Samyann's Blog, page 35

Memory Man by David Baldacci – Audiobook Review

Narrated by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy, Memory Man is just over thirteen hours of listening.

Note to Audible, Baldacci, Cassidy, McLarty: Fix this audio! There is wavering volume, fading in-and-out, voice modulation is off, etc. It’s terrible! Did ya’ll do any mixing? I’m a huge fan of Baldacci, and usually, enjoy his audio productions. They are normally very well done, not so much with this recording.

That said, I liked Memory Man, and the narration of McLarty and Cassidy … very smooth transitions between the two. The story centers on a mystery surrounding the murder of a detective’s family and the high school massacre of several teachers and students. The detective and his former partner sleuth away through the pages.

If you enjoy Baldacci mysteries, you’ll like the story. If you’re a seasoned audiobook listener, you’ll be disappointed in the production.

 

Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts – Audiobook Review

Narrated by Sandra Burr and just under ten hours of listening. Dance Upon the Air is book one in a trilogy, specifically, the Three Sisters Island Trilogy originally released in 2008 and I purchased book one as part of an Audible.com membership deal. The story centers on the spousal abuse of a woman who fakes her own death and escapes to a vacation-type island. She quickly befriends a ‘witch’ who hires her to run a cafè. Our lead character soon discovers she is also a witch and the story focuses primarily on her vulnerability, her need to ‘hide’, her fear of discovery. Throw in a … wait for it … handsome sheriff.

A bit over-the-top as it pertains to the obsessive husband, but we need a bad-guy, so….. also, the handsome cop gets very angry in a too-contrived manner near the end of the story. No spoiler, but his reaction to some obvious news is a bit eye-rolling. A significant number of sex scenes, some gratuitous, in my opinion … but, Roberts usually throws in a few, so they’re expected. The occult history of the island is fun to read, some very lovely descriptions.

The reading by Sandra Burr is good, nice male and female voices, good tempo. Easy read (listen). If you’re a fan of the Nora Roberts formulaic boy-gets-girl love story, you’ll enjoy. Good beach book, but the sequels aren’t in my immediate reading list.

 

Forever Black by Sandi Lynn – Audiobook Review

Just over eight hours of listening, Forever Black is book one of a series. Forever Black was presented to me in an Audible.com member special of $4.95 books. Considering the blurb was an interesting premise … a beautiful young woman accidently meets a handsome CEO … was intriguing enough to jump into a series.

Throw realism out the window with character behavior and medical research. The female lead has the maturity of a child, the problems of an adult, the body of a woman. It’s pretty much representative of the the writing, i.e., very teenage-girl-like in prose, situations, character deportment … silly, contrived, and juvenile … especially the female lead.

Read by Felicity Munroe and David Benjamin Bliss … okay. The reader(s) did the best they could with the material they had. No trouble discerning who-says-what-to-who.

If you like sappy, girly, eye-rolling fantasy, have at it … but this type of make-believe-50-shadeish-stuff isn’t my cup ‘o tea. Fast-forwarded a lot … finally couldn’t finish, and not interested in subsequent books in the series.

 

Power Play by Danielle Steel – Audiobook Review

About ten hours of listening, read by Dan John Miller. Miller has read other Steel books. Males reading romance novels is silly, in my opinion, especially one written by a woman. It just doesn’t work. But, that’s just me.

Power Play is the author’s perception of the business CEO. Moral of the story? Men can pretty much do whatever they please, women … not so much. Nothing knew there. Typical of Steel, eyes fill with tears, the comeuppance due is soundly delivered, and no surprise … a happy-happy-happy ending. Two CEOs, one male, one female, are the protagonists. The male is a philanderer, with a sad-sac mistress, a ‘good wife’, and has kids by both women; he’s a scumbag. The female is a goody-two-shoes-mom-of-the-year single mother. The story parallels their two lives and the reader is gifted with the knowledge of sexual disparities as old as time itself.

If you like Danielle Steel, you’ll enjoy another brainless-beach-read, i.e., Steel stories aren’t intended to increase gray-matter. If you don’t like Steel, well … you probably won’t even pick up Power Play :-).

 

Winners by Danielle Steel – Audiobook Review

Just over nine hours of listening, read by Dan John Miller. Winners is typical Danielle Steel, sappy-sweet. Let a young adult or teen enjoy. You’ll be confronted with the completely unbelievable Pollyannaism premise of this story. Bad things happen early on: an Olympic skier is paralyzed for life; a young doctor is widowed, a man’s suicide is interrupted with a phone call. No spoilers there, this all happens right out of the chute. Beyond these tragedies the story is one heart warming wonderful event following another … over, and over, and over again, ad nauseum. The expected five stages of grief, denial-anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance, are all pretty much ignored in Winners. There is a bit of denial-anger on the part of the skier’s father, but that’s about it. You’ll jump directly to happy acceptance and skip along through bizarrely far-fetched fairy-tale circumstances. No doubt you’ll run across very ‘happy’ adjective imaginable. Who’s the absurdly rich character? The skier’s father. Who’s the strong, independent woman? The widow. There ya go, the Steel formula! Everybody’s eyes “fill with tears”, too!

My opinion about male readers of romance novels hasn’t changed. Just no. Steel’s books are chic-lit-beach-reads and the audiobook formats are almost always read by men, sadly. Miller is okay, but the female voices are just …. *sigh*. Romance written by a woman, from the point of view of a woman, read by a man, is just silly.

If you are a fan of Steel’s incurably-romantic-pipe-dream bent on reality, you’ll love the book. Otherwise, you’ll roll your eyes and likely not finish.

 

Certainty by Victor Bevine – Audiobook Review

Ten and one half hours of listening, read by the author. Audiobooks narrated by the author are always a treat. The interpretation of words written is not speculated upon in the audio performance. You will hear a more exacting rendition of the author intent. Little is left to the imagination in the pages of Certainty. This is an adult-themed story. Certainty is not appropriate for anyone too young to understand alternate sexual preferences or lifestyles. Certainty is a fictional representation of a true story; an essay can be found here: Newport Sex Scandal, 1919-21 (Essay), also Wikipedia. (Note: Links may change.)

The book is a fairly accurate representation of historical events, although many conversations are likely pure speculation. The present collective tolerance of the gay lifestyle, the 2015 passage of gay marriage rights by the United States Supreme Court, etc., is a far cry from the world opinion of 1920. As an example, much of Certainty is a court-room drama. Because of the cultural sensitivities of the time to male homosexual specifics, women were forbidden from the courts. Go figure.

The title references the absolute ‘certainty’ of innocence. There is a relentless need by some to avenge loss regardless of the path taken or the pain caused. Some areas are a little to religious and preachy for my taste, but that’s just me.

Century is well read; this is a very topical story given recent headlines.  The issue is an old one that was once shoved into a closet. This story is an insight to that era and thinking. Enjoy!

 

The Hunting Dogs by Jorn Lier Horst – Audiobook Review

Nine hours, forty minutes of listening and read by Saul Reichlin. The Hunting Dogs is a modern-day police procedural, centering on righting the wrongs of planted evidence that convicted a man of murder seventeen years ago. The ‘dogs’ referenced in the title aren’t man’s-best-friend-dogs, rather they are the police, doggedly solving a murder. The detective leading the original investigation, William Wisting, is now an elder cop, highly respected. Suspended pending the outcome, he and his journalist daughter dissect old records, chew away at Agatha-Christie-type clues, and search for the bad-guys.

The story has the expected subtly of European prose, quite a bit of text extraneously and verbose. The Hunting Dogs brings to mind a BBC Television who-done-it. The audiobook is well produced, Saul Reichlin does an okay job, female voices included … his British accent fits well with the story.

No explicit sex, no profanity, clean as a whistle. Let teens read. If you enjoy a cozy mystery, Sherlock Holmes stories, etc., you’l like The Hunting Dogs. Enjoy!

 

Paw Enforcement by Diane Kelly – Audiobook Review

Read by Coleen Marlo and just over ten hours of listening.

Gave this story a good try, listened for three hours. There are a number of reasons I’m done. One, the dog does not behave like a police dog. Eating evidence at a crime scene? Ignoring commands? Humping another dog during training class? Really? Are you serious? Two, the attempt by the author at humor is just that, an attempt. Granted, some of the commentary is funny, but little comes across naturally, it is all very forced and unreal. Three, the snarky attitude of the lead character isn’t realistic and her short fuse is phony and put on, as is her immediately turning into a weak-kneed-valley-girl-moron when ever a good-looking man appears. Eyes rolling until facing the back of my head.

The narrator is okay, just dealing as best she can with the material. There are a bunch of nice reviews … so, you may see something of value in this story, beats me.

 

Pegasus by Danielle Steel – Audiobook Review

Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner and approximately eleven hours of listening.

Romantic, typical of Danielle Steel. A bit more historical than her usual works. I question the world-wide reactions to the German atrocities, however. Indications of the world being ‘stunned’ by Hitler’s behavior toward Jews is sprinkled through the prose, and I don’t believe it is accurate, but rather a literary license. According to many historical records, in addition to first hand conversations with people who lived through it, few, if any, civilians in the United States knew about the degree of persecution Jews suffered until after the war … at least until the very end of the war when camps were being liberated. News out of Germany was highly censored at the time, and the world was aware of little more than what Hitler wanted them to know. That said … the story is a creative, albeit a bit repetitive and verbose. Could have been a few hours shorter, in my opinion.

Pegasus begins in the late 1930s with a man leaving Germany shortly after Hitler takes power, because his mother was Jewish. In order to secure gainful employment, he is given some horses by his best friend, and is sponsored by Ringling Bros. Circus in America. Thus begins the tale of Pegasus, a Lipizzaner stallion and two German families. The family that gives the horses, and the family that receives the horses, and how this familial bond transcends 80 years.

The reading by Malcolm Hillgartner is fine, no trouble determining who-says-what-to-who. No graphic sex or language; if you’re a Danielle Steel fan, you’ll enjoy!

 

Extinction Cycle by Nicholas Smith – Audiobooks Review

The Extinction Cycle series is read by Bronson Pinchot, and consists of at least four novels. This review addresses only the first two. In the area of ten hours each, the stories address the the extinction of the human race. The plot, characters, and story moves seamlessly from novel one through novel two; I cannot speak to the other books in the series. The fundamental premise surrounds the accidental creation of a bio-weapon intended to produce ‘super’ soldiers. An oops that mixes the virulence of the ‘super’ soldier chemicals and the Ebola virus is the cocktail that turns humans into monsters … or zombies. Swollen eel-like-sucker-lips, clicking joints, yellow eyes with slits for pupils …. familiar description? Within a week or two billions across the world die. No secrets given, you’ll figure this out very early in book one.

Personally, I’ve a problem with a virus traveling so fast, especially one that is not air-borne. There is little, if any, mention of fundamental supplies, i.e., food, medicine, gasoline, etc., in addition to characters devoted to this issue. How exactly people can survive without basic necessities isn’t a factor, nor is it mentioned. The books are focused on military efforts, a few type A Delta Force dudes, and a young female scientist. Suspending belief, however, is a requirement in order to enjoy science fiction. So … suspend.

I don’t plan on finishing the series, in that fundamental survival issues, given the scenario, aren’t addressed. The narrator’s interpretation of the female scientist brings forth a frightened teenager instead of an educated, intelligent woman who is saving the world. She’s whiny and valley-girly. The zombie-monsters are one dimensional, the description like any made-for-TV creature-feature zombie, the soldiers stereotypical. Audible’s Daily Deal was motivation for book one, giving the author benefit of the doubt, book two. I’m not motivated enough to continue.

If you’re a die-hard SciFi and apocalypse or zombie fan, you’ll find something to enjoy. Extinction Cycle is getting good reviews, ergo I’m probably nuts to have a ‘meh’ opinion. The author is pretty conscientious with regard to blood, guts, puke, making things scary … I guess.