Short Review: A team of government agents try to stop predatory fairy tales from taking over the world by solving fairy tale crimes in this episodic tale where happily ever after isnâ€t nearly as wonderful as it sounds. An exciting overarching story told through episodes reminiscent of the very best crime shows.

Long Review:The ATI Management Bureau is people with men and women whose lives have been hijacked by fairy tales, their flesh and their minds made over to suit the predatory Narrative. Henrietta “Henry” Marchenâ€s mother was taken by the Sleeping Beauty story, casting Henry right into the Snow White mold. Skin as white as snow with lips as red as blood arenâ€t nearly as attractive as Disney would have you believe. Henry leads her own team of agents comprised of an Evil Stepsister (the embodiment of feminine evil in fairy tales forever stuck in a teenage body), a Shoemakerâ€s Elf (because someone has to do the paperwork) and a man who lost his brother to a Sleeping Beauty that manifested in a remote small town whose inhabitants died of starvation before anyone realized what was going on. The team solves cases in the best traditions of all the crime shows youâ€ve ever seen.

The book comes from a deep love of all things fairy tale. McGuire clearly knows her fairy tales, enough to find the weird, obscure references, the points of divergence. She knows just where to twist to get the biggest effect. She knows just which parts of fairy tales to play straight for the most horrific effect. She is very good at finding the points where fairy tales meeting reality cause tragedies. She is also very good at finding the humanity in age-old stereotypes.

The crime aspects of the book are interesting and varied, the mysteries behind each of the episodes are engaging, each of them a twist on some well-known fairy tale. But these are no “monster of the week” episodes; each novella drives the larger story forward, toward an ending that is both satisfying and exciting.

Mary Robinette Kowal is easily one of my all time favorite readers. She has the skill to bring characters to life in a way that many others lack. Sheâ€s amazing at conveying emotion without letting it take over the story sheâ€s telling. Iâ€m prone to cry at narratives with convenient bends to them, but I have never made it through a book Mary has read without crying. She is a master craftsperson who uses her voice to cause pain and suffering as well as joy and laughter. I canâ€t get enough of her reading.

I love this book more than I can say. I’m generally a fan of Urban Fantasy; women doing heroic things in modern cities with speculative fiction trappings is entirely in my wheelhouse. Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors for many reasons, but the fact that she writes books like that alone would automatically make her a clear favorite. But on top of these, Indexing specifically also taps into my eternal addiction of crime shows. I recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy or crime.

My only quibble, the only thing that makes this book less than perfect, is the fact that it ends too soon. Like the crime shows that clearly act as inspiration, Indexing ends in a series cliffhanger that will most likely be resolved in the second book. And frankly, I get somewhat impatient with cliffhanger endings. While no author is the readerâ€s bitch I generally try not to get too into books that have cliffhanger endings without the next book in the series being available.

Full Disclosure: Iâ€m a student of Mary Robinette Kowalâ€s and might, therefore, be slightly biased in her favor. That being said, she was one of my all-time favorite readers before she ever started offering classes that I could attend. And I attended her class because I really enjoyed her work. See, how thatâ€s a vicious cycle?

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.

Author: Ali Shaw

Reader: Heather O’Neill

Short Review: An enchanting mythic fantasy about a woman searching for a cure or explanation for the mysterious ailment that is causing her feet to turn to glass, read beautifully by one of my favorite readers.

Long Review: Ali Shaw was working at the famous Bodleian library at Oxford when he wrote this book. I can’t help but think that that storied collection crept into his first novel. The book is set on the fictional St. Haudaâ€s Land, a remote northern archipelago peopled by unusual people and animals. Ida Maclaird returns to the island seeking a strange man she met there on a previous vacation and an explanation for her unique ailment. She meets and befriends Midas Crook, an awkward young photographer, and asks his assistance in her quest. As the story progresses, Ida attempts to help Midas come to terms with his family and his feelings.

Heather O’Neill is a fantastic reader, and I think her tone and pacing were just right for this book. I was excited to get to listen to her narration again, and enjoyed this book ever more than I did The Likeness.

Shaw’s book is so entrancing because of how he plays with mythic themes. You can tell he’s fully-versed in myth and fairy-tales, but this is no retelling of a classic story. He draws from that imagery and makes gorgeous, subtle allusions, but he creates something wholly new for us. The fantastic animals he invents for the story are particularly interesting, and help establish the strange, magical locale where such unusual things can happen. This isn’t fantasy in the sword and sorcery vein. St. Hauda’s land feels real and modern, though uncomfortably different. And his characters-his characters! I want to know Ida and Midas and Henry Fuwa. I feel as if I could meet them on the train.

I look forward to Shaw’s next book, and I’m crossing my fingers that O’Neill will read the audio version.

Short Review: A fantastic picaresque novel about a man traveling throughout the US, working for and with American Gods. It’s expertly read by one of the most respected narrators in the business.

Long Review: Jeanne and I regularly joke about the need for more negative reviews on this site. This review won’t help to moderate our reviews one jot.

I love this novel so much on paper that I was slow to choose it to listen to. I loved Anansi Boys as much as Jeanne did, but knew that I wouldn’t have Lenny Henry as a reader this time around. I know many people who are fans of Guidall’s narration, but I wasn’t wild about his reading of Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, so I was a bit hesitant to hear his version of one of my favorite books. But then I was staring down a long, intricate project that I knew would require a good long audiobook to keep me going, and in stepped Guidall.

He did a fantastic job with this novel. His reading is well paced, his variations in accent and tone for different characters is consistent and strong, and he obviously enjoyed the book. His smokey natural voice is particularly suited to many of the characters in the novel, but particularly Wednesday and Shadow. My only complaint is that Guidall mispronounces the names of a number of Gods who show up in the novel. I know not everyone will catch the errors, but they set my teeth on edge.

The novel itself is one that I think everyone should read. It appeals particularly to mythology buffs like me, but I think other people enjoy it for a hundred different reasons. It’s a good Road novel, and it’s a mystery. It touches on prison, and family, and marriage and love, heroism and bravery, grifters, sensuality, small towns and cities, trust and betrayal, sacrifice and belief. Finally, it’s a winter novel that passes over the holidays but isn’t about them–that’s exactly the antidote I need at this time of year. I’m tempted to hit the back button and listen to the whole thing again right now.

American Gods

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: 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.

Long Review: I’m a true mythology buff, so I’ve read many books that recast fairytales and myths in new lights. Some authors do a wonderful job with such work–Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and T.H. White all come to mind as masters. But many others can’t meet the task and end up producing novels that can’t match the wonder of the original tales or modernize them in interesting, contemporary ways. I think Connolly’s book falls in that later group.

There are some shining moments in the novel. I love David’s wondrous relationship to books, and how that connects him to his mother, arguably the only positive female character in the book. Her explanation of how real stories feel about the inconsequential stories in newspapers is lovely, and will stay with me. The end of the book is also very appealing to me. I love thinking of the adult David continuing to serve books and being a good man, once all is said and done. In general, I think Connolly is a good writer with a good sense of pace and language. I think his take on sibling rivalry is interesting, as is his vision of a child’s relationship to reality, fantasy, and death. While I was listening early on, I enjoyed the book and the narration equally. It was when I was thinking about the book between listenings that I became frustrated.

What truly disappoints me is the misogynist twist Connolly gives most of the tales used in his book. Every major female character other than David’s mother is criticized for her eating habits or weight, sexual choices, appearance, strength, weakness, hunger . . . it’s too much and too common in the book to ignore. Two persistent villains are male, yes, but we expect a werewolf and a Trickster to be villains. I won’t quibble about the child-eating witches who show up in the book as villains, since they were villains in the original forms of the tales. But was it really necessary for Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all of the other women who show up in the book to be morphed into disgusting, senseless villains? Even Rose, David’s step-mother, is attacked for eating too much and having sex out of wedlock. What is that about? Could Connolly think of no way to retell or change those classic tales without turning all of the female central characters into monsters? Why could none of the kind characters in the book who help David in the other world be female? It really makes me wonder about the author’s views on women. Over and over again, the misogyny forced me out of the story. If Connolly needed to make so many women villains, he should have given more thought to why he needed to do so and addressed that in the book. As it is, the thread seems to reveal more about Connolly than it does about David, and it leaves me loath to bother with the rest of Connolly’s catalog.

As angry as Connolly’s misogyny makes me, I stuck with the book because Crossley’s reading is downright beautiful. I fell for him as a narrator with In The Woods. If anything, his work improves with this novel. His voice is clear and layered, his diction is great, and he voices the different characters distinctly without making too much fuss. I will absolutely seek out more books read by Crossley. I wish we’d set up our review system here at Books For Ears so we review books and readers separately: Crossley gets five stars, Connolly gets 2, max.

 Author: 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.

Long Review: I’m a fan of Gaiman’s, and I am always intrigued by critically-acclaimed young adult fantasy, so I had to listen to this book. I was hopeful, but also worried. Some of the best books I’ve ever read were those I read when I was 10 or 12. I return to those books and keep tabs on books written for older kids, hoping to find more books to cherish and to foist on my growing nieces and nephews. But many things we’re supposed to love just fall flat for me. I’m not that impressed by some of the most beloved YA books, and some of the ones I did love then show me all of their holes when I pick them up now. This one, however, makes the good list. It’s rich enough for adults, appropriate for older kids, and enchanting for both.

Firstly, Gaiman is good at holding back. So many authors hand you all of the keys right at the beginning of the journey, and then you don’t have much to puzzle through and have less reason to keep going. Gaiman fights the urge to make sure he has told us everything there is to tell, so we keep reading, trying to line up our questions with possible answers, paying close attention to every little clue, wondering whether a character will return or a path will reappear. He refers to fascinating historical events and invents wondrous rituals and characters and communities, but he doesn’t give you so much information that any become boring. Neither does he condescend to his readers. I hate it when writers assume that kids can’t handle any frightening truths about life and death. In fact, kids see as much if not more terror and sadness as adults, and most of them don’t like being coddled. Gaiman doesn’t condescend to his readers or to the children who feature in his books.

Gaiman also happens to write strong female characters well. I wish I didn’t need to congratulate authors for doing that, but it still isn’t a given. Gaiman is a father to two daughters as well as the son whose childhood visits to a graveyard inspired this book. I think his relationship with his girls and the women in his life help him write girls and women well. That ability is particularly important for children’s and YA writers because so many boys are still hesitant to read books with female protagonists. Here, a boy is at the center of the story, but he’s surrounded by smart, heroic, strong, loving women and he cares for and respects them as much as he does Silas. It warms the cockles of my heart, that does.

Gaiman’s mythos is rooted firmly in the old greats. We see glimpses of well-researched historical fact, notice a figure from Grimm here and and an allusion to the Odyssey there. But from those roots, he takes us in very interesting directions. I love how he recasts traditional villains in new ways, making us wonder how evil some of the things we’ve had nightmares about really are. He takes the trope of fractured fairy tales a step further than many of his contemporaries. Gaiman doesn’t bother to argue with Grimm about who really understands monsters—he just plain rewrites the story in his way. It works.

I am impressed by Gaiman’s reading. I thought he did a great job with Fragile Things, and, if anything, he has gotten better. Gaiman has a nice voice, a good sense of character separation, paces himself well, and uses clear diction even when he is reading in different, heavier accents.

My only complaint is that a sequel isn’t available yet. I want to see more from this world, and I hope to see it soon.

The Graveyard Book

Author: Michael Chabon
Reader: Peter Riegert

Extra features: The audiobook includes an interview with Michael Chabon about his inspiration for the book, his favorite books and genres, and his writing process.

Short Review: Chabon’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning alternate history of a world without Israel but with a temporary Jewish homeland in Sitka, Alaska. Hard-boiled detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of a junkie chess-player with his partner and cousin Berko Shemets, a half-Tlingit, half-Jewish cop who is a good father, a good Jew, and a good partner trying to save Landsman from himself. As the case progresses, more and more connections to organized crime, shady US government machinations, separatist Orthodox communities, and zealotry reveal themselves. Riegert is an ideal reader, comfortable with accents, Yiddish, noir, and sadness.

Long Review: I love this book. I read it on paper first, and was anxious to hear how well Reigert would handle Landsman’s voice. He does a masterful job. The book is written in the third person, but Landsman is on just about every page, so we hear his speech over and over. Reigert is careful to give Lansman, Berko Shemetz, and the other major characters distinct voices and rhythms, and he does a very good job of it. Like all of the best audiobook readers I’ve heard, Riegert balances acting with diction; maintaining a good rhythm and drawing a complete character while also keeping his accented speech easy to understand.

The novel is set in Sitka, Alaska in an alternate history. In the world of the novel, Israel fell to Arab attack in 1948, and the US agreed to make a temporary semi-autonomous federal district in Sitka for Jewish refugees. Sitka’s term of independence is ending, and all of the Jewish refugees there must prepare to leave for new homes elsewhere. As the local police are wrapping up their case files to hand over to the Americans, a junkie is murdered in the hotel where Landsman lives and Landsman takes the case. He should file the case away as quickly as possible but can’t let it go. The deeper Landsman investigates the victim and his connections, the more entangled he becomes.

Chabon writes wonderful characters, in this and all of his novels. Landsman, his ex-wife and boss Bina, Berko Shemetz, and the rest of the characters in the novel are engaging and deep and fascinating. You root for Landsman, but you also want to strangle him. Riegert’s narration intensifies that connection to Landsman and the rest. I found myself worrying about them all while listening to the novel, even though I already knew what was coming next.

Chabon does amazing things with language and speech in this novel. I’m no expert on Yiddish, of course, but I love the way Chabon intertwines Yiddish with noir phrasing and settings. It flips the whole hard-boiled detective genre–in a good way. I doubt there will ever be a sequel, but I would absolutely love the chance to follow Landsman and Shemetz on another case.

All in all, this is a fascinating, entertaining, beautifulky-read audiobook and one I know I’ll return to.

 Translator: Seamus Heaney
 Reader: George Guidall

 Short Review: Heaney’s excellent translation read well, though not perfectly, by Guidall.

 Long Review: You know already whether or not you want to listed to Beowulf as an audiobook. There are those of us who perk right up at the thought of listening to epic poetry read aloud, and those who go out of their way to avoid such theatrics. I, obviously, am in the former camp. I can think of nothing better to listen to than epic poetry. Frankly. I think the existence of epic poetry is one of the only arguments proving our species is worth keeping around. Beowulf matters, and I make sure to read it every few years. I’ve read multiple translations, and listened to parts of it recited by a number of poets and translators and actors. I love the epic, and I think Heaney’s translation is masterful.

I was sad to find that Guidall’s narration fell so flat for me. Guidall is a well-respected audio book narrator, and I expected a bit more from him. His narration is clear enough and well-paced, and his diction is good. But the words don’t sizzle in his mouth, and they should. He doesn’t declaim as a bard would. I am, perhaps, very hard to please in this particular case, but I know I’d be happier if Derek Jacobi, Philip Pullman, or Campbell Scott had read it. Still and all, it’s not bad. It’s just not as great as it should be.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel

Author: Susanna Clarke

Reader: Simon Prebble

Short Review: A gorgeously read version of a Hugo Award winning modern epic I absolutely love. Clarke’s novel is part Harry Potter, part Tolkein, part comedy of manners, and part historical fiction of the Napoleonic Wars. It’s long, detailed, engaging, and by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Simon Prebble is a distinctly talented reader, with just the right tone and accent, but for one small niggling mistake that would bother only, well, me and a few of my friends. Settle into this book and cherish it as you would Tolkien or Dickens or Ovid.

Long Review: I’ll get the pip out of the way first. The word “sídhe” is important in the second half of the book. It’s an Irish word, and it’s pronounced “shee.” Prebble says “sid-hey” whenever he encounters the word, and it makes me want to strangle him just a little bit every time. I forgive him, he does it again, I forgive him, he does it again . . . you see how it goes.

Apart from that petty complaint, Prebble is a fantastic reader. He voices a myriad of characters clearly, imparting each with an individual voice and tone. One of the true charms of this book is the conflation of very proper English sensibilities and manners with improper, difficult to accept magic and magician’s idiosyncrasies. Prebble gets the tone just right, throughout. He hops from explaining the delicacies of a lady’s table manners or quiet reminders to her husband that he is monopolizing the conversation to a quasi-realistic description of a spell to revive the dead, and back again. His diction is gorgeous, which is of great importance to a work like this, and yet he changes pace and tone as the story demands, without ever seeming like a bad actor or over-excited kid. He’s a great reader, and I’ll be seeking out more of his narration.

Clarke’s book is an absolute treat. She’s clearly a careful researcher, and the sections describing the facts of the Napoleonic wars ring true. As do the sections describing fantastical, magical things that never happened during the Napoleonic Wars. She also sketches her characters well. Jonathan Strange is flawed enough that we like him but are frequently annoyed by him–good should never be too good to be real–and Mr. Norrell is infuriating right until we need him to redeem himself, and then he does. The women in the book are lovely and soft and loyal, but also strong and brilliant and dangerous when they need to be. The dozens of supporting characters are intriguing and seem to function independently and rationally, except when they’re mad. I would gladly follow the stories of The Raven King, Vinculus, Stephen Black, or Emma Pole through another epic.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is also available through the Simply Audiobooks Rental Program.

The Goose Girl

Author: Shannon Hale

Reader: Full Cast Audio

Short Review: A magical fairy tale brought to life by an amazing cast of readers. This modern retelling of a Grimm’s tale follows Ani, Princess of Kildenree, as she finds her own inner strength and true path in life. It is officially listed for Grades 6-9, but I am here to tell you that it is a fine choice for any adult interested in getting swept along by a well told tale of magic and strength.

Long Review: I loved it. It haunted me for days. Between the well written story and the amazing full cast recording – they had me hooked. I was a bit suspicious of the full audio aspect of it before I started. Most of my audio book experience has been with solo readers. I needn’t have worried – they were fabulous! It reminded me of an old school radio show.

The story is a classic tale of a princess forced to switch roles with her handmaid. In this version our princess is more than she appears and she discovers a lot about herself and what is important to her along the way. I don’t want to tell you too much but the title points out the obvious, our princess ends up as a goose girl. How she goes from being princess to goose girl and back again of course is the story – but there is so much more woven into it.

There are lovely details of how the world works and the types of people who populate it. For instance, there are those with the skill of ‘people speaking’. You know the ones who have this – the charismatic people who can walk into a room and turn everything their way? To balance out those with ‘people speaking’ we also have those who can speak to animals and rumors of a distant time when people could speak to the elements. It may sound hokey, but Shannon Hale (who recalled the original tale from her own childhood) pulls it together to build a world where magic lives quietly in the midst of the ordinary.

The story includes love, loss, loyalty earned, intrigue, betrayal and redemption. This is one of my favorite audio books of all time.

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

Author: Margaret Atwood

Reader: Laural Merlington

Short Review: Margaret Atwood’s retelling of a portion of The Odyssey in Penelope’s voice, her contribution to the Canongate Myth Series, read by Laurel Merlington.

Long Review: I am a mythology nut. A buff. A, well, obsessive kook. I know this. I’m fine with this. And when I learned that I had missed the bus–that this series of books was underway and that it kicked off without me–I felt like I had caught someone kicking my dog.

Atwood, of course, retells Penelope’s story with a wonderful feminist twist. Atwood’s Penelope stands up for the maids, and criticizes her wayward husband and disingenuous suitors. She argues that her supposed beauty has long since faded, and that all of the men in the story are arguing over her for entirely unromantic reasons.

Laurel Merlington’s narration is engaging, sharp, and humorous. Her method of voicing the chorus is a bit shrill at times, but that seems fitting considering the messages they carry.

This was a good listen–I burned through it in an afternoon of puttering around my studio, and immediately missed my Ancient Greek companions. I look forward to listening to more audio books from the Canongate Myth Series.