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Review of The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey

The Pocket And The Pendant
By Mark Jeffrey; Read by Mark Jeffrey
13 MP3 Files – 10 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: markjeffrey.typepad.com / Podiobooks.com
Published: 2005
Themes: / Science Fiction / Young Adult / Physcics / Immortality / Time Travel / Aliens / Time / Ancient Astronauts /

“On April 8th at exactly 3:38 in the afternoon the world STOPPED.”

It is one of the fundamental constants of the universe – every second thrift store one enters will contain a lonely shelf somewhere in the back with a battered paperback copy of Chariots Of The Gods? by Eric von Däniken on it. That is a terrible, terrible book. I encourage you – only partially in jest – to burn down any store that has one. Chariots Of The Gods is a massive failure in every way but one, it’ll help me tell you about a certain 1970s pop culture concept – the “ancient astronauts” theory. This is a speculative/delusional hypothesis that posits that extraterrestrial aliens are responsible for the ancient civilizations of Earth. Basically it argues that ancient people with their distinctive lack of heavy diesel powered machinery, could not possibly have constructed things like the Pyramid of The Sun at Teotihuacán and so the relics of archeological wonders throughout the world must have been constructed by aliens with a ‘higher’ technology. It is of course a ridiculous notion, wholly unsubstantiated by any evidence that wasn’t manufactured by fraudsters. That said, it can occasionally makes for a cool basis for fiction.

Mark Jeffrey’s The Pocket And The Pendant uses the concept of ancient astronauts to very good effect. This is the story of Max Quick a very odd little boy and his companions, other children who’ve found themselves trapped living in a frozen instant of time. Has this time “pocket” has been caused by the strange aircraft in the skies above the USA? What about the almost magical books that everyone who isn’t frozen seem to be after? Only the aptly named “Mr. E.” knows the answer. Weaving together a carefully researched history with an intriguing and well executed scenario Mark Jeffrey has put together an engaging and satisfying adventure that while aimed at a younger audience never talks down to it. Basically Jeffrey does for science fiction what Harry Potter does for fantasy – I’d say he does it better by layering in facts and mythology from many sources. He takes the whacked out theories of Zecharia Sitchin and asks “what if they were true?”, mixes it up with action like The Matrix, the premise of the Doctor Who “Key To Time” arc and with a couple dutiful nod to the 1959 and 1985 The Twilight Zones.

Jeffrey is very inventive with solving the problems he’s created. But there was one thing that bothered me about the story, if Max and his companions are trapped in time how can they see? Let me explain, this is basically the same nitpick I had with H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, without light hitting a retina you can’t see. If time is stopped then the light has stopped (in The Invisible Man the title character’s retinas are transparent!). I’m nitpicky.

Jeffrey reads the novel himself, doing accents, adults children boys girls and aliens. The sound quality is very good and well leveled, but there is one caveat, a constant musical score underlies the reading (almost always keyed to characters and events in the tale). In this case it is fairly benign, and certainly allows an atmosphere of emotion to build in the story – but not having heard the tale without music I’m not sure if it wouldn’t have been better just as a clean reading.

SFFaudio COMMENT: This is the second “Podiobook” we’ve reviewed on SFFaudio, and the quality is WAY, WAY UP THERE, not just in terms of podcast novels, but in terms of novels on audio. Combine this fact with the price, which is just a request for a donation if you enjoyed the experience, and you’re literally crazy by not listening to them. The worst that can happen is you listen, enjoy the heck out of it and then feel guilty for a few years because you were to cheap to throw a few $$$ towards the producers. Go ahead now, give yourself a gift, subscribe to Morevi: The Chronicles Of Rafe And Askana and The Pocket And the Pendant you’ll marvel at your own generosity.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of The Last Harbinger by Roger Gregg

The Last Harbinger
By Roger Gregg; Performed by a Full Cast
2 CDs – 130 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Crazy Dog Audio Theatre
Published: 2005
Themes: / Fantasy / Satire / Government / The Press / Environment /

First of all, Crazy Dog Audio Theatre’s productions are not to be missed. They produced the hilarious Big, Big Space, a farce in the mold of Star Trek and other science fiction television shows. If you haven’t heard it, it’ll make you laugh out loud. And previous to The Last Harbinger was the amazing Diabolic Playhouse, a collection of dramas both funny and satirical. And now, The Last Harbinger, which is the finest production to date from Crazy Dog, and that is saying quite a bit.

The Last Harbinger is a story told in five episodes, all of which are included here. Roger Gregg, who wrote, produced, and directed, shines a bright light on our own world as he tells this story of the doomed people of Moloch. There are leaders that can’t speak without a teleprompter, newspeople more concerned about their own appearance than news, and citizens that should be angry but aren’t. Into this world, a messenger is sent to tell all of Moloch that they are doomed unless they change, and, since change is not an easy route, the harbinger is met with resistance. The story is dark, but not without humor.

I can’t say enough about this production. The satire is biting. The dialogue is crisp and extremely well acted. The sound couldn’t be better – I was immersed in Gregg’s world from the moment I gave it my full attention, and it wouldn’t let go. Roger Gregg and Crazy Dog Audio Theatre are the setting the highest of standards for fantastic audio drama.

The Last Harbinger is available for download at Audioville, or you can purchase the gorgeously packaged double CD at ZBS.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien; Read by Terry Jones
2 cassettes – 150 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2000
ISBN: 0001053736
Themes: / Fantasy / Mythology / Arthurian Legend /

It’s Christmas at Camelot and King Arthur won’t begin to feast until he has witnessed a marvel of chivalry. A mysterious knight, green from head to toe, rides in and brings the court’s wait to an end with an implausible challenge to the Round Table: he will allow any of the knights to strike him once, with a battle-axe no less, on the condition that he is allowed to return the blow a year hence. At the center of the story of the challenge and its consequences is Arthur’s brave favorite, Sir Gawain.

*ALSO INCLUDED* ~An Essay By J.R.R. Tolkien
An introduction and background essay by the master himself, J.R.R. Tolkien regarding the translation and preservation of the anonymous fourteenth-century poem upon which this story is based.

Another mytho-historic tale translated by J.R.R. Tolkien, who was, as many forget these days, a professor of linguistics at Oxford. Another medieval scholar contibuted to this audiobook…. Though best known for his work with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Terry Jones lends not only his signature voice to Tolkien’s translation of the Arthurian legend but also his familiarity with the subject. Not just an internationally recognized comedian, Jones also happens to be a scholar of medieval literature. As such he is well equipped to flesh out the characters and voices of Tolkien’s text in an authentic way. The combination of the lilting verse and the audio medium bringing the absolutely right feel to the presentation, something that makes it quite clear that heroic tales were meant to be spoken aloud rather than simply read. Also of interest to Tolkien fans is the included essay by Tolkien on the translation. A hard to find audiobook but well worth the effort!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro

The Quantum Rose
By Catherine Asaro, read by Anna Fields
1 CD (MP3) – 13 ½ hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0786186232
Themes: / Science fiction / Fantasy / Romance / Space opera / Telepathy /

I’ve always been a big fan of math. I like the chumminess of commuting, associating, and distributing; the edginess of integrating by parts; and the sharp antiseptic sting of differentiating exponentials. In The Quantum Rose, Catherine Asaro brings the robust methodology of a table of cosines to romantic space opera. Like a seasoned mathematics professor, she begins by defining the variables: A fantastically beautiful heroine; her strong, handsome but brutish betrothed; and a mysterious stranger who takes a sudden interest in the heroine. She then lays out the equations for us: fear, mutual need, and strange loyalty between her and the betrothed; fear, mistrust, sexual attraction, and a hidden wound that must be healed between her and the stranger. From there, she manipulates the terms using standard algebraic operations such as nudity, well-meaning ignorance, revenge, treachery, self-sacrifice for the greater good, declarations of undying love, and first time sex so amazing it humbles those of us with decades of experience.

Asaro’s story-solving skills are honed to such an atom-splitting edge that only halfway through the book, she derives the main quantity of interest: True love. Not satisfied with so straightforward a proof, however, she dashes diligently on to lead us through a desperate, if leisurely (and admirably bloodless), rescue of an exiled royal family halfway across the galaxy. It’s all quite rigorous.

Never does Asaro skip a step. In fact, for the elucidation of the reader, she will often review a step several times to ensure we’ve understood each point before moving on to the next. She also provides enlightening chapter headings, which contain both a plain English title and a subtitle composed from quasi-quantum mechanical terms (for those hopelessly muddled by such clever cryptology, I’ll provide a clue: Substitute the word “person” for “particle” in these subtitles, and you’ll crack the code for over half of them). Thus, we are duly apprised of all developments well before they occur in the text. As a final touch, Asaro has defined most of the significant variables to be empaths or telepaths, which means we are never in doubt of what anyone in the story is thinking or feeling unless some misunderstanding is required by the plot.

Anna Fields adds to the proceedings by reading the text out loud for us. As an intriguing counterpoint to Asaro’s linear clarity, Fields adds a note of mystery by using female character voices that are quite similar to one another and by occasionally using the voice of one lead male to deliver the dialog spoken by another. The drunken mutter she maintains for the most prominent male throughout the entire length of the book also tends to soften the hard edges of understanding that sometimes seem too prominent for comfort.

The most exciting aspect of this audio book, however, is the medium it is recorded on. That MP3 technology allows nearly 14 hours of spoken text to be recorded on a single, handy CD is like a divine response to listeners’ prayers. There is only one nicely packaged jewel box to open–no snarling tapes nor floppy CD sleeves that produce obligingly but accept only grudgingly, the sound quality is excellent, and the production is clean. Maybe someday I will have the opportunity to actually enjoy an audio book in this format.

Posted by Kurt Dietz

Review of Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein

Citizen of the Galaxy
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Lloyd James
8 CDs – Approx. 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0786183810
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Travel / Sociology / Politics / Contractarianism /

SLAVE: Brought to Sargon in chains as a child — unwanted by all save a one-legged beggar — Thorby learned well the wiles of the street people and the mysterious ways of his crippled master…

OUTLAW: Hunted by the police for some unknown treasonous acts committed by his beloved owner, Thorby risked his life to deliver a dead man’s message and found himself both guest and prisoner aboard an alien spaceship…

CITIZEN: Unaware of his role in an ongoing intrigue, Thorby became one of the freest of the free in the entire galaxy as the adopted son of a noble space captain . . . until he became a captive in an interstellar prison that offered everything but the hope of escape!

Thorby’s earliest memories are of his “papa” Baslim, a professional mendicant, purchasing him at the slave market on the capital city of Sargon, a distant planet that was long ago colonized by a now space faring mankind. There Baslim teaches the rebellious Thorby the art of begging which in itself is an interesting enough trade – but Baslim also has a secret job, one that will eventually propel his adopted son all the way across the galaxy. Citizen Of The Galaxy is one of the most conceptually expansive of Heinlein’s juvenile novels, it tackles many issues including social organization, the nature of ontractarianism and most of all freedom. The society aboard the free-trader starships for example is one of the most interesting Heinlein ever invented (it would have worked as a single novel unto itself). Exploring that culture for me was the best part of the book but there were plenty of other good bits too. Of course heavy handed straw men are peppered throughout the novel to trip up our hero. This has been a big problem for Heinlein, he could never make a villain smart in any meaningful sense. Had Heinlein given us some villains along the lines of Roy Batty of Blade Runner or “The Operative” in Serenity, in other words three dimensional villains, he’d be even more luminous in reputation than he has. And that really is hard to imagine! Straw men aside, there aren’t that many interesting dilemmas for Thorby to overcome in this
one, he’s a relatively passive hero who reacts more often than he acts. As a juvenile novel it works extremely well. A great listen for teenagers and adults.

On the audio end of things Blackstone has made my wish come true! Lloyd James is becoming the definitive voice of unabridged single voiced Heinlein audiobooks. He can do both youth and adults of both sexes easily and ads accents where appropriate. Sound quality, as always these days from Blackstone, is phenomenal. The CDs had not even a hint of anything other than the voice of the text recorded on them. Well done. The original cover art on the Blackstone packaging is a triptych of Thorby from the three sections of his youth. I’ve reviewed here the “library edition” which comes in a library style clamshell binding – but also available are an MP3-CD and cassette edition as well as a retail edition on CD. Check one out in your preferred format, you’ll be glad you did.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Knife of Dreams: The Wheel of Time, Book 11 by Robert Jordan

Knife of Dreams: Book Eleven of The Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan; Narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
26 CD’s – 32 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1593977654
Themes: / Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Magic / Good and Evil / Demons / Dragons /

The eleventh installment in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, Knife of Dreams proves to be a fast paced and entertaining listen. This audiobook came as a welcome surprise after the last several novels in this series that tended to feel as though they were bogged down with a lot of useless detail and little action. There may be a movement forming of people supporting the cutting off of Nynaeve’s braid. Although, to be fair, she is now overly prone to “almost” yanking her plaited tresses instead of actually doing it. Other behaviors the movement may be interested in deleting from the text are the smoothing and/or arranging of skirts and shawls, sniffing, and Elaine’s new preoccupation with cursing Rand Al’Thor for her discomforts with pregnancy (after all, it takes two, right?). If these things were taken out of the text the world might be left with Wheel of Time pamphlet instead of the series.

Monotonous behaviors aside, Knife of Dreams came through in delivering resolutions to some of the subplots that have been hanging over the course of several novels. Jordan has breathed life back into his series with this book and regained the vitality of the earlier writing.

Kate Reading and Michael Kramer once again deliver fine performances reading the female and male characters respectively. This duo has narrated each book in the Wheel of Time series. The consistency in their character voices, intonations, and personality style demonstrate how well Reading and Kramer understand their characters and how familiar they are with the direction and emotional climate of the story. If you have been disillusioned with past installments of the series, give it another chance, this book is worth the time.

posted by Tricia