Reviews of Fantasy Audio Books
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Local Custom by Sharon Lee and 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.
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James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Reader: Jeremy Irons Short Review: One of my favorite Dahl books, read enchantingly by the inimitable Jeremy Irons.
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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Reader: Steven Crossley Short Review: A decent book with a major flaw, read beautifully by Steven Crossley. Connolly's book starts out as a promising depiction of the interior life of a bookish, depressed boy with apparently undiagnosed epilepsy and OCD. Unfortunately, it continues on into an all-too-familiar series of retellings of classic fairytales, several of which villanize women for no clear reason. I expected and hoped for more from the book itself. Thankfully, I truly enjoyed Crossley's narration, and allowed it to carry me through a book that otherwise left me scratching my head and feeling disappointed and maligned.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Author: Roald Dahl Reader: Eric Idle Short Review: Dahl's award-winning children's book read wonderfully by Eric Idle.
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Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Reader: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, Neal Stephenson Short Review: A pretty good but overly long book from one of my favorite authors, read less-than-ideally. This alternate future tale depicts a world where the intellectual elite are forcibly cloistered in pseudo-monastic communities around the world where they're free to think and learn but denied access to many technologies and to "saecular," (i.e., non-intellectual) society. The protagonist Fraa Erasmus is layered and likeable, but the book could stand to lose a couple of hundred pages and the narration isn't as good as it should be. In this instance, I think I would have preferred the paper book to the audio book.
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Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman Reader: Neil Gaiman Short Review: A stunning story beautifully read by the author. Coraline's boredom leads her to a place just beyond our reality. What at first seems just odd and fun becomes creepy and worth escape, but only by delicate inches. Gaiman's voice lulls and tantalizes. He is just so good at painting images with the combination of words and his own voice.
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Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga, Book 4)
Reader: Ilyana Kadushin and Matt Walters
Short Review: Your patience is rewarded and the camera pulls back to show you the full picture of where we have been headed across the landscape of these 4 extravagant novels. For me this was a very satisfying conclusion to the Twilight Saga.
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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Reader: Neil Gaiman Short Review: Neil Gaiman reads his Newbery Medal winning book beautifully. His nod to Kipling's The Jungle Book is just scary enough, intriguing, inventive, well-written, enchanting . . . it's downright wonderful. I loved Bod, Silas, Scarlett, Liza, Miss Lupescu, and the rest of the graveyard's denizens and rooted for them throughout the story. I miss them. I'll return to this book again and recommend it to adults and kids.
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Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Reader: Stephen Briggs Short Review: Another very entertaining Discworld novel read wonderfully by Stephen Briggs. This story follows forcible-reformed former con-artist Moist von Lipwig (a.k.a. Albert Spangler) as he attempts to reform the Ankh-Morpork post office at the behest of Lord Vetinari. The story teems with great characters, intrigue, technomancy, bureaucracy, golems, ponzi schemes, small gods, mail, stamps, secret societies, and a pirate.
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Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Reader: Stephen Briggs Short Review: This fun, funny, and often thoughtful story follows Sam Vimes as he investigates the murder of dwarven leader Grag Hamcrusher. Vimes is a father and husband, an unwilling member of the nobility, Commander of the watch, and a good old copper. He is pressured into hiring the first Vampire on the watch and has to manage religious and racial tensions between humans, vampires, werewolves, igors, dwarfs, and trolls while simultaneously solving a murder and preventing the outbreak of a troll v. dwarf war. The book is read by the wonderful Stephen Briggs, a regular reader for Pratchett's books and one of my absolute favorite audiobook narrators.
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Storm Front (Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher
Reader: James Marsters Short Review: Down on his luck detective Harry Dresden also happens to be a real, live wizard. This introduction to Harry's world includes magic, potions, a talking skull named Bob, werewolves - and of course a murder mystery. James Marsters is brilliant.
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Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney
Beowulf, translated by Seamus HeaneyTranslator: Seamus Heaney
Reader: George GuidallShort Review: Heaney’s excellent translation read well, though not perfectly, by Guidall.
Long Review: You know already whether or not you want to listed …