Samyann's Blog, page 18

Hell Divers I & II by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Audiobooks. Hell Divers is a trilogy; this review addresses the first two novels in that the final novel is yet to be published. Book one is just over ten hours of listening, book two just over eight – both are narrated by R. C. Bray, and released by Blackstone Audio in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

This is a post apocalypse story, SciFi. Start with book one, Hell Divers, as there are references in book two, Hell Divers II, Ghosts. The earth is in a nuclear winter, lots of violent storms, radiation, and creepy creatures/monsters that are mutant bad-asses. It seems that a couple of centuries ago we annihilated the earth in a war of some sort and only a few hundred people survived. Survivors have lived on enormous airships that hover over the globe at about 20,000 feet. There is a class system, folks in deeper poverty are on lower decks, not sure how that’s established, i.,e who is upper class who is lower and why – this isn’t clarified. It’s been a couple of centuries, and although there are no details relating to this either, many generations must never have left the ships.

In order for the ships to stay afloat, supplies, tools, repair material are retrieved from the surface of the planet – Hell Divers do the job. The resident mutants and monsters do their best to make dinner out of any divers, and they frequently succeed – grizzly details provided. In addition, a couple of divers wind up stranded on earth amongst the bad-ass mutants, and are constantly on the run from mutants and plants with jaws. (Yeah, you read that right) Thus is the thrust.

Some holes that nerds like me notice: There is a kid in the story that wears a tin-foil hat. Cool, I like tin-foil hats. Okie – where’d the tin foil come from? No foil manufacturers. Eye make-up … really? A ship contains 400-500 people at the moment. How many initially? Any population issues to speak of after 200-300 years? There is no mention of a governmental structure, no mention of an education  or religious systems – nothing. No mention of basic needs, like water, recycling, waste management. In book two it’s stated that a criminal is given the choice of spending life in the brig or becoming a diver. In book one, the author indicates the divers are heroes – they dive so that the remainder of humanity will survive. Conflicting. Would be nice if the author had been more consistent and comprehensive in world-building. Plenty of room to do this, and it is, after all, what SciFi is all about.

The entire concept is creative, sort of reminds me of 2012 with airships/nuclear war instead of arks/earthquakes. There is tremendous potential to develop a world that the author misses. There is way too much time spent on diver/monster battle descriptions rather than the lives of the survivors and world building on the airships.  But, that’s just me – you may find it peachy.

Narration by R. C. Bray is fine, nothing special, but no issues.

Because of the discrepancies in the fundamental story, not recommended to the nit-picky. If you’re really into SciFi and are willing to ignore some obvious oopses, this series has decent ratings, so … whadda-I-know. No sex, no objectionable language, nothing offensive. Some violence.

  

Screenwriter

Looking for a screenwriter to create a script from a romance novel. Do not want the story arc changed, just converted to a marketable script. This is a 400 page novel, you’ll be doing considerable work to cut the story to a 90 minute movie or a mini-series and maintain the story line.

You will be ghost writing – I’m looking for an excellent, workable draft.

Cinematic material here, several reviews say something similar to “can’t wait for the movie”.

Contacts in the production world considered but not required.

Dollars open to discussion, must be willing to sign a non-disclosure or ghostwriter contract.

The novel can be found here: Amazon

Contact me below. Full details please. I.e., how much, how long, terms, your experience, contacts, references.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life is a story of reincarnation. The lead character relives her life over and over, many times – the same life with different paths taken. In one, she lives but seconds, in others much longer, with joys and grief – but primarily angst. Example: In an early life, she dies from strangulation from the umbilical cord – in another life – many chapters later, mom is prepared with scissors. In one life she’s raped, in another life she suspects the event and avoids rape. In one life she marries an-asshole-wife-beating-jackass, in another life she meets the stranger in the same way but runs from him. That’s sort of stuff, pretty much, with one world history altering event. Hint: WWII-Germany. The author uses deja vù or sixth sense understanding rather than past life memories or discussion of reincarnation specifics.

Liked: Narration. Fenella Woolgar is very listenable, a pleasure. I’ll try to find other works she’s read.

Disliked: Everything else. The story is extremely hard to follow. If you’re like me, you’ll re-listen to a passage or chapter to get it straight, to understand the story or where the author is headed. This book is rewind hell – and I still didn’t get it, ergo stopped trying. Although I’m far from an expert in the theory of reincarnation, I don’t believe the fundamentals include reliving the same life and making different choices. I may be all wet there, but I think you are reincarnated to an entirely different life. Plus, the lead doesn’t always “die” – but you’ll learn she actually did because the next chapter opens with the fact that it is snowing. Really. If you’re looking for a book that delves into the conundrums of reincarnation and resulting ramifications from a scientific view, this is not the book – it doesn’t go there.

Tried to listen, but gave up and will be requesting a refund from Audible. Eyes kept glazing over through 95% of the first 21 chapters, didn’t listen to the remainder. The audiobook is just over 15 hours, but even listening to only 2/3rds of this I know I listened at least 20 hours (rewinds). I am truly baffled by all the stellar reviews – the main reason I purchased. Beats me.

Not recommended. Written by Kate Atkinson, narrated by Fenella Woolgar, 15.5 of listening in unabridged audiobook format. Released in April of 2013 by Hachette Audio.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Liked: The fundamental plot, great premise for a SciFi story. The main protagonist, traveling alone, arrives at a research vessel orbiting a distant planet and finds the small crew in serious trouble. They are having visions. He soon has visions of his own. Thus is the thrust.

Didn’t like: The thrust of the story is simply a vehicle for the author to pontificate about life, humanity, relationships, pretty much everything is philosophized about – except the fundamental plot. Way too much blather about nonsensical viewpoints or self analysis that the author wishes to convey. Most have nothing to do with the story and will likely make you yawn.

Excellent translation from Polish by Bill Johnston, nicely narrated by Alessandro Juliani, close to eight hours of listening in unabridged format, released in June of 2011 by Audible.

Wild Lavender by Belinda Alexandra

Time is the 1920s through the end of WWII. The story is one of a naive girl swept to stardom during the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich in Germany. Sleazy bars where drugs and trans entertainers are lauded to elegant entertainment stages through France, Germany, New York, with little name dropping cameos by Marlene Deitrich, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Gershwin brothers, Ziegfeld, Ruby Keeler, Al Jolson, Durante, etc.

Wild Lavender is essentially a love story between a cabaret-style entertainer and a priest – the two being raised together from childhood and he sheltering her from the Nazis when they are adults. She’s been mad about him since they were kids, but he has felt obligated to the church. The plot is a familiar one – priest and damsel in distress – some parts made me think of The Thornbirds, but Wild Lavender isn’t nearly as good.

No explicit language or sex scenes. If you’re interested in WWII, you might find it interesting – but it’s not a the typical ‘war’ book – think more along the lines of the musical Cabaret.

Audiobook narrated by Kate Hood – no issues with narration, about 20 hours in listening, released by Bolinda Publishing to Audible in 2005.

Extracted Series by R. R. Haywood

The series is SciFi-Fantasy. A time machine reveals that the end of the world will occur in 2111. Three heroic individuals are ‘extracted’ from their current lives/times to prevent the apocalypse. An interesting and promising premise. However, the main thrust, i.e., saving the world, is simply a vehicle for the author to move characters through time and have incredibly mundane conversations. The main characters argue about how to say 2111. Twenty one eleven? Two thousand one eleven? Really? Oh … wait … the world is ending! A WWII soldier becomes a Harry Potter fan – really? The characters banter for several paragraphs and through much stupid dialogue about if or not a character should ‘wank’, masturbate, to release tension. Really?? Oh … wait … the world is ending. A great deal of time spent on the psyche due to confinement … really??  Hello! The world is ending! The author should have spent much more time developing the fundamental plot instead of dwelling on character behaviors and interaction that adds nothing to the story.

Audiobooks listened to, Extracted and Executed, are about 12 hours of listening each, narrated by Carl Prekopp, stories written by R. R. Haywood.  No particular issues with narration, Prekopp can only do so much with the material. You’ll have no issues with the reading.

Vulgar language might offend. No sex scenes, some violent scenes.

However, after struggling to the meat of the story through two books, the motivation to continue just isn’t there. Must be some merit to this series based on some stellar reviews. Beats me – not my cup ‘o tea.

  

Lineage by Joe Hart

Liked: Lineage – A Supernatural Thriller is a hide-under-the-covers ghost story. So, if you’re in the mood for the creepy, this’ll do. Plot, premise – all cool.

Didn’t like: Narration by Neil Hellegers. Everything is conveyed in a manner to evoke hair-raising fright. Everything. In my opinion, this manner of reading a horror story takes away from those passages that are truly chilling. Ergo, it’s overdone – considerably. Narrators are supposed to make an already good book better with artful audio interpretation. Hellegers fails.

Summary: The story opens with a grizzly scene in a Nazi concentration camp as a young boy witnesses the brutal murder of his parents. Flash forward to the 80s and the horrible abuse of another young boy by a sadistic father. Flash forward again to modern day and the boy is now a successful author struggling with writer’s block. He decides to vacation on Lake Superior to rekindle his muse. Lots of inner turmoil ensues as he struggles with the past and the ghostly present.

Just over twelve hours of listening in unabridged audiobook format. Released in June of 2016 by Tantor Audio.

Recommend listening to the audio sample before purchasing the audiobook. If you can handle the emoting of the narrator, go for it. Otherwise, go for an eBook or paperback. A decent ghost story.

Charade by Sandra Brown

Charade opens with a series of deadly accidents: A jealous husband murders a cheating wife; a young man drowns in a car accident, another in a motorcycle crash; an old lady falls; a man is killed in a chainsaw accident. Some of these hapless souls are the recipients of heart transplants – some are heart donors.

A beautiful soap opera star, Cat, is stricken with heart failure and after receiving a donor heart, changes her life to one of helping homeless children. The who-done-it is off and running when she determines that she, too, is a target because of her donor heart. Who’s trying to kill Cat? Why? Thus is the thrust!

Liked: There are plenty of potential bad guys, which makes this a fun guessing game throughout the story. The author does a terrific job presenting details confirming the guilt of a character, then throws a curve. The reader will enjoy some creative twists.

Didn’t Like: There is also a bit of eye-rolling – some stuff just to obviously absurd. Also, there are several gratuitous sex scenes that  add nothing to the story and should have been fade-to-black. *Sigh-fast-forward.*

If you can get past some campy dialogue and wet-panty silliness, the mystery is a good one.

The Beast of Barcroft & Northwoods by Bill Schweigart

These comments address two audiobooks by Bill Schweigart released by Tantor Audio in late 2016. The Beast of Barcroft is about seven hours in length, Northwoods just over ten. Both are narrated by Will Damron.

Didn’t like: Narration is laboriously slow, ergo set Audible application to 1.5 – normal speed, in addition to Damron’s soft voice, will put you to sleep regardless of scary moments. Although there’s little trouble discerning who-is-speaking-to-who, there isn’t a uniqueness to voices. They all sound similar, male/female. Plots are not very creative. In Beasts, an unknown, but scary, creature is terrifying a small town and good guys figure it out. In Northwoods, the same batch of good guys save the day again from an equally scary creature.

Liked: The ‘hide-under-the-covers’ moments. If you like the horror story genre, these fit the bill – shape-shifting, ferocious coyotes and wolves and hyenas, bloody zombies, glowing-eyes traverse the pages. Action scenes are exciting.

That said, some imagery is a bit confusing. The literary visions of Schweigart leave the reader to imagine quite a bit. In the horror genre, sometimes this isn’t all bad.

The books are not identified as a series – although they should be; there is no doubt you should read Beasts first. There is also no doubt there will be subsequent novels, as book two – Northwoods – ends abruptly with the line “We’re going to Jersey.” No spoilers – but, guess that’s a hint?

No gratuitous sex, some language issues but very rare and none inappropriate to the circumstance or character.

Recommended only those who enjoy horror stories.

  

Everything You Told Me by Lucy Dawson

Narrated by Jessica Ball, released by Bolinda Publishing in January-2017, just about ten hours of listening in unabridged audiobook format.

Everything You Told Me is the story of a young mother who ‘comes to’  hundreds of miles from home. She’s in her pajamas, and seemingly ready to step off a cliff. But, she doesn’t – saved by a stranger. There’s a suicide note. But — none of this can possibly be ‘real’. She’s not suicidal and has no idea what has happened. The last thing she remembers is getting into bed. Thus is the thrust.

Liked: The book is sort of like driving by a bad car wreck – ya feel guilty for looking.

Didn’t like: None of the characters are likable – nobody. The premise is interesting, but the delivery is wanting. There are way too many eye-rolling instances. You’ll hover over fast-forward to get to the point, many times. Very repetitive and would have been a good short story – but is a tedious novel.

No gratuitous sex scenes, no objectionable language – a clean read. Narration is fine, no issues.

Difficult to get through this book without sighing. Not a page-turner. Not recommended.