6 posts tagged “audiobook”

I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert - there's not really much I can say about this audiobook other than it's quite a lot shorter than I expected and if you're a fan of The Colbert Report, you'll enjoy it immensely regardless of its length!

The Alienist by Caleb Carr - I remember reading this book a couple of years ago and the audiobook is excellent, if a little long. Caleb Carr is also a historian, and has published a number of non-fiction books, as well as another novel ( The Angel of Darkness ) featuring many of the same characters that appear in The Alienist.

The novel is told from the perspective of journalist John Schuyler Moore, friend of Theodore Roosevelt, who becomes involved in an investigation concerning murders of boy prostitutes in turn-of-the-century New York. Because of his friendship with both Roosevelt, then recently appointed to run the city's police department, and the noted alienist Dr Kreizler, Moore is recruited to help turn a more scientific eye on the man responsible for a series of atrocious crimes.

While quite wordy, the story is compelling enough to keep your interest most of the time, though once the killer has been identified it starts to flag a little - at that point it's about catching him before he can kill again, with our erstwhile detectives always one step behind. It's also pretty gruesome in places, so not for those who are easily offended...

The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis - this is something of a comfort blanket book, because I think I've read the majority of Davis' Falco books and this is the first in that series, first read longer ago than I care to think.

Marcus Didius Falco is an informer, a staunch Republican in the Rome of Vespasian, barely making ends meet. One day he stumbles into the middle of a mystery, when a young girl literally runs into him as she tries to escape a kidnap attempt - before he knows it, Falco is helping her, then heading to the far-off shores of Britain to find out what is happening with the eponymous silver pigs. The pigs, huge ingots of British silver, are being used to fund a plot to overthrown Vespasian, and while Falco's sympathies are decidedly not with emperors of any kind, circumstances mean he can't find much to agree with in this particular conspiracy.

It's hard to imagine how any reader of detective stories wouldn't have come across Falco before, unless they have a dislike for historical detectives. Falco was one of the first, along with Ellis Peters' sleuthing monk Cadfael, and on his day he remains one of the best. Later books in the series can be a little thin at times, but The Silver Pigs never fails to produce the goods.

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, read by Ian McKellen - this is the story of Torak, who's been brought up in the forest by his father, away from the other members of the clan to which they both belong.

Torak doesn't think anything of this until his father is killed by a giant bear, and the adventures on which he embarks when he's alone lead him to discoveries about both himself and the father he thought he knew. Torak, it seems, can talk to wolves and finds a wolfcub, who eventually plays a major role in both his life and fulfilling a prophecy which leads to the destruction of the giant bear, a bear which is inhabited by a demon.

While the story itself was interesting enough, I can't say that I'm particularly energised to search out any of the other books in this series and, given the hype, I would have to admit to being a little disappointed with it. The characters are fairly two-dimensional and unsubtly written, while the overall plot ties itself up neatly with a bow at the end - I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied by it all...

Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre, read by David Tennant - fresh from an attempt on his life in Los Angeles, journalist Jack Parlabane heads back to his native Scotland and goes to ground in Edinburgh.

Unlucky again, Jack discovers he's now living directly above a crime scene, the crime in question being the particularly brutal murder of one Doctor Jeremy Ponsonby. Because he can't help himself, Jack gets involved, literally walking into the murder scene and then sticking his nose into a story of corruption in the NHS and hitmen in shiny shell suits.

I have to say, I very much enjoyed Brookmyre's prose and his use of language, so I look forward to the rest of his books, which apparently feature many of the same characters...

Because I commute, in addition to my inhaling books in the traditional format, I've also been listening to a large number of audiobooks, including (but not only) the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would heartily recommend both the Artemis Fowl books and the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, for very different reasons - Eoin Colfer writes good characters and Alexander McCall Smith seems to have the knack of producing what can only be described as feel-good fiction, although a couple of the latter seem to have lost their way in terms of plot. And words can hardly express how excellent Stephen Fry's reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is...