family – Page 4

Aural Noir Review of Fever by Sean Rowe

Aural Noir: Review

As part of our revival of the Aural Noir label, we’ll be re-running some of our classic (offline) Aural Noir posts, including this “vintage” audiobook review which was first posted in December 2005…

Fever
By Sean Rowe; Read by William Dufris
5 CDs – Approx 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1400101778
Sample: |MP3|
Themes: / Crime / Heist / Noir / Thriller / Terrorism / Florida / Cuba / Nautical / Family /

Raw, is probably the best one-word sum up of Sean Rowe’s first novel Fever. Rowe’s prose lacks the polish found in novelists like Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard, but he doesn’t lack what it takes to eventually become worthy of hanging out with these masters, especially if he keeps writing like this!

Fever follows a tight knit group of fuck-ups through their attempt to rob thirty million dollars of stashed drug money from an aging cruise ship plying the waters between Miami and Cuba. The crew, on paper at least, looks like it should be able to handle anything. It consists of an ex-FBI agent Matt Shannon, his step brother (an ex-DEA agent named Jack Fontana), an emergency room nurse named Julia, a former Black Panther, and a South American soldier of fortune. Despite their collective skill set these are all losers in almost every way. Shannon’s past is slowly revealed, working backwards we know that he’s an in-debt alcoholic, with a dead wife, missing an index finger and has a step-brother who is a recently paroled felon. When the step-brother frames Shannon in the sinking of a freighter Matt is half-blackmailed into going along, with a vague desire to somehow help his brother. The rest of the crew are nearly as sad, Julia was an orphan who was sexually abused from a young age. And Jack Fontana is dying after serving his sentence. Even the minor characters have their share of problems…. one passage detailing the last job the mercenary took killing Indians in the jungles of South America is brutal, funny and illustrative of just how unlikely this string will be of pulling off this or any job. The malformed love triangle between Shannon, his brother, and Julia pays off in a tasty neo-noir style. In fact love, brotherly and the other kind is probably at the heart of this story. Fever is extremely enjoyable, the dialogue is crisp and fun, the scenes are imaginative and original. A constant surprise awaits in every chapter. None of it goes exactly according to plan and that makes it all the better to follow. The novel’s few problems seem mostly structural, scene transitions aren’t handled as well as I’d like and despite it being a first person perspective we never really get an idea of what’s going on inside the narrator’s head. This could be a deliberate style on the part of Rowe, as both flaws could be thought to pay off in certain ways later in on the book, but I’m thinking a more seasoned novelist might have been better able to give us everything. I eagerly look forward to reading the next Sean Rowe novel!

Read by the always reliable William Dufris, the first person perspective plays into such classics as Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Dufris’ natural timbre doesn’t exactly embody the gravelly voiced loser we imagine as the narrator but his voicing of the rest of the crew is spot on. Men, women, a Colombian drug lord, the string and even minor characters like an aging boxer all sound just like you’d want them to. Tantor Media, an exciting new player in unabridged audiobooks has packaged Fever in a clamshell CD case with leaved pages. The cover is the same as the Little Brown & Co. original and the sound quality is phenomenal. The pricing is extremely reasonable too. I think Tantor is probably the most exciting new big little publisher of the decade!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Space Boy by Orson Scott Card

SFFaudio Review

Space Boy
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
2 CDs -Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433207648
Themes: / Science Fiction / Family / Adventure / Physics / Wormhole / Aliens /

Is it space travel that children dream of, or merely visiting other worlds? Todd had always set his heart on being an astronaut, but when he meets an alien and travels to another world, he doesn’t use a spaceship; he just hangs out in his own back yard.

You can tell you’re reading an Orson Scott Card story pretty quickly. Not only are the characters and plotting top notch, there are also a number of themes that will echo. Siblings, family, doggerel. Card seems to understand children, boys especially. And his protagonist in Space Boy is very sympathetic, he’s the Space Boy of the title, he’s somehow memorized the entire history of the space program, from every satellite launch, to every shuttle mission right up to the modern era – he especially reveres the three yǔhángyuán (Chinese astronauts) who went to Mars and never returned. But instead of winning himself a used space-suit and hitching a ride aboard a passing spacecraft instead Todd manages a giant adventure that spans from his brother’s bedroom closet – to another planet – and back to his own backyard. No high tech gadgets are required, what’s needed instead is a little imagination, a garden hose and as much bravery as a 13 year old boy can manage. Todd lives with his father and little brother. We learn that his mother disappeared suddenly about four years ago under mysterious circumstances. Nobody really knows what happened, but Todd’s little brother insists that the monster in his closet ate her. The plot of the tale suddenly emerges when a hairy naked elf steps out of nothingness in Todd’s backyard one day. The elf, who really isn’t an elf at all, reveals that he’s a scientist from another planet. He travels through something he calls “worms.” Through the interrogation, while the alien is getting dressed we learn that Todd’s mother is still alive and that for her barely a week has passed. Now its up to Todd, with the help of his little brother to convince their dad that there mom is still alive – and then to come up with a plan to get mom back.

You can tell you’re listening to an Orson Scott Card story pretty quickly. Star narrator and audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki has been associated with nearly every Card audiobook for the past ten years – including this one. His deep voice is full of pathos, wisdom and resonance. Here he’s tasked with performing a family, father, sons, a mother – and an alien too. I found myself basking in the warmth of this tight knit family. Card takes his time developing the characters, which allows Rudnicki room to bring them to life. Blackstone has outfitted the two-CD audiobook with original art and a sturdy ring-binder library case. This is another terrific addition to the Orson Scott Card audiobook-shelf. Recommended.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

SFFaudio Review

A Wrinkle in Time
By Madeleine L’Engle; Read by Madeleine L’Engle
5 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House/Listening Library
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0307243230< Themes: / Fantasy / Space travel / Family / YA / Psychic Abilities / Newberry / The elementary school I attended as a kid had a big poster in the library showing the covers of all the Newberry Medal award winners. I remember A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle jumping off of the poster; the cover featured an almost photo-realistic mother-of-pearl centaur that was pretty damn cool looking to a ten year-old. I checked the book out, read it, and loved it, but my recent listen of the new audio edition of A Wrinkle in Time (Listening Library, 2005) made me wonder how much of the book I really understood as a kid. I’ve often thought that they should just come right out and say that books win the Newberry Medal not because they are outstanding children’s books, but rather outstanding children’s books for adults. A Wrinkle in Time definitely falls within this category. The fast-moving story and sympathetic characters definitely make it appealing to kids, but, like Philip Pullman’s stuff , there are thematic elements that are very mature, and maybe even a little subversive. If the book were any less intelligently or subtly written, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up on banned-book lists.

L’Engle reads the book herself, and does a fine job. She obviously has an intimate understanding of the material, and her expressive voice lets her keep the story flowing without having to use different voices to distinguish the characters. L’Engle apparently suffered a cerebral stroke in 2002, the effects of which are obvious in her voice; it’s slurred a lot like Johnny Cash’s on his later albums. The only criticism I have of this production is of the decision to use an echo effect for the dialogue of Ms. Which. In the book all of this character’s dialogue appeared in italics, but the in the audio book, the effect comes off as a little cheap.

The audiobook starts off with an introduction explaining how L’Engle read the story to her children as she was writing it. Those were some lucky kids. Hop in bed with A Wrinkle in Time, some cocoa and some good headphones and you’ll probably come pretty close to recreating that experience.

posted by Cory

Review of Scary Stories with Alan Maitland by Various

Scary Stories with Alan Maitland
By various; Performed By Alan Maitland
1 Cassette – 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: CBC Radio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 0660187825
Themes: / Horror / Classics / Family / Short Stories /

Alan Maitland is a veteran Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcaster, who reads seven classic horror stories and poems here. The cassette makes for quality family listening, and Maitland reads with energy and enjoyment.

My favorite of the group is The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s true that I’ve read it several times and have heard it performed a couple of other times, but still – I enjoy it every time, and did again here. The heart beats below the floorboards, and Maitland helps us feel it.

The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes is a classic poem. I know it best from Loreena McKennitt’s musical version, and it was interesting to hear the poem read aloud.

Other stories and poems included on the 1 hour cassette: Goblins Who Stole a Sexton by Charles Dickens, The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service, The Witches’ Convention and Reunion of the Night Creatures by Rose Robert, and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.

The whole recording had a sort of Ray Bradbury feel to it, but that could be because I identify Bradbury so strongly with Halloween. This audio would be a worthwhile and appropriate purchase for family listening.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson