"Infinity: Chronicles of Nick book 1" by Sherrilyn Kenyon

"Infinity: Chronicles of Nick book 1"
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Read by Holter Graham
Produced by Macmillan Audio
Approx. 8 hours.

I think I have just listened to the next juvenile fiction craze. Okay it's really hard to figure out what today's youth will read, but if the recent trend of supernatural series is any kind of sign this series will glide right in. This one not only has vampires and werewolves, but within this first in the series (or rather sub series, but I'll explain that later) the hero getting bit by and then chasing zombies, befriended by demons, getting suspended from school and worse yet getting grounded by his mother.

Nick Gautier (pronounced Go-shay not Go-tee-ay or Goat-chay, that has an extra H in it and as Nick's mom says, "We're so poor we couldn't afford the extra letter.") is your typical high school freshman. Okay, typical in some aspects, like full of sarcastic wit, worried about bullies, and fully aware of girls. Now he's not so typical in that his mom dances at a strip club on Bourbon Street to pay for Nick's tuition to a private school that because he tested so high got somewhat of a scholarship and is the only reason he is in a school where everyone else constantly reminds that he doesn't belong.

Nick also has one more secret, one that he doesn't know himself, he's not quite human. It is never revealed fully what he is but it is powerful. His father is in prison and is the secret behind what Nick is and what Nick could become.

One day before school Nick's mom gives him a hideous Hawaiin shirt, Nick knows he's going to be picked on, AGAIN, and the shirt will be the cause, but, because Nick loves his mom so much he doesn't argue with her to protect her feelings. When he arrives at school, sure enough he's picked on. This time Nick takes the taunting about his shirt. He even takes the taunting about his being poor. But, when the taunting by the school's football team bullies becomes about his mom Nick fights back. This fight gets him suspended and grounded. His mom only allows him to go to work, but he feels so bad about letting his mom down so he skips work to go apologize to her. On the way back he runs into some friends that say that if he stands lookout while they pull a job they'll pay him 200 bucks. This will be the biggest deposit in Nick's miniscule college fund ever, so Nick decides to help. When he the "friends" proceed to rob a couple of tourists at gunpoint, Nick helps the tourists escape and then gets beat up and shot by the "friends."

This turn of events is witnessed by Kyrian, who turns out to be a Dark Hunter. Here's where the idea of the "sub-series" comes in. Sherrilyn Kenyon has written numerous books about the Dark Hunters, the Dark Hunters are death to those that prey upon humans. This book is the first in a series in which Kenyon is writing for a younger audience. The nice thing is that as a writer when the readers get older they can discover her earlier works which are actually later in the life of Nick and the Dark Hunters. But for now this series is full of fun, thrills, zombie chases, crazy rednecks and very strange supernatural beings of all sorts.

Kyrian takes Nick on as an assistant to help Nick on the right path. Before Nick can fully enjoy his job he discovers Kyrian and his many friends are demons or supernatural beings. He also discovers his uncle is a demon that stays hidden to keep him safe and to aid in his training, that some demons love to eat humans with barbecue sauce, the football team is made up of shape shifters and the world is not what it seems. Then again this all takes place in New Orleans, and New Orleans has never really been what it seems.

The reader of this audio book, Holter Graham, does a superb job of interpreting this book to audiobook form. He captures Nick, with all his sarcasm, angst and discovery perfectly and captures all the characters in their own uniqueness, from the redneck zombie hunter, Bubba, to the extremely wealthy upper class of Kyrian. Some of you old-schoolers may recognize the name Holter Graham as the kid from the Stephen King movie "Maximum Overdrive." He has grown up and honed his talent to becoming a great voice actor that brings this fun novel to life.

So, if you are a fan of the Dark Hunter series and would like to share the series with your younger friends and family, or just want to know what made Nick, Nick put this one on your list. I you like reading supernatural fiction, no matter what your age this is one I highly recommend you give a listen.

"Dimiter" by William Peter Blatty

"Dimiter"
by William Peter Blatty
Read by the author
Produced by Macmillan audio
approx 8 hours



The author of "The Exorcist" has a new book out, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's a horror novel. While this book does dwell into some mysticism, it is pretty much a spy thriller. When I first received the audio book I noticed it was read by the author. In audio books this can be a hit or miss situation. In this case I think the jury is still out. The hit is that the author knows what he wrote and what he intended and can impress upon the listener the ideas that are most important in the story. The miss is that while William Peter Blatty has a very interesting voice, at times it is very monotonous and lulls the listener. Also Blatty is not a voice actor and does not distinguish the separate voices within character dialogue. I became very confused as to who was saying what and many times in this book I was lost.

Some of that being lost may also be attributed to the twists and turns Blatty wrote into this tale. In fact, not until the very end is it all explained, and even then there's a bit of mystery to the ending. The story opens in the 1970s in Albania, when a prisoner suspected of being an enemy agent is capture and subjected to horrendous torture. The prisoner is subjected to severe pain but at no time shows pain in either voice or action, in fact he maintains an eerie silence and at times by a simple glance changes the mood of his torturers. The prisoner escapes and completes the mission.

The prisoner is known as Dimiter the American "agent from Hell." Dimiter is notorious for taking on the harder missions and completing them with no error.

The story then jumps to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital and a series of unexplained deaths encapsulate the a strange mix of personnel. They are all intertwined in the story as the deaths are unfolded and Dimiter's final mission is exposed. The confusion in deaths is mainly the identities of who dies, when one person is discovered dead they name on their papers is not the name of the who the person is. Many times it seems as though the body is Dimiter. But not until the final briefing between American CIA and Israeli forces does the body count begin to make sense. But then after it is all figured out, Blatty throws a final curve ball and the story may not be over.

All in all a very interesting book covering the issues of vengeance, soul searching, loss and love.

Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert audiobook review

Heretics of Dune
by Frank Herbert
Produced by Macmillan Audio
Read by Simon Vance

What makes the original Dune series by Frank Herbert a classic in all science fiction is the fact that Frank Herbert created not only a story, but several religions, cultures and conflicts. Every book in the series works around the politics of these and yet still has something to say about today's society (no matter when that "today" is).

This audiobook production is read by Simon Vance. His reading not only keeps the listener in the complicated and twisting storyline but his vocal qualities create great characterizations that at times the production seems like a multicast recording.

The Heretics of Dune presents another view in the "Duneverse" this time exploring the meaning and purpose behind the emotion (and all that goes with it) of love. The heresy, which all the heretics presented in this book are guilty of, is Love. The Bene Gesserit have a breeding program in which the genetic line of the Atreides is preserved. No Bene Gesserit witch is allowed to fall in love. After all that is what Lady Jessica did in the original novel, and that created a Kwisatz Haderach, a being that could be in all places at once, and later the tyrant, God Emperor, Leto II.

The book takes place 1,500 years after the reign of Leto II. Arrakis, Dune has returned to being the desert planet, thanks to the sandtrout of Leto II's destruction bringing back the sandworms from extinction. The planet is now called Rakis. Another planet of note, Geidi Prime, former homeworld for House Harkonnen is now known as Gammu.

The empire fell into chaos before the return of the sandworms, due to the scarcity of spice. This created the "Scattering" in which many of the population sought the extreme edges of the universe to find other sources of spice or to expand the location of humanity. As the books opens many people have returned and have changed. There is a new force to deal with, the Honored Matres, they are very similar to the Bene Gesserit but the Matres use sex as a weapon and force of rule. The Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilax see this as threat and somewhat team up to fight these Honored Matres.

The Bene Gesserit have been using gholas of Duncan Idaho through the years but the Tleilaxu always assassinate the ghola. A ghola is a clone that is capable of full memory of their past self. This time will be different, the Bene Gesserit have a plan. But, as it seems so do the Tleilaxu. They have "programmed" the ghola to kill the Bene Gesserit "imprinter" that tries to imprint him to guarantee his loyalty to the Bene Gesserit.

In the meantime on Rakis, a child is discovered by the priests that can control the sandworms. The Bene Gesserit hear of this and immediately take over Rakis, in order to make the child, Sheeana, a Reverend Mother, and maybe to breed with the Duncan ghola.

The Honored Matres also find this out and seek to destroy the ghola and the girl and Rakis. So with many battles to ensue we are introduced to a retired Bashar, Teg, who is brought out of retirement to not only guard the ghola but to awaken his memories due to Teg being the exact likeness of Duke Leto I. After awakening the ghola Teg, Reverend Mother Lucilla, who was supposed to imprint Duncan before the awakening, and Duncan are discovered on Gammu and have to go underground to get to Rakis. Teg is captured and tortured by the Honored Matres but during the torture some strange powers are awakened in him. He is able to speed his body and mind outside the normal flow of time, and able to destroy all occupants in a Honored Matres stronghouse. He then steals a no-ship (which is a ship undetectable by all, including prescience vision) and takes Lucilla and Duncan to Rakis.

With many plots entangled into one final outcome this book is yet another great representation of the "Duneverse" created by Frank Herbert.