Posts filed under ‘Audiobooks’
Just finished reading . . . An Artificial Night
An Artificial Night (October Daye series, book 3) by Seanan McGuire
This audiobook was given to me by Brilliance Audio for review purposes.
Audiobook read by Mary Robinette Kowal.
HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?
Everyone in the Bay Area knows about Blind Michael, the unseen, dangerous figure whose Hunt sweeps the Berkeley hills on full moon nights. He’s a familiar hazard of life in the Kingdom of the Mists, and most people don’t waste time worrying about him. October “Toby” Daye certainly doesn’t. She has better things to worry about, like paying the electrical bill on time. So it’s understandable that she’d be upset when Blind Michael suddenly starts taking an interest in people that matter to her, like the youngest children of Mitch and Stacy Brown.
Tasked to find the missing children, and with the stakes growing higher by the minute, Toby has few choices and fewer allies to help her through the dangers yet to come. With the Luidaeg’s help and a candle to light her way home, there’s a chance that she’ll come through this latest danger…but the sudden appearance of her Fetch doesn’t give Toby all that much in the way of hope…
I always worry when I’m about to read (and review) a book that I’m really looking forward to. I’m afraid that my expectations are unrealistically high, and that the book is doomed before I even crack the spine (or turn on the ipod, as the case may be).
But, as with book 2 (A Local Habitation, reviewed here), An Artificial Night not only lived up the the high expectations, but took the series in ever more interesting and complex directions.
The above description describes the plot well, but for as much as I enjoyed the originality of the plot and the action kept me turning the pages, it was Toby’s character development that I found most absorbing.
AAN touched on two themes with regard to Toby. The first one was that of childhood. When Toby is commissioned to rescue the missing children from Blind Michael, she doesn’t realize how greatly she will have to get in touch with her own “childhood”, and her feelings about her own daughter from whom she is alienated. It was great to see a child-Toby still retain her intrinsic “Toby-ness”: brave, outspoken, and just a little bit irreverent.
In a lot of ways, her journeys through Blind Michael’s land reveals more about her than previous books. The second theme in AAN (and in the series in general) is that of the meaning of heroism. (And not necessarily the “heroism” of a typical uf kick-ass heroine, where the emphasis tends to be on the “kick-ass” part, but on the more classical definition of “hero”.) Toby spends much of the book denying that she is a hero. Yet, she embraces the ideals of a true hero—honor, loyalty, and the importance of keeping one’s word—and I love how through the course of the book she comes to accept what those around her keep telling her: that she is a true hero. When she finally did accept it, I really felt like cheering for her, and couldn’t help but think about what a long road she’s been on since escaping her enchantment as a goldfish in book 1.
Tybalt, the King of the Caith Sidhe, continues to drop in on Toby, and steal every scene he’s in. I love his dry sense of humor, and he always seems to get the best lines. I hope that the burbling chemistry between him and Toby that remains (at this point) mostly under the surface, will become more in the near future.
Mary Robinette Kowal did another wonderful job on the narration of this audiobook. She really has a way of imbuing each character’s voice with their distinctive personalities, and making it a fun listen.
I’m still hoping for an appearance of Toby’s estranged daughter, but at least in AAN, I gained a great deal of insight into Toby’s character that will (hopefully) lay the ground work for her daughter’s inclusion in a future book in the series. I was glad to see on Seanan McGurire’s livejournal that she has 2 more Toby books (The Brightest Fell and Ashes of Honor) in the works (among some other really interesting looking projects). I can’t wait to see what Toby will do next.
- Seanan McGuire’s site.
- Audio excerpt (mp3 download) at Audio Bookstand (Brilliance Audio).
A little bit of this, a little bit of that
Things are humming along here at the old homestead. My dad continues to improve. He event attended his Photoshop class this week! 2 more weeks left of little league and school, and I’m working more hours than I have in the last couple of years.
I’m taking on a major maintenance project on one of the sites I work on, and it means lots and LOTS of formatting, clean up, and link checking. All I can say is that I’m so glad I now have a dedicated laptop for the website work and a new modem/router. My old router had to constantly be reset, and let me tell you, it’s the little things that make work much more enjoyable. Also, I figure I’ll get lots of audiobook listening done, since this project is more labor/time intensive than brain intensive.
Speaking of audiobooks, I had my fingers crossed that Lynn Flewelling’s The White Road would be available in audiobook format on its release day (5/25), and it was! (Sometimes there’s a lag between release date and audiobook availability.) So, I’ve dropped everything, and am listening to Seregil and Alec’s most recent adventures.
The last audiobook I finished was Suzanne Collins’ excellent Catching Fire (The Hunger Games trilogy, book 2). It had me on the edge of my seat, and I can’t wait for the conclusion, Mockingjay, which will be released August 2010. I’ve actually gotten my guy hooked on the trilogy, and I may have to fight him for who gets to read/listen first!
Another awesome YA I read over the weekend was Kelley Armstrong’s The Reckoning. 
It’s the conclusion to the Darkest Powers trilogy, and left me curious about something:
According to Kelley Armstrong’s newsletter, Chloe, Derek and Simon will be making an appearance in the new YA trilogy, Darkness Rising. But, will they be crossing over to the adult Otherworld series, as well? Though they are a little bit younger than Savannah, I’d love to see them interacting with her. And, she needs some supes in her age group.
This week is such an incredibly rich week for book releases. Top of my list? Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews. Why? 3 words: Kate. And. Curran. There’s the little matter of the wager they made in the previous book, Magic Strikes. It’s time for them to settle up, and I can’t wait! 
The last couple of weeks I’ve been pretty lucky, and won a few books! First off, I won Nancy’s Theory of Style by Grace Coopersmith (aka Marta Acosta) over at Marta’s Vampire Wire. I also won a very generous fantasy package over at Lurve a la Mode. It included and Falling, Fly by Skyler White and The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg, 2 books I’ve been really curious about. I also won Feed by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) from Orbit Books. So, it’s an embarrassment of riches here at RBA. I can’t wait to delve into these very cool books! (I think I feel a “paying it forward” giveaway coming on. Stay tuned!)
Oh! And, I wanted to thank the lovely Janna over at E-Romance Reader for the lovely Bodacious Blogging Book Reviewers Award she gave me! I sort of stink at follow-through on awards, but am really going to try to post something in the next few days on it!
Here’s something to wrap up on a high note. I saw this on Twitter a couple of days ago. I don’t remember who RT’d it, but it’s Made. Of. Win.
After that, how can you not have a great day?
2010 TBR Challenge (May): A Kiss Before the Apocalypse
|
|
A Kiss Before the Apocalpyse (Remy Chandler series, book 1) by Thomas E Sniegoski
This audiobook was given to me by Brilliance Audio for review purposes.
Audiobook read by Luke Daniels.
|
I’ve had this book on my To Be Bought list for ages. Like a number of other urban fantasy series I like (Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Kat Richardson’s Harper Blaine series are 2 that immediately come to mind), the Remy Chandler series is a uf series that is strongly rooted in the P.I. mystery genre. While the supernatural elements are key to the story, the plot is driven by Remy’s “case”, finding the missing Angel of Death.
AKbtA sets up a very original world. I love how it is equal parts gritty reality, with Boston providing local color, and angelic fantasy, with different factions of angels battling each other for a place of power here on earth and in the heavens.
However, what really makes AKbtA a good read/listen is Remy. He is unique among other angels for voluntarily walking away from his divine calling to live among humans. The only other angels who also live among them do so as punishment. So, Remy is isolated from both the heavenly host who can’t understand why he would leave their ranks and the earthly renegades who are ostracized from heaven.
A lot of times uf heroes are complete loners. But, while Remy’s set apart from his divine peers, his deepest connections are his earthly ones. I really liked that Remy has close ties, especially to his aging wife Madeleine, his police officer friend, Mulvahill, and his dog, a lab named Marlowe. (I may have the spelling of the names wrong, since I listened to the audiobook.)
His relationship with Madeleine was so poignant, and showed the flipside of relationships often depicted in uf/paranormals: what happens when the mortal in the relationship ages, and the immortal being does not.
I also loved how he was able to communicate with Marlowe, and have to admit I thought of my own lab (The Big Guy) while listening to Remy’s scenes with Marlowe.
My only issue was that at times it felt as if the pacing was a little slow. There was some impatience on my part to move forward past some of the set up and get to more action. However, when events do begin to fall into place, I was swept along with them.
Narrator Luke Daniels did an amazing job with the voice characterizations, giving unique (and realistic) voices to each person in the story. Best of all was his voice for Remy. It really conveyed the “average Joe” Remy has in some ways become. What did surprise me, at least at the beginning of the audiobook, was that Daniels’ narrative voice sounded a bit stiff. To my ear, however, that was remedied as the story progressed, and the narrative felt more relaxed and natural in the last half. Overall, though, the character voices really made the audio production.
- Thomas E. Sniegoski’s site.
- Audio excerpt at Audio Bookstand (Brilliance Audio).
Just finished reading . . . A Local Habitation (audiobook)
A Local Habitation (October Daye series, book 2) by Seanan McGuire
This audiobook was given to me by Brilliance Audio for review purposes.
Audiobook read by Mary Robinette Kowal.
TOBY’S HAVING A BAD DAY…
After spending fourteen years lost to both the fae and mortal worlds, only to be dragged back into Faerie by the murder of someone close to her, October “Toby” Daye really just wants to spend a little time getting her footing. She’s putting her life back together. Unfortunately, this means going back to work for Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills, doing her duty as a knight errant. That isn’t the sort of thing that exactly lends itself to a quiet existence, and before she knows it, Toby’s back on the road, heading for the County of Tamed Lightning in Fremont, California to check on Sylvester’s niece, January.
Things in Tamed Lightning turn out to be a lot stranger than they seemed at first glance, and Toby’s talent for finding trouble isn’t doing her any favors. With Quentin—a young foster from Sylvester’s Court—in tow, and the stakes getting higher all the time, it’s up to Toby to solve the mystery of Tamed Lightning, or face a failure whose cost will be too high for anyone to pay.
When this audiobook was offered to me for review by Brilliance Audio, I agreed to review it. Rosemary and Rue, book 1 in the October Daye series was one of my favorite urban fantasy series debuts of 2009, and I listed Seanan McGuire as one of my 2009 author discoveries. So, I had very high hopes for A Local Habitation, and, I was really pleased that it more than met my expectations.
First off, in terms of the audio production, I was very happy with Mary Robinette Kowal’s narration. Her voice was key to my enjoyment of the book, especially since ALH is told in 1st person. To me, this means her voice is Toby’s voice. MRK’s narration had a great blend of tough-girl (which Toby must be, since she is a knight errant), self-deprecating humor (Toby is always aware of her “outsider” status since she is a half-blood fae), and vulnerability (in much of ALH, she really doesn’t know what’s going on, and is struggling to protect the people around her). Her style reminded me of Marguerite Gavin, one of my favorite narrators, who is the voice of Rachel Morgan (Kim Harrison’s Hollows series) and Kitty Norville (Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series).
The action in A Local Habitation begins shortly after the events of Rosemary and Rue. Toby is still uneasy with her connection to Shadowed Hills, though her loyalty to Sylvester is unwavering. When he asks for her help in finding out info about January, she is a good soldier, takes Quentin under her wing, and sets out for Tamed Lightning.
Bad things are happening in Tamed Lightning, and Toby finds that very little is what it seems. The people she is there to help seem to be hiding something, and it quickly becomes apparent that someone within the territory is responsible for the mysterious deaths that are occurring with increasing frequency.
Most of the action has the feel of a locked room mystery, and the claustrophobic tension ratchets up as the body count escalates. Seanan McGuire is merciless with Toby, and isn’t afraid of letting her heroine twist in the wind in helpless frustration at times. Yet, this serves the action of the story, and makes for an exciting read/listen.
About halfway through, I thought I had figured out “whodunit”. I was in a state of suspense through the second half of the story wondering if I was right or not. In the end, I was only partially correct, but it was such fun trying to look at the mystery from different angles. The mystery-lover in me really enjoyed this.
My favorite character is Tybalt, the King of the Cats. He is not around during most of the action, but does appear at key points, and I really love how his and Toby’s relationship is developing. While the story is told through Toby’s pov, it is clear that she is simply not seeing (or not emotionally at a point where she is capable of seeing) where their relationship might be heading. I can’t wait for more about this!
One thing I wish had been explored, even a little bit in A Local Habitation, is Toby’s relationship with her daughter. It’s an issue that is so monumental to Toby’s personality, and the touch of melancholy which is always with her always seems to me to be tied to their estrangement. However, that is the lovely thing about a series: issues not explored in one book may be covered in the next. An Artificial Night, book 3 in the series will be released September 7, 2010.
- Seanan McGuire’s site.
- Print excerpt on author’s site.
- Audio excerpt at Audio Bookstand (Brilliance Audio).
February 2010 Read Books
It felt like I read much slower in February, but I was surprised when I counted and saw that I’d read 19 books. I think the unexpected number is due to the fact that a number of them were ebooks, a lot of which are shorter.
While writing this post, I realized I only read 2 actual print books this month. Crazy! I read 10 ebooks and listened to 7 audiobooks. I think I’m seeing that my new ereader is slightly changing the books I pick to read. Where before it felt like a bit of extra effort to read the ebooks (mostly due to technical mac/ebookwise issues), it’s now much easier with the nook. Therefore, I’m catching up on a big backlog of ebooks I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Of course, this means I’ve also been neglecting my print tbr shelves, so I can’t win, can I? *g*
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
People are going to talk…