Armchair Audies 2013 Category Wrap Up Post: Fantasy

Armchair Audies 2013 Wrap Up: Fantasy

This years Fantasy category offered over 93 hours of diversity within the Fantasy genre. As a genre, I thought 2012 was a strong year for Fantasy, and I was a bit surprised by the selections. To say I was under helmed would be putting it mildly. Despite having some issues with the content, all of the performances were outstanding in this category. There were some old favorites and new to me narrators, and all of them I enjoyed. Despite some books that I found less than compelling, there were a few standout listens that I may have never listened to if not for this event. So, first off… The Nominees.

Click on the Cover Images for my Reviews:

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

Read by Emily Gray

Recorded Books

Length: 17 Hrs 2 Min

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (The Riyria Revelations, Volume 1)

Read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Recorded Books

Length: 22 Hrs 37 Min

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens (The Graveyard Queen, Book 1)

Read by Khristine Hvam

Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. \ Audible

Length: !0 Hrs 52 Min

Anita by Keith Roberts

Read by Nicola Barber

Neil Gaiman Presents

Length: 9 Hrs

Princess of Wands by John Ringo

Read by Suzy Jackson

Audible Frontiers

Length: 11 Hrs 29 Min

Heroes Die: The First of the Acts of Caine by Matthew Woodring Stover

Read by Stefan Rudnicki

Audible Frontiers

Length: 22 Hrs 28 Min

My Pick:

For me, this was a two horse race. I went back and forth on my pick a few times factoring many different factors like publication date, narrator history, genre integrity and what I thought the judges of the APA would do, and then I threw it all out and decided to go with my overall favorite as my pick. For me, it came down to Michael Sullivan’s Epic Fantasy Theft of Swords, and Lev AC Rosen’s All Men of Genius. Now, I think Heroes Die and Anita also both have excellent shots to win, but based on my pure enjoyment Theft of Swords and All Men of Genius stood out. Theft of Swords is the most traditional style of Fantasy nominated, and for this I’d be happy with a win for Sullivan and Tim Gerard Reynolds, but one title was just so delightfully fun, full of madcapped scenarios and over the top characters that I just had to choose it and I think the good judges of the APA will as well. So, for the Fantasy category, my pick is:

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen read by Emily Gray for Recorded Books

Guest Audiobook Review: The Book of Riley, Part 2 by Mark Tufo

 

2013 Zombie Awareness Month

The Book of Riley 2: A Zombie Tale by Mark Tufo

Read by Sean Runnette

Tantor Audio

Length: 2 Hrs 46 Min

Genre: Zombie Apocalypse with Talking Animals

Quick Thoughts: Today my dog Munch stops by with a guest review of this action packed Zombie Apocalypse novella featuring Riley, Patches and Ben Ben. This time, the pack passes through Vegas where some humans are up to no good. Another fun entry to the series.

Grade: B+

Today’s Special Guest Reviewer

Hello people who read this. My Name is Munch, Ace dog detective and 20 lb ball of ravenous fury that intimidate all who walk past my patio window. Many of you may know my human Bob. For some reason he likes to sit in front of this box and make annoying sounds with his fingers instead of taking me for walks and sniffing things. He never sniffs things. When he does take me for walks, he always picks up this thing that makes noises into his earholes. Not sure what it’s called, but I like it because it means he’s going to take me out for a walk, except for when it means he’s going to take leave me alone with my cat sister. Now, I’m an ace detective and keen observer and I’m unsure why he actually needs to shove things into his ears, but I tend to pick up some of the human words that come out. Bunch of stupid stuff. Talk about zombies, robots and angry people yelling objection and hiding out in buildings with a bunch of kibble. Why he doesn’t just pay attention to the scent stories floating around in the air, I don’t know.

Recently I noticed he was listening to another one about the dead humans eating live humans again, but there was lots of talk bout this Riley bitch…. a dog. This caught my attention. This dog was an American Bulldog, so they say, but we dog’s don’t really care about the color and shape of other dogs as much as you humans do. I hear humans even get mad over who is sniffing who. Whatever. One day when Bob left, my Cat sister Cali, who can read human words told me that Bob wrote about this Riley bitch and the human word stories she was telling. What shocked me was that Bob told all the others who read from boxes that I’m wouldn’t be a good zombie dog, just because I choose to be a bit picky since I have the luxury to. Human’s make no sense. Us dogs adapt to any situation, and if I need to, I can take down any human living or dead that I need to, even if they make sudden moves or walk strangely. As a professional detective and intimidating watch dog, I’d be the perfect zombie dog.

Munch on the Case

So, the next time Bob listened to his human word stories about this Riley bitch, I paid attention. It seems this Riley, his pack mate Ben Ben and his cat sister Patches had two herd two of their humans to a place called Collar Rado and on the way they have to pass through Vegas. Vegas is a big human place full of lots of lights and noise and bad people. I liked Riley, but I was often confused why she though of her humans as Alphas. Maybe it’s a bitch thing. I, myself am an Alpha, and my humans and cat sister cater to my every whim. Well, maybe not the cat.

Riley and Ben Ben made a strong team. Riley was put into a bad situation and the humans made her fight another dog, a Dober Man Pincher. I am part Miniature Pincher, whatever that means (I think the miniature refers to my stoic nature), but not a Dober Man. It sucked that Riley had to fight another dog because humans made her. I am always up for a fight, but I prefer using techniques like intimidating sniffing, tail bristling and sent marking to establish my dominance. Oh, and occasionally humping, in emergency situations. Riley was a smart dog. While she didn’t understand things like Eight and some human words, she knew her duty and did it, with the help of her Cat sister.

I found the relationship between Riley and her cat sister quite interesting. I like my cat sister. She’s one of the good ones. She gives me advice and helps me figure out human things, and in return, I eat her food when the humans try to give her medicine. Riley’s relationship with his cat sister was more contentious. (Cali says that means they fought a lot.) It was funny though. I had a couple good sniffs over their antics. I also like Ben Ben, who always found a way to get treats, even in the Pocco Lips, whatever that is. The story was full of lots of stuff that humans like, like large bangs, fast moving human coaches and the true heroic nature of dogs. No mating or face smooching, though, thank the rainbow bridge.

Munch’s Cat Sister Cali

The human talking guy, Sean Runnette was interesting. Bob seemed to like him since I heard him bark once or twice while listening. Humans are strange though, he was obviously a human male and Riley was a bitch. He definitely made Ben Ben interesting using human words. Also, Patches the cat sister was a smooth talker. I could see Riley falling under her catty spells. My human seemed to really like this talking word story. We actually took longer walks why he was listening, allowing me to sniff and mark things to I ran out of my sweet juices. I’m sure looking forward to more of these talking dog zombie Poco Lips tales, since I can get some more walks out of it. And some of my favorite meat sticks. Plus, I’m intrigued by this Bacon thing. Need to ask the cat about that.

Note: Thanks to Tantor Audio for providing me with a copy of this title for Review.

Audiobook Review: The Books of Blood Volume 1 by Clive Barker

The Books of Blood: Volume 1 by Clive Barker

Read by Simon Vance, Dick Hill, Peter Berkrot, Jeffrey Kafer, Chet Williamson, and Chris Patton

Crossroad Press

Length: 6 Hrs 51 Min

Genre: Horror

Quick Thoughts: With each tale of The Books of Blood, Barker proves himself a modern master of horror, who uses his reader’s expectations to good effect, hooking you in, then shocking you in twisted and disturbing ways. The Books of Blood is a strong collection of horror takes that should, at times, make you laugh while inserting nightmarish visions into your brain to disturb your nights.

Grade: B+

Nearly 25 years ago, after receiving my first paycheck as a 15 year old working a horrible job doing phone surveys about soda and car repair, I walked into The Oxford Valley Mall’s Waldenbooks and bought my first adult books. Before this moment, I had very little control over the books I could read. Most I got from the public or school library and they had to be cleared with my mother. The few times I got my hands on unapproved books, like when my cousin slipped me a copy of Lord Foul’s Bane, I was caught, scolded for introducing satanic things like magic into my brain and forced to return to my copies of The Three Investigators or Agatha Christie or steal copies of my sister’s Danielle Steel or VC Andrews novel, secure in the thoughts that incest and sexual abuse was in no way as devastating as magical rings and Giants. Now, here I was, unsupervised, with my own money, ready to buy my own books. I picked out three novels, one was Stephen King’s It, which of course I loved. I had read Cujo and Christine before, which were, unbeknownst to my mother, available in my school library, so I knew what I was expecting. I also picked up a novel by a new to me author named Dean Koontz, The Bad Place, which sent me into a voracious need to read all his books. Finally, I picked up Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game. The Damnation game scared the hell out of me. I’m not sure I really got the surreal horror style, and some of the images truly disturbed me. I think I may have been too young at the time for that novel. I wanted tales with monsters and kids in peril, and strange weird science fictioney stuff, and I think Barker’s tale was a little beyond me at the time. It would be years later before I returned to one of his novels, the Fantasy tale of Imajica, and was blown away buy his writing.

The Books of Blood is a short story collection told in a framework of stories written into the skin of a huckster medium when he was brought into investigate strange haunted house. This first volume had five unique and diverse tales spanning the themes of horror. I have always enjoyed short story collections, although I rarely listen to them in audio. One thing that impressed me with this collection is that for each story, I made an assumption early on in the tale, and each time Barker took the story in ways that surprised me. Most surprising of all was the dark humor that infused some of the tales. With the gruesome framework of the series, I was expecting a full on assault of dark and horrific tales and while he delivered on that, he also managed to make me laugh along the way. My favorite tale of the collection had to be The Yattering and Jack, a story of a battle of wills between a gherkin salesman and the demons assigned to drive him crazy. This story was full of such fun, funny moments that I didn’t expect some of the twists along the way. Being that it’s Zombie Awareness Month, it was nice to see that there was a story dealing with the living dead of a sort. In Sex, Death and Starshine, a struggling theatre is putting on a production of Twelth Night staring a vapid soap actress. When a strange accident befalls the star, the director finds the most odd of replacements, who finds an audience all her own. I loved this story. It started out strange to me, but I was instantly thrust into the story through a menagerie of outrageous characters. The Midnight Meat Train started as a traditional New York City serial killer tale, but takes a strange turn. Talking about strange, the last two tales had some of the most bizarre horror imagery I had ever read. and I won’t even describe them here because it may lessen the impact for those who end up reading.  With each tale, Barker proves himself a modern master of horror, who uses his reader’s expectations to good effect, hooking you in, then shocking you in twisted and disturbing ways. The Books of Blood is a strong collection of horror takes that should, at times, make you laugh while inserting nightmarish visions into your brain to disturb your nights,

Audiobook producers tend to take two approaches when casting anthologies, they either hire a single narrator to read all the tales, or they cast each story. Luckily, Crossroads Press took the later approach to casting, bringing in a strong group of narrators, each suited to the tale. Chris Patton started it off with the framework tale. Despite it being short Patton pulled all the creepiness out of the tale, and slung it right into the faces of the listeners. Jeffrey Kafer read The Midnight Meat Train. What I enjoyed about Kafer’s reading was that he didn’t fall into traditional stereotypical voices. I hate when a character runs into some conspiracy spouting dude at a bar in NYC and they make him sound like a West Virginian hick. Kafer created authentic characters and had a keen sense of pacing as the train sped to it’s horrific finale. Dick Hill was the perfect choice for The Yattering and Jack. His precise pacing accentuated the humor of the tale, upping each absurd moment to the max. Peter Berkrot’s reading of Pig Blood Blues gave me chills, balancing the matter of fact protagonist of the story with the ethereal tones. Sometimes when you become familiar with a narrator, you start imagining them in the role of the protagonist of the story you are reading. So, I wasn’t happy hearing Simon Vance describe the sexual encounters of Theater director Terry Calloway. Other than that, Vance gave his typical performance, which is spot on. The highlight of his story was the theatrical Mr. Litchfield which Vance captured perfectly. Finally, there was Chet Williamson. This was my first time listening to one of Williamson’s narrations, and I felt he had just the right raw creepiness in his tone. Honestly, this story, In the Hills, the Cities, was probably the tale I struggled with the most. It took me a bit to get into, but Williamson’s reading of the stunning finale was paced wonderfully creating one of the most strangely beautiful moments of the audiobook. The Books of Blood is an excellent audio production of one of the masters of horror. Even the stories that I struggled with managed to find a place in my nightmare, thanks largely to the excellent work of the narrators.

Special Thanks to Crossroad Press for providing me with a copy of the title for review.

2013 Zombie Awareness Month

Audiobook Review: Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs

 

2013 Zombie Awareness Month

Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs

Read by Eric G. Dove

Brilliance Audio

Length: 9 Hrs 8 Min

Genre: Horror

Quick Thoughts: Southern Gods is a horror novel that actually deserves the title, full of disturbing images and intensely violent action. Jacobs creates a vivid setting and populates it with authentic characters creating a tale of Lovercraftian horror that would please even the dourest of old gods.

Grade: B+

One of the great things about Zombies is they really have no ego. They are mindless killing machines existing solely to wreak havoc, devour flesh and cause fear and terror among the still breathing. They have no need to be the stars of the show as long as they get their pound of flesh. Knowing that I would be listening to lots and lots of zombie novels during May is Zombie Awareness Month, I knew it would be quite important to find a nice variety of tales so it’s not all, run run, the zombies are coming let’s hole up in this Wal-Mart. So I wanted to find a few books that were less Zombie novels and more novels with Zombies. One of my favorite Zombie novels of 2012 was This Dark Earth by John Hornor Jacobs. It was one of the few Zombie Apocalypse novels that felt fresh, not because it gave some new spin on Zombies, but because the writing just made it feel different plus the use to the term headknockers. The book has all the pop of a zombie head being run over by an Armored Personnel Carrier, and in case you’re keeping score, that’s a lot of pop. I have always been disappointed that this novel wasn’t available in audio, and that Jacobs didn’t have another Zombie novel that I could include for my annual celebration of walking copses. Then one day I was reading Scott Kenemore’s Blog and he was talking about John Hornor’s Southern Gods. Now, I understood Southern Gods to be a historical Lovercraftian horror novel, yet, Scott Kenemore mentions that it has zombies in it. Hell, that was enough for me. Last year, I was able to fit in Leviathan Wakes into Zombie Awareness Month due to its space bound vomit zombies, Lovercraftian godly directed zombies should have no problem fitting my own undead requirements.

Bull Ingram, a World War II veteran still suffering the lingering effects of his time at war, is working as muscle for a local bookie when he’s offered a job hunting down a missing Radio Station promoter. He is also tasked with discovering the whereabouts of Ramblin’ John, a mysterious bluesman whose music causes primal reactions from its listeners. Sent into the heart of Arkansas, Ingram discovers an ancient evil at the heart of the strange music, and meets an alluring woman whose family is full of dark secrets. Southern Gods is a terrifying manipulation of the good versus evil theme with a distinctive Southern flavor. Jacob’s creates a world where simple men are used as pawns for dark games by ancient gods in horrific ways. He blends the mythologies of the eldritch gods with a distinct setting that manages to pull a visceral response from his readers. While Bull Ingram’s quiet strength was truly a driving force of the novel, it was the scenes surrounding Sarah that sere the heart of the tale. From her families sordid past, to her contentious relationship with her mother, Sarah’s emotionally insecurity yet inner strength was a touchstone in the sea of madness. Jacobs explores the concepts of fate and agency with it characters as they not only try to battle against the plans of evil gods, but struggle for independence from the helping hands of their supposedly benevolent brothers. Jacobs’s post war South feels alive with mythological possibility. Initially I was concerned that the mystical bluesman tale and hints of voodoo was going to become another example of the magical Negro thrusting themselves into the limelight, but Jacobs managed to break away from that type of storytelling, even possibly using it as a red herring. And, yes, there were zombies of a sort, particularly one intense action sequence that was beautifully choreographed and undeniably terrifying yet it was just one piece in the author‘s strange menagerie. My only true negative was the mystical love connection, and awkwardly intense sex scene, which lead to the classic, “Oh, my god, I just fucked, and then something horrible happened because of it” moment. The romantic element seemed forced into the narrative as a way to confirm other aspects, and while it did add something to the story, it felt a bit out of place. Southern Gods is a horror novel that actually deserves the title, full of disturbing images and intensely violent action. Jacobs creates a vivid setting and populates it with authentic characters creating a tale of Lovercraftian horror that would please even the dourest of old gods.

Eric G. Dove managed to capture the southern feel of this novel perfectly. He delivered Bull Ingram’s slow, methodical speech in a careful manner that perfectly suited the character. I liked that he used a variety of distinctive voices, not solely relying of the hillbilly stereotype, but allowing each character’s personalities to come through. His pacing was also slow and steady, sometimes too slow. At times, the deliberate nature of his delivery seemed less about creating mood, than just a comfortable reading pace for the narrator. During the action scenes, though, his pacing picked up, delivering the mayhem of each moment in a rapid fire stream, yet never losing the listener on the way. I also felt his dialogue came off organically, seamlessly switching between characters. Overall, Dove’s narration delivers on the promise of the tale, creating a truly terrifying and pulse pounding audiobook experience.

Audiobook Review: The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green (The Nightside, Bk. 12)

Read by Marc Vietor

Audible Frontiers

Length: 10 Hrs 31 Min

Genre: Paranormal Urban Fantasy

Quick Thoughts: For fans of the series, The Bride Wore Black Leather should be a lot of fun, completing the story in the style of the previous novel. For me, though, this final novel highlighted many of my issues with the earlier novels and stripped away the one aspect of the series I really liked.

Grade: C-

2013 Audie Nomination for Paranormal

Really people, I tried. I love the Armchair Audies Event. It’s one of the few blogging activities I take part in every year that I am proud of. It’s one of the few things I do on my small little slice of the internet that I think both forces me out of my comfort zone, and also provides a valuable service. Sure, I do Zombie Awareness Month, and participate in things like June is Audiobook Month and Jenn’s Bookshelves’ Monsters, Murder and Mayhem events, but for those things I still control the content on my blog. In many ways what I like about Armchair Audies is that the book selections are out of my hands. Last year, I loved the experience. It was really an awesome experience. I have loved the experience so far this year as well, but it has come with more difficulties. From the moment the nominees were announced, I was a bit flummoxed. You can tell just by the nominees alone that one company made a concerted push to have their titles at the forefront of the selection process. The nominees both in my categories and in other had me shocked, and a bit dismayed at times. It had me doubting the process. Some of that was saved after listening to the two selections from Recorded Books in the Fantasy category, but since then, I have been pretty much under whelmed. My favorite category, Science Fiction was practically all titles I have already listened to. Then came paranormal, which had some really amazing titles, but also one title that was the 12th in a series. Yet, I was going to try. I was going to pool my resources, and listened to as many of the 11 prequels as I could. I had the time management skills, and the determination. I made it to Book 6, and then I just couldn’t. I saw all the other awesome books I could have been listening to instead of this series, which was, in my opinion, mediocre. So, I broke my cardinal rule, and skipped ahead to Book 12, the Audie nominated entry of Simon R. Green’s Nightside series, The Bride Wore Black Leather.

So, I’m going to keep the summary of the book short. Basically, the Nightside series is ending. Some bad guy decides he wants to make The Nightside a 60′s paradise and force The Nightside, where it is always 3 AM, into the light and of course, this is a bad thing, because then where will all the monsters go to terrorize people. Groan… Listen, Simon R. Green’s Nightside isn’t a bad series. I can understand why it has a following. I personally felt like the one story arch was pretty strong, but not strong enough to keep me interested. The thing I like most about this series is the strange camaraderie between an oddball group of characters, and the essence of this final edition of the story was stripping John Taylor away from his friends, thus eliminating my favorite aspect. In fact, the Bride mentioned in the title, John Taylor’s fiancé Susie Shooter doesn’t even show up in the tale until the last 30 minutes of the audiobook. Like most of the series, it’s not bad, just mostly blah for me. As John Taylor freely admits, he isn’t really an Investigator, which sucks for a series about a guy who runs a Private Investigator firm in a strange magical section of London where it’s always 3AM. He’s a guy with a gift that is moved around on a chessboard by unseen forces in order to use that gift. He has a knack for getting out of bad scrapes, which of course, he allows himself to be maneuvered into regularly. He’s a hero with no agency, surviving by the ultimate Dues ex machina, and waits patiently for the villain to reveal his evil plan before stumbling on a way to thwart it. I love the setting of the story, the bizarre world, the blending of speculative fiction tropes and genres, I just never became invested in the plots of the tale enough to give two shits and a half of a giggle. Skipping from book 6 to book 12, you would think you would feel lots of holes in the story and want to find what filled them. Sure, there were holes but only on a few occasions was I in the slightest way tempted to fill them. Fans of the series should love this finale, since basically it’s John Taylor going from character to character he knows and reminding all of us about their sordid relationships. The action doesn’t really take off until the final third, and that mostly consists of some of these same people being magically manipulated into acting like douchebags. For me, well, I can’t gather up enough passion to lambaste and bash this title with snark and clever .gifs, so I’ll just say, if you like The Nightside books, you’ll like it. If you’d rather spend 10 hours watching a marathon of episodes of Gilligan’s Planet, then here’s a link to it’s theme on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sGOfWP2bWk

While aspects of the audiobook drove me up a wall, very little of this was due to the narration by Mark Vietor. He had total command of the characters and the setting, and I thought this performance was much more nuanced than in some of the earlier editions. Yet, some of the problems with the writing in this series become BLINKING RED LIGHTS OF DOOM in the audiobook. The repetition was horrible. If I had to hear John Taylor say "…and then it was the easiest thing in the world…" just one more time I would have laced my head in moth pheromones and sat outside under a porch light while they attempted to mate with my skull. FYI, I HATE MOTHS. I was actually going to keep a running count on how many times Vietor ominously said “The Nightside…” in his patented mustache twirling soft British sneer but instead I invested my time more wisely by picturing Justin Beiber on tour with Menudo. That being said, Vietor was quite good and if you like the series, he’s the way to go. Sure, give him an Audie nomination and everything. I mean, he did read 12 of these things. 

Audiobook Review: World War Z: The Complete Edition: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

2013 Zombie Awareness Month

World War Z: The Complete Edition: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Read by A Full Cast (See Full Narrator Credits After Review)

Random House Audio

Length: 12 Hrs 8 Min

Genre: Zombie Apocalypse

Quick Thoughts: World War Z is a brilliantly conceived and executed novel full of small bits of wisdom, stories of heroism and villainy, and one of the best accounts on the true cost of war that I have ever read, despite being a fully fictional account. This updated Complete version is a delight, full of wonderful performances from a variety of actors who capture the international feel that the Abridged version sorely lacked.

Grade: A+

Note: There seems to be a lot of questions about whether this edition truly is Unabridged. After checking things out, I learned that while all the characters from the original novel appear in this novel, parts have been removed making this not a truly Unabridged audiobook. This audiobook is based on the new Movie Tie In Version of the book. For me, who hadn’t read the original in almost 7 years, I didn’t notice the cuts, but for some hardcore fans of the novel, this may not be the case. This does not affect my ratings, because I still enjoyed this production and believe you will to. Just beware, if you will only settle for the absolutely completely 100% Unabridged version, than you may be disappointed.

I’m not really sure if you can call a book that is less than 10 years old a true classic, yet, if you could World War Z would be a great example. While Zombie fiction has been around for years, the Zombie Apocalypse subgenre has really hit its stride over the past 10 years. I first read World War Z when it was originally released in Hardback, in 2006. It was that same year when I transferred jobs, and began transitioning from a more print intensive reader to an audiobook listener. I remember that first day, when I was still unsure about audiobooks, I had chosen two to listen to Stephen King’s The Mist, and the original abridged version of World War Z. I found the Mist to be pretty much an over produced multicast audio drama which is something to his day that I still can’t seem to get into. World War Z was another story in itself. I was blown away by the quality of the narration, and found it cool to hear so many recognizable voices like Alan Alda and Rob Reiner, but I was also left sort of cold. I think a big part of it was that I had only just read the book a few months before. Yet, the major issue I had with the audiobook was the abridgement. I didn’t have any issues with what was included, but I sort of felt like I was at the movie version of a book I loved, where I kept waiting for my favorite scenes, and they never came. For years now I have been hoping for an unabridged audio version. When I first hear they were making a movie starring Brad Pitt, I had two thoughts. First, Brad Pitt would never be THE star of THE World War Z. Why would you bring in an A List actor to play the role of a guy basically conducting a series of interviews? I knew that no matter what happened, the movie would not truly be an adaptation of this book. Yet, my other thought was, maybe now they will make an Unabridged Audiobook. Well, the gods of audio heard my cries, and now, here it is, a fully Unabridged Audiobook of the Modern Zombie Apocalypse classic World War Z.

In World War Z, author Max Brooks is compiling the history of mankind’s successful war against the Zombies after his governmental report is sanitized of all but a bare recitation of the facts. To do this he travels across the globe from China, where the outbreak began, to America, where the push against the undead took stride, gathering personal stories of the key figures and moments in the Z War. World War Z is a brilliantly conceived and executed novel full of small bits of wisdom, stories of heroism and villainy, and one of the best accounts on the true cost of war that I have ever read, despite being a fully fictional account. This is really the brilliance behind World War Z, it feels genuine. It feels exactly like it advertises itself to be, an oral history of a zombie war. The thing about Zombie fiction is often their attempts to find reasonable scientific or mythological answers for every aspect of Zombies often simply make the tales even more unbelievable. Max Brooks never attempts to explain the zombies, and how they function, he just allows his characters to tell their tales, admitting when they don’t know or understand something about the undead beyond how to kill them. It’s a tale of people, vulnerable and often broken people, devastated by an enemy they really never truly understand, forever changed in the wake of the destruction but managing to find a way to succeed. World War Z is a rare apocalyptic tale, because it is a truly global one. Brooks explores the Zombie apocalypse as a global war, showing how different cultures, ethnically, politically and culturally dealt with their own zombie problems. This was one of the biggest problems with the abridged audio version. Much of the international feel was stripped away from the tale, losing some of the far reaching aspects of the narrative. With the new material, it just feels much more complete, and just a bit more terrifying. Honestly, in the nearly 7 years since I last read World War Z I had forgotten just how good it is. I was amazed at these small bits of wisdom and insight that appeared throughout the book. There are many people who list this novel as a classic of Post Apocalyptic fiction. Re-experiencing the tale through the now complete Audiobook just reinforces that belief. World War Z is great fiction.

I’ve decided in this review to focus on the new material, instead of simply rehashing everything. The new Unabridged Audio version has over 6 hours of new materials recorded by some well known names, as well as some cult TV show stars. Among the shows represented are Battlestar Gallactica, Firefly, Star Trek; TNG, Voyager and Deep Space 9, and Heroes. One of the reasons this audiobook was so well suited to celebrity narrators was that the whole story was told in first person POV, where they could truly become the characters they were voicing. Many of these performances were stunning. For me, Nicki Clynes reading of Sharon, a traumatized woman retaining the personality of the four year old who witnessed a zombie attack on the church, was the highlight of the production. It gave me chills when I listened, and still does when I think about it even now. Nathan Fillion gave an emotional reading of Stanley MacDonald, a Canadian military man whose witnessed account of a horrific zombie slaughter is dismissed by his commanders. Fillion has this low rumble in the back of his voice that you can hear slowly begin to break as the stress of the character is pushed to the extreme. Two of my favorite POV’s that were criminally left out of the Abridged versions were also wonderful to hear. Kal Penn reads Sardar Khan, a young Indian soldier who finds himself at a pivotal moment trying to hold back a zombie incursion on a narrow bridge, long enough to get the civilians to safely. Hip Hop artist Common give a strong performance in one of the most memorable scenes, as Darnell Hackworth, former dog handler during the push to take back the country. There were so many excellent performances, that if I mentioned them all, then I would run out of space. So, I will only mention that Max Brooks  does an excellent job in his role as, well Max Brooks, the interviewer. There was even one really funny moment where he has a comical reaction to an interviewee’s snide remark about the American Zombie Survival Guide that provoked a laugh out of me.  I’m not sure if this title, which blends a new and old material will be eligible for an Audie Award next year, but it should be. World War Z is a wonderful production and a triumph for all involved.

Full Cast Credits

Max Brooks as Max Brooks
Nicki Clyne as Sharon
Bruce Boxleitner as Gavin Blaire
Simon Pegg as Grover Carlson
Brian Tee as Hyungchoi and Michael Choi
Henry Rollins as T. Sean Collins
Frank Darabont as Roy Elliot
Common as Darnell Hackworth
Kal Penn as Sardar Khan
Alfred Molina as Terry Knox
David Ogden Stiers as Bohdan Taras Kondratiuk
Nathan Fillion as Stanley MacDonald
Denise Crosby as Mary Jo Miller
Ade M’Cormack as Jacob Nyathi
Paul Sorvino as Fernando Oliveira
Parminder Nagra as Barati Palshigar
Rene Auberjonois as Andre Renard
F. Murray Abraham as Father Sergei Ryzhkov
Martin Scorsese as Breckinridge “Breck” Scott
Masi Oka as Kondo Tatsumi
Ric Young as Admiral Xu Zhicai
Jeri Ryan as Maria Zhuganova

Alan Alda as Arthur Sinclair
Carl Reiner as Jurgen Warbrunn
Jürgen Prochnow as Philip Adler
Waleed Zuiater as Saladin Kader
Dean Edwards as Joe Muhammad
Michelle Kholos as Jesika Hendricks
Maz Jobrani as Ahmed Farahnakian
Mark Hamill as Todd Wainio
Eamonn Walker as David Allen Forbes and Paul Redeker / Xolelwa Azania
Ajay Naidu as Ajay Shah
John Turturro as Serosha Garcia Alvarez
Rob Reiner as “The Whacko”
Jay O. Sanders as Bob Archer
Dennis Boutsikaris as General Travis D’Ambrosia
Becky Ann Baker as Christina Eliopolis
Steve Park as Kwang Jingshu
Frank Kamai as Nury Televadi and Tomonaga Jiro
John McElroy as Ernesto Olguin[

Audiobook Review: My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diane Rowland

2013 Zombie Awareness Month

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Read by Allison McLemore

Audible Frontiers

Length: 8 Hrs 44 Min

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Contemporary Zombie

Quick Thoughts: My Life a a White Trash Zombie is an engaging, coming to death tale. It’s an atypical zombie novel that focuses more on character than on any expectation you may have about Zombies. Diana Rowland’s tale is the rare zombie book that I would recommend to my non-zombie loving friends before my hordes of zombie enthusiasts, a fun character study, with a well executed bit of mystery and maybe even some romance along the way.

Grade B+

2013 Audie Nomination for Paranormal

I never started out as a big zombie fan. Little Bob wasn’t running around pretending to headshot all his little friends, or biting them in a hope to spread his viral infection. Little Bob had better reasons to bite his friends. When I first started to get exposed to the possibility of Zombie fiction, I was a bit hesitant. No matter what type of persona I attempt to foster, I am not a gore for gore sake type of guy. My least favorite scenes in Romero movies are the one where the gangs are getting their entrails ripped out by zombies, or the flesh is being peeled off the necks by the ragged teeth of a pustulant corpsebag . Now, there are some pretty awesome gory moments in Zombie movies and TV shows but, I am more interested in the story and characters then the flesh rending action. I came into Zombie fiction as a post apocalyptic fan and because of this I had a very myopic view of the undead and their purpose. Zombies were not supposed to be characters on their own, but set pieces. Their roles were to serve as the catalyst to the characters post apocalyptic adventure then shamble off screen until needed. I loved books where the zombies only came out at night, so the apocalyptic adventurers had a whole empty playground to do their looting and banditry in, then hole up and find some sort of protection from the undead at night. Then something changed. Maybe I was just going through a change. Maybe I was just suffering ZFS, Zompoc Fatigue Syndrome, but I wanted something more from my undead. I started reading books like Warm Bodies, Raising Stony Mayhall and Zombie, Ohio, where the zombies became characters. I read Dust and started to become fascinated by the idea of Zombie culture. I read The Reanimation of Edward Schuett and realized that zombies may have regret. This opened a whole new area of exploration for me, where Zombies can be more than set pieces, but can solve murders, fall in love and devourer the brains of humans. Well, some things need to stay the same.

When Angel wakes us in the hospital after an apparent overdose where she was found naked on the side of the road by a cop, she knew she had to change her life. When she received a mysterious letter telling her she had a job at the Coroner’s Office as a van driver and if she didn’t stick it out there at least a month she would violate her parole and end up in jail, well, she knew something was up. When she discovered a deep hunger for human brains, she begins to suspect the unthinkable. What exactly happened to her that night, and is it related to the recent string of beheadings that is plaguing her small town? Angel planned on finding out, just as soon as she procured herself enough human head cheese to calm her cravings. My Life as a White Trash Zombie is an atypical zombie novel that focuses more on character than on any expectation you may have about Zombies. I may have been a bit of a victim here of inflated expectations. I had heard so much about this novel that I was expecting, almost hoping to be blown away by it like I have been with some other spins on zombie tales. While I wasn’t utterly blown away, I found My Life as a White Trash Zombie to be an engaging coming of death tale. Interestingly, where I had the most trouble with the novel was the Zombie stuff. There was an almost incongruousness to the tale. When dealing with Angel’s plight to overcome her self fulfilled life as a loser, dealing with her abusive father and loser boyfriend and attempting to take pride in her new job, I loved it. Then I was reminded a little about small things like that she’s a zombie, who needs to find brains, oh, and someone may be killing people or zombies or something, I was like, OK, but is she going to find herself some affordable housing away from her douchebag dad? As a character study, I really, really liked it. As a zombie novel, I was a bit indifferent. It’s not that I don’t like different takes on Zombies, it was just that she really didn’t feel like a Zombie to me. She seemed like she was just this girl who happened to find that the label ZOMBIE most fir her current status.  Which wasn’t what I expected at all. Diane Rowland has created a wonderful protagonist who just happen to need to snack occasionally on human brains in order to not go roguey killey slaughtering all mankind, and of course, to have enough energy for sexy stuff. I’m, good with that. My Life as a White Trash Zombie is the rare zombie book that I would recommend to my non-zombie loving friends before my hordes of zombie enthusiasts, a fun character study, with a well executed bit of mystery and maybe even some romance along the way.

So, if you just read my review, and are thinking, "OK, Bob. That sounds good, but should I read it or get the audiobooks?" Good question hypothetical person who actually reads my review, simple answer "GET THE DAMN AUDIOBOOK!" Allison McLemore’s narration really makes this audiobook. It’s light and whimsical when needed, but full of depth as well. McLemore turns Angel from a theoretical construct that exists on paper, into a real not so living, so I guess not really breathing unperson. She gives Angel’s accent the perfect amount of sardonic southern twang without coming off as a bad redneck stereotype. The other characters in the tale were equally as effective, especially her sorta kinda boyfriend Randy and her various coworkers at the coroner’s office. McLemore’s performance is definitely worthy of the Audie nomination and kept me engrossed in this fun tale of a young woman who just wants to have some fun… and eat some brains.