April 2011
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
Given all our
environment, debt, aging, and political crises, is obsessively
playing video games the equivalent of sticking one's head
in the sand? Far from being negative about gaming in REALITY
IS BROKEN, author Jane McGonigal describes gamers as ambitious
and inventive, willing to work hard to achieve new levels
and goals. Their escape from the real world is due to boredom
(and to a video culture of rapidly streaming images which
lowers attention spans). Since technology is making alternate
realities ever more desirable, the future challenge of gaming
is to inspire gamers and developers to find solutions to problems
in the real world by manipulating avatars in their virtual
worlds. This untapped force is only now beginning to be utilized,
as in one game she describes that tracks the excessive expenses
incurred by politicians. Julia Whelan narrates with a focus
on revelation and upbeat engagement.
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In PHYSICS
OF THE FUTURE popular TV physicist Michio Kaku imagines
what it will be like working and living in the year 2100,
after interviewing many scientists working on creating that
future. Not just space ships, but also self driving magnetic
cars and brain sensors enabling you to move objects by thoughts
(if we manage to avoid nuclear winter, that is). Guide for
this fascinating and imaginative journey is narrator Feodor
Chin,) Another revealing science book is the new biography
of physicist Richard Feynman as told through his science.
QUANTUM
MAN is read by the author. Feynman is everyone's favorite
historical physicist, after Einstein, although he had a hand
in making the first A bomb. A Nobel Prize winner, he is credited
for validating quantum mechanics. (Footnote: my interview
with physicist Brian Greene, who reads his book "The
Hidden Reality" appears in April/May's Audiofile magazine;
my own new novel "The Miraculous Plot of Leiter &
Lott" is due near the end of April, and has a strong
astronomy/physics connection, with an element of romantic
suspense.) |
THE
LINCOLN LAWYER is here this month, so once you've seen
it be sure to listen to the audio movie version (ie. the audiobook)
to understand what's really going on behind the scenes (and
with more added scenes than those deleted scenes that will
eventually appear on the DVD). I would recommend hearing the
book first, (narrated by Adam Gruper) except that usually
when people do it that way they come away saying things like,
"the book was better." Ever wonder why that is?
Simple. When you read or hear a book, you create the characters
in your mind's eye, utilizing your brain and imagination,
and so the movie you see on the screen is always going to
be different (ie. disappointing) by comparison. However, if
you come to the book after seeing the movie, you will visualize
the characters you saw in the film in your mind, although
you'll have more motivation and scenes enabling you to see
"between the frames." |
Next, series hero Doc Ford makes a reappearance in NIGHT
VISION by Randy White, narrated by George Guidall, an
offbeat story about a saintly girl targeted for death (after
witnessing a murder) by a criminal trailer park landlord.
Guidall is one of the most prolific of audiobook narrators,
a pioneer of the industry ever since the 70s, and a staple
performer at Recorded Books (which leases out his readings
to other publishers like Harper Audio). Having met and interviewed
George, I admire his presence as well as his expertise in
creating subtle character delineations amid spot-on accents.
Randy White (like James Lee Burke and Carl Hiaasen) is one
of those great writers who go largely unnoticed by the mass
reading public, which (sadly) is more interested in serial
killer and vampire clichés.
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Finally,
on a similar but non-exploitative note, novelist Les Standiford
teams with investigator Joe Matthews and narrator Robert Fass
to finally tell the entire story of the Adam Walsh murder
that fathered the Missing Children Act. Disturbing and exhaustive,
BRINGING
ADAM HOME is a tragic story of sloppy police work, fights
over jurisdiction, and the ultimate closure that resulted
from the major cold case being privately investigated after
25 years. If you have kids, this is no doubt your worst nightmare:
some sociopath with nothing better to do than kidnap and kill
your child. And then police jurisdictions don't talk to each
other, so you're left wondering for a third of a lifetime!
Instructive, only from the standpoint of trying to understand
how someone can have no emotional connection to anyone, or
empathy with anyone. (Of course certain former bosses and
CEOs on Wall Street come to mind in this regard, but at least
they don't spill blood for kicks.) The only good thing that
came from this tragedy involves John Walsh's starting America's
Most Wanted. |
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