fantasy – Page 102

Review of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

SFFaudio Header Review

Anansi Boys
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Lenny Henry
2 MP3-CDs – Approx. 10 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0060836857
Themes: / Fantasy / Gods / Legends / Humor /

“It begins, as most things begin, with a song.”

Some children revere their fathers like gods, Fat Charlie Nancy sure didn’t, this despite his father actually being one. You see Mr. Nansi, made Charlie the butt of his many practical jokes – that is until he and his mother up-and moved away from the impecunious god. Now living in England as an adult Fat Charlie Nancy is engaged to be married and has a solid job working for a talent agent. His only problem is his future mother-in-law, who despite Charlie’s every attempt, still treats Charlie like a maliflous odor. It is very unfortuate therfore when a phone call reveals that Charlie’s father is dead. Even in death Mr. Nancy can embarass his son. In this case it is in the way he’s died. It seems Mr. Nancy died while on stage, in a karaoke bar, with his hands on another bar patron’s breasts. It is only when Fat Charlie returns to America for the funeral that he learns he may not be the only orphan that his father has left. Apparently all these years Fat Charlie has had a brother he’s not known about! A brother named… “Spider”?!? Spider, along with inheriting his father’s easy charm also got his father’s ‘special gifts’?!? When Charlie and Spider eventually do meet Spider decides to move into Charlie’s flat. This is followed by him framing Charlie for embezzlement and stealing his fiance. Fat Charlie’s only recourse is to fight dieties with dieties. So it’s off to America again where he’ll get an arachnivorous avian ally in the fight against his brother.

If you liked American Gods you’ll like Anansi Boys too, I know I sure did, and for much the same reason – and perhaps for one more. I’d always thought American Gods was inspired by Douglas Adams’ Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul; given that both novels feature the Norse god Odin walking the streets of modern world and being a bit out of sorts about the fact I think that’s a pretty safe assumption. Need more proof? Gaiman, in his early career actually wrote a book about Adams, entitled Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy it was part biography of Adams, part biography of his most famous novel. With Anansi Boys though, Gaiman proves himself truly and fully the worthy heir to Douglas Adams legacy. Gaiman writes as cleverly as Adams did, and now with Anansi Boys he starts making the jokes Adams could have made – something for the most part absent from American Gods. Though not aiming for all out hilarity, as Adams often did, Gaiman makes Anansi Boys quite, quite funny, and in ways that can only be described as Adamsonian. Both Gaiman novels are set in the same universe as each other but one needn’t read American Gods first to enjoy and follow Anansi Boys.

Lenny Henry, the narrator, is an English television actor and comedian. He’s an absolute delight to listen to. When I heard George Guidall’s reading of American Gods back in 2001 I was floored, so I was disappointed when I found out that he wouldn’t be reading Anansi Boys. But imagine my delight when I was floored again by Lenny Henry’s reading of Anansi Boys – Guidall and Henry’s reading styles couldn’t be more different, but they are both of that oh-so-stunning quality you hate to stop listening even for a minute. I pity those who sat down and read the paperbook version of Anansi Boys, they’ve really missed something special. Harper Audio has used light accenting of music here and there. It is quite wonderful.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Middle Woman by Orson Scott Card

SFFaudio Review

Middle Woman
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
1 MP3 File – 9 Minutes 57 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
Published: March 2006
Themes: / Fantasy / Fable / Dragons / 3 Wishes /Immortality /

This is the second “Audio Bonus” from Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show online magazine, the plan appears to be to offer one bonus MP3 story per issue. Cool!

Orson Scott Card’s short fiction is connected to people in ways that other speculative fiction often isn’t. Realistic character psychology always takes the lead over scenarios, but his scenarios always test his characters’ psychologies – it makes for a special completeness rarely found in Speculative Fiction. Combine this with a refinement of prose, where every word is perfectly placed, and you get a little piece of magic in every OSC story. In this case, “Middle Woman” is a fable style fiction, another variation of that old saw “the three wishes”. Originally published under OSC’s pseudonym “Byron Walley”, it takes the idea of moderation, something almost always absent from fables, and runs with it. It reminded me of a kinder, gentler version of Robert Bloch’s classic That Hellbound Train. Interestingly, it also offers a more restive solution to W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw. The setting is Eastern, and given the “middle” of the title I suspect it is working in the ‘middle kingdom’ style of storytelling. Whether I’m right about that or not you’ll have to check it out yourself to decide.

Quite short, only 9 minutes, this is ably read by Mary Robinette Kowal who manipulates her voice in all the right ways to lend classic fairy tale reading to this modern fable. In addition to being a terrific narrator, Kowal is a professional puppeteer who also moonlights as speculative fiction author. “Middle Woman” is the Audio Bonus found in Issue Two of the online magazine Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

DISCLAIMER: Mary Robinette Kowal, when not reading stories aloud is an SFFaudio reviewer.

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 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz By L. Frank Baum

SFFaudio Review

The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
By L. Frank Baum; Read by James Spencer
MP3, OGG or AAC files download – 3 hours, 36 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: TelltaleWeekly.org
Published: 2005
Themes: / Fantasy / Young Adult / Adventure / Magic /

Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

And that, taken from the introduction, is exactly what author L. Frank Baum and narrator James Spenser deliver. The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz is a delightful and thoroughly wholesome romp through a safe fantasy landscape who’s denizens are, with the exception of the title character, all exactly what they appear to be. A refreshing and satisfying listen, it is sure to please children of a certain age and the adults who listen along with them. I especially liked the repetitive ritualistic scenes that happened about once a chapter. Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion each and always decry their bad luck whenever an obstacle blocks their journey along the yellow brick road or proclaim with delight their renewed hope at acheiving their respective goals. One curious point, the Tin Woodsman, who is very prone to tears, keeps rusting up when he cries. In point of fact tin does not rust when exposed to salt water.

Narrator James Spencer brings this classic to life, making about a dozen distinct voices for the many characters. His Scarecrow is thoughtful, his Cowardly Lion loveably fierce, his Tin Woodsman empathetic, his Dorothy girlish, and his Oz is truly a humbug! Sound quality is superb and there was no compression degredation in the MP3 edition I listened to. Priced at $6.00, you are looking less than $0.03 per minute. This is the best audio edition of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz in existence.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

Fantasy Audiobook Review

A Feast for Crows
By George R.R. Martin; Read by John Lee
26 CDs – Approx. 31 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0739308742
Themes: / Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Medieval setting / Power Struggle / Dragons /

There’s a long story behind A Feast for Crows, but I’ll make it short. George R.R. Martin, while writing the fourth installment of the superior A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series, found it was getting too long. Long enough, in fact, that if he published it as-was, it would need to be broken up into two volumes. So, rather than break the book into two pieces at the middle, he split the book by character, including the complete story of select characters in one volume, leaving the rest of the characters to appear in the next volume. A Feast for Crows, then, is the fourth book, and a new fifth book (A Dance with Dragons) will be published relatively soon. This novel is a bit shorter than the previous volumes, but still clocks in at 31 hours on unabridged audio.

Roy Dotrice read the first three volumes in the series, but this time British actor John Lee narrated. I’m not sure why the change was made; the narrators were very different. While Dotrice has a rough, earthy delivery, Lee’s style is smooth and skilled. Both narrators succeed with Martin’s story, because with such a large number of characters, ranging from royalty to peasants, each found places to shine.

The myriad of characters brings me to my next point. This is the first of these large novels that I’ve heard before I read. Some listeners have complained that the novels are difficult to follow on audio because there are so many entrances, but I didn’t feel that way until now. With this novel, I found that the portions of the book that involved characters I didn’t know from previous books were indeed difficult to follow. When a character I knew arrived on the scene, I was fully engaged with the story.

There is a very simple remedy to this. There are acres of real estate on the packaging for large audiobooks. Why not include a Cast of Characters (Dramatis Personae)? Why not include the maps from the print version? Both of these items would have been welcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of Martin’s, and especially this series. I felt that this one started a bit slowly, but ended with a bang. I reveled in being in Westeros again. Many of the characters I like were not included in this novel, which both disappointed me and heightened my anticipation for the next volume. A Feast for Crows delivers much – I was riveted to the last third of this audiobook – but I can’t help to feel that it is incomplete, because of the missing characters and because it is the middle of a long wonderful saga that I am patiently waiting to see through.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of The Unnameable: Four Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

SFFaudio Review

The Unnameable: Four Tales by H.P. Lovecraft
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by David Cade
1 CD – 1 Hour 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tales Of Orpheus / www.DavidCade.net
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0955209005
Themes: / Fantasy / Horror / Cthulhu Mythos / Cats / Music /

“We were sitting on a dilapidated seventeenth – century tomb in the late afternoon of an autumn day at the old burying ground in Arkham, and speculating about the unnamable.”

Dumb move guys, being in Arkham was the first mistake. Hanging out at the cemetary at twilight was the second. You don’t get a third with Lovecraft. Fortunately we get both a third and a fourth! This collection contains four complete Howard Philips Lovecraft short stories! Included are:

“The Book”
Told in a creepy first person, a disembodied voice, a voice that decries the day it discovered “the book”, in a library beside a great black oily river. The voice has forgotten its family, its life, even its own name. You will never forget this story. Probably written in 1933, a point at which Lovecraft was at the height of his powers, it shows.

“The Music Of Erich Zann”
One step from vagrancy, our anonymous narrator, recalls a fellow lodger Erich Zann. They shared a decrepit building on a mysterious French street, but Zann’s eerie music was not nearly as haunting as horror that chased him. First published in 1921, still
powerful.

“The Cats Of Ulthar”
A cryptic fable that gives reason to why killing a cat may be the most dangerous thing one can ever do. There are two kinds of people in the world: Dog people and
cat people. H.P. Lovecraft was obviously a cat person. Cats are mysterious, small but quite powerful and work best at night, just like this story. First published
1920.

“The Unnameable”
Randolph Carter, who we already know from The Statement Of Randolph Carter recalls the events which followed their visit to an Arkham, MA cemetary. This is the only story in this collection considered part of the Cthulhu Mythos and Carter is probably the only character to survive two brushes with the who should not be named. First published 1923.

British actor David Cade reads all four tales. There is some question in my mind on one matter, does having an English accent whilst reading very American stories necessitate a conflict? It probably would if there was much dialogue – but seeing as Lovecraft was far friendlier with exposition than he was with speaking parts it isn’t much of an issue at all. Cade is effective at bringing the mostly expository prose to gruesome life. All four stories are framed by muscial excerpts that are very well matched to the thematic material. One thing that bothered me greatly though was the lack of titles, each track is distinctly seperated by music, but the stories themselves are not named in the audio, one must look at the back of the CD case to find out which story you are listening to – something a blind listener would be unable to do.

Posted by Jesse Willis