Category: Reviews

Review of Pilgrim’s Progress Audio Drama

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

TITLEPilgrim’s Progress: Similitude of a Dream
Audio Drama by Spirit Blade Productions
Publisher: Spirit Blade Productions
Published: 2009
Themes: / Fantasy / Allegory / Christianity /

Frankly The Pilgrim’s Progress is not a book I ever imagined that I’d be reading, much less excited to tell anyone about. That was before I’d heard Spirit Blade’s version which reimagines The Pilgrim’s Progress as a dynamic audio drama complete with dragons, elves, and a mystical book of truth.

Spirit Blade Productions has pulled off a masterpiece here. The original allegorical story has been refashioned featuring a full-cast, orchestral score, and complete sound effects to urge our imaginations on a quest with Christopher Pilgrim for truth. Waking after a nightmare of death and destruction, Christopher determines to find his way to the legendary Mystic City, looking for a cure that will avert disaster. Along the way he encounters others who have all sorts of advice for his journey, some helpful and some disastrous. Christopher must discern which actions will lead to success.

This audio drama captured my attention so thoroughly that I found myself wondering exactly how much was modern imagination and how much was originally in the book. This is exactly what the audio drama producers intended so they made it easy to check by including the corresponding part of the original book, also recorded with sound effects and a musical score. I was completely surprised to find how the original text captured my imagination and was thought provoking about my own life even as I enjoyed the story.

Spirit Blade’s reason for existence is “to present the uncompromised truths of Biblical scripture in unique formats that will provoke thought and appeal to fans of creative music and imaginative fiction.” I can attest that with this presentation of part one of Pilgrim’s Progress they have done just that. I found myself immediately recommending the audio drama to a friend whose 6th grade brother has outpaced the reading resources available. Designed for 12 years and up, this production will capture the attention of readers of all ages who may never have heard of The Pilgrim’s Progress but will be interested in Christopher Pilgrim’s adventure.

At $4.99 to download the first one-hour episode as well as the half-hour audiobook reading, this seems like a great deal to me. Right now you can also buy one and “gift” one free which makes it an even better deal.

It is always a pleasure to “discover” a classic book that one wishes to share and I must thank Spirit Blade Productions for giving me the review opportunity. I am going to be looking forward to future episodes in the series that shows us what sort of progress Christopher Pilgrim makes.

Highly recommended.

Download Trailer here…

Posted by Julie D.

Review of Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Fantasy Audiobook - Poison Sleep by T.A. PrattPoison Sleep (A Marla Mason Novel)
By T.A. Pratt; Read by Jessica Almasy
9 Hours, 41 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009
Themes: / Fantasy / Urban Fantasy / Magic / Crime /

This is the second Marla Mason novel from T. A. Pratt, yet you don’t need to have read the first book to appreciate this one. Marla is once again back in her home town of Felport. Marla is the chief Sorcerer of the city and she works to keep all the other sorcerers in the city in line. A thankless job. Part crime boss, part superhero. At her side is her somewhat reluctant friend, Rondeau. He’s not one to back down from danger, but the toilets in his night club need unblocking and Marla should really learn to do her own laundry. And shopping. And driving. She could use a Personal Assistant.

Freshly escaped from the Blackwing institute is a prisoner, Genevieve, who has been asleep for the last fifteen years. The Blackwing Institute is a prison that holds criminally insane sorcerers. You know, those that want to kill everyone in sacrifice to their own gods, or others that are a danger to the normal people who don’t believe in magic. Genevieve isn’t a criminal though. But she is unimaginably dangerous as her dreams affect reality. Unfortunately she has a lot of nightmares, so being catatonic for the last decade and a half has been a good thing for everyone else.

As Marla and Rondeau try to find Genevieve, there is also a rouge assassin somewhere in town stalking his prey. And one of her sorcerer isn’t answering her calls. Genevieve is affecting the city more and more. It is a race to reach her when she next appears out of her dream realm and starts changing the city.

Marla is a kick-in-the-door and subdue everyone kinda woman. She’s very strong and not afraid of a fight. The subtler side of negotiations sometimes elude her, particularly if they require much in the way of patience.

Although Genevieve’s story is tragic and disturbing, this is a fun story and Jessica Almasy carries you smoothly into the winter of Marla’s snow-bound Felport.

If you love your urban fantasy, hold the vampires and werewolves,
you’ll enjoy Poison Sleep.

Posted by Paul [W] Campbell

Review of Wyrms by Orson Scott Card

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - Wyrms by Orson Scott CardWyrms
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Emily Janice Card
9 CDs – 11.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433218542

Themes: / Science Fiction / Diplomacy / Slavery /

“Wyrms” by Orson Scott Card was first published in 1987. I read the book then and loved it. I loved the world, the characters and the STORY.

It got lost as it was published between two Hugo and Nebula Award winning novels, Ender’s Game and Speaker For The Dead. It didn’t deserve it.

It’s been over 20 years since I read the novel, and I have never completely forgotten the book, or its impact. When I got the audiobook, read by Card’s daughter, Emily, I was thrilled to have the chance to experience it again.

Can the book be as good as I remembered? I wondered. But not for long. Before I had finished two chapters, I was hooked. Again.

Patience is the seventh seventh seventh daughter of the space captain who first came to Imaculata. She’s the daughter of the rightful heir to the kingdom, the Heptarch. But she and her father serve the current ruler as diplomats. And slaves.

Her entire life, her father has protected her from her destiny. But, when he dies, she’s must run for her life, and face a destiny that has been prophesied for generations. A destiny that that will save the world – or destroy it.

I highly recommend this book. The story is compelling and well paced, the characters complex, and the world believable.

The audiobook is well done, except that I had a problem differentiating one or two of the lesser voices. As my only complaint, it’s pretty minor. I enjoyed Emily Card’s interpretation of Patience and the other main characters.

On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a definite 9. Get the audiobook. Get the paperback. While you’re at it, get the 6-volume comic books by Jake Black. You’ll thank me for it later.

Posted by Charlene C. Harmon

Aural Noir Review of The Adventures Of Sexton Blake

Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Review

BBC Audio - The Adventures Of Sexton BlakeSFFaudio EssentialThe Adventures of Sexton Blake
Based on the character created by Harry Blyth; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs or MP3 Download – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks / Perfectly Normal Productions
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 1408410540
Themes: / Mystery / Adventure / Crime / Steampunk / Airships / London / Exmouth / Willesden /

Britain’s iconic and most prolifically chronicled sleuth explodes back into action in a brand new series of thrilling Adventures packed with incident and hilarity!

Back in 2006 we had a story about the new co-venture between Perfectly Normal productions and BBC Audiobooks. Audio drama legend Dirk Maggs was set to revive several “cult British comic characters.” This is the first of these. I hope there will be MANY MORE!

Sexton Blake, a renowned Baker Street detective, and his youthful assistant Tinker regularly face peril with deceptive disguises and flying fists. In between investigations they return to their Baker Street rooming house for endless lashings of tea and heaping plates of kippers. Their landlady, Mrs. Bardell, makes the food, debriefs the great detective, and commiserates with her neighbor, Mrs. H. (she’s also a landlady to another famous Baker street detective). The story begins aboard a runaway locomotive at the tail end of a kind of locked room mystery – after a few shootings by the various suspicious characters and a brief detour into the dining car’s wine cellar, the villain is revealed -only to escape by auto-gyro. When Blake returns to his Baker street residence he’s soon embroiled in a new investigation brought on by the arrival of a beautiful American actress. The investigation is both serpentine and ingenious, and it leads directly into the next – one in which an incredibly capable and amnesic woman saves Blake and Tinker from a false charge of burglary. Their investigation into her curious abilities and former profession lead Blake and Tinker into a house of deathtraps (or is that a deathtrap house). The action finally culminates in a thrilling saber duel atop a Zeppelin! At the beginning of each new episode there’s a mini-scene from an unrelated Sexton Blake adventure – each depicting Blake defeating either a rapscallious villain or a villainous rapscallion.

The Adventures Of Sexton Blake is jam packed with as much rib-tickling raillery as The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The script is unbelievably clever and funny. It features a kind of endless stream-of-consciousness wordplay that clearly follows in the tradition of Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and The Goon Show. What sets it apart from it’s forebearers is a strict adherence to the medium. The only possible way to tell this tale is as an audio drama. Perhaps the most amazing aspect is vaguely amazing feeling I got while listening to it. There’s this kind of general consensus by all the characters to LARP their way through the adventure. No one character has the final word on anything, and every character in the scene is constantly throwing new nuance on the mental pictures being created in the listener. It’s not so much a mystery you can solve by following the clues, it’s more of an adventure you can ride with a flashing smirk.

These adventures are brilliantly envisioned by a terrific combination of skilled comedic acting, an engaging theme song and thousands of layered sound effects. I’m betting the script was at least twice as thick, per minute, as a typical (or ordinary, or normal) one. The outstanding cast and crew has made The Adventures Of Sexton Blake a play that can stand shoulder to shoulder, chin to chin, and eye to eye, with the finest audio dramatizations ever produced – and not feel even the slightest weak in the knees. This is very highly recommended listening!

Crew:
Written by Mil Millington and Jonathan Nash; Directed by Dirk Maggs
Sound Design and Music by Paul Weir
Produced by David Morley

Cast:
Simon Jones ….. Sexton Blake, Adventuring Detective
Wayne Forester …. Tinker, his Plucky Assistant
June Whitfield …. Mrs Bardell, their Doughty Housekeeper
Graham Hoadly …. Professor Kew, a Spindly Cackler
Lorelei King …. Miss Elizabeth Mary-Louise Tarabelle Beauchamp
Simon Treves …. Inspector Coutts Of Scotland Yard
Felicity Duncan …. Miss Terry, Window-Leaping Adventuress
Susan Sheridan …. Mrs Hudson, Housekeeper To A Neighbouring Detective
Malcolm Brown …. Count Ivor Carlac, a Villainous Juggernaut
Philip Glassborow …. Cyril, A Grim Assassin
Oscar Sharp …. The Frantic Caller
William Franklyn …. The Mysterious Waiter

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Genesis by Bernard Beckett

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Genesis by Bernard BeckettGenesis
By Bernard Beckett; Read by Becky Wright
4 CDs – 4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423381501
Themes: / Science Fiction / Philosophy / Artificial Intelligence / Freedom /

Anax is a student who wants to enter the prestigious Academy and who is undergoing her final exam. A grueling oral presentation of several hours long given before examiners who conduct question and answer sessions is the device used by Bernard Beckett to show us Anax’s world. Anax’s presentation is about an almost mythological figure of history, Adam Forde. Adam lived in a time when the outside world suffered from catastrophic plagues which were responded to by building a wall around their island republic and shooting anyone who tried to break through. When he breaks one of the republic’s most sacred laws, Adam is put on trial. It is Adam’s crime and trial that Anax analyzes.

As Anax takes us further into Adam’s story we gradually become engrossed in questions of personal freedom versus safety and quality of life that arise. Beckett pushes this question further toward the end where Adam becomes engaged in a life-and-death game of wits that turns on the differences between mechanical intelligence and human intelligence. As Adam struggles to find a defining difference we become involved as well in considering what it is that makes us human.

The examiners are philosophers which, as Plato imagined in The Republic, are the rulers of Anax’s society. The emphasis on philosophy in the question and answer session is anything but dry. Anax is forced to push her knowledge and logic past any limits she has previously imagined in order to perform adequately. Ultimately Anax is forced to the same sorts of examinations that we have been doing through the story, which culminate in an interesting twist.

Becky Wright’s narration perfectly points up the elegant prose and superb style of writing. She does an excellent job especially since there is not a lot of action in the novel and most of it is told through conversation or Anax’s presentation of her story.

This is a short audiobook at only four hours long. Yet it is a gripping four hours. Highly recommended.

Posted by Julie D.

Review of Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Trek by Alan Dean FosterStar Trek
By Alan Dean Foster, Based on the movie, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman
Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time travel /

|HEAR AN EXCERPT – Kirk on Trial|

Star Trek is dead. Long live Star Trek! Like lots of others, I went to the film expecting to hate it, but came away liking it, even though it was not the Star Trek I knew. In fact, the film pretty much killed Star Trek as I knew it. A bad thing? I’d use the word “unfortunate” because I look at Star Trek and see a huge missed opportunity for intelligent television. I don’t see any thoughtful writing in the franchise’s future – we didn’t see much of it in Voyager and Enterprise either. It had nearly turned into every other show, and this movie just finished the job.

Yet, it wasn’t a bad movie. It was very much a product of the Hollywood Blockbuster machine. Danger, action, sex, witty dialogue, big special effects, some things that make zero sense… it’s all here. It was exciting, it looked great, I liked the actors, and I liked recognizing things that they threw in there from the Original Series. It was fun.

But I’m not here to review the movie. This is Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the film, read by Zachary Quinto, who portrayed Spock. Back in the 1970’s, Alan Dean Foster wrote one of the best novelizations I’ve run across – Alien. I must’ve read it three or four times as a kid. And he’s no stranger to Star Trek – he wrote the Star Trek Logs which were novelizations of the episodes of the Animated Series. He did a great job with this book, too.

Zachary Quinto also did a great job narrating. The voices are new, even if the characters weren’t. Quinto was an inspired choice to play Mr. Spock, and of course plays that character in the reading as it was on the screen. The others weren’t exactly attempts at mimicry, but rather more subtle changes in cadence. With Chekov and Scotty, he did the accents, and is real good at both of them. An excellent performance, throughout.

In eight hours of unabridged narration there is nothing here that deviates in any significant way from the movie. It just takes longer, but that’s not a bad thing. You come away with what a novel gives you that movies can’t: the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters. Also, there are some scenes from Kirk and Spock’s childhoods that weren’t in the movie, and other things scattered through the book.

So that’s the new Trek. We’ll see what happens from here.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson