December 2010
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
In PORT MORTUARY
by Patricia Cornwell medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is back
in a high tech medical mystery, told from her point of view.
When evidence reveals that a young victim may have been put
inside a body bag and locked in a cooler prior to actual death,
Scarpetta and her forensic center face potential ruin. The
action and pacing are convincing on many levels, while involving
both personal and political aspects of Scarpetta's professional
career, past and present. Listeners learn things about robotics,
radiology and forensics as Broadway actress and longtime narrator
Kate Burton lends believability to the unfolding story. Cornwell's
near stream-of-consciousness style can become cloying after
a while for some, especially those who'd prefer not to see
everything in Scarpetta's pocket (including lint), but suspected
hate crimes, military protocol, and cutting edge technology
all enhance a personable albeit sometimes gruesome tale well
told. |
Did
Patricia Cornwell read WIRED FOR WAR by P.W. Singer prior
to writing her lastest novel? It certainly sounds like it,
given her oft repeated denigration of military robotics, and
her utilization of robotics in her plotting. Singer's book,
as ably read by William Hughes, is a virtual textbook on the
state of robotics today. Singer comes at the subject from
every imaginable level, including science fiction, philosophy,
psychology, and popular culture. Some of the questions he
incites revolve around what roles robots will have in society
and in wars. How will robots change the battlefield, and affect
an enemy's desire to fight? Military budgeting is pioneering
the industry, and Singer postulates a time, already in the
making, when robots will dominate and intimidate poor civilian
populaces on the desperate path to terror. When the "singularity"
happens (true artificial intelligence) robots may even take
over the world. Nanobots, robocops, robot soldiers, it's all
on the way as our answer to terrorism, whatever scary outcomes
might result. The book is an amalgam of computer history,
futuristic conjecture, interviews with Predator pilots, and
compendium of terms. That fly on the wall may soon be a spy
robot with GPS and the ability to call in mechanical reinforcements
bearing battering rams and machine guns. Stay tuned. You really
have no choice.
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Brad Thor's latest is THE ATHENA PROJECT, which introduces
an all female black ops team whose assignment is to uncover
a Venetian arms dealer responsible for a bombing attack in
Rome. But with links to a government coverup and mysterious
doings in the jungles of South America, this secret Delta
Force team will have their hands full. Narrator is Broadway
and film actress Elizabeth Marvel, whose reading brings to
life an otherwise novel supposition: that women can be as
violent as men. |
FULL DARK, NO STARS is Stephen King's latest. A collection
of four novellas similar to Different Seasons and Four Past
Midnight, the audiobook is narrated by Jessica Hecht and Craig
Wasson, and includes "1922," about a man whose murdered
wife gets revenge from beyond the grave (and he's the killer.)
"Big Driver" is about an author who is raped and
left for dead, and also has revenge on her mind. "Fair
Extension" is a deal-with-the-devil with a humorous twist
on the theme of luck. And the final story features a wife
who discovers her husband's unthinkable secret life. The theme
is "the stranger within." Meaning chilling discoveries
are made about oneself or others. Wasson's buoyant laughter
and Hecht's joyous sarcasm invoke their own sleight of hand.
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George W. Bush finally has his new autobiography out, and
as can be expected, he attempts to explain his decisions,
regardless of how chillingly horrific they ultimately proved
to be. Of course Clinton did the same thing in his book, playing
up his accomplishments while downplaying his flaws. DECISION
POINTS reads like an honest account of what Bush actually
felt, and feels now. His intensions were as patriotic as Texas
itself, and you begin to see why things turned out as they
did, given a Harvard man who preferred to sleep in class,
was well connected, and later had difficulty in seeing around
problems (but instead judged a man in 30 seconds, be they
acting or not). Naive, a little slow, but trusting and positive,
and with his own sense of fairness, Bush goes over some events
some might prefer to forget, and which unfortunately we'll
all be paying for in decades to come. If you buy this book,
be sure to get the audiobook version to hear Bush explain
it all to you in his own words. Because you can hear a lot
between the lines.
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