Short Review: Average paranormal romance made appealing by an excellent reader. Likely to be more enjoyable for those already invested in the Dark-Hunter series.

Long Review: If you have read other Dark-Hunter books and know who Fang and Aimee are, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you have no idea what I am talking about, I feel pretty strongly that this isn’t the right way to start this series. This book ties together snippets from many other stories earlier in the series. There are lots of characters you meet briefly – but if you have read what comes before they are old friends rather than confusing drop-ins.

Graham’s reading is what convinced me to give this book over 3 stars. I suspect it was more entertaining delivered in his voice than it would have been had I read it on paper. I have read the earlier books (all on paper actually) and have a soft spot in my heart for authors who build worlds and weave complicated stories among a great throng of characters. This is one of those stories where all the loose ends that had been left dangling in multiple other books are finally tied up in a neat bow.

I will confess that I rolled my eyes the 25th time that a character “would have it no other way” – but that said, I enjoyed the story and the reading enough that it made my commute to work fly by. I even missed my stop to change trains once! It isn’t profound, but it is fun. Sometimes I enjoy a good romance novel precisely because I feel confident in the happy ending waiting around the corner. Kenyon loves her characters and I always end up rooting for them, even if I wish that they would all stop arching their eyebrows at each other.

Short Review: Fun listen for the whole family. A fantasy classic brought to life by a full cast. Four siblings find a magic token and wacky adventures ensue.

Long Review: The full cast of readers aim for the fun of this story – and they hit the nail on the head. Originally published over fifty years ago and set in the 1930s, this book has withstood the test of time. We listened to this one with our seven year old, and any interruptions in the story were greeted with “can we turn it back on now?”.

It tells the story of three sisters – Jane, Katherine and Martha – and their brother Mark. Mostly left to their own devices for the summer as their widowed mother works to support the family, the daily life of the children is governed by their quest for adventure (and careful plans to avoid the woman meant to mind them). On their walk home from the library, Jane finds what looks like a nickle and claims it for her own. It isn’t until some odd things begin to happen that she realizes that it isn’t a nickle at all – but rather a magical coin that grants wishes. It grants half of any wish made by one who holds it.

The children are not just cardboard cutouts – they are real people with personalities and opinions. The story strikes a nice balance between fantasy adventures and the challenges that the children face in everyday life. We care about the four of them and their ultimate happiness, and that makes the story all the more captivating and enjoyable.

I don’t always love full casts, but this one works. The narrator is perfect and the voices for the four children are distinct and believable. A lovely listen for the family, sure to put a grin on everyone’s face. If you recall this book fondly from your own childhood, don’t be afraid to revisit the story – you won’t be disappointed.

Audio sample available online.

Short review: One of my favorite humorous novels, expertly read by Martin Jarvis. I’m sure I’ll listen to this book over and over again.

Long review: I have a deep and abiding love for this novel. I’ve read it on paper a number of times, and was happy to find an audio version of it. I’m an unabashed fan of both authors, and find works like this one feel particularly suited to audiobook format, since it is such a storyteller’s story. It’s funny and silly, but also examines important questions about belief and ethics. It’s peopled by interesting, charismatic characters who are wonderful to listen to. And, as is vital to a work like this, the authors know the source material they’re playing with.

In short, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley become unlikely friends way back in the way back, and both end up being posted on Earth in the UK in our modern world, expected to do their work to support their sides in the great ongoing war between heaven and hell. The two fall in love with their lives on Earth, and decide that perhaps the apocalypse wouldn’t be all that great for them and maybe should be prevented. They set out to track down the Anti-Christ, an 11 year old boy unaware of his true parentage, and try to prevent his rise. As the story progresses, we learn of Agnes Nutter, Witch and her descendant Anathema Device, witch-hunters, the Four Horsemen, some interesting kids, and a number of other kooks wandering around this Gaiman/Pratchett universe of the book. I won’t say more, because I can’t say any of it as well as they did.

Author: Kaza Kingsley
Reader: Simon Jones
Extra: Introduction by author Kaza Kinglsley in which she shares her inspiration for Erec and his quests.

Short Review: Strong second installment in Kaza Kingsley’s Erec Rex series combines imaginative adventures with some solid life lessons. Simon Jones is still a fabulous reader.

Long Review: The Monsters of Otherness begins with Erec back at home with his family, far from the magical world we got to know in the first installment of this series (The Dragon’s Eye). Never fear, we quickly find a reason to go back to Alypium. Once there, Erec finds himself faced with a choice. Either he can take on the quests required of him to become King or step aside to let the evil Stain brothers take the thrown unchallenged.

There are a lot of things afoot in this story. We have missing baby dragons, rioting crowds who seem to hate Erec and an assortment of new monsters. Kingsley has done a nice job of pulling Erec (and the rest of us) back into the Kingdom of the Keepers. Erec still has his friends along for most of the ride, but as we get deeper into the book – more of the challenges rest squarely on Erec’s shoulders. Erec is not greeted with the adoring fans he expected – but rather brainwashed mobs who think he is a fraud. He has remember that he has people who believe in him, perhaps most importantly himself.

I like the way Kingsley sneaks in lessons about not judging others by either their appearance or by what others tell you. While I don’t appreciate heavy-handed morality in stories, Kingsley has truly woven the message into the fabric of her tale.

My six year old son loved this book – plowing through it faster than I could keep up with him.  He did warn me that something sad happens near the end. When I asked him if it made him cry, he replied with ‘almost’.

Jones delivers another beautifully read story with distinct voices and an appealing style of narration. I think I would listen to him read just about anything, judging by how he handles this series. I recommend you join him for this fabulous fantasy.

Audio sample available.

Readers: Davina Porter and Simon Prebble

Short Review: Clarke’s entrancing, charming short stories about the magical world introduced in Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrell particularly focusing on the women who practice magic in this alternate England and run-ins between Englishpeople and faeries. Prebble and Porter are incomparably good readers, taking turns reading stories about men and women, respectively. Clarke’s storytelling is downright fascinating, and her language precise and beautiful. I love this audiobook, have listened to it twice, and know I’ll listen to it again and again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Long Review: I absolutely loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The only real fault I found with it (and yes, I know this is obnoxious) was Prebble’s mispronunciation of the word sidhe. Prebble reads the first section of this book, and I can’t tell you how widely I smiled when he said sidhe, and said it correctly. We language geeks can be pleased just as easily as we can be annoyed.

The title story of this volume is one of the real gems of the book. It describes Jonathan Strange’s meeting with the ladies of Grace Adieu, where his brother-in-law serves as a preacher. The Ladies, of course, practice magic in secret: in this alternate England, most Englishmen assume no women have any truck with magic, and that no one alive apart from Norrell and Strange has any real power. Porter narrates this story, and her reading is fantastic. She uses a precise, posh British accent for many of the characters, but switches deftly from one character and accent to another. She keeps to a quick pace, but her diction is so clear that no meaning or words are lost. Porter also reads “Mrs. Mabb;” “On Lickerish Hill,” a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin; and “Antickes and Frets.” The latter two are particularly dear to me because they trace magical spinning and magical attacks via embroidery. As a fiber-artist, I love to see anyone write well about fiber arts.

Prebble reads the introduction and the other stories in the book. Of his, my favorite is “John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner,” the final story in the book. It’s a comic story about the play between the Raven King, a charcoal maker, and a variety of Christian figures. I chuckled at “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse,” which is set in the town of Wall from Neil Gaiman’s Stardust: I love to see my favorite authors collaborate.

As in the novel that precedes these stories, Clarke plays with concepts of femininity, magic, learning, power, manners, history, and morals. She erases the silly, romanticized visions of faeries and replaces them with portraits of dangerous, powerful, careless otherworld people. Her heroines subvert the rules laid out for them, however secretly. Her heroes win more often through study and thoughtfulness than force. I love her England. I want more of it.

Clarke’s audiobooks are some of the finest examples of the art I’ve come across. The author’s stories and language are beautiful and entrancing, and the readers are engaging, precise, entertaining, skilled with accents, and a joy to listen to. I can’t wait for Clarke’s next book, and when it does come out, it will be hard to decide whether to read it on paper first or listen to the audiobook version first.

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Author: Beth Fantaskey
Readers: Katherine Kellgren & Jeff Woodman

Short Review: Fairly standard ‘boy meets girl, boy turns out to be vampire’ romance – but with a few twists you likely won’t expect. A pair of excellent readers, endearing characters and a fresh take on Romanian vampires make this a very enjoyable story.

Long Review: Jessica was adopted from Romania as a baby by her parents who were there studying the reclusive vampire community. It turns out that she was also betrothed to a vampire prince as an infant. Fast forward 17 years and Lucius arrives in rural Lebanon County, Pennsylvania to meet his bride.

The next thing we know, Lucius is enrolled in the local public high school with Jessica and is trying to fit in among American teenagers. Lucius is tall, dark and handsome – enjoys fine literature and soon discovers basketball. Jessica is a super-rational mathlete who loves horses and is not confident about her beauty.

One of the nice things about this story is that we have two 17 year olds, not a seventeen year old and a 150 year old. There are major challenges ahead for Lucius and Jessica. This is a coming of age story for each of them as they move along their intertwined paths.

I appreciate the choice to use two readers – Kellgren for all the portions from Jessica’s point of view and Woodman as the voice of Lucius’s letters home. This story lurked in the back of my mind between listens. Yes, I had a notion of where it might end up – but I really didn’t know how it was going to get there. There was something especially believable about this cast of characters (and yes, I know that sounds a bit silly when talking about vampires). Witty, thoughtful and fun. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Sample audio clip available.

Author: Charlaine Harris
Reader: Johanna Parker

Short Review: Well read first installment of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series (better known now as the books that inspired HBO’s TrueBlood series). Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic waitress in a world in which vampires have “come out of the coffin”, and her world is getting more dangerous with each passing the day.

Long Review: I first read Dead Until Dark on paper years ago. When the new HBO series TrueBlood came out, I watched. So this audio book was version 3 of this world for me. As is often the case when I have strong mental models of many of the characters, it took me a bit of settling in to adjust to Parker’s voice. The good news is that this book is told entirely from Sookie’s perspective, so a female voice with a southern accent really was the logical choice.

Dead Until Dark is a murder mystery set in the small southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is a restaurant at a local bar. She also happens to be telepathic. As she moves into the world of vampires, her life gets more interesting – and more complicated. If you are looking for both romance and murder, this serves you both. In a lot of ways it is just shy of an old school gothic romance, but with Vampires and telepathy mixed in.

One of the things I love about all of Charlaine Harris’s books is that she includes the everyday as part of her story. Her protagonists actually clean their homes and have to go by the library to get books. Harris weaves her story through the juxtaposition of these regular rhythms with the suspense associated with a murderer on the loose and the mysteriousness of the supernatural.

I am no expert on southern accents – so don’t hate me if your more sensitive ear finds fault in Parker’s rendition. I really enjoyed this audio book. The reader has enough variation in her voices for the various characters to make it easy to keep track of dialog. She also has a lovely default narrator’s voice that rings true for Sookie’s inner dialog.

If you are a TrueBlood fan, I think you can’t go wrong with giving a listen to the story that started it all. Yes, there are some deviations between the HBO series and this book – but that is often the case with books brought to screen.

Sample audio available.

Author: Terry Pratchett

Reader: Stephen Briggs

Short Review: This follow-up to Going Postal follows Moist Von Lipwig as he embarks on a new venture: running the Mint at the all-too-pointed behest of Lord Vetinari. Briggs, as usual, reads well and beautifully. Pratchett, as usual, is funny and satirical. What’s not to love?

Long Review Considering when this book was released and when Pratchett must have started work on it, I’m beginning to believe the man is downright prescient. Making Money opens in the midst of a financial crisis in Ankh-Morpork. Lord Vetinari encourages Lipwig to take over Ankh-Morpork’s banks and mint and reverse the longstanding gross mismanagement and corruption. Lipwig tries to refuse, finds he can’t, and digs right in.

The familiar Vetinari, Lipwig, and Dearheart all return, and are joined by a number of other interesting characters like Malvolio Bent, chief cashier and Harry King, garbage kingpin. We learn more about Dearheart’s work in the Golem’s rights movement, Lipwig’s past, and business happenings in Ankh-Morpork.

The plot isn’t quite as organized or fast-paced as Going Postal, which makes me wonder if it was rushed to press, or if Pratchett fell out of love with the story towards the end. Whatever the reason, I’m not all that disappointed. This isn’t Pratchett’s best work, but it’s much more entertaining than most of the jolly satire laying about. I’ll keep listening to his audiobooks and reading his paper books as long as he produces them, and I’d encourage you all to do the same.

Author: Terry Pratchett
Reader: Richard Mitchley

Short Review: A standout story from Pratchett’s Johnny Maxwell trilogy, read with great personality and skill by Richard Mitchley. Our hero Johnny learns that he can see and speak to the Dead in his local cemetery, and winds up facing down corrupt, frightening enemies.

Long Review: The second book in the Johnny Maxwell series follows Johnny as he discovers his ability to see and talk to the dead, and then intercedes on the behalf of the ghosts living in his local cemetery. Johnny stands up to crooked local politicians and thugs, hangs out with his friends, and learns a great deal about local and British history and politics along the way. As I’ve come to expect, Pratchett’s story is funny, sharp, and thoroughly enjoyable. The story is slightly scary in a few parts, but it’s never the Dead who are frightening–Johnny is threatened by normal, flesh and blood evil.

Mitchley is a fantastic reader. He developed many distinct voices for the different characters in the novel, and he maintains clear separation between the characters as he narrates. His pitches, accents, and pacing are enchanting. Mitchley’s work is an absolute treat to hear, and I plan to seek out other audiobooks he has narrated.

Author: Kaza Kingsley
Reader: Simon Jones
Extra: Introduction by author Kaza Kinglsley in which she explains how she got the idea of Erec Rex and some of her process of creating the first book.

Short Review: Entertaining fantasy in which a 12 year old boy discovers a parallel but hidden world of magic. Fun characters plus a great reader makes for a captivating audio book.

Long Review: Kingsley has created a rich tapestry of a world which our protagonist Erec and his new friend Bethany must learn to navigate in order to find and rescue his mother. There are many mysterious things going on, and Erec and Bethany make a great team (along with a few other new friends) to unravel what must be done while finding their proper place in this new world. There are some nice messages here about taking advantage of your own gifts and doing the right thing for others. Jones is a great reader with distinct voices for each character and good pacing.

While some may look at Erec Rex and only see a Harry Potter clone, I found an inventive, fun story about a young man discovering a magical world in which things are not quite right. Yes, Erec is twelve and has to go through a magical competition in which he must compete with much more advanced magical children (some of whom are mean bullies), but there is plenty to this story to distinguish it from the world of Hogwarts.

The best plug I can give for this book is that my six year old son absolutely loved it. He was willing to sprawl on the floor of the living room for hours listening intently. Attempts to turn off the book were greeted with tears and pleading for more. One thing to note is that my son rated The Dragon’s Eye as ‘less scary’ than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (which in my son’s world was a good thing). While he only got a few chapters into the 2nd Harry Potter book before setting it aside – he flew through the next 2 Erec Rex books. When I catch up to him I will post reviews of them here of course!

The Dragon’s Eye is also available from Audible.com