Free Audio Review

The Book of Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:31:00 +0000

Official Blurb

A dragon who flies out of a magical book; one whose purr quiets a fussy baby; another who eats an entire pack of tame hunting-hippopotomuses: These eight dragon tales are filled with the imaginative wit of children’s author Edith Nesbit.

My Review

The official blurb about nails it. THis is a book of eight seperate stories all about dragons, but not the expected fire breathing dragons you might expect. Sure, some of them do breath fire but it's pretty much incidental to these stories.

These are bed time stories that wont terrify, but will excite a childs imagination.

It's a childs book, and I think it holds up in todays world.

Readng 2
Production 2
Story 2

Total 6/9

Download the book from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 017

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, first published between 1951 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.

My Review

Another great collection from Librivox. Ten short stories from various authors. Some of them being very very big names in the Sci fi genre. We've got E.E. Doc Smith Harry Harrison and Phillip K. Dick, among others.

I rated 6 of the stories as good and 3 more as good, meaning I only disliked 1!

If you like a variety of short stories these collections are great, especially since they are now including these more modern authors and therefore more modern stories.

As to my favourite, well it's truely hard to say. But I do reccomend "The Vortex Blaster" and "Postmark Ganymede" as a couple of goodies.

The readers are a good bunch.

Readng 2
Production 2
Story 2

Total 6/9

Download the collection from Librivox

Listen to my pick

Discovered Country

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:07:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Rosemary Halpern, a mild-mannered librarian from Boston, found herself trapped hundreds of years in the future. A future that faced a new Ice Age. A future where ghouls walked the Earth, ravenous for human flesh.

My Review

Not good. A bizarre narrative story. The protagonist finds herself thrown forwards in time to a future where people starve and the undead plague the living. You or me, might wonder how that happened, not the protagonist, she doesn't care and its not explained. She then goes on a journey having a series of episodic disjointed events that leave no stain or effect on the story, just disconected things happening.

The story is a typical heros journey but without any of the good bits! No explanation for why anthing happens, no questioning from those involved, no character development, all together quite bland.

I "think" this is YA novel, but some parts make me think otherwise, so I can't quite place it, or forgive it.

The only thing that kept me listening was the readers excellent voice.

Readng 3
Production 2
Story 1

Total 6/9

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Listen to the first chapter

The Creature From Beyond Infinity

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Official Blurb

A lone space traveler arrives on Earth seeking a new planet to colonize, his own world dead. At the same time a mysterious plague has infected Earth that will wipe out all life. Can a lone scientist stop the plague and save the world? Or will the alien find himself on another doomed planet?

My Review

Well there is an interesting premise here. An alien arrives at earth, earth in the pre-mammal age, so he decides to hang around for people to develop and goes to sleep. A really really long sleep.

It's a good idea for a story and a fun listen. The alien in this case is just like us and so we have a lot of fun when he goes mixing with the earthlings. A human story but with all of the classic sci fi traits, aliens, time travel ( of a sort ) and massive super science. An excellent and fun piece literature. I especially loved the old world feel of this sci fi , for instance when photographers are still using "plates".

Read by the excellent Mark Nelson, who gives an outstanding professional reading as usual.

Readng 3
Production 2
Story 2

Total 7/9

Download the book from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

The Aliens

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Official Blurb

The human race was expanding through the galaxy … and so, they knew, were the Aliens. When two expanding empires meet … war is inevitable. Or is it …?

My Review

This short little novelette is a great human story dealing with the classic sci fi theme of "First Contact" with an alien race.

In this story we follow the crew members of the human populated ship as they react to and deal with the alien spaceship that turns up off the starboard bow. The people vary in their reactions, from awe to angry racism.

How should they deal with these "people", how do they communicate to them, what weapons do they have, why are they advancing , is that a threat, is it friendly?

This is a fun little story and runs for just under an hour and a half of classic sci fi that can't fail but be pleasing to any fan of space opera.

The reading was grand and paced wonderfully.

Readng 3
Production 2
Story 2

Total 7/9

Download the book from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Oficial Blurb

The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service is a boys adventure story set in WWI – Three College Chums join the military and face the perils of spies, submarines and enemy soldiers in the trenches of embattled Europe. An engaging story set in a period where good guys wore white hats, bad guys wore black hats and every chapter ends with a cliffhanger so you have to come back for more!

My Review

The official blurb gives it all away! The story is a non stop WWI adventure for boys. The heros are young and new at the military thing but it doesn't stop them from being suspicious, resourceful and darned good at their new job in Wireless communications.

The characters are very 2D and despite the cliff hanger you know the good guys are going to win. Is this a bad thing? No, it's a good thing, predictable yes, and a fun filled rollercoaster of an adventure story. There is never a dull moment as the boys join up cross the atlantic and get into action against the Germans, along side thier allies the brave and bold French.

If you fancy a "Boys Own" type of listen you wont go wrong with this audio book. the reader does a darned good job of presenting the story in its upbeat "jolly good fun" tone.

Readng 3
Production 2
Story 2

Total 7/9

Download the book from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the Fram, 1910-12

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Official Blurb

In contrast to Scott’s South Pole expedition, Amundsen’s expedition benefited from good equipment, appropriate clothing, and a fundamentally different primary task (Amundsen did no surveying on his route south and is known to have taken only two photographs) Amundsen had a better understanding of dogs and their handling, and he used of skis more effectively. He pioneered an entirely new route to the Pole and they returned. In Amundsen’s own words: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” Short accounts by other members of the party are appended.

My Review

Absolutely facinating account of true life adventures exploring the white land. I've enjoyed other books from Librivox relating to the snowy wastes (which for some unknown reason have always had a appeal to me).

This story was not quite on the same heroic scale of "South!" which I reviewed a good while ago, but is epic in it's breadth of detail about this journey.

Here we get the details of the journey to the south ( which in itself was quite an impressive sail journey ), and how they crew fell in love with the dogs.

We hear the details of journey across the ice, the dangers, the discovereries and the terrible, heart wrenching issues in dealing with the sled dogs later on in the journey.

In all I was bouyed up at this story of human endurance and fortitude and at times sadened by the horror of hunting and sledging in such extrems.

Readng 2
Production 2
Story 2

Total 6/9

Download the book from Librivox

Listen to the first part

Short Sci Fi Collection 16

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, first published between 1951 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.

My Review

The blurb doesn't give much away does it. This was a quite good collection of ten stories. Often with these collections you only get one or two good ones, but in this set there were five especially good stories, with the others being fairly average.

My favourite in this collection was story called "All Day Septemer", being a story set on the moon in the not too distant future.

The other stories I liked were "Beyond the door" and "Blessed are the meek", the latter of which brought a rye smile to my face as I listened.

I'd heard only one of the stories before ( often these short stories get repeated in later Librivox collections ) so it was a real breath of fresh air.

All of the readers were good and made it into a good listen. I give this collection a thumbs up.

Readng 2
Production 2
Story 2

Total 6/9

Download the collection from Librivox

Listen to my fave' story

The Stars my Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:05:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Published in the May, 1962 issue of Amazing Stories “The Stars, My Brothers” gives us a re-animated astronaut plucked from a century in the past and presented with an alien world where the line between humans and animals is blurred.

My Review

This is a cool short sci fi story set a couple of hundred years into the future. It deals with a man frozen who is then woken up a hundred years later and the worlds he finds himself inhabiting.

It's not all ray guns and combat, but rather a more intellectual look at human attitudes and their relationship with aliens/animals.

So, as I've hinted, we dont have ray guns and space combat, but we do have , space ships, aliens, other worlds, a chase, high tech, and all wrapped around a neat little story that will keep the sci fi fan happy.

The reader is excellent, he doesn't do "voices" but he has a pacing and style that is very good.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 7/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Police Operation

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Official Blurb

H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of “Paratime” alternate history tales. (Summary from Wikipedia)

My Review

This is a short novelette set in Piper's Paratime world, a future where human kind is crossing multiple parallell time streams and policing any illegal actions carried out by the paratimers.

This story is notable for giving a good explanantion of the paratime terminology, an introduction if you will to how the worlds of Paratime work and interact.

The story itself is rather simple, a paratimer has illegally taken a beast from one time line as a pet into another time line where the beast does not belong, and the paratime police are tasked with sorting the mess out.

The book is an interesting listen and doesn't take long, less than an hour. The reading is done by two people, the first half being notable for an excellent reading by a young librivoxateer. His reading is pretty good but suffers from a plosives on the mic' which is a little distracting. That said I'm glad I listened as it was a fun little jaunt into the paratime.

Reading 2/3
Production 1/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 5/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Starmans Quest

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Travelling at speeds close to that of light, spacemen lived at an accelerated pace. When one of the twin boys left the starship, he grew older while his twin in space barely aged. So the starship twin left the ship to find what happened to his brother who was aging away on earth.

My Review

This is a great little story by Robert Silverberg. Not only are the characters fun to follow but the world has a lot of interest in it as well. As you listen you constantly discover new things about the Earth of the future and life abord space ships.

The Earthmen seem to age really quickly while the spacemen moving at close to light speed age very slowly, so a journey of year actually leave enough time for hundreds of years to pass on the planets. This leads to two different cultures , that clash at every opportunity.

So we have interesting people, and world to discover and two main plot lines and even a twist in the tail to keep you listening.

The reading is excellent and the pacing good so I heartily reccomend this story from Librivox.

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 6/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:02:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Formed during World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), was organized for special operations and intelligence gathering and analysis. Included in its mission was the implementation of, and training of foreign forces in, propaganda, espionage, subversion, and sabotage. After the war, OSS functions were transferred to the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

This “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” was used by OSS agents in training “citizen-saboteurs” in methods for inciting and executing simple sabotage to thwart industry and other vital functions in Axis-occupied areas.

My Review

As the blurb says this is a manual, not a story. It's an interesting choice for a reader at Librivox to have picked. There's no fun or excitement in here its raw data!

I have quite a vibrant interesting in WWII, I play boardgames based on WWII, and even have a podcast with a WWII theme, so this Librivox offering couldn't fail to appeal to me.

The book is presented in two halves with the latter half containing most of the juicey Sabotage instructions. While listening to the fairly dry material my imagination went wild and I was envisioning French, Belgium and Polish civilians reading and following the instructions. It was a real delight to me.

What about you though? this is a specialist book, if you don't have the same level of interest as me in this material I suggest you pass this by, theres no story here except what you conjure in your mind. Thus despite loving this book, I cant really give it a high rating, as that wouldn't be fair on normal peole like you!

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 5/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Nightmare Abbey

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Deep in the fens of the British coast sits the gloomy mansion that goes by the name Nightmare Abbey. It is inhabited by persons of very low opinion of the human race, and in fact they pride themselves in the depths of their detestation. Others of its denizens believe the ultimate exercise and product of the human mind ought to be chaos.

Now let the young master of the house get snared by the wiles of a beautiful young lady. And for good measure, toss in another beautiful young lady. Now Scythrop (named in honor of an ancestor who became bored with life and hanged himself) is about to find that two such make too much of a good thing!
Peacock wrote Nightmare Abbey as a satire, and he has folded in allusions to or quotations from literally dozens of other works. He makes use of many long, impressive-sounding words (some of which he very possibly made up!). Ignore these and his occasional Latin phrase, treat the rest as a farce, and you’re on track for a fun listen!

My Review

It was very well read... The reader did some excellent and amusing voices... but...

It was a rather disjointed, inconsistent narrative. It brought the odd half smile to my lips, but I basicly just didn't "get it".

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 6/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

The White Company

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Set during the Hundred Years’ War with France, The White Company tells the story of a young Saxon man who is learning what it is to be a knight. Raised by Cistercian Monks and rejected by a violent elder brother, Alleyn Edricson takes service with one of the foremost knights in the country. When Alleyn falls in love with the knight’s daughter, he must prove himself to be a courageous and honourable knight before he can win her hand. Alleyn and his friends set forth with the other men-at-arms to join Prince Edward in Bordeaux, from where they will take part in the Prince’s campaign into Spain. It is in Spain that Alleyn and others must prove themselves to be very valiant and hardy cavaliers.

My Review

I absolutely loved this production. The blurb gives you a very good overview of the story but does not give you any idea of the horde of delight to be found within!

I admit to being a Cadfael fan, and this book scratches the same medieval itch. From the lack of tech to the turn of phrase, this story drips with period feel. A period when knights were Gentle, squires honourable, and ladies fair.

The characters in this story jump out of the story to endear themselves to you by their subtle and detailed portrayals. Every characters seems to have their own voice within the text ( and the reader supplies a voice for them all as well! ).

The lead character is a simple honest young man, who finds himself somewhat at a loss and takes up with a pair of strong Archers who are off to war. In their company he starts the journey towards a real medieval manhood and winning the hand of his love.

Every step of the journey if exciting and enthralling by turns, from struggeling to speak of his love, to a clash of swords, this story has it all.

Now a special word about the reader of this audio delight. Clive Catterall is the reader and was a perfect choice for this text. His British accent accompanies a soft presentation that smooches your ears, it fits the genteel characters perfectly and he is able to give them each a special voice to fit their character. An outstanding audio work.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

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The Door Through Space

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Official Blurb

At one time Race Cargill had been the best Terran Intelligence agent on the complex and mysterious planet of Wolf. He had repeatedly imperiled his life amongst the half-human and non-human creatures of the sullen world. And he had repeatedly accomplished the fantastic missions until his name was emblazoned with glory.

But that had all seemingly ended. For six long years he’d sat behind a boring desk inside the fenced-in Terran Headquarters, cut off there ever since he and a rival had scarred and ripped each other in blood-feud.

But when THE DOOR THROUGH SPACE swung suddenly open, the feud was on again—and with it a plot designed to check and destroy the Terran Empire.

My Review

This is not a sci fi story with huge mighty ships pushing across the void to engage in combat beyond the "door", as I had at first expected. Instead this story has a down to earth , grubby feel. It's subterfuge and underhanded nastiness at it's best.

The story is most definitely set on an alien world , but, the sci fi setting is almost irrelevant to the plot. yes the humans are interacting with aliens, yes the aliens have diferent cultures, yes the technologies are highly advanced, but this is all just a backdrop to what is really a very human story. When enemies draw knives on each other you and see the blood and the sweat in your mind.

The environment is nasty and grubby and this adds to the tension in the story. The humans are in trouble and the dirt adds to the uncomfortable feeling.

This is a really good story and exceedingly well read. The woman who starts the reading apparently "disapeared" and never returned to complete the project, an event that happens so often on such internet driven projects. However the reader who took up the reins is also very very good, so it didn't cause much of a distraction.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 015

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.

My Review

This is another much of short sci fi stories, in fact its the 15th(!!!!) collection from Librivox. Each story is read by a different reader and comes from different authors. This of course means that when you start listening you have no idea whats coming up. Some of the stories may be familar to you, but they were pretty new to me.

The collection has 10 stories of various lengths and there were 6 that I really enjoyed.

Beyond Lies the Wub
Crysal Egg
I'm a stranger here myself
New Accelerator
Radiant Shell
Scientist Rises

The final one I've listed really appealed to me, the odd fancy of it simply appealed and gave me a chuckle.

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 6/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to one of the stories

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Iron Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:58:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Dragon pee really stinks.

With that bit of cautionary advice, master dragonslayer Davian begins his tale.

Davian is a Third Level Master of The Order, a group of men who alone have the power to battle the most fearsome creatures on all of Saramond. For thousands of years, the brothers of The Order have protected their world.

Now something has upset the balance of power between man and dragon, and Davian must face what appears to be a dragon that cannot be seen.

But Davian is losing his grip on reality — and the fate of the world rests with a stable hand, an underfed priest, and a gardener from beyond the stars.

My Review

A fantasy novel with dragons in it. A good premise. Actually it's a good book, not just a good idea.

The hero of the story is a dragon slayer, a man with magical powers who's been trained from youth to become a protector of the people. The people do need protecting, when a dragon moves into an area, it eats the sheep, the goats, the cows and of course the people!

They are big and nasty with only a few small weak spots that are nigh on impossible to exploit for the average man. Thus the wandering wizards of "the order", travel the land killing the dragons.

The story starts with a good dragon fight and really doesn't let up. This was an audio book I didn't want to put down. The characters are loveable the voice charactisation very good, and the story engaging and thrilling.

The read is very good, the pacing is quite fast but I found that part of the appeal, it didn't give you a chance to drift off, it hooked me like a fish!

The story is billed as part of a series but this is a stand-alone story that need not be part of anything else.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from Podiobooks

Listen to the first chapter

LibriVox Short Ghost and Horror Story Collection Vol. 004

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Official Blurb

A collection of fifteen stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the smell of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.

My Review

A pretty typical collection of stories here, some good, some ok and some rather boring but thankfully few of these. The lengths of the stories in this collection vary from 7 minutes up to nearly an hour. Not every story includes a ghost or a supernatural entity, yet they all fit the right mood for this collection. There's not a lot more I can add except to say there are three stories in this collection worthy of special mention because they are really good.

Old Mr. Wiley
The Voice in the Night
The Brazilian Cat

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 6/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to one of the good ones

The Scarlet Plague

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Official Blurb

It’s 2072, sixty years after the scarlet plague has depopulated the planet. James Howard Smith is one of the few survivors of the pre-plague era left alive in the San Francisco area, and as he realizes his time grows short, he tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons. Through his narrative, we learn how the plague spread throughout the world and of the struggles of the handful of survivors it left in its wake.

My Review

This little novella is surprisingly interesting, in parts. This is not an adventure nor does it have much excitement, the story is after all an old guy telling about the days of his youth. This story includes the coming of the Scarlet Plague a disease with a near 100% fatality rate and kills within hours of first showing symptoms.

He describes how society rapidly fell apart, and how a group of people he fell in with tried to survive the plague. It really is a story told, rather than one lived. I had hoped this might have been a story along the lines of "The Trffids" but it is far too short and the real human story is glossed over by the old man as he tells the story.

So in the end, I can't rate this highly, but it did fill some time and caught my ears some places while getting a little dull in others. The reader was good, but even his excellent skills couldn't raise up this story.

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 5/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Tanks

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:07:00 +0000

Offical Blurb

In an eerie future that never was, but might have been, two ordinary soldiers hold the fate of a war in their nicotine-stained hands.

My Review

This is not a full length book but more a novella. Its set in a future that never happend on a war torn plain shrouded in artificial smoke, and follows the stories of two lost infantrymen.

It's an interesting premise for this story. The concepts of war within this world, is that if the enemy see you, your dead, bombed from the air or demolished by artillery. So the battlefields are swamped with artificial soke so that you cant be seen. The infantry man is too weak to survive against tanks, so tanks dominate the smoke.

It's an interesting world and presented in a pulp style that is appealing to my sci fi classic geek.

The reader is an established professional, although she never edits out her fluffs, but that said, she generally makes so few that I am amazed at the quality of her work. Anyone hiring her for voice work would likely get their moneys worth twice over! I wish I was that good.

Reading 2/3
Production 1/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 5/9

Download it from Internet Archive

Listen to the first chapter

The Art of War

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Official Blurb

“The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. The Art of War is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on both military planning and beyond. The Art of War has also been applied, with much success, to business and managerial strategies.”

My Review

This is a classic book that any fan of militrary history will tell you. As the blurb says some even consider it definitive, although the more rational might bring themselves to mention Carl von Clausewitz's "On War". Nevertheless this book is a very interesting presentation on making war with common sense.

The narrative style of the text is of it's age, and reads like is should be read aloud and so comes to the audio book format very well.

If you want to get the most from this book, you shouldn't try listening to it all at once. You need to think about whats being said, it's a teaching text after all. I'd suggest that this audio book would be well worth listening to before studying the text properly.

The reader very good although having a woman read a text on warfare seems odd to my male-old-fogie-set-in-his-ways ears. This reader IS good.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 7/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

There is an alternate version of this audio book

Futility, Or the Wreck of the Titan

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Official Blurb

This novel was published a full 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, but listeners may be surprised at how many parallels this fictional tale has with subsequent true events.

The Titan is the largest and most technologically advanced steamship of her time. She is considered unsinkable. Her full speed crossings of the Northern Lane Route carry her rich passengers in the highest standards of luxury and comfort. The less well-off travel in rougher quarters but still benefit from the speed of travel. These crossings, however, are fraught with navigational hazards, the greatest of which is ice.

Unlike the ship, one member of her crew is not of the highest standard. At least, not anymore. John Rowland is a broken man who drinks to forget his past. However, when the Titan crashes into an iceberg during her attempt to break a speed record, he is forced to confront his past. Can he overcome his enemies and escape as the ship begins to sink? And can he make his way back to civilization and find self-respect once more? Adventure and soul-searching await Rowland, with a surprise ending.

My Review

This is an interesting novella. As the blurb says it's being written before the Titanic is quite quite remarkable, and that was what caught my attention.

The story is very simple, there are not any sub plots here it's simple and straight forwards. As the blurb suggests, a fallen ships officer is thrown into dire staights with only his physical strength and sence of honour to defend against all manner of unexpected foes.

The lead character has his faults but the simple writing weaves this nicely along a path where you quickly gain sympathy for his plight. As I was litening I found him endearing and his sense of honour appealed to the wanna-be-knight that is my soul!

The end was a sweet surpise, I'd been guessing that it was going elsewhere and ended up with a feel good feeling.

As you've guessed I really enjoyed this story and the reader helped that along. He's a loverly voice that fits perfectly with the story and his poise and pacing were excellent.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Faithful Warrior

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:12:00 +0000

Official Blurb

Pastor Michael Farris was a well loved man. Loving husband and father, Shepherd of his church, Courageous minister to the inner city gangs of Columbus Ohio. He helped people change their lives for the better. But when his peaceful life is suddenly shattered by a senseless drive by shooting, a side of Pastor Farris that almost no one knew comes to the surface...a violent shadow of a life that he had been able to keep secret all these years. As he seeks to right the crimes committed against him he is unexpectedly confronted by a ghost from his past, and Mike Farris suddenly finds himself in a race against the clock to stop an insane terrorist from killing thousands, maybe even millions in one fell swoop.

My Review

When I found this book at podiobooks I was overjoyed. I've really enjoyed all of the books from this author ( Basil Sands ) that I've heard. This story was not a disappointment.

Mr Sands opens the book with a flashback, a technique that he's used in his other novels to great effect and likewise here. This gives his lead characters a history that you can use to build the characters in your mind as you're following the modern half of the story.

The novel is very engaging and starts with two very emotive scenes that shock, enthrall and draw you into the story. It doesn't take long for the story to tie the two story lines together ( the current and flashback ) into a single thread and the later half of the book then stays firmly in the present.

I have to say that I was rather pleased to find the lead character so unusual, a Marine turned Minister, that's two character traits that seem an unusual pair yet are dealt with here is such a way that they are believable.

Another feature of the book that appealed to me was the inclusion of some favourite characters from his other novels edging into this story and giving me that happy nostalgia that always comes with familiar characters.

Was this story vastly different from his other novels? No. It dealt with the same topics in another way and was all the better for it. I like the writing style, I like the reading style and I like the hero's. A good book.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from Podiobooks

Listen to the first chapter

Other audio books by the same author I've reviewed.
Karls Last Flight
65 Below

Triplanetary

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Official Blurb

“Doc” E.E. Smith pretty much invented the space opera genre, and Triplanetary is a good and well-known example. Physics, time, and politics never stand in the way of a plot that gallops ahead without letup.

Having earned a PhD in chemical engineering, it’s understandable that the heroes of Smith’s story are all scientists. He didn’t want to be constrained by the limits of known science, however, so in his hands the electromagnetic spectrum becomes a raw material to be molded into ever-more amazing and lethal forms, and the speed of light is no bar to traveling through the interstellar void.

Come enjoy this story of yesteryear, set in tomorrow, where real women ignite love at a glance, real men achieve in days what governments manage in decades, and aliens are an ever-present threat to Life-As-We-Know-It!

My Review

The last paragraph of the official blurb tells you how this classic sci fi story rolls!

This story starts off with high sci fi action, moves into the middle story with high action and speeds into a high action ending! It never relents. Fight, fear and foe are the watch words of this narrative with fight being to the fore.

Triplanetary is a a government like organisation that spans the three populated planets of Earth's solar system, and it has many enemies. The story starts with pirates being ... piratanical within the solar system and moves into an attack by seemingly unstoppable aliens with weapons that can tear worlds apart.

The story keeps your attention and the reader is excellent, a near perfect combination for fans of classic sci fi.

I heartily recommend this Librivox presentation.

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 7/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter

Varney the Vampire

noreply@blogger.com (Felbrigg) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:42:00 +0000

The Official Blurb

Originally published as a penny dreadful from 1845 until 1847, when it first appeared in book form, Varney the Vampyre is a forerunner to vampire stories such as Dracula, which it heavily influenced.

Flora Bannersworth is attacked in her own room in the middle of the night, and although her attacker is seemingly shot dead, the body is nowhere to be found. The discovery of two small bite marks on Flora’s neck leads Mr Marchdale, an old friend of the family, to the conclusion that she was bitten by a vampire. While Flora recovers, her brother Henry and Mr Marchdale begin their hunt for the vampire. Their suspicions soon fall on the mysterious Sir Francis Varney, who has just bought an old abbey near Bannersworth Hall, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to Marmaduke Bannersworth, a long-dead ancestor of the family.

My Review

Hmmm... This was a long long story. I've been listening to it for a long time. the reason it took so long was that it didn't really engage me. I shot through the first 10 chapters or so but then my listening slowed up.

The problem was that I couldn't identify with the characters. This is partially because of the writting style. Which I can happily put down to the serialized nature of the stories source. Yet the characters weren't really ... memorable. That's not to say I couldn't keep track, but rather they didn't appeal. One or two of them came across as rather pathetic and others as plain stupid.

So is this a negative review. Well not really, I did get to the end which is a plus, one of the characters, a ships captain, kept me laughing and as the story progressed I actually found what sympathies I had, were for the "evil" vampire rather than victims"

It's a fair listen and worth trying to see if it appeals to you.

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 5/9

Download it from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter