The X-Files: Ground Zero (abridged audiobook) by Kevin J. Anderson

Published in 1995 by HarperAudio.

Duration: approximately 3 hours
Read by Gillian Anderson

Abridged.

 I am going to say this succinctly and clearly.

The abridged audiobook of The X-Files: Ground Zero is not good. It is bad. It is not well read. It has few of the best qualities of the TV show.

Read by Gillian Anderson, the abridged audiobook clocks in at about 3 hours and read unenthusiastically by Gillian Anderson. One of the reasons I picked this one up is that I figured she'd read it well. It says it was recorded in Vancouver in 1995 (where the show was filmed) and it sounds like she read it between takes. She sounds tired and completely uninterested in the text.

Then again, when you look at what she was reading, I cannot blame her for being uninterested. This book has none of the zip of the show. Mulder's lines are almost non-existent. No smart-alack lines or observation. No wry sense of humor that makes even the weakest of the TV shows watchable (I love the X-Files but let's face it - every episode is not being shipped to the TV Hall of Fame...). This book is a tired and pale imitation of what the show was. You can see the ending coming and you wish it would just hurry up and get here. Perhaps the abridgment gutted the book but I was glad it was abridged.

Gillian Anderson

The science behind this audiobook is laughable. Not the supernatural stuff - that's what the X-Files is all about. I mean the atomic science. Does the author really think that anyone can explode an atomic bomb without radiation detectors picking up on it? Remember Chernobyl? The West knew it had gone wrong long before the Soviets admitted to it because it was detected by Western atomic sensors. Atomic blasts show up on seismographs. That's how we knew India and Pakistan had them. But, let's ignore facts like that and roll right along with a silly premise.

I rate this audiobook 1 star out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The X-Files: Ground Zero.

Reviewed on April 8, 2009.

Skin (X-files) (abridged audiobook) by Ben Mezrich

A competent, but not great audiobook

Published in 1999 by HarperAudio
Abridged audiobook
Format: Cassette
Duration: Approximately 3 hours
Read by Bruce Harwood

I heard Skin as an abridged audiobook. It was narrated by Bruce Harwood, who portrays the most 'normal' of the conspiracy-addicted threesome known as 'the Lone Gunmen' on the X-Files TV show. Harwood does a competent, but ultimately uninspiring job of narrating the story.

Bruce Harwood

In fact, this is also a decent description of the book as a whole. It is okay, but not great. The characters act like they are supposed to, but those wry comments from Fox are mostly non-existent and Scully is just not quite right throughout most of the book.

I am sure that the abridgment is at least partially to blame. The unabridged version is 8 and 1/2 hours. This one clocks in at three hours. Something had to give and it sounds like this one gave away its personality.

The plot itself was okay. The ending was a bit anti-climatic.

It's entertaining, but not great entertainment.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Skin (The X Files)

Reviewed February 16, 2005.