Clementine

Author: Cherie Priest

Readers: Dina Pearlman and Victor Bevine

Available from Audible.Com

Short Review: This sequel to Boneshaker follows Captain Croggon Hainey as he tracks and attempts to recover his airship, The Free Crow, from its captors. It also introduces Maria Isabella Boyd, a former Confederate spy turned Pinkerton, on her first assignment. It’s good, but not quite as good as Boneshaker.

Long Review: I’m a huge fan of this series, and found Boneshaker absolutely enthralling. This sequel follows Hainey, one of the more interesting minor characters from the first novel, and introduces Boyd, an intriguing character based on a historical figure. It follows an interesting dangling thread from that first novel, but to do so, it has to leave leave Seattle. The Seattle of Boneshaker was so inventive and layered that I had a hard time following the author away from it.

All whining aside, this is a very good audiobook. Priest is an excellent writer, and her attention to detail and excellent knowledge of American history make these books ring true, even with rather fantastic “alternate” content to deal with. The book is expertly read by Pearlman and Bevine, taking turns in Boyd’s and Hainey’s sections, respectfully, much as Reading and Wheaton did for the two main characters in Boneshaker. The switching perspective keeps the action moving along at a good clip while also elucidating two very different people.

Moreover, Priest tackles complex, layered questions of social justice in her books without clobbering the reader over the head. I’m always thrown when people address the Civil War or other momentous transitions in history without considering vital threads such as human rights, equality, changes in social mores, and the like. In this series, Priest is delving into questions of women’s rights, race relations, immigration, states vs. federal rights, property rights, international meddling in civil wars, medical ethics . . . the social and ethical questions she raises are manifold, and it’s the weaving of those questions into the fast-paced drama that really makes these books sing. This isn’t just fantasy. It’s a history lesson blending with an ethics class as well, and all of it makes these books worth returning to.

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Reader: Grover Gardner

Short Review: The first book in one of my all time favorite series, read by a brilliant reader. Great character driven sci-fi tale.

Long Review: This first book of the Vorkosigan Saga gives us a great blend of creative world building, mature protagonists and a captivating story line.

Cordelia Naismith from peaceful, liberal and scientifically inclined Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan from militaristic, conservative and tradition-bound Barrayar. The two captains are thrown together by circumstances, one forced to take the other as a prisoner. Isolated from both of their worlds and struggling to survive in the wilderness of an unfamiliar planet, they form an unexpected bond.

But of course Cordelia and Aral can’t contemplate their feelings for one another without the interference of a war, the broad reaches of space and lots of planetary politics. Bujold throws everything she can think of at them and our story includes strange alien creatures, high tech weapons, low tech tactics, and space battles and their aftermath.

Those of you who have noticed my penchant for books by Lois McMaster Bujold won’t be surprised that I recommend this book highly, but it is definitely a book which has stood the test of time. Yes, this is Bujold’s first novel and her craft improved with time, but she definitely had a clear vision of the Vorkosigan world and her primary characters. I enjoyed getting to know them as they get to know each other.

Audio sample available.

Short Review: Imaginative and original steampunk story set in a distant future London and beautifully read by the author.

Long Review: Fever Crumb is an odd girl. She has no hair (hair is apparently not logical). Raised by London’s Order of Engineers in the far distant future, Fever has been taught to trust only logic and has spent most of her time assisting her adoptive engineer father Dr. Crumb.

Outside the enormous statue head in which the Order lives, London is a chaotic place more concerned with fear of the fairly recently overthrown tyrannical Scriven than with logic and reason. Anyone who looks different is suspect. The most revered are those known as Skinners who did the dirty work of killing the Scriven and reclaiming London for the regular humans.

The steampunk flavor is steeped into the story, with plenty of odd machines and quirky science against a backdrop that feels Victorian. Strange automaton creatures made of paper, known as paper boys, are capable of both surveillance and attack in a style reminiscent of terminators – if not as durable.  The interesting thing about the technology is that no one knows how to recreate the parts for the machines. It is all about scavenging parts and reusing them to build what they need now – and here is why the Order of Engineers is so important and revered. They are best at figuring out how to fix and build with all these old technology bits. Archaeologists are important for their finds of new caches of old tech. Out beyond the well guarded edges of London we know there are enemies – and who knows what they would do if they broke through the defenses and took over the city!

This is Fever’s world, in which babies are often named after the symptoms they experienced while pregnant. There are mysteries and mis-communications all around, and by the middle of the book I felt truly sucked in and anxious to see where we would end up. This is a prequel to Reeve’s Mortal Engines Quartet, but I have never read the main series so I cannot speak to how it relates. I do understand that it precedes the Mortal Engines books by many many years. I like the world that Reeve has built for us. It is imaginative and often amusing in the tidbits that are dropped from our pop culture into the time of Fever Crumb – often with little or no understanding of their origin.

As I have said before, some authors should not read their own work – but that is NOT the case for Philip Reeve. I was disappointed to go hunting for the Mortal Engine audio books only to discover that they doesn’t seem to have ever been recorded – by Reeve or anyone else.

The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me is that it did feel like a prequel at times. I want the next book more than I want to listen to this one again, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a steampunk fan or who is looking for a new world of intricate surprises and mysteries to solve.

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Reader: Grover Gardner

Short Review: A new Vorkosigan adventure, same fabulous reader. A fun romp with lots of old friends, and a few new ones.

Long Review: I really enjoyed this book, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone who has never read any of the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga.

For those of you in the market for the latest and greatest adventures of Miles, you will likely be happy with this. I wouldn’t say it is in the same category as the best of the series – but more like a really good reunion show where you get to see all your old favorite characters. I would list a parade of them here, but I don’t want to give away who will show up. There are lots of fun cameos – you won’t be disappointed on that front.

Grover Gardner does his usual amazing job reading. For me, the voice he uses to narrate the Vorkosigan books is my mental voice for Miles. Even when I re-read these favorites of mine, I hear Gardner’s voice in my head. At least one or two of the best in the series would be on my desert island audio book list.

One interesting thing about this book in contrast with other Miles books is that only a third of the story is told from his point of view. One third is told by his armsman Roic and the final third told by a new character Jin – a young man who meets Miles and comes to his aid. There are a few other books in the series with other points of view, but this round robin gave Bujold a chance to show us more of how others see Miles, both a trusted member of his inner circle and someone who has no idea what he is up to.

There is also a final epilogue that is told in short snippets in a total of five other points of view. I can’t tell you more than that without spoiling it, but I will say that this final section felt more like the more emotionally intense books from the middle of the series.

Will you like it? Probably. Bujold is such a fantastic story teller and Gardner is such a great reader that the two together deliver a really enjoyable package. If you are a passionate fan of the series, you might feel a little let down by the ‘just another adventure on a planet far from home’ feeling – but it is still worth a listen. Bujold manages to balance out some of the lighthearted caper feel with some more serious themes that I can’t describe without wrecking them.

If you are still reading and wondering if you should start the series – I say YES without delay. I keep meaning to review them all here, but for now it is easier to tell you to just go start at the beginning with The Warrior’s Apprentice.

You can listen to a sample online.

Cryoburn

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Reader: Alan Cumming
Bonus: Endnote read by the author detailing what is fact and what is fiction

Short Review: In this stunning follow up to Leviathan, Alek and Deryn continue on their intricate path through the steampunk inspired alternate World War I created by Westerfeld. In this rollicking adventure we weave through the back streets of Istanbul, eggs are hatched, some secrets are revealed while others stay safely hidden.

Long Review: The fear of the sequel is quite reasonable. Many of us have been let down after long waits for the next installment of some amazing volume. Fear not – this sequel is the real deal. This is the type of sequel that makes you wish the next one was sitting right behind it on the shelf – but sadly we must wait until September 2011 for the third in the trilogy, titled Goliath.

Behemoth retains our favorite characters and introduces a few new ones. I especially love the strong women and girls in this book. Westerfeld manages to have such a great mix of male and female characters, not to mention just a great story, that this should appeal to young adults of both genders, as well as adults who enjoy alternate history or steampunk.

I don’t want to give away any of the fabulous twists and turns, but I can’t resist repeating that the bulk of the story takes place in and around Istanbul. It is a fabulous rich backdrop to this chapter of the story with lots of ornate detail (the author traveled there to get a first-hand feel for the place) as well as a great mix of cultures and languages.

The reader is still fabulous and takes on all the assorted new accents necessary. I love when the voices are so distinct that I know who is speaking without needing to be told. While I know that I am missing out on the beautiful drawings in the paper version of the book – I still feel like I have the chance to paint the tale with my own imagination while listening to Cumming’s adept reading.

The story gives us a chance to get better acquainted with both Alek and Deryn/Dylan. While the first book spent more time setting up the story and all the supporting characters necessary, this book gives us a chance to just watch Alek and Deryn/Dylan grow and evolve as they work their way around all the obstacles in their paths. We also get new beasties large and small (or should I say gargantuan and petite?) – and of course there are more clanker machines, bigger and more fabulous than ever.

As a special treat at the end we get to hear Westerfeld himself explain which parts of the story are history and which parts he made up.

If you haven’t read Leviathan, I would begin with that book first — but I wholeheartedly recommend this book without reservation.

Audible sample available.

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Reader: Alan Cumming

Short Review: Fun and captivating steampunk adventure set in an alternate World War I Europe. Strong male and female leads should keep both genders interested and a very talented reader makes the story zoom along.

Long Review: This book was fabulous. I will admit that it took me a little time to get pulled in, but once I was firmly entrenched in the steampunk world Westerfeld has created I wanted to stay. I was slightly heartbroken when it ended, consoled only by the thought of a sequel surely already in progress. (Note: I originally listened to this before the sequel came out – but it has been available since October, 2010: Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy))

This is the story of the Clankers, who build fast, loud and greasy machines, and the Darwinists, whose merge and create new species to spec. This is also the story of a boy and a girl, each swept along by history and entangled by the war. The boy is a prince with no place to go. The girl is dressing as a boy to serve her country. I loved the number of details from the early 1900s that Westerfeld worked into the story. At the same time he is clear about his alternate time-line, a world war in which Clankers and Darwinists are struggling for power.

This is an adventure story full of chases, narrow escapes, battles, malfunctioning gear, explosions and long cold nights. I don’t want to give any more specific details because I think you will enjoy the story more with less knowledge going in.

The reader does an excellent job, both with voices and narration. This is the sort of reader who just fades into the background while you get enveloped by the story.

Audio sample available.

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2)

Author: Suzanne Collins
Reader: Carolyn McCormick

WARNING: Have you read The Hunger Games yet? No? Then stop and go listen to that before reading this review. There is NO way to even describe this book without huge spoilers of book one.

Short Review: Strong sequel, with a slightly different pace than the original. Our protagonists are barely out of the arena on their way back to District 12 as they begin to realize the strangle hold the capitol still has on their lives. More characters, more suspense – a fun, if dark ride.

Long Review: We rejoin Katnis and Peeta in Panem for the aftermath of the Hunger Games that took place in Book 1. If you thought they won and the capitol was done with them, you are in for a surprise. The great thing about this sequel is that Collins found a way to surprise her audience and extend the suspense. She clearly has a very detailed vision of Panem and the balance of power between the districts and the capitol. I enjoyed meeting more of the prior victors from earlier Hunger Games. Each victor added to our depth of understanding of life and culture in the other districts.

Collins definitely has a fertile imagination when it comes to ways to traumatize everyone we come to care about! I don’t want to go into too much detail – but you won’t be disappointed.

I still don’t love McCormick as a reader – but at this point I guess I have gotten used to her. The story is still so captivating that if her reading is the way to get to hear it read to me, I will live with it. I suspect that with a better reader I would push this up to a 5 star rating.

As far as sequel’s go, this one does well. I think I still like the first book better, but this one is not far behind. If you loved Hunger Games, move on to this one with no fear of the typical sequel letdown.

Audio sample available.

Short Review: This is a great book, but the audio version has a flaw that really annoyed me. I want a re-cut, just for me, sans music. I doubt I’ll get it.

Long Review: I love the book itself, perhaps even more than I loved Oryx and Crake. Atwood is one of my favorite authors, and I’m intrigued by the world she is creating in these books. The second book particularly appeals to me because it focuses much more closely on the female characters trapped in this terrible future Earth Atwood considers. As much as I loved the first book, I wanted to throttle the protagonist, in part because he was so dismissive of the women and girls he knew. Campbell Scott’s fantastic narration made me like Jimmy/Snowman in the audiobook much more than I liked him on paper. In this book, following the female characters was less frustrating, but more importantly, it struck closer to home. Women fair differently during revolutions and social collapses, and I can’t help but wonder how the women are doing whenever I read an account of a war or revolution or a dystopia. Atwood scratched that itch for me with this book.

Atwood has a chance to flesh out this future Earth more clearly with the second book, and the picture she paints continues to be damn near terrifying. We learn more about people Jimmy knew before the waterless flood occurred, and we see how people are managing to survive. Since we’re following the women of the greater story, we particularly see the nasty conclusion of the erosion of women’s rights–Atwood stuck a pin right into one of my hot-spots with that one.

The main characters of this book are Ren, a young exotic dancer, and Toby, an herbalist. Both are members of God’s Gardeners, an eco-cult, for some portion of their lives, and both manage to survive the “waterless flood” set off in Oryx and Crake. Ren is younger and more innocent, Toby older and more street-wise. Both survive through a combination of luck and intelligence, and both suffer greatly. It’s not light, this book, but it’s thoroughly good.

The narration is good throughout, and I think all three narrators did an excellent job. I was annoyed by the continual mispronunciation of the name “Nuala,” but tried to convince myself that in this terrible future, society had so collapsed that no one knew how to say that beautiful Irish name (which has only two syllables). The readers all pace themselves well, and the three voices work together nicely and help to denote changes in speaker smoothly but clearly.

What made me grit my teeth, though, is the music. The damn ill-considered, inappropriate music. Several sections of the book end with songs. I’m fine with that on paper, but in the audiobook, they’re bad. Really bad. And they’re not bad in an understandable “well, I’ve never been a fan of religious music, but that still makes sense” way. They’re disconnected from the audiobook in a way they just can’t be in the paper book, because the problem is in the arrangements and production. The songs follow sermons for the God’s Gardeners. In the paper book, I think the reader assumes that the songs are sung by the congregation that just listened to the sermon. But as things start to collapse around the world in the book, nothing changes about the arrangements of the songs. Nothing. As electric grids stop functioning and people begin protecting themselves in any way they can, the over-produced soul-less quasi-Christian rock doesn’t alter. WHY? Seriously, what is with that? I decided to skip the horrid, non-diegetic music to make it through the rest of the book, which I otherwise loved.

I’m sure I’ll listen to the book again, but I’m also sure I’ll skip every single song when I do. I wish someone with a truly abiding love of music had given more thought to the inclusion of these songs in the audiobook, because they’re so wrong-headed.

Under The Dome: A Novel

Author: Stephen King
Reader: Raul Esparza
Available on Audible.com

Special feature: Author’s Afterword read by Stephen King

Short Review: A beautiful autumn day in the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine is interrupted by a clear impenetrable dome which cuts it off from the outside world. Our story carries us along to meet a broad cast of local characters. Great reader and a captivating (but long) story.

Long Review: This massive, intricate and suspenseful novel drew me in and kept my attention from start to finish. I will admit that I am a sucker for character driven stories. I love getting to know people – learning their stories and watching their paths cross. About half-way through the story (so about fifteen hours in) I remembered this was a Stephen King novel. You have to know that he is going to take you on a wild ride. I like that there are some clear good guys and some clear bad guys, but most everyone we meet is somewhere in between (just like in the real world).

Thirty-five hours is a long time to listen to one person talk – so it was crucial they found a great reader. I feel that they did a great job. I cannot speak to the accuracy of Esparza’s accents – but I can say that I enjoyed his reading. His voices were creative enough to make character identification easy. His narration had a nice rhythm to it. Looking for a good story to listen to as you make a long distance drive? I suspect that Under the Dome could get you nearly across the country and keep you very entertained along the way. I also particularly enjoyed the afterword read by the author that shares some of the story behind the story.

There are only two things I would change. First – the MP3 CDs I listened to broke the book up by the large named sections – some as long as forty-five minutes. I usually listen to books in my car, but sometimes (especially when I am as engrossed in a book as I was in this one) I want to bring my CDs into my house to keep listening. Because of the very long sections this was basically impossible unless I was lucky enough to end my drive at the start of a new section.

The second change I would make would be to include the map of Chester’s Mill apparently included in the front of the print edition. A lot of the story depends on your mental mapping of this small town. Chester’s Mill is not just the setting – it feels like another character in the story. It would have been fabulous to be able to open up the CD case and look at the map while listening.

Overall, a big thumbs up for King’s latest effort. Not sure if this will be too scary for you? Well, I don’t love horror movies and I don’t seek out scary stories as a rule but there are a lot of not nice things in store for our merry band of small town residents. It did not give me nightmares but your mileage may vary.

Audio sample available online.

Under the Dome

Author: Suzanne Collins
Reader: Carolyn McCormick

Short Review: Creative, captivating and intense young-adult drama with a strong 16-year-old female protagonist and set in a brutal far-future. Decent reader, but I kept wishing for a bit more emotion in her reading. That said, the story was so captivating that I couldn’t stop listening!

Long Review: I am a big fan of world building done well – and Collins has built a rich vision of a far distant future both more technologically advanced and more brutal than what we might expect. In this far future, children from across former North America (now called Panem) are forced to fight to the death in a carefully wrought creation that is part reality TV, part survivor and part Roman Colosseum. The tension between the ivory tower of the capitol and the impoverished and heavily restricted lives of those in the twelve districts which support it stretches from start to finish. There is a lot to chew on here.

Against this backdrop we get to know Katniss. Katniss Everdeen is 16 and lives in the coal country of District 12 with her mother and younger sister.  Katniss spends most of her time each day hunting, gathering, or trading for enough food for her little family to survive. She has been fighting to keep herself alive for years. The transition from being the girl who brings people meat to being a tribute from District 12 fighting for her life is less startling than you might expect.

Katniss has watched the Games every year (the power never goes out when the Games are on) and she does everything she possibly can to increase her chances of survives. Collins reveals details of how things work in this world gradually. Right up to the end of the story we are learning about Panem and learning about Katniss. I appreciated hearing this story from her perspective. It makes all her choices and experiences feel closer to the surface. Even when we understand things that she cannot, usually in the emotional attitudes of those around her, we see only what she sees.

I did not love the reader. I felt that McCormick kept Katniss and the intensity of her world at arms length during the reading. It is hard to put my finger on what bothered me. The dialog was fine, with reasonable and recognizable voices for the characters. It was long stretches of narration that felt too rhythmic, too even-keeled somehow. It wasn’t enough to keep me from enjoying the story – but I kept catching myself trying to imagine what it might sound with a different reader.

Overall, it is an amazing ride and I am hungry for the sequel. Collins has created a terrifying world and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Audio sample available.

The Precipice (The Asteroid Wars)

Author: Ben Bova
Readers: Scott Brick, Amanda Karr, Christian Noble, Karesa McElheny and Stefan Rudnicki(with a cameo by Theodore Bikel)

Short Review: Well-woven story set in a not-too-distant-future full of corporate intrigue and environmental chaos, both on earth and in colonized outer space. The amazing readers bring our cast of characters to life – I highly recommend it and am scheming for when I can start the next book in the sequence.

Long Review: The story is set in a not so far off future in which earth has hit what they call a “Greenhouse Cliff”. After decades of ignoring global warming, the balance of earth’s environment has gone over the edge leaving behind rapidly melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, flooding and violent weather of all types. The moon has been colonized, science and technology have made dramatic breakthroughs, governments are still generating more red tape and tycoons still want to make more money. Different countries are tackling the increasing number of disasters in their own ways, but you get a strong sense that all this is too little too late. Some folks seem to have found this book a bit too preachy on the woes of global warming and imminent worldwide natural disasters, but for me it worked well as the backdrop to the story being told. Ultimately, a lot of our story takes place up on the moon or on space ships.

What I love most about this story are the people. I especially appreciate that it was not immediately obvious to me who was meant to be the “good guys” or the “bad guys”. The story isn’t that simple. People aren’t that simple. Bova has done a fine job with giving us individuals with strengths and weaknesses. Some of them you would love to get to know over dinner, some you likely would give a lot to avoid – but the way their stories intertwine (plus the suspense and intrigue about how it all will turn out) should keep your attention.

Each shift in point of view is accompanied with a change in reader. I am not sure I always understood the logic behind the selection of which narrator used for each section or why music was included sometimes and not others – but overall it worked. After a while of listening to audio books, a familiar voice is like an old friend. Seeing Scott Brick‘s name listed on this book immediately boosted my confidence that it was likely going to be a good listen – and I was obviously not disappointed.

This is just the first volume in the Asteroid Wars series and I am excited to move on to the next book and find out what Bova has in store for us. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Precipice is also available on Audible.com

The Precipice

Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Reader: Michael Shanks

Short Review: Star crossed lovers set in an intricately woven universe including space ships, elements of magic and linguistics. The reader needed someone to insist on better pacing in an otherwise very solid performance.

Long Review: The list of things I enjoyed about this audio book is fairly long. Deeply developed characters with a solid back story, a carefully crafted universe and enough suspense to keep you guessing.

Often with a story like this, the author is tempted to start too early – but Lee and Miller toss us into the middle with fine results. I love books with compelling characters, and on that front this one definitely delivers. I care about the whole lot of them. I want everything to work out, but am not quite sure how it might. I also like that just when I was getting frustrated by the lack of communication between characters, one of them steps forward and starts dealing. Much of the fabric of this story is tied up in how hard it is to communicate with someone who cannot totally understand local customs. Even the learned linguist who can manage to navigate conversations that require careful use of  just the right ‘voice’ cannot anticipate culturally based responses to her actions.

It was only after I had finished listening to this book that I realized that it is in fact Book 1 of a full series set in the Liaden Universe. It does not seem that any others are available (yet) in audio form, but I like the story enough that I plan to read the rest on paper.

The biggest drawback to this audio book was getting used to the reader. Michael Shanks, who portrayed Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1, does a fine job with the actual reading and voices.  My frustration is with his phrasing. The first time he shifted to a new character’s point of view I was very confused for a minute or two until I figured out that I was now hearing someone else’s thoughts. I often experienced a sort of point of view whiplash throughout the book.

I haven’t seen this book in paper – but a quick peek Local Custom on Amazon.com shows me that there are in fact numbered chapters and paragraphs separated by extra space. There is no mention of chapters and no pauses between sections. It sometimes felt like he was in a rush to keep moving through the book. I was able to adjust to this odd pacing, but your mileage may vary. You can download the first three chapters for free from the Buzzy Multimedia page for Local Custom, so you can easily see if this bothers you before you purchase it.

I wish they could re-edit it and just add in more pauses and chapter breaks. It would bring this book up to a five star experience.