MyShelf.com || Audio Buzz with Jonathan Lowe

History was most cruel for natives of the Americas after the coming of Christopher Columbus, as the Spanish invaders plundered gold in exchange for devastating the populace with virulent viruses. But what if that history could be changed? In PASTWATCH science fiction author Orson Scott Card postulates the possibility of time travel to correct the effects begun in 1492 by sending three travelers back to a time in the Caribbean before Columbus arrived. These men are well versed in history, and know what to say and do in order to prepare the natives for Columbus, and to counteract the Catholic church in the process. The price? The future is forever and instantly changed to such a degree that even the scientists who created the time machines will never have existed. This paradox leads to a discussion of causality in which it is explained that our experience and belief in something from the past causing what happens in the future is an illusion, and that causation is actually a separate thing from time itself. (Physicists know that there is no true arrow of time, and that, at least in theory, the equations work both forward and backward identically well). So although the men who created the time machines will no longer be born after the machines perform, (and indeed the other two travelers may cease to exist as well, since the machines are not perfectly synchronized), the time traveler will himself survive, and possess a memory of what will never happen. This intriguing audiobook is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Scott Brick and others. Scott, who is a friend of Card, told me this book is one of his personal favorites. (Blackstone Audio)

It's difficult to imagine a better narrator for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy than Sean Barrett, (after hearing this short novel performed), although (knowing his work) I'm sure that Tom Stechschulte is also superb in his version. What makes Barrett a great choice to speak the killer's words here is oddly similar to what made Javier Bardem a great choice for the character of Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers movie version. Barrett has an understated, calm, but not quite laid-back air about his delivery, with vocal characteristics to match. There's an element of tension present that the mirror surface can't quite hide. You expect the worst to happen, and it does. As for the story, if you're unfamiliar with it, it's about an escaped killer tracking a man who found a bag of money related to a failed drug buy. Tommy Lee Jones plays the sheriff in the movie, and he's trying to find both men before they find each other. Sounds simple enough. But as this morality tale plays out against the stark backdrop of west Texas it also expands its reach past mere entertainment into the realm of literature by extending its scope beyond three men in the desert to the bigger questions that have plagued man from the beginning. Hearing this "audio movie" version will be instructive for Coen brothers fans and screenwriters too, since you can compare, as I did, the dialogue between the book and the movie, and so see what choices the Coen brothers made in editing. Surprisingly, they stayed pretty much with the story, (except for one major scene), and were true to the dialogue too, but there are other subtle differences. (Some scenes were tightened, others emphasized by the Coens. Little extra dialogue was added, but some was subtracted.) By comparing, you will be able to figure out why (and which) things work better on the screen or on the page. As reader, Sean Barrett is an appropriate guide to this very original story, with spot-on west Texas accents and believable female characters, too. Speaking in the voice of the killer, though, he's chillingly real and a minimalist just like Chigurh himself—a man of few emotions, attuned to destiny, accepting of fate, just telling it like it is, whether you like what truths are revealed about the world or not. (Naxos)

In Lauren Grodstein's latest family-centered tear jerker A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, credibility is added by what might seem to be narrator Rick Adamson's emotional empathy with the character of the doctor, whose distrust of his best friend's daughter escalates when the girl shows up in her 30s to seduce his son. The son is attempting to establish a career as an artist, utilizing his father's garage, but this older woman in his life wants to take him to France after showing him the ropes of romance. Soap opera fans will especially enjoy the depths and sensitivity of the story, which contains much less melodrama and much more realism than anything on television, while keeping the level of tension high. Those looking for two dimensional characters involved in fantastical plots, on the other hand, might want to stay away. There is plenty of argument going on here, and cross accusations. The interesting aspect of the audiobook is how much risk Adamson takes in pushing the envelope, especially toward the end. This is superb acting on the level of off-Broadway performance, doubly notable due to the restrained contrast evoked in other character voices, which turn on a dime. Once again, you have to ask yourself, can typical screen actors do this? One may never know, since they aren't required to do it. (Highbridge)

Finally, Alan Sklar reads MIAMI BABYLON by Gerald Posner, a book that chronicles the history of Miami Beach from its fledgling Prohibition days through the corrupt machinations of its sordid developer fights and payoffs in the 90s. Since the need for tourism clashed with the wills of permanent residents, clubs like Amnesia fought noise ordinances with high priced lawyers while distributing Estasy and belting out thunderous rap music through the surrounding concrete condo towers. In the TV show CSI Miami, like in the cop show Miami Vice, you remember those towers and art deco clubs, which whispered by in the night, but you never saw the bigger battles which became public as massive egos in both City Hall and developers' drawing rooms vied for victory, using zoning laws and high rise buildings like pieces on a chess board. That story is here, well told by Posner and Sklar, along with the amoral jet set crowd which frequented the raucous clubs at a time when Madonna penned her book SEX, and when you might be pepper-sprayed for trying to get into a club she'd just entered. From coke dealers and playboys to back room real-estate-mogul power plays, the book is a treasure trove of information on how corruption unfolds in a city's grab for gold. As for Miami, it's a roller coaster ride between boom and bust, and the audiobook a cautionary but true tale about government, race relations, and the inevitability of kickbacks. (Tantor Media)

(For interviews with audiobook narrators, visit Jonathan's blog at AudiobooksToday.Blogspot.com)