Short Review: Character-driven sweeping tale of court intrigue, thieves, and swordsmen read beautifully by many voices and accompanied by music and sound effects. Witty and funny, a great tale.

Long Review: For those of us well read in the Fantasy genre, this is one of those books that many people expect you to have read. But I hadn’t, until about two weeks of my spare time were swallowed whole by this story.

Richard St Vier is the best swordsman. He lives in Riverside, the “other side of the tracks” which in this story is the “other side of the bridge”. Riverside is the home to thieves, swordsman, and prostitutes. They have their own rules – and those not from Riverside rarely dare to cross within its borders. Meanwhile, up on the hill across the bridge, is the nice side of town – home to the rich and the people in charge.

Much of this story is what I think of as court intrigue – people in power manipulating things behind the scenes to get more power or regain power. As is often the case, those with power use everything, and everyone, at their disposal to shift things to their liking. There are lots of beautiful parties and back room negotiations. Those in Riverside are frequently entangled in the intrigue from across the bridge and it is in midst of these entanglements that we find much of the story. In Swordspoint, duels settle disputes — and when you aren’t a swordsman yourself, then you need someone to fight in your stead. Someone like Richard St Vier, if you are very lucky.

There are a lot of characters to follow. I will admit to sometimes losing track of some of the names for a bit, but anyone important enough to demand attention would soon turn up again and I shortly got everyone sorted out. I wonder if that would have been easier had I been seeing the names rather than hearing them, but the different voices of the audiobook also helped me differentiate the characters as well – so it might not have made a difference after all.

I will admit to having thought about one of my father’s adages about stories a few times during this book: “Who is there to root for?”. Such is the way of things when so many of the characters that get a lot of ‘screen time’ are scheming against each other. It takes a while to sort out everyone’s agendas (that is part of the fun!). But it didn’t take long before I found people to root for and care about. In fact, even when I didn’t like what they were doing, I was often captivated by their machinations. Swordspoint tells quite the tale. It is one of those stories in which you can lose yourself for a while.

On top of being a great story, you might also be considering listening to Swordspoint because of its connection to the new serial story Tremontaine, available in eBook and audio installments. Tremontaine is a prequel to Swordspoint. If that leaves you uncertain about which story to start with, you might want to read the tips from the author on what order to read them.

One last tidbit about the story — in the world of Swordspoint, romantic attachments are quite varied and just as likely to be between those of the same sex as those of the opposite sex. That this is just how things are is so rare as to be a bit of a revelation. We see from the very start that Richard St Vier lives with his lover Alec in Riverside… and the story just barrels onward. No excuses, no hedging – the story tells us how each pair of people relates to one another as we go along. I loved that.

I am more accustomed to listening to more traditional audiobooks which feature a single reader from end to end. This audiobook is very different. It is halfway between a full-cast audiobook and a radio play. Lots of different voices (including a fair amount by the author), intervals of music, and even some sound effects. Click on the second Soundcloud clip below for a sample. It took some getting used to, but overall I enjoyed it. You can also learn more about the creation of the audiobook as an ‘Illumniated audiobook”. The readers were very expressive – and I never found myself confused about who was speaking. Honestly, going back to a ‘regular’ audiobook after Swordspoint took a bit of adjustment. Where was my music? My sound effects?

Book sample:

Available from Audible through Amazon.com

Author: Brenda Bence

Reader: Brenda Bence

Short Review: Speaking to “solo-preneurs” and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), this book gives clear direction on how to market and brand your company for no-cost or low-cost.

Long Review: As her own website states, “Brenda Bence is a renowned international branding and leadership expert who shows both individuals and companies how to achieve greater success through corporate and personal branding.” If you want proof, listen to this book. This book holds your hand and walks you through many steps toward building your own marketing and promotional Brand. It becomes clear very early in the book that your intention and focus impact how you are received in the marketplace.

You need to have a Brand Positioning Statement. What is that? Jump on into this book, where Ms. Bence will easily explain it, with ample discussions and examples along the way. Once you have your Brand Positioning Statement, she leads you through understanding how to leverage your assets and differences into building a more successful business. Whether you are a direct sales person, a one-person company, a manager/owner, or the director of operations, you WILL benefit from this book. You won’t need extra time, you can re-apportion your time. You won’t need a big marketing budget, you can use approaches and ideas in Smarter Branding to build attention and respect for your products and services right away.

I want to give this book 5 stars, because it is great to have and refer to again and again. I had one problem with listening to it, however. The audio levels in this release vary so greatly, that it disturbed the listening experience. So, you are forewarned here: Crank it up loud while the softly-spoken Bence is speaking, and turn it down to half volume when the musical interlude pipes in between chapters.

Available from Audible.com

Author: Brenda Bence

Reader: Brenda Bence

Short Review: Master the Brand Called You; The proven leadership branding system to help you earn more, do more, and be more at work is a step by step look at how to use proven marketing techniques to further your own business persona and career. A clear, understandable method to reflect on how you can improve your skills and project your most needed qualities at work.

Long Review:

Brenda Bence is an enthusiastic proponent for applying product brand marketing techniques, with her own twist, to be used by you in your own career. She lays out an easy to understand plan for developing your own Brand identity and carrying it through in detail. You will determine your target audience, your strengths, and what you will need to work on.

In addition to the thorough explanations along the way, Bence has made a template available online to follow along with the book, so the listener can log their personal goals while completing the book.

If you can wrap your head around the fact that marketing and psychology bear such great weight in our perception of daily life, you will adore this book and Benceâ€s suggestions for gaining more control of your Brand. If you havenâ€t given much previous thought to the aspects that go into marketing, this book is going to open up an entire new world to you. If you can begin to understand how you influence others, you can change the world.

Short book. Great presentation. Great Author. Highly recommended.

Available from Audible.com

Author: Brenda Bence
Reader: Brenda Bence

Short Review: Would YOU Want to Work for YOU? How to build an executive leadership brand that inspires loyalty and drives employee performance is an audiobook that is short in length but big in information. Bence covers 15 behaviour sets to better lead others. Youâ€ll want more than one listen and a notepad to jot notes and diagrams.

Long Review: The book starts out in a lulling fashion, and I was originally concerned about Ms. Benceâ€s soothing voice causing me distraction. I was so intent on listening “differently” to this non-fiction piece, that it wasnâ€t until I reset my ears to her tone that I could focus. This well-spoken instructor said she would be posing me the hard questions and would be rough on my self-reflection; somehow, she pulls this off while remaining truly likeable the entire time.

Bence is intent on teaching you how to cross the “Leadership Threshold” by (in the quote by John Pepper) “Being Coachable”. Encouraging the listener to put a mirror in front of their OWN behaviours and attitudes, Bence gives AHA moments of realization to the listener. Each subject is accompanied by an example of why it works and how best to use the process.

While the book is aimed at executives wanting to become The Executive, the tools in this book can easily be helpful for any businessperson, parent, or decent human being. Youâ€ll find yourself nodding along in agreement, grabbing paper to jot notes to yourself, and wanting a second listen. I have already suggested this book to two people who are new to supervisory roles and want to learn how to improve. At just over 4 hours, I donâ€t see how anyone could afford NOT to listen to this book.

I look forward to reading more books by this author and her tips on Branding and Business.

Author: Amanda Palmer
Reader: Amanda Palmer
Extras: Songs. In the book you get lyrics. In the audio book you get music. Also, the introduction read by Brené Brown and the afterword is read by Jamy Ian Swiss.

Available from Audible.com

Short Review: Intense and personal treatise on art, music, creativity, community, connection, love, loss, and asking for (and accepting) help from others. Amanda’s style of reading is intimate and confessional.

Long Review: Amanda Palmer wrote ‘The Art of Asking’ in a series of whirlwind weeks in Australia. She poured it out during what sound like intense ten hour days. To my eye it is three stories woven together. One story traces her path as an artist and musician. The second traces her journey in figuring out how to be in love. The third is about coming to terms with the threat of losing your mentor.

This is definitely a book I would recommend you listen to rather than read. Not all authors are meant to read their own books, but this book is perfect for it. You get to hear her emphasis, her emotions, and (of course) her music. She is right there with you telling you her secrets – her revelations – her wild ideas. And I love the voice she uses when recounting the words of her husband, Neil Gaiman. The Neil Gaiman fans among you will get some behind-the-scenes details of his life too.

I am so glad that there isn’t any way for me to ‘spoil’ the story for you. It isn’t that sort of book. I knew going in that parts of the book made some people cry. I was braced for it… but somehow her story snuck up on me anyway. Followed by a very sad song. All on the subway on the way to work. Thank goodness I had a tissue in my coat pocket. I tweeted what happened. Amanda replied to my tweet with a <3.

Don’t worry, the book also made me laugh (which will also gets you strange looks on the subway) and dream and want to go home and make more art.

A lot of this book talks about community. About building and connecting with your community. It is as much about finding a community to give to as it is about asking for a community to help you. This book does talk about her wildly successful Kickstarter, but there is no silver bullet here about how to do the same. The real secret is the same one that my friend Fred knows (he and his partners over at Evil Hat have had a number of very successful game related Kickstarters): first spend ten years building and connecting with a community.

This book is more memoir than self-help book, but you might walk away from it with new ideas about how to approach your life. Do you consider yourself an artist or wish you did? Listen to this. Are you afraid to depend on others, even those you love? Listen to this. Are you a fan of Amanda’s music? Listen to this.

Not sold yet? Amanda gave a TED talk in February of 2013 on ‘The art of asking’. This book is a direct result of that talk and its resonance with people. Over six million people have watched it. It is less than 14 minutes long, and if you are on the fence about if this book is for you – go give it a listen. Either she will reel you in or she won’t.

Assorted Disclaimers: I was a fan of Amanda Palmer before I listened to this book. I backed her Kickstarter. I attended a house party (the one in Ashburn that involved time in the closet where I read her a poem and gave her a mobile made of doll parts). I attended one of the book tour concerts and waited in line for my copy to be signed the day after the book came out. I attended the same small liberal arts university (though not at the same time). I asked for, and was given, a review copy of this audio book. I expect I was quite pre-disposed to like it. Feel free to take that into account as you decide if you think you will enjoy it based on my review above.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Available from Audible.com

Author: Neil Gaiman

Reader: Neil Gaiman

Short Review: An excellent new dark fantasy for adults, read by the author.

Long Review: It’s probably obvious to any regular BooksForEars reader that Jeanne and I are fans of Gaiman’s work. I waited on pins and needles for this book’s release. When I learned that Gaiman would read the audio version I was particularly excited. I adore the professional readers who narrated American Gods and Anansi Boys, but there’s a special depth that a talented author can add when they read their own work. I have a bias in this direction–I’m a poet and storyteller, and if I had my druthers, I’d deliver all of my pieces directly from my mouth to my audience’s ears.

This is Gaiman’s first novel aimed at adults for several years. The story opens as the speaker returns to his childhood home for a funeral and recounts a series of events that occurred in his childhood. As ever, Gaiman is focused on mythology, and the speaker which he explores through the speaker’s interactions with his neighbors, the Hempstocks. While most of Gaiman’s stories tend towards the dark, this novel is awash in threats to the speaker and his family, and the tone is less optimistic than it tends to be in his books for children.

Gaiman is an excellent reader, as ever. His pacing and diction are lovely, and he has a unique understanding of the tone of the novel. Because the speaker in the novel is never named, Gaiman’s narration makes it feel as if the story is auto-biographical. That adds a certain frisson for a fan like me. I look forward to reading it again, on paper and as an audiobook.

Bro Code for Parents: What to Expect When You’re Awesome

Authors: Barney Stinson and Matt Kuhn
Reader: Neil Patrick Harris (as Barney Stinson)

Extras: CD Version includes 81 page PDF including worksheets, song lyrics, and full color art.

Short Review:  Quick and amusing. Fans of the TV show How I Met Your Mother will be giggling. Neil Patrick Harris reading as Barney is basically a 2 hour standup riff on the agony and trauma of becoming a parent.

Long Review: I don’t know that I would have enjoyed this at all as a paper book. The joy here comes from the performance of Neil Patrick Harris as his How I Met Your Mother character Barney Stinson. If you don’t know the show, you might still be amused – but you will miss a lot of side jokes along the way.

This is short – 2 discs running about 2 hours – but it made a great soundtrack for a short road trip. It might make a good gift for new parents to be, if they have a sense of humor and know the character already. You MUST of course take it with a very large grain of salt (or a pound or two of salt!). One of my favorite bits is where the audio producer comes on speaks directly to the listener reminding them to not take anything Barney says as serious advice.

Neil Patrick Harris sings. He imitates various baby cries and explains their meaning. He puts on the Barney show from start to finish. Probably funnier for those who have been through parenting (or have watched friends go through it). I found myself wanting to replay particularly funny bits for friends – always a good sign.

The Professor and the Madman

Author: Simon Winchester

Reader: Simon Winchester

Audiobook Extras: The Audible edition includes a great discussion between the author and the current editor of the OED, John Simpson.

Short Review: A fascinating story about two of the men who dedicated their lives to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary: one a Scottish Philologist, and one an institutionalized American doctor.

Long Review: I had to read this book. My only disappointment is that I waited so long. I was particularly drawn to the book because of the way the subject matter touches on little things that are vital to me: lexicography and philology, Scotland, England, Virginia, and Washington, DC all twine through the book. It touches on most of the places I’ve lived and the center of my academic background.

The story tracks the intertwined lives of Professor James Murray, a Scottish autodidact turned academic who dedicated himself to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary; and Dr. W. C. Minor, a physician and American Civil War veteran who voluntarily assisted in the compilation of the OED while incarcerated in a British asylum. Winchester waded through British and American records to track the lives of both men and explain their unique contributions to this cornerstone of English lexicography, and in so doing revealed a lot of interesting information about Victorian and Edwardian concepts of mental illness, the community spirit that fuels so much of the OED’s creation and maintenance, and the changing technologies and social views the OED’s editors witnessed during their great undertaking.

Winchester makes for a wonderful reader–his diction is lovely and his pacing is good throughout, and his accent is just right for this subject matter. I’m looking forward to listening to other books of his.

The book’s pacing is excellent as well, and at times it feels almost like a cozy mystery. I enjoyed listening to an English historian’s tangential views about the American Civil War–something that dominates the local history in my region, but which often seems to be viewed only through two lenses. As with most enjoyable histories, this book left me wanting to learn more about Minor and Murray, but also about Victorian asylums, the OED’s other contributors, London’s early police, and a dozen other topics that pop up throughout the course of the work.

Seriously…I’m Kidding

Author: Ellen DeGeneres
Reader: Ellen DeGeneres

Short Review: Light and airy visit with the popular comedienne. Nothing too deep here, but it is fun to listen to Ellen share her upbeat cheerful thoughts and get a taste for her life beyond the public eye. Be prepared for some outright silliness.

Long Review: If you have seen Ellen DeGeneres doing standup or hosting her show, you have a good idea of what you are in for here. She is off the cuff, engaging, goofy and lighthearted. I gave this three and a half stars because it is not something I can imagine returning to – even though it did brighten the few afternoons I listened to it in the car. Clocking in at barely over three hours, this is a short happy ride of an audio adventure.

My favorite parts of this book are the little ‘behind the scenes’ tidbits she shares of her real life in the shadow of public moments. Parts of this are meandering thoughts, parts are closer to memoir. I haven’t read any of her other writing, so I can’t compare it to her other books. She does some fun things with the audio format, changing the text of some parts (to listener rather than reader for example) and even includes a short little chapter for her audiobook listeners.

I think this is one of those books that does better as an audio performance than it would on paper. Ellen clearly approaches this as a performance, and the audio book is all the better for it. If you like Ellen, you will likely enjoy this book. It would make for an easy cheerful afternoon.

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: Elizabeth Gilbert
Reader: Elizabeth Gilbert

Short Review: Stunning memoir of a year in the life of a woman finding her way back to a life she wants to live. Beautifully read by the author. This one will stick with me for a long long time.

Long Review: Narrated by the author, this book carries you away with her on a very private journey of self discovery and healing. Not everyone should read their own books – Elizabeth Gilbert is one of that rare group who can both craft beautiful and expressive language while also bringing those words to life through their reading.

I don’t listen to a lot of non-fiction, but I had heard so much about this book that when I spotted it at the library it caught my eye. I listened to the first third of the first disk that afternoon – right up until a scratch on the CD made me stop. It took a few months until I managed to get my hands on a fresh copy (this time as a download from the library), but those first 20 minutes never left me. There was no way I wasn’t going to find a way to hear the rest of this story.

The basics are fairly well known. A woman has a life crisis and launches herself on a trip set for a year of personal exploration. She starts in Rome – eating her way through some of the richest food on the planet. Four months later she has gained back all the weight she had lost in her grief and become fluent in Italian. Next she travels to India to live, pray and meditate at a remote ashram for four months. Finally she travels to Bali in Indonesia for her final four months to find balance.

I have been lucky enough to travel a fair bit (I have been to both Rome and Bali, but never India) and Gilbert’s descriptions of people and places and the journey itself brought back many of my favorite travel memories. It made me want to dig up the journals I wrote during that time in my life and wish I still managed to record thoughts in the same way. It made me want to check the prices on flights to Rome.

Gilbert shares all of the journey – from the details of what she felt at the very depth of her depression to the exultation she experienced eating the best pizza in the world, and everything in between. I don’t know what it would have been like to hear someone other than Gilbert read these words. I loved hearing all the accents and rhythms of speech. I figure that she was there, so she is the best one to recreate it for us. I also can’t imagine reading this on paper. So much of the flavor of the sounds she added in the recording with her voice would have been lost to me. By the end of the book, I felt like she was an old friend who had just finished telling me her best stories of her year abroad.

Is this a book you will enjoy? Well, it talks a lot about feelings and meditation and finding your way to joy. It does describe her travels to Italy, India and Indonesia – but it is much more of a memoir than a travel book. Have you suffered a broken heart? Have you wondered about meditation? Have you wished for a path to a more joyful existence? Have you ever fallen in love with a language just for the sake of trying something new? If so, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Still not sure? There is an audio sample available online for your consideration.

Author: Neil Gaiman
Reader: Neil Gaiman
Available from Audible.com

Short Review: One of my favorite urban fantasies, read expertly by the author.

Long Review: I think it’s very brave for authors to narrate their own audiobooks. Many authors try it and fail. Gaiman, however, is consistently good as a reader. His pacing is wonderful, his diction is good, he obviously understands the emotions and pacing of the story, but is better able than most non-actors to get that meaning across to the listener. This audiobook reminded me of just how much I’d enjoyed Gaiman’s narration of both Fragile Things and The Graveyard Book. I’d like to think his daughter grew up with the best bedtime stories in the world. This book seems to argue that she did.

The story follows Richard Mayhew, a young Scottish businessman living in London and preparing to marry his controlling, posh girlfriend Jessica. Richard decides to assist an injured young woman he finds on the street, and who appears to be homeless. And then everything goes haywire. Door, the young woman, turns out to be from “London Below,” a world heretofore unknown to Richard. Villains come looking for Door, who narrowly escapes with Richard’s assistance, and he assumes all will return to normal once Door is safely away. However, Richard becomes inexplicably invisible to the London where he lives, and inadvertently departs for a quest, attempting to help Door and himself, working with and against a number of interesting characters in London Below. One task and one danger follows another, and we watch Richard grow from a clueless office drone into a real hero, in the classical sense of the world.

Part of the reason I appreciate Gaiman’s books so much is that I’m such a fan of mythology in general and Joseph Campbell in particular. Gaiman clearly understands, and likes to play with, the hero cycle Campbell elucidates in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Richard, as a modern man, was unprepared for the tests and adventures awaiting him, so his transformation into a hero baffles him. He’s likable though, and layered, as are most of Gaiman’s characters. His villains in this book are excellent as well–terrifying and powerful, and seemingly undefeatable. He questions modern priorities and relationships, the careers available to most people and how they differ from the things we dream for ourselves. I always come away from Gaiman’s books reassessing how I spend my days, and whether I’m allowing the mundane to usurp the time and space I like to save for wonder.

Audio sample available online.