Posts tagged: review

Review: Joyland

Posted on 2014-03-31 at 06:17 by Dave

Joyland By Stephen King, read by Michael Kelly Length: 7 hours, 33 minutes

Sometimes, I feel like fun is a dirty word. Especially when it comes to entertainment, we'll put words like "cheap" or "Junk" or "Trash" in front of it. We might dismissively call the art - be it books, movie, tv, music, whatever - low brow, or shrug it off as a summer/beach read. I think we do ourselves a disservice by dismissing fun. I think fun serves an important function - one that makes us human. And so I really dig that

Posted in reviews | Tagged coming of age, michael kelly, review, stephen king

Review: The Land Across

Posted on 2013-12-31 at 07:25 by Dave

The Land Across By Gene Wolfe, Read by Jeff Woodman Length: 10 hours, 56 minutes

Toward the end of Gene Wolfe’s The Land Across, travel-writer Grafton tells his foreign secret police comrade that he doesn’t have anything to tell her, but thinks: “Really, there was a lot [to tell], but I had decided not to tell all that. I figured it out last night, and this morning…I didn’t know how to say it.” Well, I have to admit, I haven’t figured it all out, and I’d be lying if I thought I did, but I sure enjoyed

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged fantastic travelogues, gene wolfe, jeff woodman, review

Dave Reviews: Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

Posted on 2012-11-09 at 17:47 by Dave

Dreadnought, by Cherie Priest Narrated by Kate Reading Length: 13 hours, 24 minutes

War is Hell – Especially for a Nurse

It’s probably important to state right off the bat that I wasn’t a huge fan of Boneshaker. There are several reasons for this, and it should be noted that I read it, and didn’t listen to it, and that may have contributed to my overall feelings. But I like Cherie Priest’s work – in particular, I loved the Eden Moore Southern Gothic Ghost story “Four and Twenty Black Birds” (and if it

Posted in regular, reviews | Tagged cherie priest, dave thompson, dreadnought, macmillan-audio, review

Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi, read by Wil Wheaton

Posted on 2012-06-26 at 19:10 by Sam

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas By John Scalzi

Narrated by Wil Wheaton for Audible Frontiers

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Release Date: 06-05-12 

Review by Dave Thompson: “Stay off the Bridge! Avoid the Narrative!”

“Is it just me…or is everyone on this ship monumentally fucked up about away teams?” asks one of the Redshirts early on in John Scalzi’s latest.  Redshirts is funny, exciting, and gets emotional and pretty heartfelt in the most surprising places. But what’s really unique about this one is how

Posted in regular | Tagged dave thompson, john scalzi, redshirts, review, wil wheaton

Audiobook review: Osama by Lavie Tidhar

Posted on 2012-06-05 at 16:32 by Sam

Osama by Lavie Tidhar

Narrated by Jeff Harding for Audible Ltd

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Release Date: 05-14-2012 [PS Publishing | Goodreads | Audible UK]

Review by Dave Thompson: “Life Isn’t a Pulp Novel”

Lavie Tidhar’s Osama is not an easy or light novel. However, it is a very thought provoking one, and I suspect it’s one that’s going to stay with me for a long time.

What if Osama bin Laden never existed? What if his acts of terror were confined solely to pulp novels, the kind that are published

Posted in regular | Tagged dave thompson, jeff harding, lavie tidhar, osama, review

Audiobook review: Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory

Posted on 2012-03-09 at 18:40 by Sam

Reviewed by Dave Thompson: “The Undead Have Never Been So Fresh (or Funny)”

The living dead seem to be rising just about everywhere you turn, and these days the zombie apocalypse is feeling a bit run of the mill. Do not let this keep you from checking out Raising Stony Mayhall — one of the most delightful zombie books I’ve read.

There’s a trope in zombie fiction of a loved one being infected, and instead of

Posted in regular | Tagged audible frontiers, daryl gregory, dave thompson, david marantz, raising stony mayhall, review

Release Week: TC McCarthy's Exogene, Michael Swanwick's Dancing with Bears, Sergey and Marina Dyachenko's The Scar, and Elizabeth Hand's Available Dark

Posted on 2012-02-29 at 03:49 by Sam

February goes out with quite a splash, with T. C. McCarthy’s Exogene: The Subterrene Trilogy, Book 2, Michael Swanwick’s Dancing with Bears: A Darger and Surplus Novel, Sergey and Marina Dyachenko’s The Scar, and Elizabeth Hand’s Available Dark.

EXOGENE: Read by Bahni Turpin for Blackstone Audio and released concurrently with the mass market and e-book from Orbit, Exogene sets up as a much more traditional military sf novel than did the author’s debut, 2011’s Germline. Germline was read by Donald Corren, an

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged available-dark, dancing-with-bears, elizabeth-hand, exogene, michael-swanwick, release week, review, sergey-dyanchenko, tc mccarthy, the-scar

Audiobook review: Viriconium by M. John Harrison, read by Simon Vance

Posted on 2012-02-16 at 14:02 by Sam

Last month the blog welcomed contributor Dave Thompson with his review of Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard, read by Simon Vance. Today he returns with another review, setting his ears on Viriconium by M. John Harrison, read by Vance for Neil Gaiman Presents:

Review by Dave Thompson: “A Not As Young Man’s Return Journey to Viriconium”

I have been to Viriconium once before – and appropriately – I find that the landscape of the city seems to have shifted since the last time I was here. Sometimes, it’s a

Posted in regular | Tagged dave thompson, m john harrison, neil gaiman presents, review, simon vance, viriconium

Review: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Posted on 2012-01-21 at 01:58 by Sam

What: Mistborn: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Michael Kramer for Macmillan Audio on 9 CDs, with bonus PDF of The Elendel Daily

How: Review copy requested from Macmillan Audio after seeing it as a loose-leaf late insert in their catalog.

Why: I’ve heard a lot of praise for Sanderson’s Mistborn novels and really enjoyed hearing him read from (and talk about) The Way of Kings in person in the fall of 2010, where I got a chance to talk to him a little and turned the event into an article

Posted in regular | Tagged review

Review: The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers, read by Simon Vance

Posted on 2012-01-17 at 14:00 by Sam

I’m pleased to welcome a new regular contributor to the Audible SF/F blog: Dave Thompson. While we have plans (a podcast? two-contributor reviews?) he’s starting out with a review of The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers, read by Simon Vance for Blackstone Audio. Out in April of 2011, the novel was originally published in print in 1989 by Ace Hardcover. A new book, Hide Me Among the Graves: A Novel is due out in March from William Morrow.

Review by Dave Thompson

There’s a tense scene early on in Tim

Posted in regular | Tagged blackstone audio, dave thompson, review, simon vance, the stress of her regard, tim powers