Page 5 of posts by: Dave

Review: Fortunately, The Milk

Posted on 2013-09-20 at 14:28 by Dave

Fortunately, the Milk Written and Read by Neil Gaiman Length: 58 minutes

It should be a walk down the street, but on a father's trip to buy some milk for his children's cereal (and probably also his tea), aliens show up (as they do), and kidnap him. Dad escapes by breaking the time space continuum and lands himself on a 17th century pirate ship, and here - things get a little weird.

Throughout the rest of the book there are vampyrs, time traveling dinosaurs, exploding volcanoes, oh-so-self-fulfilling

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged Children's Books, neil gaiman

Review: American Elsewhere

Posted on 2013-09-19 at 06:00 by Dave

American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, Read by Graham Winton Length: 22 hours, 23 minutes

If you have to stand against the great lurking darkness that’s encroaching upon you from the edge of universe, I recommend cranking up The Best of Erich Zann's Violin Classics, inviting over Chuthulu’s rebellious teenage children to stand by your side, and having  Robert Jackson Bennett’s American Elsewhere in hand to keep said Darkness at bay.

I’ve been looking forward to this book pretty much since I’d heard

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged american elsewhere, kaleidoscope of wtfery, recorded books, robert jackson bennett

Review: The Great Gatsby

Posted on 2013-09-02 at 06:10 by Dave

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrated by Jake Gyllenhall
Length: 4 hours, 49 minutes

Happy Labor Day, folks! How does a trip deconstructing the American Dream sound?

Last month I talked about the delights of comfort food, but sometimes you're in the mood for what my family calls "growing food," which is part of the reason I decided to give The Great Gatsby a whirl. I'd been assigned to read it twice in high school, but hadn't revisited it since, and my wife just got assigned to teach it, so

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized

Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Posted on 2013-08-23 at 05:45 by Dave

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister Length: 15 hours, 54 minutes

The farther I get from Robert Galbraith's (aka J.K. Rowling) The Cuckoo's Calling, the more impressed I am with it - and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

To be fair, I don't listen to or read a ton of mysteries. I'm not entirely sure why that is, since I like the genre, and I love watching them. What I have read of mysteries are classics like Doyle, Chandler, Hammett, and some of the contemporaries like

Posted in reviews

Review: The Drowned Cities

Posted on 2013-08-19 at 17:54 by Dave

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi, Read by Joshua Swanson Length: 9 hours, 58 minutes

In Paolo Bacigalupi's The Drowned Cities, the American Dream has shifted into an apocalyptic nightmare, and its legacy is a devastating cycle of violence ripping the country into warring factions. The surviving casualties are quickly drafted into the oppressing armies to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Armies made of children.

The Drowned Cities is a story about child soldiers, the seduction of violence, and

Posted in Uncategorized

Review: Marla Mason Double Feature

Posted on 2013-08-15 at 17:39 by Dave

Broken Mirrors (Marla Mason, Book 5) by T.A. Pratt, read by Jessica Almasy Length: 9 hours, 55 minutes

Grim Tides

A good series is like the perfect comfort food. You know more or less what you're going to get if you've been here before, and you take pleasure in that familiarity. The Marla Mason books are my comfort food. I love the wicked sense of humor and no-nonsense Marla provides, and I love the way Jessica

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized

Review: The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Posted on 2013-07-26 at 04:31 by Dave

The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck, Read by Joe Barrett 11 hours, 54 minutes

I'd been wanting to do some non-genre reading for a while. My family was in Monterey a few weeks back to check out the aquarium, and I got to wondering where those humpback whales had disappeared to, and what would Ed Ricketts  and John Steinbeck have made of a spaceship facing off against whalers? I enjoy Steinbeck quite a bit, and had never read this non-fiction book, so the idea of him and his best friend taking

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Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Posted on 2013-07-03 at 04:57 by Dave

A Neil Gaiman audiobook is an Event. Gaiman has a mythical reputation as a fantasist, and with that reputation comes a lot of baggage. There's been a lot of talk about what Gaiman's been up to the last few years. An American God television show (which dictates sequels to his acclaimed, award winning novel). A sequel to Odd and the Frost Giant. A prequel to his groundbreaking Sandman comic. Another Neverwhere. (Oka

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized

Dave Reviews: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan, read by Christian Rodska

Posted on 2013-06-26 at 19:40 by Dave

Promise of Blood, Book 1 in the Powder Mage Trilogy By Brian McClellan, Read by Christian Rodska Length: 17 hours

What is it you want from Epic Fantasy these days? To get a sense of what life was like in some fantastical medieval time period? Maybe just the opposite - escapism? A sense of adventure and wonder? If it's a cool system of magic, Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood has you covered. It kicks off a new fantasy trilogy featuring Powder Mages - magicians who consume or ingest gunpowder that makes

Posted in reviews | Tagged brian mcclellan, christian rodska, hachette audio

Review: NOS4A2

Posted on 2013-06-04 at 05:48 by Dave

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, Read by Kate Mulgrew Length: 19 hours, 42 minutes.

Joe Hill's latest novel might be his most epic horror story yet (Locke & Key excluded) - it's crammed full with a murderous automobile, a punk-rock librarian, a haunting and monstrous villains, and flawed heroes that are utterly human and sympathetic. It's both a coming of age story/loss of innocence story, and a tale of failed parents searching for redemption. I finished listening to it a few weeks back, and it's 20 pretty incredible

Posted in reviews | Tagged joe hill, kate mulgrew, nos4a2