Author: Scott D.

Reviews Editor, SFFaudio

Recent Arrival: Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Fantasy Audiobook - Return the to Hundred Acre Wood by David BenedictusReturn to the Hundred Acre Wood
By David Benedictus; Read by Jim Dale
3 CDs – 3 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780143145073

It was eighty years ago, on the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, when Christopher Robin said good-bye to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Now they are all back in new adventures, for the first time approved by the Trustees of the Pooh Properties. This is a companion volume that truly captures the style of A. A. Milne – a worthy sequel to The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie-the-Pooh.
 


 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Trek by Alan Dean FosterStar Trek
By Alan Dean Foster, Based on the movie, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman
Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time travel /

|HEAR AN EXCERPT – Kirk on Trial|

Star Trek is dead. Long live Star Trek! Like lots of others, I went to the film expecting to hate it, but came away liking it, even though it was not the Star Trek I knew. In fact, the film pretty much killed Star Trek as I knew it. A bad thing? I’d use the word “unfortunate” because I look at Star Trek and see a huge missed opportunity for intelligent television. I don’t see any thoughtful writing in the franchise’s future – we didn’t see much of it in Voyager and Enterprise either. It had nearly turned into every other show, and this movie just finished the job.

Yet, it wasn’t a bad movie. It was very much a product of the Hollywood Blockbuster machine. Danger, action, sex, witty dialogue, big special effects, some things that make zero sense… it’s all here. It was exciting, it looked great, I liked the actors, and I liked recognizing things that they threw in there from the Original Series. It was fun.

But I’m not here to review the movie. This is Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the film, read by Zachary Quinto, who portrayed Spock. Back in the 1970’s, Alan Dean Foster wrote one of the best novelizations I’ve run across – Alien. I must’ve read it three or four times as a kid. And he’s no stranger to Star Trek – he wrote the Star Trek Logs which were novelizations of the episodes of the Animated Series. He did a great job with this book, too.

Zachary Quinto also did a great job narrating. The voices are new, even if the characters weren’t. Quinto was an inspired choice to play Mr. Spock, and of course plays that character in the reading as it was on the screen. The others weren’t exactly attempts at mimicry, but rather more subtle changes in cadence. With Chekov and Scotty, he did the accents, and is real good at both of them. An excellent performance, throughout.

In eight hours of unabridged narration there is nothing here that deviates in any significant way from the movie. It just takes longer, but that’s not a bad thing. You come away with what a novel gives you that movies can’t: the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters. Also, there are some scenes from Kirk and Spock’s childhoods that weren’t in the movie, and other things scattered through the book.

So that’s the new Trek. We’ll see what happens from here.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

New Releases from Audible Frontiers

New Releases

Fantasy Audiobook - Stalking the Dragon by Mike ResnickStalking the Dragon: A Fable of Tonight
By Mike Resnick; Read by Peter Ganim
8 Hours 37 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

It’s Valentine’s Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he’s sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody visits them.

It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped. Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan – Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they’re filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night.

As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another. Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange goblin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Undaunted: Kris Longknife, Book 7Kris Longknife, Book 7: Undaunted
By Mike Shepherd; Read by Dina Pearlman
12 Hours 34 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

Kris Longknife encounters some peaceful aliens who have come to warn humanity of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path – a path now leading directly toward the human worlds.
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Guest Law by John C. Wright

SFFaudio Review

Infinivox Science Fiction Audiobook - Guest Law by John C. WrightGuest Law
By John C. Wright; Read by Tom Dheere
1 CD – 52 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 9781884612831
Themes: / Science Fiction / Pirates / Space Travel /

There be pirates in the vast void of space! Does not the poet say: “Beware the strangeness of the stranger. Unknown things bring unknown danger?” The noble ship Procrustes was silent as a ghost. Warships can be silent if they are slow; only their missiles need speed. And so it was silently, slowly, that the Procrustes approached the stranger’s cold vessel.

Perhaps it is a short story like “Guest Law” that best showcases John C. Wright’s considerable talent. Told from the point of view of a lowly engineer on a pirate ship, Wright uses their encounter with a broken-down ship to paint an entire universe. We learn of the adaptations that the pirates made to themselves to adapt to life in space, We learn that there is a universally accepted “guest law” to which all must adhere. We learn why people left Earth to live in space and why. We learn the pirates’ usual method of subjugation of those they conquer. One would think that might be enough, but against that background, the pirates’ method of dealing with the other ship’s captain reveals a great deal about honor and humanity that is timeless no matter what the setting.

Wright’s use of language is almost poetic and is nicely showcased by Tom Dheere’s narration. The only problem I encountered is Dheere’s choice of different accents for different characters. Some seemed to be British or Irish but the choices seemed entirely random to me unless the purpose was to point out high or low class. If so, perhaps a different technique could have been used as I found it almost jarring when the various accents would come up in the story. However, this is not enough of a problem to stop you from listening and greatly enjoying the story itself.

Posted by Julie D.

Recent Arrivals from Brilliance Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction Audiobook - Earth Abides by George R. StewartEarth Abides
By George R. Stewart; Read by Jonathan Davis
13 CDs – 15 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441806147
|Listen to an AUDIO SAMPLE|

An instant classic upon its original publication in 1949 and winner of the first International Fantasy Award, Earth Abides ranks with On the Beach and Riddley Walker as one of our most provocative and finely wrought post-apocalyptic works of literature. Its impact is still fresh, its lessons timeless.

When a plague of unprecedented virulence sweeps the globe, the human race is all but wiped out. In the aftermath, as the great machine of civilization slowly, inexorably, breaks down, only a few shattered survivors remain to struggle against the slide into barbarism . . . or extinction.

This is the story of one such survivor, Isherwood “Ish” Williams, an intellectual loner who embraces the grim duty of bearing witness to what may be humanity’s final days. But then he finds Em, a wise and courageous woman who coaxes his stunned heart back to life and teaches him to hope again. Together, they will face unimaginable challenges as they sow the seeds of a new beginning.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Orphan Star by Alan Dean FosterOrphan Star
By Alan Dean Foster; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423395539
|Listen to AUDIO SAMPLE|

It is a strange childhood for a kid, to be adopted by the restless Mother Mastiff and raised in the bustling marketplace of Drallar. Flinx never knew the mom and dad who abandoned him years ago. In fact, his birth has always been shrouded in mystery. But Flinx eventually discovers that his unknown parents have passed along extraordinary mental powers that are both a marvelous gift and a dreaded curse.

This double-edged legacy will lead Flinx, along with his loyal protector, the mini-dragon Pip, on a harrowing journey in search of the truth . . . about who he is and where he comes from. It is a daring adventure that brings him to another world — and into the clutches of a powerful and evil man…
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - The Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack CampbellThe Lost Fleet: Relentless
By Jack Campbell; Read by Christian Rummell
9 CDs – 10 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441806390
|Listen to AUDIO SAMPLE|

Thawed out after a century of cryogenic sleep, Captain John “Black Jack” Geary has led the Alliance fleet through Syndicate Worlds space, thwarting the enemy at every turn — even within his own ranks — during the long journey home.

Alliance prisoners of war are being held at a labor camp in the Heradao Star System, which also happens to be the location of the majority of the surviving Syndic warships. Determined not to leave any of his people behind, Black Jack Geary orders the fleet to strike hard and fast to rescue the POWs with minimal Alliance losses.

The raid is successful, but victory is short-lived. Geary discovers that the Syndics plan to ambush the fleet with their powerful reserve flotilla in an attempt to annihilate it once and for all — but he doesn’t know where the enemy is located. And as Geary has the fleet jump from one star system to the next, hoping to avoid the inevitable confrontation, saboteurs contribute to the chaos…
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson