Mostly Harmless

Author: Douglas Adams

Reader: Martin Freeman

Short Review: A good reading of my least favorite book in the series.

Long Review: The disappearance of Fenchurch, the appearance of Random, the multiple Trillians–it’s all too much, and too dark to fit well into the series. Adams himself was open about his disappointment in the tone for this, the sort-of-ending to the series. I enjoyed hearing it, nonetheless.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Author: Douglas Adams

Reader: Martin Freeman

Short Review: Another decent reading of a book I love, which suffers by comparison to the Stephen Frye reading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Long Review: Er, fourth verse, same as the second? Thankfully, no.

I love this series, as I said in my review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I think Martin Feeman is a pretty good reader, apart from that whole Zaphod thing. Thankfully, that’s not really an issue with this book. Another plus: we get the addition of Fenchurch. I’m sure some readers wish Adams had just left the musky stuff out of the series, but my sappy little heart sings when something nice finally happens to Arthur Dent.

Unfortunately, this is probably the weakest book in the original four-part trilogy (blame Adams for that misuse of trilogy, not me). This story isn’t as tight as the previous books in the series. Even so, I like reading and listening to it.

Life, the Universe and Everything

Author: Douglas Adams

Reader: Martin Freeman

Short Review: Another decent reading of a book I love, which suffers by comparison to the Stephen Frye reading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Long Review: My opinions on this audiobook are, sensibly, quite similar to my opinions on The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I love the book, and am grateful for having less of Freeman-as-Zaphod to annoy me. The silliness of the Cricket/Krikkit plot carries over nicely in the audio version.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Author: Douglas Adams

Reader: Martin Freeman

Short Review: A decent reading of a book I love, which suffers by comparison to the Stephen Frye reading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Long Review: I love this series, as I mentioned in my review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I think Martin Feeman is a pretty good reader, but Stephen Frye is such a great reader that I can’t but prefer his casting.

Freeman does one particular thing as a narrator that drives me mad. He reads Zaphod Beeblebrox as a stereotypical Jewish New Yorker. That, in and of itself, would annoy me. His accent is atrocious, though, so it also seems insulting. British folks love to make fun of Americans because we’re so terrible at mimicking their accents. Well you know what? The vast majority of Brits are just as bad at mimicking us, and this is a particularly galling example.

Apart from that, it’s a pretty good rendition. But Zaphod is a huge part of these books, so reading his role poorly really harms the whole audio book.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Reader: Stephen Fry

Short Review: A great reading of one of my favorite goofy novels.

Long Review: Like many people, I learned about Douglas Adams’ series when I was a kid, read it, laughed myself silly, read it again, laughed myself silly, saw the TV series on PBS, was terribly frustrated by its failings (go ahead and stone me as a heretic), read the books again, saw the film, found it disappointing, and read the books again.

So I was a bit worried about the audio books. Previous attempts to shove this brilliant, silly stuff of my childhood into other media had not gone so well, in my eyes. But Stephen Fry’s participation convinced me to at least check it out. As the voice of the Guide, Fry was the highpoint of the film for me. I think he was the perfect choice for the reader: he has that excellent, tony prep school diction required for the Guide itself, but also a lot of vocal range, and a good dose of nerdy silliness, which is required.

Fry doesn’t disappoint. He has great comic timing (as well he should), good diction, reads the Guide sections clearly and convincingly, and seems to match the goofy voices for characters like the ship’s computer Eddie and Marvin quite effectively to what my brain wants. Nice trick, Fry.

This is one of those audio books I’ll listen to again when I need something light and fun.

Oryx and Crake
Author: Margaret Atwood
Read by: Campbell Scott
Short Review: A dystopian “speculative fiction” (Atwood’s term) novel tracking a young man’s experiences in pre- and post-apocalyptic world, complete with a ridiculously sheltered genius caste, chaotic plebe lands, corporations run amuck, transgenic species, genetic engineering and cloning to the nth degree, a new, broken Eden, with a side of crushing love-triangle thrown in for good measure.

Long Review: Atwood is a genius. You knew that already, right? Because she is.
Lanea and Atwood sitting in a tree, R. E. A. D. I. N. G. . . .

Campbell Scott reads the work beautifully. I could listen to his voice for hours, and I did. Having listened to the novel, I’ll have a hard time if anyone other than Scott is cast as the protagonist in a film of the novel one day. Scott’s voice is so appropriate for this novel in particular because he can flatten the affect of his voice so convincingly. As narrator, he is presenting the description of the world’s decline and collapse, narrating the story leading up to the big bad end, and also speaking for Will, the heart-broken kid who grows into a heart-broken adult, who winds up a heart-broken nanny to some very odd, er, humanoids.

The novel itself is beautifully written, engaging, terrifying, sad . . . I didn’t read this book on paper before listening to the audiobook, and I worried that I might miss something. I didn’t. Scott’s narration was entrancing for me, and I ended up listening to most of the audio book a second time because I just didn’t want to put it down.