FEB 2015
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
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Horror is on tap in this watery trip
to hell. THE DEEP is an off kilter
genetically modified nightbreed clone of Clive Barker,
Stephen King, and a few of the Dead Poets Society
(like TS Eliot, Alan Ginsberg, and ee cummings.) What
starts out in our sane world slowly descends into
madness. So HP Lovecraft too. Which is not to say
it isn't riveting, or that Nick Cutter
(not his real name) can't write. So into the meat
grinder, James Patterson too. The final scene, after
our hero goes into the dark deep (to perhaps find
a cure to what is turning humanity into amnesia victims)
is a savory exercize in wordplay, each revelation
getting a focused triple slow-mo punch of phrasings.
A kind of verbal tonality reminiscient of the final
visual scene of Gone Girl. Rubbernecking
at its finest. The setup is not without irony, too.
There is reasoned talk about how homo sapiens are
causing the mass extinctions of other species, and
that something (like what is happening in the novel)
may bring our population explosion more into line
with what the Earth can sustain. To horror lovers,
this is a must-hear---a deliciously disturbing book
given an appropriately quirky performance
by Corey Brill.
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If your brain needs healing after
hearing this, (or if you just need help with your
own memories due to aging or Parkinson's), Dr.
Norman Doidge's new audiobook is THE BRAIN'S WAY OF
HEALING, read by George Newbern. It's the
latest science involving brain research, with many
examples of those who have been helped. The major
takeaway: our brains are plastic (well, not literally--they
look like four pound lumps of jelly in various Shades
of Grey.) So although neurons can die or become less
effective due to plaques, you can also grow new ones
(unlike limbs.) Stupid is not forever, either, (except
among Hollywood comic book movie producers.) |
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Speaking of science, CARBIDE
TIPPED PENS is a new hard SF story collection
collected Ben Bova and Eric Choi, with
multiple authors and narrators lending their respective
talents to the mix. Those who appreciate and/or understand
physics and time dilation effects will enjoy these 17
science heavy stories (which can stretch your hours
more imaginatively than any frivolous game or game show.)
Geeks are already in: "You had me at 'carbide.'"
But for sports fans there is also a story featuring
a baseball game in which players can continue into their
70s (playing as well as 30 year olds) due to implants
that are better than PEDs. Naturally owners balk because
the older players demand pay increases year after year.
The solution? (Sorry, you'll have to buy a ticket.) |
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Finally, THE LUPANE LEGACY by
Darby Holladay is narrated by Paul Heitsch, and
is a cross genre literary suspense that amounts to a
lesson in African culture and politics, centered on
a man named Patrick whose family history as victim in
an atrocity in Rhodesia as a child sparks rekindled
emotions for revenge when he sees an old film. It's
a bit wordy and unfocused as a suspense or romance.
As a different kind of listening experience, however,
it fits the bill as a study of character and interesting
account of the shifting loyalties which despots of such
regimes attract. Heitsch narrated one of my own novels,
which was also cross genre, so the question of reader
expectations arises, too. If you go into such books
looking to check off every cliche and convention, you'll
be disappointed. Remote African villages don't sell
Big Macs. (Well, at least not yet.) So the special sauce
might taste different, (if predictable is what you demand.)
But how many novels are set in Zimbabwe these days?
The advantage of listening to stories set in other cultures
or other times is that they allow you to see life from
a viewpoint otherwise unknown to you, and this gives
you perspective on your own life, thereby decreasing
stress and anxiety. (Your own life is likely to seem
privileged by comparison.) Besides, why does everything
have to be judged by the standard of a pop slasher novel?
Of course there are suspense plot twists here. So when
you're given a familiar script upfront, and a slower
backstory comes, readers or listeners may get bored.
I was not bored, and don't expect or enjoy books that
are relentlessly played out, with nothing new to learn
or discover. That said, some of the scenes seem padded,
and the romance is nothing extraordinary (or escapist.)
Yet overall, a worthwhile effort for a debut by a writer
familiar with the military intelligence game, and first
of a promised trilogy that is more complex (like real
life) than most of the genre specific clones which popular
authors grind out every year. |
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