3-cds) come in DVD style cases with insert paper covers, CD-Roms come with disc art. Downloads are slightly less expensive but nearly as easy to load onto an mp3 player. A must listen for any fantasy fan who’s happy to have a little romance thrown in.

posted by Jesse Willis 8:44 AM -- (0) comments

 


Venus
By Ben Bova; Read by Arte Johnson
4 Cassettes – Approx 6 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Fantastic Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1574534750
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Tracel / Venus / Asteroids /

Venus is one of Ben Bova's Grand Tour novels, written after both Mars and Return to Mars. The story begins on the Moon as a man named Van Humphries hustles to a meeting with his dad. There, he finds out that his rich estranged father has offered $10 billion to the first person who can journey to Venus and retrieve the remains of Van's older brother, who was lost in a landing attempt on the inhospitable planet. Van himself takes up the challenge, building a ship and collecting a crew. They compete in a Great Race of sorts with another ship.

The book is filled with interesting details of space travel, or what space travel might someday be like if mankind starts devoting it's energy to greater things. Bova portrays an active solar system with colonies on the Moon and miners swarming throughout the asteroid belt. There is also much of interest when the crews reach Venus and enter the planet's atmosphere. The ships navigate the thick cloud layers with much difficulty, encountering much that they didn't expect.

So far, the novel I've described sounds like it could have been written by Arthur C. Clarke, but the greatest difference between the two writers is that Bova tells a very personal human story against the backdrop of the hectic trip to Venus. Van Humphries discovers things about his brother, about his father and mother, and ultimately about himself. He confronts the fact that things are not what they seemed to be his whole life, and he finds this out while battling for survival in the planet's extreme environment. The humanity and the science provide a stark contrast that worked for me, and increased my interest in the next volume of The Grand Tour.

Arte Johnson narrates and does a terrific job. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another title that he narrates. I enjoyed his pace and tone, and, of course, his timing is out of this world.
7:32 PM -- (0) comments

 
Here is the first section of SFFAudio's Guide to Audiobooks. We'll post each one as we write them, then collect them on the site.

Single Narrator - Unabridged

Jesse:
Let me tell you why Single Narrator Unabridged audiobooks are the best thing since sliced bread. I love audiobooks, but abridged ones usually make me feel like I'm missing out. I even like an audio dramatization now and then. But if I was forced to choose only one kind of audiobook - to take to a desert island say - I'd choose a single narrator unabridged. There is just something about a solitary narrative voice telling a story in its entirety.

Performing a story aloud is a very primal form of communication. The ancient rhapsodies and medieval bards made their livings by telling tales to rapt audiences. Today we prefer prose novels to epic poetry and lyric ballads and typically listening to an audiobook isn't a communal affair. But the core of the experience remains the same. A single narrator who can, using voice changes, play all the characters of a story, like a one-man (or woman) play - it almost can't be beat for raw storytelling. And when the story they are reading is a good one it sends chills down my spine.

It's hard to pick just one exemplar of this, but there are few novels of recent years that had as much audio impact upon me as the unabridged reading of Neil Gaiman's Hugo Award winning American Gods. George Guidall, the reader, commands your attention, his distinctive voices, of men, women, and gods make it completely clear who is speaking, even when the text may make you wait for the attribution - as I told Scott recently, the man has just has gravitas. He also happens to have one of the best voices in audiobooks. Guidall's patented gravelly reading of American Gods cemented him as my favorite narrator. Soon after hearing it I found myself tracking down other novels he had performed - not caring what it was he was reading. And this led me to another discovery. A terrific narrator is not enough without good material from which to read. I had selected a Guidall reading of a Lillian Jackson Braun cat mystery from my local library. I instantly regretted it. Not even Guidall's masterful voice can command me to suffer through another.

Another nice thing about the Single Narrator - Unabridged format is that it is a common type of audiobook, especially these days. In just the last couple of years unabridged length audiobooks have become more popular with publishers like HarperAudio. Not five years ago, unabridged was almost exclusively the domain of Books On Tape, Recorded Books and Blackstone Audio. Even more recently, retail editions of some selections from these companies are being packaged and sold in bookstores. Most notably, Border's bookstores are now releasing selected Recorded Books titles with jointly labeled packages.

The future of single voiced narration truly never sounded so good!

Scott:
I'm in agreement with everything Jesse said there. The "Single Narrator - Unabridged" style of recording works so well that I often wonder why some companies keep messing with it. Without doubt, this style of audiobook requires a good narrator, but if you have that good narrator, there is no need to embellish the story with sound effects or music underlying the narration, which some publishers think is important. It's not. In fact, it's more likely to be maddening than entertaining. Luckily, producers rarely "embellish" unabridged novels in this way - that treatment is normally reserved for abridgements. A good narrator reading good material needs no music to create mood, and that's why this style works so well.

Listening to a good unabridged novel is a personal experience. I not only connect with the author, but also with the narrator. An average audio novel runs 8-10 hours, and a long one can run 30 hours or more. So a listener spends a great deal of time listening to that narrator's voice. I often find myself as eager to hear the narrator's next work as I am the author's next novel. I also enjoy listening to new narrators grow in skill from book to book.

One thing that has me baffled is the existence of computer programs that read text to you. How incredibly boring. The emotion of the narrator is vital! Listening to a monotone computer recite words with nothing behind them is nigh unlistenable - it takes great effort. I know that many people who have never heard an audiobook think that that's really what they are like - dry recitation of prose. But they are not. Through performance, a good narrator adds a whole other dimension to the author's story. If this wasn't the case, they'd be very dull indeed.

Like Jesse, I also think George Guidall is tops, and am enthused that he's reading so much lately. Since Jesse already mentioned American Gods (also a personal favorite), I'll mention another fabulous Guidall performance: Dune by Frank Herbert from Recorded Books. Jim Dale's performance of all five Harry Potter novels (Listening Library) is another excellent example of the heights Single Narrator Unabridged Audiobooks can reach.
1:42 PM -- (0) comments

 


An American Werewolf in London
Adapted, written, and directed by Dirk Maggs
Starring Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine, Brian Glover, Eric Meyers, and William Dufris
2 Cassettes - 1 Hour 50 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
ISBN: 0563381035
Date Published: 1997
Published by the BBC
Themes: / Horror / Werewolves / Afterlife /

One of my favorite movies as a kid was John Landis' An American Werewolf in London. I especially enjoyed the way that humor and horror were mixed to produce a film that both scared me and told me not to take things too seriously.

This BBC Radio adaptation of American Werewolf captured the tone of Landis' film completely. It might not be surprising since Dirk Maggs' audio script was based on John Landis' movie script, but still, it could have turned out much differently and I was pleased to have much the same experience with this audio drama as I did with the movie.

So what's the point, you ask? I'm not completely sure, but pulling this story off as an audio drama when the film was so visual really showcases the medium's power.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, it starts with two friends hitchhiking across the moors in England. After a brief stop in a pub they are attacked by a werewolf - one is killed, the other bitten. The survivor becomes the American werewolf of the title.

I enjoyed the performances very much, and my opinion of Dirk Maggs grows with every title I hear. This is out of print at this writing, and is rare. Once I found out it existed, it took me a few months to dig one up.

posted by Scott D. Danielson 8:58 AM -- (0) comments