Reviews – Page 133

Review of The Statement of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft

The Statement Of Randolph Carter
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Bill Mills
1 MP3 File – Approx. 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Renaissance E Books / REB Audio
Published: 2005
Themes: / Fantasy / Horror /

“Carter! for the love of God, put back the slab and get out of this if you can! Quick!–leave everything else and make for the outside–it’s your only chance! Do as I say, and don’t ask me to explain!”

An excellent introductory mini-biography of Lovecraft precedes the reading of this infamous short story of lurking horror. Written in 1919 and first published in 1920 The Statement Of Randolph Carter is one of the best ways to step into the terrible beauty of the Lovecraftian mythos. Told as a statement in monologue by the title character – Carter recalls to the gentlemen assembled around his hospital bed the singular incident that brought him there – an event so horrific it would likely blast the mind of the sanest man should it be witnessed first hand. Following the clues they found in the text of an ancient book from India two men discover a nameless horror entombed in the Earth. Bill Mills’ reading is truly eerie. There is a constant musical background during the reading – it doesn’t too badly hurt the production but I myself would have preferred a music-free reading. The Statement Of Randolph Carter is available now as a high quality MP3 through Fictionwise.com just in time for Halloween!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Not from Space

Not From Space
Produced by Borgus
2 CDs – 108 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Borgus
Published: 2002
ISBN: None
Themes: / Science Fiction / Satire / Radio / Greed /

We join Earth during the year 2000. The economic boom, advanced technology is prospering, and everyone is focused on… themselves.
—Not From Space Introduction

Not from Space is not your typical fare. Uniqueness in audio is something I haven’t come across in a long while, and here it is. With that said, I’ve got the task here of telling you what Not From Space is, and I can’t think of a way to describe it without making it sound like so many other radio shows. But here goes: Not From Space tells the story of alien invasion entirely through newscasts. Sounds pretty common, eh? Told you.

But again, Not From Space is not your typical fare. At the very beginning, for example, is a brilliant piece of satire as talk show hosts announce that Bill Gates is going to give away computers to “foreigners”, then take calls from people that are really upset about it. I’ve heard enough talk radio to be able say that this bit really hit home, from the encouragement of the hosts to the logic of the callers. And that’s what makes Not From Space so atypical – it is full of pieces that hit home.

The entire story is told through the news radio station. There is no traditional dialogue between characters, just news told to listeners. Jeffrey Bays, in a talk about the show which is included at the end of the production, says that the show is meant to be listened to in the background, much like a real radio station would be. There are so many interesting moments that popped out as I listened, and the more I listen, the more things I notice.

The show was produced in a unique manner as well. It was entirely created on the internet using a world-wide cast of 15 voice actors trading MP3 files. It sounds wonderful – a very accurate simulation of a radio station, right down to the commercials, which in this case are a pleasure to hear.

Borgus has captured the feel of an American talk radio station to tell a story with a point. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am looking forward to listening again.

Not From Space will be heard on XM Satellite Radio’s Sonic Theater, Channel 163 this Halloween weekend:
-Saturday October 29 at 9am/9pm (US-Eastern)
-Monday October 31 at 5am, 1pm, and 9pm (US-Eastern)

You can also get a copy on audio CD from Borgus.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb

Review

The Fifth Sorceress
By Robert Newcomb; Read by Simon Jones
5 CDs – 6 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 0553713922
Themes: / Fantasy / Magic /

“It is more than three centuries since the ravages of a devastating war nearly tore apart the kingdom of Eutracia. In its wake, those who masterminded the bloodshed-a quartet of powerful, conquest-hungry Sorceresses-were sentenced to exile, with return all but impossible and death all but inevitable. Now a land of peace and plenty, protected and guided by a council of immortal wizards, Eutracia is about to crown a new king. And as the coronation approaches, the spirit of celebration fills every heart. Except one.”

Ya, mine! That’s mostly a joke, mostly. Overall this novel wasn’t terrible. I didn’t have my mind wander off too often, and whenever it did Newcomb would throw a shocking scene at it to bring me back. But I have a number of problems with The Fifth Sorceress:

1. It is yet another in the irrepressibly publishable world-saving magic fest novels. You know the kind where some editor says, “Wait I know, let’s tell another Tolkien story, but not do it as well.” Ya that kind.

2. The pseudo-mystic blood based magic system at the story’s core. This magic system has provenance which could have come straight from bullshit artist Madame Blavatsky. Untrue is not a possible criticism of fiction so I’ll just say “distasteful”. It might be possible or even interesting to tell a story like this straight faced, but it’d have to be with a damn impressive point to it. This didn’t.

3. Magic use. Generic and temporary bodily weakness seems to be the only consequence of the use of magic. Depressing in its unoriginality.

4. Women “of the blood” are always evil and men “of the blood” always good. So much for subtlety and complexity in gender relations. Newcomb could have done a lot more with his bifurcated magic system than making it bad girls vs. good guys.

5. The cookie-cutter world itself. Planets full of improbably named bodies of water and calcified quasi-medieval governments don’t do much for me – not after the 40 or 50th iteration of them anyway. Be more creative please.

Despite these problems there are some genuinely original and shocking scenes peppered throughout the novel and Newcomb handles these all well. Another point in its favor is that Newcomb doesn’t leave the reader hanging at the end, even though this is the first book in a series. Leaving us hanging is something he could have done in an attempt to get us to read the next installment in “The Chronicles of Blood And Stone” series. He leaves open the possibility for you to read on but doesn’t punish you by withholding an ending.

On the audio end, this is a fully digital recording so The Fifth Sorceress sounds phenomenal. But the real kudos goes to narrator Simon Jones (of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fame) who does a fine job keeping the aural end up. When he voices the hapless Prince Tristan he invokes his old Arthur Dent persona. The centuries old wizard named Wigg sounds like a more put-upon Gandalf and most of the females voiced by Jones sound either wicked or seducing or both at the same time – a neat trick. If you’re in the mood for a light listen The Fifth Sorceress may suit you. Overall I really can’t say I hated it. I credit this mostly to the abridger. The abridgement may, in fact, have made an hefty and mostly indigestible novel far more palatable. After all that can you believe I’m going to attempt the sequel?

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes (with A Sound of Thunder) by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes (with A Sound of Thunder)
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
8 CD’s – 9.5 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
ISBN: 0786175354
Date Published: 2005
Themes: / Fantasy / Halloween / Carnival / Magic / Supernatural / Aging /

Sometime each October, a line is crossed; the line between falling leaves and fallen leaves, between shirtsleeves and a jacket, between the relief that summer has ended and the slight dread of the upcoming winter. Most of us don’t really notice the moment of crossing; we look up sometime afterwards and wonder where all the pumpkins came from. Some people, though, are exquisitely aware of this moment; they live in it, they draw it out and savor it, and a special few of them create art about it that allows the rest us to actually experience it. Dave McKean captures it with his eerie photo collages, M. Ward puts his old-young-man voice to good use singing about it, particularly in a track called “One Life Away,” and Terry Gilliam almost-but-not-quite captured it on film in the recent The Brothers Grimm. Ray Bradbury did some of his best work while inhabiting it. In The Illustrated Man and The October Country, he told stories about people’s lives intersecting that weird border. In The Halloween Tree, he abandoned story for the most part, and spent his time describing the sensory experience of the moment of crossing. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, recently released as an audiobook by Blackstone Audio, he skillfully combined plot and description to examine this and life’s other unnoticed, but profound, sea changes.

Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are the young protagonists of the story, best friends born just two minutes apart, but each on a different side of the line. Each of the boys personifies their respective border country; Will is blue-eyed and blonde, responsible, mannered, charming, the type of kid who looks like he was born wearing a scout uniform. Jim is darker, his eyes and his hair, but also his mood and personality. While it would be easy (and tempting) to say that Will is “better” than Jim, Bradbury shows his wisdom by describing the value of both of the boys’ attributes, how one, without the other, is vulnerable and incomplete, and how the different elements each boy bring to the friendship ultimately strengthen it.

The story follows Will and Jim as they cross a number of boundaries; the October line, the line between boyhood and adolescence, and the line between innocence and experience. The arrival of a strange carnival to the boys’ idyllic town complicates these passages. “Cougar and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show” is indeed something wicked, and the danger it presents to the boys and their town makes for an engaging, suspenseful tale.

Audiobook veteran Stephen Rudnicki reads Something Wicked, and gives a largely enjoyable performance, with only a few rough spots. Listeners familiar with Rudnicki will understand that dialogue between two pubescent boys isn’t exactly the perfect material for his sonorous voice. Everything is forgiven, however, when Mr. Dark makes his entrance. Rudnicki’s reading of the tattooed ringmaster’s introductory sentence literally gave me chills. Mr. Cougar, the Dust Witch, and the rest of the Shadow Show freaks are also done justice by Rudnicki’s interpretations.

Blackstone Audio seems to have heard my pleas for more DVD-type extra features on audio books, and have included an extra disc with a Bradbury short story, “A Sound of Thunder,” also read by Rudnicki. The story, a powerful exploration of the dangers of time travel, was recently made into a motion picture starring Edward Burns (and almost universally panned).

An interesting element of this audio book is that, whether by accident or design, the discs almost invariably ended at a point of terrific suspense. Rather than simply turning a page to assuage my anxiety about the fate of the characters, I was scrambling to eject discs, open cases, balance discs on my various fingers and insert new discs. Call me a masochist, but I thought it actually made the experience more enjoyable. Even listeners who don’t share my Hitchockian penchant for prolonging a story’s tension will have a hard time finding a better group of guides than Bradbury, Rudnicki, Jim, Will, and Mr. Dark for this year’s passage over that peculiar line.

posted by Cory

Review of Nightmares on Congress Street Part IV

SFFaudio Review

Nightmares on Congress Street Part IV
by Various, performed by the Rocky Coast Radio Theatre
1 MP3-CD – 2 Hours 35 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Paperback Digital
Published: 2004
ISBN: 1584390069
Themes: / Horror / Poetry / Zombies / Poe / Cremation /

“Nightmares on Congress Street” is a radio show that has been broadcast each Halloween Eve since 2001. This is “Part IV” because it’s a recording of the 4th annual broadcast. It’s not “Part IV” in the sense that you need to run out and find parts I-III before listening to this one. As far as I know, they aren’t available. The shows are recorded by a group of theatrical professionals from the Portland, ME area, and are broadcast on Maine Public Radio.

It’s rare that I hear something modern that captures the spirit of Halloween. Sure, there’s some scary stuff out there, and some funny scary stuff out there, but “Nightmares on Congress Street” really catches the fun spirit of Halloween. There are scares and laughs in good measure throughout, and you’d be hard-pressed to find better production quality anywhere.

Included here are six productions:

The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
A mummified monkey’s paw seems to grant wishes, but, as always, a person should be careful what he wishes for.

The Cremation Of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service
The cover doesn’t list who does which part, but the actor who performed this horror poem was just fabulous. The poem tell the story of Sam McGee, who stumbles into the camp of a cowboy, and who asks that cowboy to make sure to cremate him if he dies.

The Cabin in the Woods by Clay T. Graybeal
A bunch of folks go to a cabin to spend some time, but doesn’t that plant outside look like someone we know? Ridiculous.

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
One of the finest renditions of this Poe classic that I’ve ever heard.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled –but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity.
And punish he does. Bravo to the actors on this one.

The Librarian by Rhonda Carlson
This piece is done by Rhonda Carlson, Rocky Coast Radio Theatre’s composer. Delightful mayhem, this one.

The Horror of Walker Point by Anthony S. Marino
This one is an excellent tale right out of George Romero’s playbook. It is performed in a kind of “War of the Worlds” style – regular programming is interrupted for important news about a chemical spill. As more and more people are affected by these chemicals, the newscasters bravely stay on the air.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production, and am eager to hear this year’s show!

You can get this title at Paperback Digital, Audible, and at Tantor.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card

Mazer In Prison
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
1 MP3 FILE – 1 Hour 2 Minutes 10 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show
Published: Oct. 15th 2005
Themes: / Science Fiction / Spaceships / War /

Prolific science fiction author Orson Scott Card has launched a new online fiction magazine entitled Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, the first issue of which includes an audio edition of Mazer In Prison, a terrific short story set in the “Enderverse” (stories that have sprung from the novel Ender’s Game). But before I tell you how much I liked this story… I’ll have to tell you my biggest concern about it – you shouldn’t read this story before you’ve read either Ender’s Game or Ender’s Shadow if you do you are in for spoilers. Now on to the spoilers….

Trapped aboard a tiny starship traveling near lightspeed on a parabolic course designed to preserve him for a future battle Admiral Mazer Rackam, hero of the Bugger war, uses all the weapons he has to fight the most insidious enemy of them all – Earth’s bureaucracy. This is a neat little branch off of the Ender’s Game tree. Card knows how to write canny characters who even when they guess wrong guess smartly. The events of this tale happen before both Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow (two novels which mirror each other) what is particularly neat about this tale is that it “fills in the corners” as the Hobbits say, giving us just that much more of a delicious dish we so enjoyed. Hopefully this will be the first of many audio delectables coming from Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

And hopefully will we see reader Stefan Rudnicki reading them. Rudnicki, who is ably helming the Audio Renaissance’s series of audiobooks set in the “Enderverse” also reads Mazer In Prison in the convivial way he reads every audiobook. He’s scary in the scary bits and cute in the cute bits. Mazer In Prison is a cool story well told.

Posted by Jesse Willis