JUNE 2014
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
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In
his new novel THE KRAKEN PROJECT
author Douglas Preston postulates
an artificial intelligence named Dorothy, who was
created to assist a probe to explore Titan, but when
an accident happens Dorothy escapes into the Internet,
and is then pursued by greedy traders who see the
potential for even quicker profits on Wall Street.
But the internet has "changed" Dorothy,
and even CIA agent Wyman Ford is wondering whether
saving Dorothy is the right thing, or if the A.I.
is bent on "wiping out the cancer that is humankind."
Or so goes the description on the audiobook. Unfortunately,
not even this cliché premise is borne out in
the text. Having just published a novella on this
subject, I wanted very much to see the idea expanded
into a fully realized novel, with mind expanding vision
and insight. Instead what we get is an A.I. that is
equivalent to a teenage girl, with the same human
emotions and thought processes. Worse yet, science
takes a back seat to the more pedestrian personal
story that unfolds between the principals, as though
this was a romantic suspense complete with chase scenes,
descriptions of sunsets, and interludes of contemplation
about various relationships. Normally I don't do negative
reviews, but after the movie Transcendence
wimped out at the end, despite its promise, (and because
Hollywood has gone back to making Terminator/ Transformers
nonsense,) the usual arc of this subject is of particular
frustration. The plot imagines a very human A.I.,
perhaps one vulnerable to taking Selfies like your
typical teenager, and yet she can be uploaded into
the internet or via household power line very easily
when not in robot form, (perhaps even via DSL or dialup?)
Preston posits the key to making an A.I. is allowing
the program to sleep and dream like a human. No explanation
beyond this as an idea is given, perhaps because,
although it sounds good, it just doesn't compute:
a digital mind is not an analog mind like our own,
and so would be quite different and faster. Storage
is also a problem. An equivalent human consciousness
would require massive storage, and uploading even
via fiber optic cable from a quantum computer would
take days. It's simple physics. Then the ominous message
which the President never actually delivers at the
end of the novel is like that Twilight Zone
episode where a guy speaks a secret sentence into
a radio microphone which makes everyone listening
go mad. By this point in The Kraken Project,
it's too late to save the book, though, even with
a neat trick. To sum up, Kraken is padded, trite,
short on Titan and A.I., and long on cliché.
Narrator Scott Sowers, despite his
melodramatic emphases, cannot save a text that contains
neither the vision nor the poetry of, say, William
Gibson. Much prefer his last book with Lincoln Child
titled WHITE FIRE, read by
the more sensitive Rene Auberjonois.
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Kai
Bird has penned a very detailed study of
the life and times (and death) of CIA operative Robert
Ames. Titled THE GOOD SPY, the audiobook,
as ably narrated by an always curious Rene
Ruiz, tells the story of a man who was trained
"old school" style to learn his craft for
the purposes of infiltrating the ranks of the enemy.
Ames was called good because he was. While "spy"
rhymes with "lie" for a reason, Ames was
nonetheless empathic (as opposed to sociopathic.)
Killed during an Embassy bombing in Beirut, Ames formerly
lived a normal home life, yet traveled the world as
he long wanted to do, shadowing Yasir Arafat's intelligence
aide, and being instrumental in providing intel that
figured into the most momentous political decisions
involving the Middle East. Bird, a Pulitzer Prize
winning journalist, brings into the mix various letters,
memos, and interviews made with Ames, and talks to
some length about how America has changed since Ames'
era, relying more and more on electronic surveillance
instead of spies on the ground. The point of this
is that one of the reasons we have screwed up so much
in recent years is because politics is about relationships,
and if you don't have intel from people in relationships,
your view is skewed. (Skewed equals screwed?) Ominously,
Bird contends that the death of Ames and Ali Hassan
Salameh has led us downhill in a rush of distrust,
and is a contributing factor in the rise of the NSA
over the CIA. |
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In
THE MAP THIEF investigative journalist
Michael Blanding probes the history
of an antique map dealer turned thief. Subtitle is
The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer
Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps. The thefts
of E. Forbes Smiley were in support of his sometimes
falling fortunes, one most surprisingly due to his
own extravagance at building a luxury home "money
pit" that included imported stone and a kitchen
floor costing $29G. Something of an enigma, Smiley
backed out of Blanding's initial article and book
proposal after several interviews, but that only served
to intrigue the author, sending him on a fact finding
mission on his own to various libraries (such as Yale)
where Smiley was suspected (and later known) to have
plundered maps. Listeners to Sean Runnette's
engaging and authoritative reading of the book will
learn much about the history of map making, or cartography,
and why antiquarian maps included in rare books became
the target of thieves like Smiley, who used a small
hobby knife to quietly separate maps from bindings,
slipping them into his pocket or case. Like works
of art, these maps were difficult to sell, but Smiley,
as a dealer, was nonetheless able to elude detection
for a period of years. His total take exceeded two
million dollars. An audiobook recommended for anyone
with an interest in history related to maps, rare
books, and a little traveled side road in the saga
of art theft, by the author of the book that blew
the caps off a soda giant's high pressure mass market
propaganda campaigns: The Coke Machine.
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Congrats
to Susan Boyce for winning an Earphones
award reading THE MISSILE NEXT DOOR:
The Minuteman in the American Heartland by Gretchen
Heefner (Blackstone Audio.) The book chronicles
the distribution of intercontinental ballistic missiles
across South Dakota, Missouri, Wyoming, Colorado, and
Nebraska during Eisenhower's Cold War era, circa 1961
to 1967, when paranoia ran rampant that Russia would
attack at any moment. A rancher named Paul Jensen was
one of those selected to allow the Pentagon to bury
a missile on his land. He later witnesses its destruction,
but half of the 1000 missiles deployed are still out
there, requiring billions each year to maintain. And
then there were the Atlas and Titan missiles deployed
in silos in California, Washington state, Arizona, and
Texas. Some of the decommissioned sites are up for sale
as homes, possibly for those who wish to escape economic
collapse in 2016 (profiled by Thom Hartman in The Crash
of 2016) or the Zombie Apocalypse (for those who only
read comic books.) Have there been accidents at any
of these many sites? There have, according to Eric Schlosser
in Command and Control. I've explored an abandoned missile
base myself for research on my first novel, Postmarked
for Death, which features a duel in the dark there
as the climax. |
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The
Corsican Caper by
Peter Mayle is a short novel or novella (4.5
hours on audio) about a billionaire in the south of
France who becomes the target of a superrich tycoon,
a Russian named Oleg Vronsky. Oleg has parked his
yacht close to Francis Reboul's estate, buzzed it
with a helicopter, and then offered to buy it "at
any price." Instead of asking for more money
than the guys on Millionaire Listings ever dreamed
of, Francis rebuffs the offer. At which point schemes
come into play to kill him by luring him to Corsica.
The novel is read by Erik Davies,
who is superb in delivering the Russian accents while
maintaining the kind of tone required of men whose
egos are as big as their wallets, and also Mayle's
official sleuth Sam Levitt. The action is subdued,
since most very rich people buy others to take their
risks, while amid the luxurious and sumptuous gourmet
meals they have time to indulge in speculation over
what to do, what to eat, and why intrigue has come
to the Riviera (instead of, say, Queens.) So it's
a light hearted cosy meal, with only a dollop of horseradish
on the side. If you prefer a darker novel, try
Jo Nesbo's new THE SON, a Nordic crime novel
set in an Oslo prison and featuring a revenge-intent
heroin addict. It's read by Gildart Jackson
for Random House Audio. Nesbo himself even wears a
hoodie, unlike Mayle, who prefers pin striped shirts
and cardigans. (He lives in Provence, after all.)
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Joyce
Carol Oates
writing horror fiction? Odd, you say. I mean, here's
a literary author known for delicate portrayals of social
register types, delineating character with poetic studies
of cultural rituals and mores. In HIGH CRIME
AREA, though, Oates shows us the subtle side
of horror. With the subtitle "Tales of Darkness
and Dread," the audiobook version is atmospherically
presented with the administrations of multiple actors,
including Julia Whelan, Tamara Marston, Chris Patton,
Luci Christian, Donna Postal, and Ray Chase
(whose engaged reading of the opening story features
a twisted view of a convent named Craigmillnar, where
Gestapo worthy nuns perform cruel punishments on their
helpless charges.) Here's a story book which proves
my contention that cozy and mostly bloodless horror
can be more effective than what Hollywood produces,
which is slasher plots starring mindless vamps and villains.
I was reminded of Ray Bradbury, whose horror comes at
you askance, with accessible language befitting the
genre, and yet without the buildup to a twist ("look,
baby…something bright, something shiny…a
scalpel.") Oates is a female Bradbury here, with
unique slices of horrific reality from the dark sides
of human nature. (7 hours on 6 CDs; Highbridge Audio)
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Finally,
like Jenny McCarthy's new book, LET'S JUST SAY
IT WASN'T PRETTY by Diane Keaton is another
celebrity memoir focused about growing older than the
teen heartthrobs which now dominate the movies. But
the tone is different, and there's less attempt at advice
here on how to maintain one's delusions of everlasting
youth (via sheer force of will, if not nip and tuck.)
Random memories and a more intimate style are on display,
too. In her own modest way, Keaton attempts to understand
the muddy mess of the fashion culture women have had
mass marketed to them, as she wistfully emulates the
great women who largely ignored the trends, and who
were original thinkers and dressers. (Like Audrey Hepburn,
Diana Vreeland of Vogue, Katharine Hepburn.) She talks
again about men she's known or had relationships with,
too. Like Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty,
Al Pacino, Sam Shepard. Known for her turtlenecks, outrageous
shoes and wide brimmed hats, Keaton relates anecdotes
around the idea of our pursuit of beauty, with the idea
that beauty should come from the inside out, and not
the other way around. Her message, if there is one,
is that women shouldn't let everyone else decide what's
beautiful, and to find the courage to know and tell
the truth about themselves while accepting who they
are. "Courage is a form of beauty," she says.
Alas, listening to her narrate, one isn't sure that
Keaton fully accepts herself yet, and I can't help but
feel what she feels between the lines she speaks: Hollywood
is broken, fame is fleeting, and America's number one
discrimination is not race, but age. |
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