"The Cay" by Theodore Taylor

"The Cay"
by Theodore Taylor
Read by Michael Boatman
Published by Listening Library (2006)
2 hours and 58 minutes

How many of you out there have read a Young Adult book?  Hopefully many, but for those of you who haven't, I hope I can get you started in a new direction.  Young Adult literature are books that are aimed at the ages of 12-18.   These books run the gamut of genres and can be some very interesting reading.  Sure they are written for "the kids" but we adults can thoroughly enjoy them as well.  Take for example the "Eragon" series or the Harry Potter series, many adults found hours of enjoyment in those books, and there are lots more where those came from. 

A couple of summers ago I was introduced via an online community the group Audiobook Sync.  Each summer they have pair up  YA (Young Adult) audiobooks with a similar theme, so each week in the summer kids & adults can download 2 audiobooks for free.  Last summer I downloaded every week's pairing and even though it has taken me until now to get to some, I love these books.  This book, "The Cay" was teamed up with "Storm Runners." I haven't listened to "Storm Runners," yet but if this book is any sign, it should be fun.

"The Cay" takes place during World War II but is not a war story, rather this is one of survival and friendship.  When WWII breaks out Phillip Enright and his family are living on the island of Curacao.  Phillip's father was brought in from the states to help build oil refineries for the Island.  The Germans send submarines to the island to prevent the refining process so the non-axis countries cannot have the fuel.  When the island becomes unsafe Phillip and his mother board a boat, the S.S. Hato, to Virginia.  The ship is torpedoed and Philip is separated from his mother.  He finds himself on a raft with an old West Indian man, Timothy, from the boat and a cat named Stew. Phillip has been warned by his mother about black people, "They are different, and they live differently," and is wary of Timothy.  Timothy rescues Phillip but during the boat attack Phillip was hit in the head and after a couple of days becomes blind.

Phillip becomes extra dependent on Timothy because of the blindness.  Soon the odd trio arrive at a cay, a small island with no fresh water, and begin setting up camp for survival.  The two characters learn to overcome their disdain for one another, and develop strong bonds of friendship by the end of the novel. The two characters learn to overcome their disdain for one another, and develop strong bonds of friendship. Timothy teaches Phillip how to do many survival skills, such as weaving sleeping mats, building ways to catch fresh water and ways to fish, all while overcoming Phillip's blindness.  The trio overcomes many obstacles until a hurricane blows in and they must rush to tie everything down, including themselves.  During the storm they lose their shelter, also sometime during the storm Timothy, who is somewhere near 80 years old, dies, leaving Phillip to fend for himself,  Phillip soon learns why Timothy did the things he did, he was preparing Phillip to survive alone.

This story was one of those filled with every emotion from anger, anxiety to love and friendship and will keep you listening until the very end.  Michael Boatman does a superb job of voicing this book, and captures the accents and emotions of both of the characters perfectly. 

"Torchwood: The Sin Eaters" by Brian Minchin

"Torchwood: The Sin Eaters"
by Brian Minchin
Read by Gareth David-Lloyd
Produced by BBC Audio / AudioGO (2009)
 2 hours and 11 minutes

One of the things that attracted me to the television series and audiobooks of "Torchwood" (besides being a "Doctor Who" spin-off) was that they could combine several genres into each and every episode, and, as I'm finding out, the books and audio releases.  The writers of this series are able to blend in Lots of sci-fi (of course) with some horror, drama, comedy and every once in a while a bit of romance.  The latter doesn't grab me as much as the others, but hey, it's there.  This story definitely weaves in the horror. 

A little background on the Torchwood series is needed here, especially since this story takes place right about the middle of the Torchwood series timeline.  This story takes place just before the third season of the four seasons that were broadcast, so far.  Torchwood is a super secret not quite government agency that basically saves the Earth from aliens.  Their base is in Cardiff, Wales which also happens to be the location of a rift in time and space from which aliens are always appearing and threatening humanity, sometimes intentionally and sometimes just accidentally slip through the rift.  The series originally started out with five team members but by the end of season two, two of the members had died, leaving only Captain Jack Harkness, the head of Torchwood, Ianto Jones the admin of the agency, now serving in a more prominent function since the loss of the other two members, and Gwen Cooper, former cop.  That's when this book takes place, sometime just before season three.

Gwen, Jack and Ianto are investigating some bizarre rift readings (which usually means something is coming through) when they discover a corpse on the beach, the body is clothed in a WWII navy uniform and the body's face is covered in hundreds of tiny cuts.  They get the body back to the Torchwood base and discover small items within each of the cuts that appear to be egg sacs of sorts.  Further investigation reveal that the egg sacs hatch into small larvae that look like small shrimp. 

At this same time, Rhys, Gwen's husband, awakes after a night of debauchery at a friend's bachelor party to discover his friend, the groom is missing.  When he goes to the groom's home and finds the mother of the groom dead, he calls Gwen.  Gwen and Rhys set off to find the groom after Gwen decides the disappearance and the larvae may be tied together.

Also at this same time, the Reverend Hayward has found a way to take away people's sins.  By placing small creatures (larvae?) into the baptismal font that take away the peoples sins, the problem is the creatures feed on the negative emotions and eventually totally consume their hosts.  But this does not stop the reverend in his quest to free humanity of its sins. 

Jack and Ianto discover, in the bay, a sunken ship teeming with the larvae.  The larvae are caring for their "queen" who has enough larvae to destroy all of humanity.  Now only Torchwood with their, better than Bond gadgets, and alien fighting wit must race with time to save the world from these "sin-eaters."

In a well told story that combines horror, sci-fi, and some good comedic relief Torchwood and it's operatives will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.  

This audiobook is read by Gareth David-Lloyd, who portrays Ianto Jones in the series.  He does a fantastic job of delivering the drama and even impresses with his voicing of the different characters.  In fact, his voicing of Captain Jack, is spot on, at times I thought I was hearing the voice of John Barrowman, the actor who portrays Captain Jack Harkness.  His voicework and the nice dramatic music for effect make this audiobook a complete adventure.

“Doctor Who: The Ring of Steel” by Stephen Cole

“Doctor Who: The Ring of Steel”

by Stephen Cole

Read by Arthur Darvill

Published by AudioGO Ltd. & BBC Audio (2010)

1 hour and 18 minutes

Okay, I admit it, I’m hooked.  Hooked on Doctor Who.  What I find amazing is the awesome choice of audiobooks available in the Doctor Who World.  In the new generation of Doctor Who, which includes the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th doctors, there are at least 50 audiobooks available.  Then all sorts of books on the doctors from the “old generation,” so it looks like I may have some fun for a while.  The television series is slated to start another season next fall, so until then I’m gonna listen to all the audiobooks I can lay my hands on.   Some of the se audiobooks are full length books and some are specifically for audio only and are written in a one hour format, much like a single television episode.  This latest one is one of those one hour audio recordings.

Normally I find it even more interesting when the book is read by one of the actors in the series.  Usually when one of the actors reads the story it is based on happenings around their character.  Of course when Matt Smith reads, since he portrays the Doctor, it’s perfect, but when one of the other actors reads it you can count on it being focused on them.  Now maybe that’s just something I’m putting into it because of hearing their voice.  So when I picked out this audiobook I saw it was read by Arthur Darvill, who plays Rory in the series, Amy Ponds boyfriend/husband in the series.  But Rory never made a single appearance in this story so they fooled me.  However his voicework is spot on and when voicing the Doctor, he nearly sounds like Matt Smith, which made the book nice to hear.

When the TARDIS lands on Orkney (or Orkney Islands, in Scotland) in the near future, the Doctor and Amy arrive to find a large demonstration in progress over the construction of new electricity pylons. The Doctor tries to break things up peacefully - but suddenly the road splits open without warning and swallows police, security guards and protestors alike.

Separated from the Doctor, Amy takes charge of transporting the wounded to hospital - but the rescue mission becomes a terrifying ride as the pylons come to life and begin to walk and the road rears up, erupting with boiling tarmac.

The Doctor, meanwhile, has even more than metal monsters and rebellious roads to deal with. Here is where it became really cool for me.  Have you ever been driving along an interstate or even country roads and seen those large high tension electrical wire supports that look like giant metal robots?  I’ve heard some say they look like Farmer John and his wife (different shapes for each sex).  When I was a kid I used to be on long road trips and imagine they would come to life, and like Amy Pond in this story, I used to protect my family by shooting them down with my pretend laser gun (forefinger extended and thumb up).  Well, in this book they do come to life and attack.   So, who is bringing these things to life and sucking the life out of the power company's employees - and just what is lurking inside the Astra-Gen headquarters?  That is for the Doctor and Amy to find out and through the help of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver (the only weapon ever needed) to fix and save the earth, again.

There was one really interesting moment in this book that made me have to rewind and listen again.  The Doctor says, “you're only young twelve times,” is this a reference to the number of times a Time Lord can regenerate? If so are we looking at a near-future end to the Doctor Who series?  There is a movie supposed to be coming out and that usually marks the end of a television series.  Oh…say it isn’t so.

If you are interested as to where this book falls into the timeline of the Doctor Who series, it occurs after tv episode, “Victory of the Daleks” and before the book, “The Runaway Train.”

"Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World" by Sam Sommers

"Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World"
by Sam Sommers
Read by Joshua Swanson
Published by Penguin Audio (2012)
8 hours and 24 minutes

I have always had an interest in psychology and sociology, specifically I've always wondered what makes people tick and how can you make them tick differently.  In fact while in college In my general ed. psychology class, my professor and his T.A. kept trying to get me to convert my major to psychology, I seemed to always have the best questions in class, I guess, and the grasp I always had for the concepts behind what makes the mind work impressed them.  But I was determined to change the world by becoming the best audio production person the radio world has ever seen.  Maybe I should have listened. 

Anyway, I saw this audiobook in the new releases from Penguin audio and wondered if this could help me with my copywriting.  Yes, just like any other copywriter I use psychology to try and make the audience realize that they need the product I'm writing about.  Sneaky? yeah, but it works.  So I saw this book, and after reading about the book I thought, well this sounds like it is probably a self-help book, and really I don't subscribe to all this Dr. Phil self help junk.  In actuality I probably would have been a thorn in the side of the Psychology department because I feel that Freud ruined Western Civilization. In my humble opinion, I believe therapy is just a way to not have to take the blame for any of our own actions.  Knowing all this, you can probably see why I almost didn't give this book a chance, but, I'm glad I did.  It seems that the author, Sam Sommers is also not a fan of the self-help genre, he even goes as far as saying so in the introduction.  This book explores not how you can improve yourself but rather how the invisible forces influence your life, in turn this shows how understanding them can improve everything you do.

Sam Sommers is an award-winning teacher and researcher of social psychology at Tufts University outside Boston. His research specialties include how people think, communicate, and behave in diverse settings, as well as psychological perspectives on the U.S. legal system.

The book is presented in a factual yet easy-going and at times humorous manner that shows through personal examples from the author and through various studies world wide about how the world around you shapes your instincts and sometimes most private thoughts.  Through this easy-going manner the book expresses the ups and downs that are the human experience.  Our lives are full of situations that are humorous and serious and this is perfectly reflected in the tone of this book.

The presentation from the reader, Joshua Swanson, makes this an audiobook experience that emphasizes the humor and easy-going presentation written by Sommers.   Swanson reads the material in a manner that keeps the listener listening and makes the presentation of some of the statistical studies not merely a presentation but as though you and the author were sitting down and discussing the concepts presented.   This actually makes it so that the learning is fun or rather as Bill Cosby used to say in the Fat Albert show, "And if you're not careful, you may learn something before it's done."  I know I finished the book with a clearer perspective of my fellow 3rd rockers.

Some of the examples of context affecting our attitude are pretty dark and include such cases as a man dying on a subway and no one notices he is dead for several hours, the 38 witnesses to an abduction of a child and no one steps in to question the situation, and several studies where the test subject relies on those around to decide how to act.  In the listening of the different cases and studies, I found myself saying, "Not me, I would have checked the man to see if he was okay, or I would have not paid attention to those around me and would pull the fire alarm if smoke was coming in under the door to a roomful of people.  But according to all the cases and studies the facts point otherwise.  And looking at some situations, I tend to agree when in a crowd, and there is an emergency, I do find myself thinking someone closer to the emergency will do something. 

As the author says, "Just as a museum visitor neglects to notice the frames around paintings, so do people miss the influence of ordinary situations on the way they think and act. But frames - situations - do matter. Your experience viewing the paintings wouldn't be the same without them. The same is true for human nature."  By understanding the powerful influence that context has in our lives and using this knowledge to rethink how we see the world, we can be more effective at work, at home, and in daily interactions with others. He describes the pitfalls to avoid and offers insights into making better decisions and smarter observations about the world around us.

Sommers covers several issues throughout the book from gender differences in society, how we react to emergencies in different situations and even racism.  I will say the section on racism was the most eye opening for me.  I won't go into this chapter, because I want you to be able to experience the eye opener presented for yourself.  I will say that the overall message behind the book I took out of it, is that we are not who we think we are, because our selves change through time and in context.  Just knowing this can alert you to maybe in the next situation you can do something to help or just make your life easier.

"Mouthpiece" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Mouthpiece"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multicast performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio (2012)
Approx 2 hours

Being a comic book fan I've always been drawn (pardon the pun) to the pulp magazines from the early to mid 20th century.  Actually, the pulp magazines were printed between 1896 and into the 1950s.  Pulp magazines with their thrilling over the top stories and characters and sensational cover art could easily be said to be the founding fathers of comic books.  With authors such as Isaac Asimov, H.P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard the stories were often more valuable than the mere 10 cent cover price of the pulps.  Many well known authors wrote for the pulps and provided a plethora of short stories that have been nearly forgotten.  The pulps are making a comeback, thanks in small part to the old Quentin Tarantino movie, but the biggest reason for the comeback is the efforts of Galaxy Press and Galaxy Audio. 

Since 2008 Galaxy Press/Galaxy Audio have been publishing the stories L. Ron Hubbard wrote for the pulps.  This not only preserves the stories for the future, after all the original pulps were printed on cheap paper (thus the name) and not meant to last, but this re-releasing exposes the readers of today to some fun stories in nearly every genre; mystery, sci-fi, adventure, westerns and more.  The added bonus is that Galaxy Audio is releasing each of these books, which contain one to four stories each in a pulp magazine feeling edition, into audiobooks.

The audiobooks from Galaxy Audio capture the feel of the original pulp magazines of the pulp era by dramatizing each book in the manner of radio shows from the same era. They use great vocal talent that are able to bring these over the top characters to life, sound effects that keep the story going and incidental music that fits perfectly with each genre and story.  Each time I listen to one of these audiobooks, I'm always amazed at the escapism provided.  By the end of each book I'm left wanting more yet still feeling satisfied by the great stories provided.  Then I have to wait another book for the next issue to be released.  (Actually you could buy the "ePulp" through their website, which is an iPod classic preloaded with all 80 audiobooks with lots of extras including photos, glossaries, videos and more, and not have to wait.)

This time around I gave the February, 2012 release of "Mouthpiece" a listen.  This audio pulp release from Galaxy audio features for stories from the Mystery genre of L. Ron Hubbard's pulp writings. These stories were perfect Hubbard stories in that they not only were fun to hear but they included the inevitable Hubbard story twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. 

The first story in this collection is, "Mouthpiece" originally published in the September, 1934 issue of "Thrilling Detective, and tells the story of Mat Lawrence who returns from building a power dam in the desert to track down the murderer of his gangster father. It had been a long time since Mat Lawrence went to the city. Only something urgent could take him from his job something as urgent and shocking as the grisly murder of his father. His father was a big-time gangster so it was no big surprise, Mat was an honest man but shared his father's temper which gets him to seek revenge on his father's murderer.  Seeking the help of his father's attorney, Mat goes after the murderers and the million dollars that has gone missing.

Story number two is "Flame City," originally published in the February, 1935 issue of "Thrilling Detective" and tells the story of Fire Chief Blaze Delaney whose job is in jeopardy because of a rash of fires hitting the city.  Blaze gets help from his son to stop an epidemic of fires and bring the arsonists to justice.

The third story is "Calling Squad Cars!" originally published in the April, 1934 issue of "Phantom Detective" and tells of a police dispatcher suspected of helping a gang of bank robbers.  When he is fired as dispatcher he fights back by tracking down the gang.  When he is taken hostage by the gang he soon learns how they were able to put out false reports on the police band to cover up their actual heists.  Now the dispatcher must use his skills as an expert radio man to foil the gangs criminal antics.

The final story is "The Grease Spot," originally published in the July, 1936 issue of "Thrilling Detective" and tells the story of former race car driver now owner of a wrecking company who has been warned against using the police band as a means to get his tow jobs.  He soon finds himself a captive, at gunpoint, and needing help from the men in blue, or can he turn it around and help them out?

All four stories in superb audio drama form are the perfect companion for anyone who loves a good mystery. 

"Autumn: Purification" by David Moody

"Autumn: Purification"
by David Moody
Published by Thomas Dunne Books
329 pages

I'm continuing in my excursion into the Autumn series by David Moody, and with the third book out of the way, I'm more convinced that this is NOT a zombie series.  Although the walking corpses do prevail in these books, the series is more about survival on a post apocalyptic world than just the horror of walking dead.  Ever since book one I've been wondering why these meatbags haven't been eating the living, but at the same time with the constant despair and need to survive guiding those that were immune to the virus, this series is just a good story.  My love of all things zombie got me interested in the books, but it was the excellent storytelling by David Moody that kept me reading.

In the first book, "Autumn," we were introduced to Michael and Emma as a mysterious virus struck nearly 90% of the world's population dead.  The deaths happened within seconds after contracting the virus.  Michael and Emma were among the few survivors that grouped together in a small town community center.  The two met up with Carl and decided that they had pretty much the run of the world since there nearly everyone else was dead.  When the bodies of those struck down by the virus began to rise and walk around the 3 decided to head off and find safety in an abandoned farm.  The bodies then actually started to attack, not eating the flesh of victims but just the mere mass of lots of bodies was enough to bring harm.  Carl tried to go back to the Community center but found it overrun with bodies and he finally fell to the horde.  Michael and Emma took off to find somewhere safe.

In book two, "Autumn: The City," the story runs parallel to the first book but this time from the view of survivors in a large city.  This second book also throws in that the military had a bit of a warning of the virus and military personnel were immediately sent to bunkers before the virus struck.  The survivors in the city are holed up in a university but the crowding from the walking cadavers soon makes it obvious they need to relocate.  When the military decides to send out a scouting party to determine what has happened and the current status, two of the soldiers are left behind when the troop transport is overwhelmed by walking dead.  One of the soldiers has his protective gear removed and dies within seconds showing the virus is still in the air.  The second soldier, Cooper, discovers he is immune and finds the survivors in the University.  Eventually with the help of Cooper the survivors escape the University to find the underground military bunker, on the way to the bunker they meet up with Michael and Emma in a motor home.  The few survivors get into the bunker but not allowed past the decontamination area, now safe underground.

Now for book three, "Autumn: Purification."  We join all the survivors as they continue to exist in the bunker.  Problems arise in the bunker when the now aggressive walking corpses are blocking the vents which feed air into the bunker.  The undead are blocking by sheer masses of bodies in the area, attracted to the living that are in the area.  The military tries to clear the vents but each time they go out they attract more bodies.  On the final attempt to clear the bodies, something goes wrong and the survivors must leave, able to save a few of the soldiers after the main bunker is closed to the outside.   In a convoy of the motor home, a prison bus and a troop transport they stop in a nearby town to regroup.  After clearing out a few animated bodies, the survivors spend the night in a relatively secure area.

The next morning a helicopter arrives in town and lands in the secure area.  The survivors from the bunker are told by the pilot of a plan to go to safety.  The safety comes in the form of an island which had a small population.  Once the few bodies are cleared the island should be a haven of safety compared to the mainland.  The survivors then only have to drive to the airport where the pilot is stationed and then, using the chopper and one airplane go to the island.  Not as easy as it sounds, especially with the dead becoming more self-aware. 

What I really liked about this story of survival, is that David Moody uses the normal person as the main characters.  Not like other zombie movies.  Have you ever noticed how in other zombie movies your everyday average person suddenly becomes an expert marksman when zombies attack?  Not so in this book.  These people panic, don't shoot straight, and often double think their movements.  Basically what your everyday normal human would do when struck by the sudden terror of not only being one of the last humans alive but also the terror of the dead walking around.  

Now for the fourth and final book in the series, "Autumn: Disintegration."

"The Ringworld Engineers" by Larry Niven

"The Ringworld Engineers"
by Larry Niven
Read by Paul Michael Garcia
Produced by Blackstone Audio
Approx 13 hours.

Okay, I've decided to go ahead with the listening of the Ringworld Series of sci-fi books by Larry Niven.   I had listened to one of the prequels, "The Juggler of Worlds," and found the story to be very interesting and a nice piece of creative science-fiction.  I then read the original, "Ringworld," and was just blown away by the great science-fiction created by Niven.  After the review of "Ringworld" I was warned that the sequels aren't very good.  I decided I would listen to them anyway, the books, not the warnings, and so far, with the first sequel out of the way, I'm still in awe.  Not only are my favorite characters, Speaker-to-Animals and Louis Wu back but the science behind the science fiction continues to be superb.  So, no problem with this sequel.

Maybe it's all in the presentation.  I've read books and then gone back and listened to the audiobook version and found that the audio version shows off areas I may have missed.  I had never read the "Ringworld" books so maybe the outstanding production in this audiobook is the difference.  The reader, Paul Michael Garcia, delivers the story perfectly.  His ability to provide voices for the different races;  Pearson's Puppetteers, Kzin, various races of the ringworld and of course the human Louis Wu hits the mark.  He is also able to convey the emotions and attitudes of each character within the given context.  So maybe this is what makes it so good. 

I do have to say that the world created by Niven is a feat in and of itself, and the different races, ideals and circumstances on the Ringworld are enough to make this a fascinating science fiction story.  It's kind of funny, though, Niven never planned on writing a sequel, but thanks to the fans, he did.  Mainly because of the popularity, but as is stated in the introduction to this book, there were numerous engineering problems and with a group of MIT students chanting "The Ringworld is unstable" at the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, was reason enough to write this book and fix those problems.  It took nine years from that convention, and 10 years from the publication date of the first book to get this one out, but I for one am glad he did.  The fun continues as well as the concepts that really make you ponder the possibilites.

This book starts out some 20 years after the events in "Ringworld," with the characters having gone through life changing events.  Louis Wu is a junkie, a wire junkie.  Wire junkies are addicted to a drowd, a box that connects to the pleasure centers of the brain via a wire, and keeps the junkie in a state of bliss, much like the tasp used by Nessus in the first book.  He has become this way because of loneliness mainly, through the book we discover that the Ringworld native, Pril, who came back to Earth with Louis, Nessus and Speaker-to-Animals was taken by the U.N. Security Council once arriving on Earth and never seen again.  Louis was in love with her and never discovered her fate until this novel. 

Speaker-to-animals, earned a name and a status, which included several wives, by bringing back the technology promised by Nessus to the Kzinti.  His new name is, Chmee.  And in this novel he seems to really fit the status by being more of a leader.

Since the fans found the Ringworld to be unstable that's the general idea of this novel, fixing the instability.  But first, we have to get our party together and that's where it all starts, Hindmost, the mate to Nessus gathers Louis and Chmee to return to the Ringworld.  The reason for Hindmost to return is because, Hindmost has lost his position as a leader of the Puppeteers, and he seeks to bring back some Ringworld Technology to regain his position.  With Louis an addict the Hindmost has control over him, but soon learns that Kzinti and Humans do not make good slaves.

Upon arrival at the Ringworld, the horrifying discovery of the Ringworld being of kilter in it's orbit around the sun is made.  Calculations put the destruction of the Ringworld, by falling into the sun, within mere months.  Louis and Cmee search the Ringworld for a repair center that should have been established by the Ringworld Engineers to fix the problem and stabilize the orbit, saving the millions upon millions of lifeforms now living on the Ringworld.

While on the Ringworld they meet several different hominid species that have evolved on the Ringworld.  This is where some of the creativity comes through for Niven. To picture the wide variety of life on the ring world picture the expanse involved.  The Ringworld is a structure in the shape of a ring set in orbit around a sun set at around the same distance Earth is from the sun.  With that size hundreds, if not thousands, of Earths could fit in, leaving a large amount of habitable space.  The lifeforms Niven created include, small red (demonoid) carnivores, vampires who put out pheremones to seduce other hominids, tree hangers, otter like people, and many more.  Louis decides to rebel against Hindmost and makes it his mission to save the various life forms who have very little technology due to a virus that attacked all the Ringworld's super-conductors. 

In the Great Ocean of Ringworld there are small islands that are "maps' of various planets in known space.  For instance, a "map" of Kzin seems to be a smaller scale representation of the planet and even seeded with Kzinti, although from a past when the Ringworld was created, so they are not docile by any means.  Chmee discovers that Hindmost will not be returning to Known Space, and sets off to make a life on "The Map of Kzin."

Meanwhile Louis has found the floating city where there is a library and earns his admission into the library by repairing water condensers for the various buildings in the city.  In the library Louis learns that the "maps" in the great ocean may be the key to the repair center.  Taking command away from Hindmost via mutiny Louis brings them all to "The Map of Mars" where many startling discoveries are made, including the fate of Teela Brown who was left on the Ringworld in the previous novel.  Niven borrows from his book "Protector" to weave the tale of Teela.

Great science-fiction mixed with the struggle of a race against time and the struggle of sacrifice this sequel to "Ringworld" continues the great story of wonder..

"Autumn: The City" by David Moody

"Autumn: The City"
by David Moody
Published by Thomas Dunne Books (2011)
330 pages

It's back to some zombie action once again.  This time around I'm continuing in a series written by David Moody, one of the best zombie horror writers, I've read.  The funny thing is, the zombie word has yet to appear in this series and this is the second book.  Sure there are reanimated corpses, cadavers, bodies walking around, but no one ever brings up the "Z" word.  There is once that one of the characters compares the walking corpses to those in the movies their kid used to watch.  But Moody is able to bring you the horror of zombies without the word or even flesh eating monsters.

Sure the gore is still there with rotting flesh and dead people walking around and looking decayed, but they don't attack, at least not at first, and then when they do, it's more a matter of the numbers of dead bodies, than the fear of being eaten or worse turned into one of the living dead.  This makes the horror a deeper more emotional horror and plays on a different side of fear. 

Being part two of what is a four part (so far) series, I'll give you a little bit of a background, but one thing I noticed was that this book could easily be read independent of the first book, which was titled, "Autumn."  Both books basically run parallel to each other until later in the book when a couple of characters from the first book show up and blend in with this story.

In "Autumn" the same as this book it all starts out with a day like any other, people on their way to work when all of a sudden many are struck with a sudden illness that within seconds leaves them dead, choking on their own blood.  In the first book a few survivors meet up in a community center all dumbfounded that suddenly everyone they know is now dead.  In fact all the deaths happen so suddenly that the roads are jammed with wrecked vehicles, and bodies.  Not knowing what to do the few group in the center just simply trying to make sense of it all.  After a couple of days the dead bodies begin to get up and walk around.  Not threatened by the slow ambling bodies, the survivors ignore the bodies walking around not able to cope with this new horror.  The bodies simply walk until something is in the way and then change directions.  After another couple of days the bodies begin to respond to noises made by the survivors.  Still not threatening but nonetheless horrifying, Three of the survivors including Michael and Emma decide to head out of the small town and out into the country where there will be less bodies walking around and try to make a new start of it. 

They find a farm in the middle of nowhere and begin to set up house trying to begin anew in this strange new world.  The problems begin when the dead bodies begin to get more aggressive, the walking dead soon begin attacking, and with their sheer numbers and being attracted to the living, drive the survivors out of the farmhouse and Michael and Emma return to the town to find the rest of the survivors.

Now for this book, "Autumn" The City." The beginning parallels the events in the first book but this time around the survivors are in a major city.  With the higher population of the city the sheer numbers of walking cadavers soon overpowers the survivors who are holed up in a local university.  The thing that makes this book a little more different and interesting is that Moody introduces the military into the mix.  At the beginning of the book a strange alert goes out and all local military are shuffled off to a hidden underground base.  The military is forgotten until after the point when the walking corpses start to get a little more aggressive.  At this point the hidden away soldiers decide that after a few weeks and no communications with the outside world a scout party needs to be sent out. 

A troop transport is loaded up and some soldiers venture out into the city to find out what has happened to the world.  Mistaking the walking dead for infected citizens, they stop and try to find out what is going on.  The undead soon attack the soldiers causing all to leave, two soldiers are left behind as the transport leaves back to base.  When one of the left behind takes off his mask he soon succumbs to the disease and dies instantly.  The other soldier, Cooper, decides not to take off his gear and seeks out shelter from the infected. 

Soon some of the survivors decide they are no longer safe in the University and need a plan to escape to somewhere where there are not millions of walking corpses attacking.  When Cooper shows up at the University they realize the base must be the place to go.  But first, transportation is needed and then to escape the millions of dead in the city. 

Lots of zombie horror, but not the typical flesh eating terror, rather the survival and psychological horror of the end of the world.  Now on to book 3 "Purification."

"Trouble on His Wings" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Trouble on His Wings"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multi-cast performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio
Approx 2 hours


I'm really enjoying all theses stories from the Golden Age, that are being released from Galaxy Audio and Galaxy Press, especially the short audiobooks they are releasing.  Galaxy Audio has been releasing all the short stories by L. Ron Hubbard from his Pulp-Fiction writing days of the mid-20th century since 2008 and each month there's a new release.  In the paperback versions they are giving them the look and feel of the old pulp magazines, but even better Galaxy Audio has created what I call Audio Pulps in their audio versions.

The Audiobooks all run about 2 hours in length some with 1 story and some with 2 or 3 short stories.  Each one is produced with a full cast, sound effects and incidental music that fits each story perfectly.  In fact, these audiobooks sound a lot like the old radio dramas from that same era.  The voice actors bring to life each character perfectly.

The new year is rolling in and that means another year of monthly releases from Galaxy Audio and Galaxy Press.  The first release of the year is "Trouble on His Wings," which was originally published in the January, 1939 issue of "Five Novels Monthly."

This adventure takes us to the air with a "picture-chaser" for the newsreels, yes, it is a bit dated on that aspect but the adventure is still enough to keep you on the edge.  Johnny Brice is always out to get the best pictures from the mouth of danger, from flying over a shipwreck and then diving in to get the film from the tourists onboard, to flying over a forest-fire and risking life and plane to get the best film for the newsreels.   

The risks in this story run high and when Johnny and his sidekick, "Irish" fly over a shipwreck they end up rescuing a beautiful woman who manages to tag along on each adventure.  Each time around tragedy strikes and Johnny loses his film and crashes a plane or two.  He figures it's all because of the dame and gives her the nickname "Jinx." 

Finally when Johnny is sent over to cover the war between Japan and China and is captured by the Japanese, the trio have to escape, and hopefully gather some info so Johnny and Irish can keep their jobs at world news.

Lots of fun high-flying, death-defying, adventure in this one.  Using the same old pulp-fiction formula of a Hero, a sidekick and a dame, Hubbard keeps you on listening until the very end.  With all sorts of twists and turns in the story that you never know what will happen until the surprising end.

"Red Mist" by Patricia Cornwell

"Red Mist"
by Patricia Cornwell
Read by Kate Burton
Produced by Penguin Audio

Dr. Kay Scarpetta has been a staple in Patricia Cornwell's novels since 1990 and this latest novel brings Kay to Georgia.  Dr. Scarpetta is a Forensic Examiner/Expert and in this 19th novel featuring her as the protagonist, she has agreed to meet with an inmate at the Georgia Prison for women.  The inmate is a convicted sex offender and mother of a vicious killer.  The woman is convicted of molesting then 12 year old Jack Fielding Scarpetta's former deputy chief.  The daughter is the result of that relationship and is also the murderer of Jack Fielding.  Scarpetta's quest is personal, but soon she finds herself roped into an investigation that could clear a woman, now on death row at the same prison, of murder.

The author, Patricia Cornwell is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the Advisory Board for the Forensic Science Training Program at the office of Chief Medical Examiner, New York City, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council where she is an advocate for psychiatric research.   With these credentials you know you are getting an author that knows what she is writing about.  The science and techniques used in this book not only have that real feel, but Patricia Cornwell has not forgotten the general public and writes so that any person will understand even what could be the most technical jargon.  She keeps the science real but easily understood.  Not only that but Cornwell's writing involves some unique techniques that capture the surroundings so all clues can be observed in this mystery. 

And example of this is when the people investigating the facts of a case over a dinner all are talking about the case throughout, but at times the listener/reader only hears thoughts in Kay Scarpetta's head, while at the same time, we hear parts of the conversation and at other times we hear off-hand comments from her friend and detective Marino.  Marino comments on how he hates artificial sweeteners, which have nothing to do with the case but puts you in a very realistic scene. Very well done to make the story real.

The reader of this audiobook, Kate Burton, does a superb job of vocalizing all the different voices and attitudes of each character, from Boston accents, Southern, New York and even an Australian, all performed clearly and effectively.

"Red Mist" will engross you in a full investigation that may clear the woman on death row, but the possibilities of what may have actually happened may solve a spree of murders across the country, alert Homeland Security to possible terrorist activities and solve some burning questions from tragedies in Kay Scarpetta's past.  I don't usually start a series late but this time around I was curious and jumped right in.  Patricia Cornwell did an excellent job explaining the past histories of all the personnel involved and this novel serves well as a stand-alone piece in the Kay Scarpetta series.

"Them or Us" (book 3 of the Hater Trilogy) by David Moody

"Them or Us" (book 3 of the Hater Trilogy)
by David Moody
published by Thomas Dunne Books
354 pages

David Moody has a way of creating books about zombies without having zombies.  In his series "Autumn" the "Z" word is never mentioned but there are reanimated corpses.  In the Hater Trilogy he has created a bunch of mindless fighters who never eat the flesh of their victims but go into uncontrollable rages until the victim is dead.  So while they may not be be zombie books, they still create the same horror of a zombie book, but without the gore. 

In the Hater trilogy, it turns out that some switch is thrown in the human brain where about half of the poulation become Haters.  The Haters see an Unchanged and that flipped switch causes the Hater to attack fight and not stop until the Unchanged is destroyed.  Even when a Hater has all his limbs incapacitated they will still fight until one of them is dead.  With this aspect Moody is able to explore the darker side of a zombie apocalypse.  The darker side being how do you survive when all is gone, every aspect of civilization breaks down and no longer is there a means for food to be obtained by just going to the corner market.

In the first book, "Hater" the switch was flipped and all the population began a war that would leave the world scarred forever.  In this book we were introduced to Danny McCoyne who became a Hater but first watched the world collapse, losing is family.  In the Second book, "Dog Blood," the world was at war Haters vs. the Unchanged.  Danny sought to find his daughter who he knew was like himself, a Hater.  The problem was, though, his wife and two sons were Unchanged.  Danny had to fight the Hate inside to sneak into Unchanged refugee camps to find his daughter without being discovered.  All this while a major world war was going on between the Haters and Unchanged.  When he found his daughter one side, whether it was Hater or Unchanged or both is never really known, launched nuclear weapons destroying all of the major cities.  Danny lost his daughter as they were trying to escape one of the blasts, when she went running back into the explosion.

Now we come to the third book, "Them or Us."  The world is torn apart and there are very few Unchanged left, what few there are are hunted down and slaughtered.  A small community of Haters is gathered that is ruled by a man who gained his position by killing the man in charge and putting up all the toughest fighters up in a higher social class.  So the haters now rule by might.  Danny is discovered to be able to hold in the hate and Hinchcliffe, the leader of the community, uses him to inifiltrate nests of the Unchanged so the Haters can slaughter them.  Danny becomes a sort of confidant for Hinchcliffe and learns all his secrets.  The big problem is that once all the Unchanged are gone who is left to fight, each other?  That answer seems to be yes when another community is discovered and Danny is sent to infiltrate and find out any logistical info so Hinchcliffe can attack. 

With the last of humanity struggling for survival Danny begins to question whether mankind should continue or just kill itself off.  The question of all time, do we really deserve to exist?  If so How? And what does war prove?

This book is full of philosophic wonderings and some interesting action thrown in to keep the brain pumped.  I'll warn you once you start reading this book or any book in the trilogy you can't stop until the last page, even then you'll want more.

"Orders is Orders" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Orders is Orders"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multi-cast performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio (2008)
approx 2.5 hours

Galaxy Audio is getting ready to release some new collections of audiobooks from L. Ron Hubbard's Pulp Fiction writings of the mid-20th Century and before I get to them I realized there was one release I've missed.  You see, since 2008 Galaxy Press and Galaxy Audio have been gathering all of the stories Hubbard wrote during the hey day of pulp fiction and have been releasing the New York Times bestselling author's writings in their own new pulp magazine forms.  The paperbacks have the feel of the old pulps (but are a little more sturdy), and the audio book forms, well let's just say, Galaxy Audio has created the new format of Audio Pulps.  The audiobook releases are all around 2 hours in length and while some may contain one story there are some that have 2 or 3 short stories.  This one is only one story but, as are all of them, it is a fun and exciting adventure story. 

The way Galaxy Audio has created this Audio Pulp format is by casting multiple talented people to play the parts in the story and then incorporating excellent sound effects and perfect music between chapters.  The final products sound like old time radio with over the top acting for the over the top characters created by Hubbard.  The voice work alone makes these recordings fun to hear. 

As for the stories, well I will have to say there is a bit of a pulp fiction formula to them, but Hubbard uses that formula perfectly.  I had originally thought this was just a Hubbard gimmick, but following the success of Galaxy Audio/Galaxy Press re-releasing the old pulp-fiction stories other publishers have begun releasing other stories from the pulp-fiction days, and it seems that the formula is a pulp-fiction formula and Hubbard just seemed to master it.  That formula? Well, you gotta have a hero, a sidekick (preferably with some strange quirk) a dame and an impossible mission or crime to solve, then throw in some pretty enemies that are impossible to overcome and have the good guys win.  It works and let me tell you, it is extremely fun.

This story, "Orders Is Orders" was originally published in the December, 1937 issue of "Argosy weekly" and tells the story of just such formulaic characters. Two marines, Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell and Private First Class "Tuffy" Spivits,   and a girl, a fan dancer trying to escape the war-torn area,  dodge bullets on a 200-mile trek through embattled China to bring serum and gold to the American consulate, an isolated island of safety in a sea of dead and dying.

Japan and China are battling it out and caught in the middle, in the Chinese city of Shunkien, is the American Consulate.  The American refugees cannot escape due to the war being waged and the Asiatic form of cholera is threatening unless they can get the serum on time.   Sgt, Mitchell is just the man to do it, but he has one weakness, liquor, if he can stay away from it he can stay clear headed enough to get the job done.  One of the many things that make Mitchell the perfect candidate is that he was raised in the area.  Mitchell's father is a missionary and he was raised there until a falling out caused him to leave abruptly, he's been on his own ever-since. 

Mitchell and Spivets come to the aid of a fan dancer who is trying to escape, but they end up taking her the wrong way when they commandeer her car in order to make the mission succeed.  Along the way they come to where Mitchell's father has set up is mission and find it nearly in ruins due to the war.  Since their last car broke down they have to commandeer one and reluctantly Mitchell's father joins in.  With constant battles going on they strange landing party fight all odds to get to Shunkien on time without getting the U.S. involved in this war.

It may be the old Pulp-Fiction formula, but L. Ron Hubbard could write the action that keeps you hooked until the very end.

Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles by Michael Moorcock

"Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles"
by Michael Moorcock
read by Clive Mantle
produced by AudioGO/BBC Audiobooks (2010)
Approx 11 hours

While anxiously awaiting the Christmas return of Dr. Who on television, I have to get my fix.  This time around I dive into a Dr. Who audiobook that is unlike any other. 

First of all the length.  This one is just about 11 hours where most Dr. Who audiobooks tend to be from one to three hours in length.  So I was strapped in and ready for a good long run.  This story would have easily taken an entire season to run.

The next feature that makes it unique is the writing.  Michael Moorcock is a well know award winning author of science-fiction and fantasy, and I have heard his name bandied around in sci-fi circles, but I've never picked up one of his stories until now.  This story takes the Dr. Who universe and seems to pop it into a more surreal almost absurd series of events that seem to blend the writing styles of Douglas Adams and P.G. Wodehouse.  At times the story is a humorous romp through the multiverse and at others a bit of a humorous whodunit.   Needless to say this is a fun book featuring the 11th Doctor and his companion Amy Pond.

The reader Clive Mantle does a great job of delivering the story through this audiobook.  In some cases the characters are over the top and Mantle voices them just that way.  From his vocalizations you can nearly picture the faces of the characters.  Superb delivery.

At times this story reminded me of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with Amy pod as Alice and the Doctor as the White Rabbit, and there are a couple of hatters that do seem mad. 

In the beginning it at first seems as though the Doctor is out for a bit of sport as he and Amy join the Terraphiles, a group of humans in the far future obsessed with recreating Earth's distant past and reenacting medieval Earth sports.  By the far future I mean about 50,000 years into the future, so you have to forgive if they get some of the sports wrong.  There's a version of, I'm thinking Rugby, where the ball is an arrow and the bowmen/archers shoot the arrow and catch it.  I did say they didn't quite get it right. 

As it turns out, though, the Doctor is trying avoid the collapse of the Multiverse from the mysterious "dark tides" that have begun to appear.  The Doctor and his new friends compete in a Grand Tournament in the Miggea star system, which lies on the border of parallel realities. The prize of the contest is an ancient artifact called the Arrow of Law, sought also by the Doctor's old foe Captain Cornelius and his crew of space pirates.

With the multiverse on the verge of collapse the Doctor, Amy and the Terraphiles have to team up with the space pirates to try to save all of existence.  With some fun moments, the theft of a gaudy hat, and some strange sports, this is one adventure with the Doctor that you won't soon forget.

"Death Benefit" by Robin Cook

"Death Benefit"
by Robin Cook
Read by George Guidall
Produced by Penguin Audio
Approx 11.5 hours.

Back in the '70s Robin Cook had a huge best seller with his book, "Coma."  I remember everyone just had to read this book (I was still into just monster books at the time).  Then the movie came out and again folks were excited.  Dr. Cook then went on to write many best sellers but "Coma" was the first one that came to mind.  I got the opportunity to listen to this book, "Death Benefit," his latest creation, and had to ask myself, "Why haven't I read anything by this guy before?"

So here I plunge into a medical thriller, written by the man who pretty much perfected the genre, and I'll tell you first hand, Dr. Robin Cook can keep you in suspense, while spinning a tale that involves science that could be happening now, and a story that could almost come out of today's headlines.  I think I may have been intimidated before, knowing that he is an actual physician, I had assumed his writing would get real technical.  Well, I was right it does get pretty technical, but Dr. Cook has a way of telling the story and the science behind the story that becomes educational as well as entertaining.  The science behind this book involves  stem cells and the growing of human organs, and, well, let's just say, I followed along pretty well.  I don't consider myself a biology know-it-all, but I'm also not uneducated.  When it comes to biology I sit right about in the middle of that knowledge scale.  But, and here's the good part, listening to the story told by Dr. Cook the science came easy and he wrote in such a way that anyone could grasp the ideas.

Before I go into the story, I would like to talk about the reader, George Guidall.  Mr. Guidall did a nice enough job reading the book and even did some nice vocal changes to match the characteristics of each character.  However, I think if I were the one casting a reader for this book I would have gone with someone with a 20 something female voice.  He did a nice enough job to keep the book interesting, but i just think it might have been better with a younger and female voice since the book centered around Pia Grazdani a fourth year medical student.  And many of the characters were younger.  Guidall matched perfectly with some of the older professors and the mobsters, but some voices just would have worked better otherwise.

The story comes at you from two fronts to start out with.  First with the story of two financial investors that have come up with the latest scam since the bubble burst on sub-prime mortgages.  That scam being the buying up of life insurance policies of folks who may have a short time to live.  The person gets 15 percent of the policy value and the investors collect on the policy when the person dies.  These two investors go out an purchase policies of those with fatal illnesses, especially those with diabetes.  Knowing they won't live long the investors make money off the dying. 

The second aspect of the story is that of Pia Grazdani, who through a troubled past has worked her way through college and is now on her 4th year of Med School at Columbia University.  Pia is taken under the wing of Dr. Tobias Rothman who sees Pia as he was and convinces her, that she is cut out exactly for research.  He gives her the chance to work with him and Dr. Yamamota on something that will revolutionize the medical industry, using stem sells to grow human organs that because the come from the tissue of the person needing the organ will not be rejected.  Thus creating a pancreas, for example, from a diabetic's own cells and transplanting it and extending the life of the patient.

When the investors get word of this research, they realize that 75% of their policies are on diabetics and that this could financially ruin them.  Soon Dr.s Rothman and Yamamota contract a rare strain of salmonella and die.  While it is written off as carelessness, since they were both working on research involving the salmonella strain.  Pia, however does not buy into this and she begins investigating on her own.  Her investigation leads to death threats on her self and a path that leads to a part of her past she has tried to put behind her.

This non-stop thrillride will take you from the campus of a prestige medical school, to the offices of shady investment bankers to a new crime syndicate without taking a breath until the very end.

"Ringworld" by Larry Niven

"Ringworld"
by Larry Niven
Read by Tom Parker
Produced by Blackstone Audio
Approx 11.5 hours

If you were to look at a list of the top 100 books in sci-fi, I'm sure you would find this book at least in the top 25, maybe the top 10.  Larry Niven's "Ringworld" has all the makings of a great sci-fi and Niven even turned this book into a series with sequels and prequels.  Niven combines a group of aliens & humans and sends them out to find a way to save the entire population of "Known Space."  The possible safe zone is a place that is called Ringworld that was constructed by unknown beings around a star, to get an idea of the scope of Ringworld, picture a solid band of Earths orbiting the sun.  One solid planet all the way around, that alone would solve the population problem, but with the chance of the center of the universe exploding the Ringworld has a few other secrets to save the population.

An interesting side note the popular video game series "Halo" is based on the ideas created by Larry Niven in "Ringworld."  With a ring like planet but at a much smaller scale.

What makes this a classic sci-fi is not one single thing but the conglomeration of ideas ranging from politics, alien races and their politics/culture and the exploration of a new world.  This book primarily deals with 4 maybe 5 different species, to start out you have the Puppeteers that are a strange two-headed alien culture that is based on the ingrained cowardice, but signs throughout the book show that the Puppeteers may not be all they seem.  The Kzinn are a race of cat like creatures who are a warring species who have lost the wars to the humans on several occasions.  Then the final two species are the Engineers of Ringworld and the barbarian race that now inhabits the Ringworld since the Engineers left.  Each race (including the humans) has something to contribute to the saving of the universe but the adventure of exploring the Ringworld is the only thing that reveals that.

The story stars out with Nessus, a Puppeteer, recruiting a team to travel to the ringworld which is a secret among the Puppeteers to see if it can save the universe from the the center of Known Space exploding out and destroying all planets in the path of the explosion.  The entire race of the Puppeteers have already left known space to avoid the catastrophe.  They didn't leave without ensuring a chance for survival, and that chance lies in Nessus' ability to explore the Ringworld.  Nessus recruits first Louis Wu, a human that thanks to the benefits of booster spice is just celebrating his 200th birthday.  Louis is an adventurer and has just become bored in his life.  Nessus promises Louis the chance to try out and return to the humans a new technology in space travel and immediately Louis is on for the adventure.  The next recruit is a Kzinn whose name is "Speaker-to-animals."  Speaker has yet established his status in his society and this adventure is his chance to make a name for himself.  The third party that is needed to be recruited is Teela Brown.  Due to the population control laws, Earth has had to establish a lottery in order to control births.  With generations of people winning the lottery in order to reproduce, the humans have bred a race of lucky people.  Teela is one of those lucky ones, with a journey like this luck is needed, but it seems her luck is sporadic. 

Once arriving at Ringworld the crew explores the outer sections of the ring and then determine they will have to land, however the Ringworld's automatic asteroid defense systems shoots down the ship and they crash onto the planet.  With only air-cycles to carry them across the ring the crew begins their exploration of this strange world which seems to have been abandoned and the life has gone back to barbarians.  They must work together through several perils (hostile locals, automated defense systems, strange storms created by punctures in the ringworld floor) in order to find a way off the Ringworld and back to civilization. 

Great adventures, lots of thrills and with narrator Tom Parker, the audiobook will keep you on the edge of your seat at times and laughing with some of the fun thrown in.  Parker is able to deliver the story and able to create the different voices for each of the characters and keep you in the story till the very end. 

"Night of the Living Trekkies" by Kevin D. Anderson and Sam Stall

"Night of the Living Trekkies"
by Kevin D. Anderson and Sam Stall
Published by Quirkbooks(2010)
253 pages

Okay folks it's time to put your "Geek" pants on and get ready to "Go where no man has gone before." We are talking about combining the worlds of Star Trek with a Zombie Apocalypse, Okay actually just a bunch of fans of Star Trek and a Zombie Apocalypse at a Star Trek convention.  Being a huge fan of the Zombie horror genre and a sci-fi nut, this book just screamed at me.  I picked up the book and from page one I was hooked.  The Star Trek references were excellent and the authors even strategically through in some Star Wars references that make this survival from the flesh eaters fun and exciting.    On top of the intelligently placed references the authors even have thrown their own spin into the creation and world of zombies.  In this book there are 3 ways to kill them, but let me tell you the Klingon bat'leth is the coolest in this book.

Another aspect of this book is the mult-genre appeal, the authors have combined Sci-Fi, Zombies, Comedy and adventure to create a quest for survival novel.  This book takes the best of all these worlds and creates a mashup that seems like it wouldn't work but does and with a lot of fun.  To quote one of the characters from this book, Jim Pike (former soldier fresh from Afghanistan), "
Star Trek is all about applying the Federation's high-minded ideals to difficult situations.  No matter how bad things get, you're supposed to play by the don't-shoot-first, don't-mess-with-pre-warp cultures, don't-alter-the-timeline rules. But in the zombie univers it's all about jettisoning everything- morality, sentimentality, weaklings - that might keep you from seeing the next sunrise. Because no matter how impeccably you behave, you'll never bring the other side around to your way of thinking.  They don't think.  They just kill."  But by using the rules of the Federation a rag-tag group of Trekkies in costume, a hotel security Guard, an exo-biologist, a videogame creator, and even a woman in a Princess Leia slave costume that spouts out Star Wars references, all battle zombies hoping to make it to the next day before Houston is nuked.

Jim Pike is a bellhop for the Botany Bay Hotel in Houston, the Botany Bay is the home of GulfCon, now in its 5th year, which is billed as the largest Starfleet convention in the Western Gulf Coast Region.  He used to be a big Star Trek fan but after two tours of duty in Afghanistan the what-is-it-all-about question has set in and Jim just wants to get by in life not responsible for anything.  Jim's sister is a Trekkie and she's bringing her new boyfriend, a videogame creator, to GulfCon to enjoy the festivities and see her brother.

Meanwhile an accident at a military underground bunker near Houston has released a strange virus that animates the dead.  Many people are calling in sick and the convention is just beginning to go full force with all sorts of activities.  Jim is now being forced to act as security for the Botany Bay and with his un-erring intuition Jim begins to suspect that the world is coming to an end.  When the nightfall comes the zombies begin taking on their prey with more fervor and Jim is forced to lockdown the hotel and gather the few survivors and fight to escape the brain-eating zombies.

With tons of sci-fi/Star Trek and comic book references this book is full of hilarious moments and with tons of zombies it is also full of some thrills that will keep you anxious to read the whole book in one night.  Some  of the fun in this book, if you are a fellow Trekkie are the names used and who they are used for, for example Jim Pike, the lead character, get's his name from Captain Pike, the first captain of the Enterprise (in the original series) and Captain James T. Kirk. And yes there's an awesome "Dammit Jim,.." quote or two.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Read by Allen Davis Drake
Produced by Cloud Mountain Studios (2009)
1 Hour 9 Minutes.

Every so often I find myself going back and revisiting a classic, this time around it was a strange set of circumstances to getting this audiobook.  I have always tried to get my son interested in audiobooks and having to compete with the videogames and television the lack of pictures make it hard for me compete.  This time around I lucked out.  We had an upcoming 2 hour drive and I knew I'd have to find the perfect audiobook.  I know what you're thinking,  if I have a hard time competing with TV and Videogames how is this classic story by F. Scott Fitzgerald going to get his attention.  Well, here's where it gets funny.  We never saw the movie based on this story starring Brad Pitt, and probably never will but my son and I are fans of a TV show based on Mad Magazine.  "Mad" airs on the Cartoon network and just like the magazine features parodies everything including movies.  There was one skit in which he and I found pretty funny titled "The Curious Case of Benjamin Batman," in which Batman was aging backwards. 

So we had that as a start then a friend sent me an email with a link in which I could download several classic stories in audiobook form.  The choices ranged from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to "Treasure Island" to "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" and including this story.  So loving the classics I downloaded all I could.  (After all they were all free, and were professionally produced, not the lower quality found on Librivox and others.) 

So with him now curious about the story and the long car trip planned we listened, and we were entertained.   

First of all the gist of the story is that Benjamin Button is born a 70 year old man.  His father is embarrassed and flabbergasted and at first does not know how to accept this medical curiosity.  The hospital wants Mr. Button to immediately remove the abomination and after buying a suit for his new born son takes him home and life begins at the end for Benjamin Button, having to go to school at the proper age (based on birth) Benjamin is a site in schoolboy shorts at the age of 65.  His life progresses backwards as we follow him to college and then marriage where he falls in love with a 20 year old woman as he appears to be 50.  He then goes off to fight in the French and Indian War and comes back a younger man.

The story is based on a quote from Mark Twain, "Youth is wasted on the Young." and a conversation between Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The reader delivered the story with skill, keeping my 10 year old son and myself interested in the story and delivering the comedic scenes with just as much ease as the scenes when trying to be able to live as a married man who is growing apart from his wife due to the reverse aging and the turning over the family business to his son because he is getting too young.

The story is fun and at times and poignant at others and sometimes both.  A great view of the life of man.

"The Dragon Factory" by Jonathan Maberry

"The Dragon Factory"
by Jonathan Maberry
Read by Ray Porter
Produced by Blackstone Audio
16 hours and 11 minutes

I love it when an author creates a character that is so strong that it constitutes a revisit or even a series based on the character.  But only when it is a Strong Character.  Jonathan Maberry has created a Strong Character in Joe Ledger.  In the first book, "Patient Zero," Ledger is a Detective wanting to get into the FBI, what happens is Ledger is recruited to join a new branch of law enforcement called the DMS (Department of Military Science) in which he leads a team to fight off terrorists who have devised a disease that creates zombies.  The DMS is the branch that keeps the country and the world safe from evil that is beyond the scope of reality.  

The second novel in Maberry's Joe Ledger series starts very soon after "Patient Zero" left off, with Joe visiting the gravesite of one of his oldest and dearest friends. The problem is, the DMS has suddenly been targeted by all the other alphabet soup agencies with the search and seizure order issued by the Vice President of the United States. All the DMS offices and teams soon find themselves under attack from their own government.  Forced to fend off NSA and CIA agents alone, ledger escapes and eventually regroups with the DMS to find that while the President is getting open heart surgery the Vice President is officially in charge and has taken this time to shut down the DMS.  The V.P. as it turns is really a puppet and a mysterious group pulling the strings wants 2 things, 1.) The DMS shut down long enough to institute their plan to destroy the world, and 2.) Mindreader, the DMS computer system that can find anything anywhere. 

The DMS soon learns that the evil afoot is 2 groups of genetic scientists that have genetically created mythical creatures, Dragons, unicorns, centaurs and more.  One of the 2 groups creations are a fighting force which are called Berserkers due to their complete loss of control and destructive chaos the creatures go into when a battle begins.  The Berserkers are super strong, and have a very unique body armor that just cannot be real.  The real threat runs throughout the book in the form of a countdown clock known as the Extinction clock which counts down to when a group of genetic diseases which are prevailent in certain races have been turned into viruses which when released will destroy 6/7ths of the world population leaving most of the Earth's inhabitants to be whites only.

From the first word spoken in this book the action begins and never lets up creating a super action story mixed with some horror and some psychological horror.  For the most part the book is told in First person and Ray Porter owns the role of Joe Ledger.  He also creates the voices of the other characters that not only keeps it clear who is talking but he is able to create through superb voice acting a complete persona for each person capturing perfectly their personality and history.  Porter rocks this book, as he did in the first book, "Patient Zero."  I don't think I could listen to these books read by anyone else.

Maberry writes the perfect action/horror novel.  Really! with Nazi clones, genetically created mythical beasts, the perfect evil mad scientist and his 2 mad scientist children (albino twins) (who are pretty creepy in their own right), ethnic cleansing and a race against time this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout every second of the book.  On the good side a team of soldiers that are too cool for words and a young boy hero that shows what pure goodness is all about.

Now let's see if I can find the next book in the series "The King of Plagues."

"Superman on Trial" Written and directed by Dirk Maggs

"Superman on Trial" 
Written and directed by Dirk Maggs
Multicast performance from BBC Radio
Published by AudioGo
1 hour


First broadcast in 1988 to celebrate 50 years of Superman, This BBC production features the "Man of Steel" standing trial for his crimes against humanity.  With Lex Luthor as the prosecuting attorney and with Lois Lane as Superman's defense attorney, of sorts.  In the continuity of the Superman Saga this is based partly on "Superman: Last Son of Krypton" and some early issues of "Adventures of Superman." 

AudioGo has remastered this broadcast and even added in some never-before-heard scenes.  With superb vocal acting, great sound effects and incidental music that pushes the story, this short audio comic book is the perfect way to bring a comic book to audio life.   There are even some fun special guests that make this more than just a story about Superman, but also brings to light how comic books are needed for all ages. 

The trial begins with Superman chained down and unable to move or speak, Lex Luthor insists the trial goes on and Lois Lane is forced to defen Superman.  Luthor brings charges that range from destruction of property to assaulting humans, and with Superman not of this Earth he should be banished to the "Phantom Zone" (negative space created by Superman's real father Jor-El).  Lois brings witnesses to talk about how Superman has done nothing but stand for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

The unique aspect of this audio comic book is that the trial then turns to being a message about how comic books in general are important.  This is done with some very cool special guests, Adam West, Jenette Kahn (President of DC Comics) and Dave Gibbons (Co-creator of Watchmen).  These three real life witnesses talk about how comic books, especially Superman comics promote literacy, always teach the reader the difference between right and wrong, and how all ages can and do enjoy comics.  I found it really cool when Adam West was leaving and Batman was entering the courtroom and Batman was delayed getting to the stand.  Very fun subtle context. 

Very nice production bringing an interesting comic book story to life.

"Between Planets" by Robert A. Heinlein

"Between Planets"
by Robert A. Heinlein
Multicast performance
Produced by Full Cast Audio
TRT: 7 hours

It's time for some classic science-fiction and you can't get much "classicer" than Robert A. Heinlein.  Yeah, I know I made up a word but when it comes to Heinlein you know you are in store for some sci-fi that is rich in all things that make good sci-fi.  From the author of "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" this book is no exception to the excellence that goes into and comes out of a Heinlein story.  He writes the full story.  He doesn't just write a space adventure, he also creates a political and social culture around and throughout the story that keeps the story on pace. 

"Between the Planets" was originally published as a series in "Blue Book" magazine in 1951 under the title, "Planets in Combat" and was serialized in "Boys' Life" magazine in 1978 as a monthly cartoon series.   Scribner published the hardcover version in 1951.  Knowing it appeared as a cartoon series in "Boys' Life" is a hint that, yes, this is a young adult readers book.  With that in mind, I can think of no one other than one of the champions of YA books than Bruce Coville to take command of turning this fun piece of sci-fi into an audio book.  Coville is an author of young adult and children's stories and novels, especially some really fun scary stories.  He is also the founder of Full Cast Audio.  

Full Cast Audio takes a nice approach to creating an audiobook, using a full cast of performers and keeping the productions family-friendly and with age appropriate casting.  Full Cast Audio also throws in some original music for the chapter separations that make this a fine listening experience.  I will admit that some of the younger voices weren't as honed in the acting craft as some of the others, but that was easily forgiven due to the fact that the voice matched the character.  All in all I'd say, a job very well done in bring this Heinlein story to life. 

Don Harvey is about to graduate from his Dude Ranch type High School on Earth when his parents, who are living on Mars send for him to come to Mars before graduation.  They also leave him with the mysterious message to be sure and see a family friend, Dr. Dudley Jefferson, and to bring the package that Dr. Jefferson gives him to Mars.  At this time in Earth's future, there is an uprising from the Colony on Venus who want to end Taxation without representation.   Not being born on Earth, Don has yet to declare whether he is a citizen of Earth, Venus or Mars and all the powers that be treat him with suspicion. 

Dr. Jefferson dies mysteriously after giving Don a ring to take to Don's father.  Don then blasts off for the orbiting space station which is the launching point to all the planetary colonies.  The problem, Venusian rebels have taken over the station and are directing residents of Venus to Venus and those of Earth back to Earth.  Don can't get to Mars so He goes to Venus, knowing that there is something he needs to do with that ring.

A coming of age story in which Don Harvey learns to make life-changing decisions and those trying to keep secrets learn that Don is not the "kid" they think he is.   With Venusian Dragons, and military coups this book will keep you on the edge throughout and with the very nice production from Full Cast Audio, the story will come to life putting you "Between Planets."