DWD's Reviews

Good Early Spenser novel Published August 1st 1988 by Books on Tape, Inc. Read by Michael Prichard Duration: 5 hours, 4 minutes Unabridged Robert B. Parker and Tony Hillerman are the two authors I most consistently check when I go to a library or a bookstore. When it is a great day, one of the two has a new book. When it is a tremendous day, they both have a new one out and I have to decide which to read first! In the meantime, I am making do by going back over their collected works as audiobooks. I have a long drive to work every day and Spenser makes a very good ride-along companion. I have long-since read all of the older Spenser books, but the beautiful thing about a faulty memory is that the plot lines get a bit hazy over time and now I can enjoy them all over again! Besides, it is always interesting to see how the reader interprets Spenser and the gang. One of the best to capture Spenser smart-aleck comments was Burt Reynolds, although his inte...

Sometimes funny, sometimes just the rants of a cranky old man  Performed by the author, George Carlin Published by Highbridge Company, April 1, 2001 Duration: 2 hours, 29 minutes abridged G eorge Carlin (1937-2008) was an iconic stand-up comic known for his cutting edge humor. This audiobook is not really either, however. I am not saying it does not have its funny moments - it certainly does. But, large stretches of it sound more like a cranky old man spouting off than an actual attempt at humor. George Carlin (1937-2008) Funny parts of Napalm and Silly Putty include his observations on cats, dogs, grocery stores, "saving" the environment, health nuts and driving. Those are actually full blown comedy bits  and remind me quite a bit of Dave Barry with generous quantities of superfluous cursing thrown in for spice. Sadly, for a comic known for his edginess, none of these topics are particularly edgy. His attempts at edginess come with rants about businessmen, or...

Abridged Published by Simon and Schuster in 2000 Read by Chris Meloni Duration: 4 hours, 41 minutes I am a relative newcomer to the works of Steve Martini, this being my third book, the second one as an audiobook. As a listener, I can tell that Martini's craft has improved quite a bit - my first experience with a Martini audiobook ( The Judge ) only accentuated Martini's overuse of the simile (he moved like a cat, etc.) - it was so obvious that I began a running count of how many times I heard them! This plot is not as strong as that one, but his skills as a writer have improved so that the entire effect is actually one of improvement. Steve Martini Paul Madriani and his partner Harry are back for another turn as protagonists in The Attorney , although Harry largely takes a backseat in this one, which is too bad. Nevertheless, the plot moves well, suspense builds nicely until the ending comes along and there is a bit of a letdown. However, I am not one t...

A short story: dramatic, gory, creepy and quite satisfying. Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2008 Read by Mare Winningham Duration: 2 hours, 13 minutes Unabridged. "Run, run, as fast as you can You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" Some time back some brilliant someone in the vast Simon and Schuster bureaucracy (I assume it is vast. I guess it could be just some guy named Simon talking to some guy named Schuster all day long but it seems much bigger to me) decided that Stephen King's short stories would make nice little audiobooks. That anonymous, faceless cubicle dweller was absolutely right. Here's the deal with Stephen King and audiobooks - he tends to write long books and that means you are listening to one story for a long time. For example, the audio version of The Stand lasts 47 hours and 52 minutes. Two complete days of a tale of woe, disease, mass death, chaos. I listen in the car so that would mean a solid month, maybe more....

Published by Audio Literature in 2002 Duration: 3 hours, 24 minutes Performed by Harlan Ellison City of Darkness is my first foray into Ben Bova's work. I've seen his stuff around but never quite picked any of his books up. If this is typical of the quality of his work, I will be back for more. The story is set in a future United States in which the cities have been closed. New York City is cut off from the rest of the country except for the summer months - where it becomes a tourist destination away from the unrelenting tedium of suburbia (called "the tracts"). Our protagonist runs away to the city and gets locked in after it is closed at the end of the summer - and he finds out that the city is not empty after all... Harlan Ellison makes this audiobook seem like a one man radio play. He does a first-rate job at making the story sing and zing. Take the word of a listener who has heard more than his share of mediocre readers - Ellison deserves a...

Read by Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Samantha Eggar, Rosalyn Landor, Stefan Rudnicki and Judy Young Published by Blackstone Audio - 2011. 15 hours, 30 minutes Long-time author Ben Bova adds to his Grand Tour series as he continues his tales of the colonization of our solar system with Leviathans of Jupiter , the sequel to his 2001 novel Jupiter . Some characters are brought forward from his other novels but, in reality, Leviathans of Jupiter also works well as a stand-alone work. In Jupiter Bova introduced Grant Archer, a researcher that made fleeting contact with gigantic creatures (some are several kilometers wide) that live extremely deep in the oceans of Jupiter. Now, 20 years later, Archer is in charge of Jupiter’s research station and he is determined to prove that those Leviathans are intelligent. He assembles a team of experts and the book follows those experts as they get to know one another and as they determine how they can best meet and interac...

Published by Brilliance Audio in 1999. Read by John Kenneth Unabridged I never quite got around to seeing this Bond flick. I am a casual fan, meaning that I eventually get around to seeing them, but not usually in the theater. I ran across this audiobook version and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone - liven up my long commute with some entertainment and cross this Bond story off of my list. The World Is Not Enough is read by John Kenneth. Kenneth was confronted with a tough choice - how does he read Bond? Does his version of Bond sound like Connery? Dalton? Moore? Who? Kenneth's voice for Bond is unique and unforced, which cannot be said of some of the other voices he uses. At times, Kenneth presents the listener with a variety of increasingly-shrill British voices that sound more like the soundtrack of a Monty Python skit rather than a more serious presentation. Update on 6/28/25: The good news is that this audiobook was re-recorded and re-released in 2015. It is ...

Published April of 2012 by AudioGo. Narrated by Paul Blake Duration: 15 hours, 23 minutes Unabridged. I did not read or listen to the other three installments of Conn Iggulden's Emperor Series, but I was already familiar with the last few years of Julius Caesar's life so it was not difficult to join in here at the end. Book IV of the Emperor Series starts with Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon River with his army when he was ordered home from Gaul. This actions begins a civil war, with Caesar leading one faction and Pompey leading the other. From there we get the other highlights - Caesar's triumphal entry into Rome, the defeat of Pompey's army in Greece, the pursuit of Pompey into Egypt, the romance of Caesar and Cleopatra, the return to Rome and Caesar's murder by the Senate. Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) It's all standard issue history textbook stuff but Iggulden makes it a story that demands to be listened to. To be sure, he has fidd...

Tedious at best Originally published as a traditional in 1990 Audiobook published in 1993 by Random House Audio Read by Rene Auberjonois Duration: approximately 3 hours. Abridged. I have read a number of Margaret Truman's murder mysteries and was pleased to find this one as an audiobook so that I could enjoy it on my drive to work. However, this one was a true departure from her other works that I have read and approached what I was afraid that all of her books would be like when I first started reading them: the pretentious writings of a Washington insider. The murder mystery in and of itself is very simplistic. Truman brings in a vague ecumenical movement called "Word of Peace" and has everyone in the Episcopal/Anglican Church hierarchy express their doubts and fears about the group without going into detail why they should be afraid of it. Truman seems to think that an ongoing, out-in-the-open sexual relationship by an unmarried Bishop is not a big deal ...

Libertarianism thought delivered painlessly by nice guy Stossel Published April 10, 2012 by Simon and Schuster Audio. Read by the author, John Stossel Duration: 9 hours, 14 minutes The title of this audiobook , No, They Can't ,  is a play on the 2008 campaign slogan of then-candidate Obama, "Yes We Can!" Stossel, of course, is the TV consumer reporter turned anchor of ABC's 20/20 who now hosts a weekly show of Fox Business News and a series on one-hour specials on Fox News. He has won nineteen Emmy Awards. He begins his book with an explanation of why he left ABC after more than 20 years and how the culture of ABC made it very uncomfortable for him to explore stories in any way except the tried and true politically correct way. The premise of the this audiobook is that the entire thought process behind that campaign slogan is wrong  - the government cannot do a lot of the things that people want it to do, and even if everyone agreed it should give those thin...

  Join the French Foreign Legion for grit, danger and adventure. Multicast performance   Published by Galaxy Audio Duration: 2 hours, 18 minutes First published in the magazine Mystery Adventures in 1935 ,  Hell's Legionnaire  is part of a large series of books and stories that are being re-published by Galaxy Press as part of their Golden Age Stories series. In reality, they are a collection of L. Ron Hubbard's early works that were published in magazines and as pulp fiction books. Hubbard was a prolific writer and he wrote a lot of action stories that translate quite well into the multicast performance audiobook format. The book is performed by several cast members with sound effects and are reminiscent of the old-time radio shows that were popular when the stories were written. This audiobook consists of three short stories. All of the stories are about the famed French Foreign Legion and their fights with the Berbers in North Africa. The first is th...

Multicast performance Published by Galaxy Audio Duration: 2 hours, 17 minutes First published in the magazine Unknown in 1941, The Crossroads is part of a large series of books and stories that are being re-published by Galaxy Press as part of their Golden Age Stories series. In reality, they are a collection of L. Ron Hubbard's early works that were published in magazines and as pulp fiction books. Hubbard was a prolific writer and he wrote a lot of action stories that translate quite well into the multicast performance audiobook format. The book is performed by several cast members and are reminiscent of the old-time radio shows that were popular when the stories were written. This audiobook consists of 3 short stories. The first story is the title story. The Crossroads is the story of an old farmer in the Depression who thinks that the Roosevelt Administration's orders for farmers to destroy food (in an effort to raise prices for food) is ...

Lots of fun in a small package. Duration: 2 hours, 22 minutes. Multicast Performance Published by Galaxy Press. Unabridged, First published in Western Story Magazine in 1938, Death Waits at Sundown is part of a large series of books and stories that are being re-published by Galaxy Press as part of their Golden Age Stories series. In reality, they are a collection of L. Ron Hubbard's early works that were published in magazines and as pulp fiction books. Hubbard was a prolific writer and he wrote a lot of action stories that translate quite well into the multicast performance audiobook format. This audiobook is actually three short stories. The first story is the title story of the collection. It features a wrongly accused man named Frank Taylor. He has been convicted of murder and robbery so that the new town sheriff can confiscate his land. But, the new sheriff never counted on Frank's brother, a famed gunslinger from Texas, comes to town to save his...

Continuing with the "prequels" of the Mitch Rapp story Published in 2012 by Simon and Schuster Audio Read by George Guidall Duration: 10 hours, 49 minutes. Vince Flynn's long-running character Mitch Rapp was introduced and developed as a successful and established CIA Counter-terrorism agent - sort of an American James Bond, if you will. He is dangerous, effective, and willing to break the rules in order to get the job done. After ten books featuring Rapp, author Vince Flynn decided to explore Rapp's early years. This is the second book in that exploration of his early years. Rapp's bosses have developed a list of terrorists that Rapp is supposed to terminate. These assassinations have all been quick, clean affairs - there is no collateral damage, no clues are left behind and terrorists around the globe are left to wonder who is next on the list. The book starts with Rapp on a mission to assassinate a Libyan terrorist who is visiting Paris and staying at...

Published in 2008 by Penguin Audio Read by the author, Denis Leary Duration: 5 hours (abridged) Denis Leary. If you have never seen his act before, catch a bit of him on the internet and see if he suits your tastes. If he does, this book is just a lot more of the same - Leary's acid commentary on stupid parents, the Catholic Church, why there won't be many female race car drivers, obese people, helicopter parents, George W. Bush, his family and just about everything else are designed to outrage as much as entertain. Do not listen to this book if foul language or rude comments are a deal-breaker. Leary's tales of his childhood are actually quite endearing and they make up the best part of the book. His anger at the Catholic Church is only partially tempered by respect for the Catholic school that he attended as a child (in reality, the Catholic Church becomes the whipping boy for all organized religion) and his politics clearly run to the Democrat side of the spectru...

Published in 2011 by Spoken Word, Inc. Read by Barbara Whitesides Duration: 12 hours, 40 minutes. Unabridged. If I told you that I had just listened to a thriller set in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 involving secret plots among the top levels of the hardline Chinese leadership, the underground protest movement, an adventurous young Chinese-American doctor who is just beginning to learn about her Chinese roots, an intricate plot to keep her trapped in China by an evil man, a budding romance, Chinese gangsters, a corrupt Korean businessman, a motorcycle chase, gunfights, daring escapes, an introduction to Taoist philosophy and a possible cure to aging you would think that this would be a real whiz-bang listen. The book revolves around Dr. Lili Quan, a Chinese-American doctor who is offered the chance to study in China. It turns out that certain members of China's corrupt leadership have brought her to China to use her as a tool to get at her grandfather...

Duration: Approximately 2 hours Multicast Performance Published by Galaxy Press in 2011. First published in 1935, The Phantom Patrol is part of a large series of books and stories that are being re-published by Galaxy Press as part of their Golden Age Stories series. In reality, they are a collection of L. Ron Hubbard's early works that were published in magazines and as pulp fiction books. Hubbard was a prolific writer and he wrote a lot of action stories that translate quite well into the multicast performance audiobook format. The Phantom Patrol is the story of Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Johnny Trescott who commands a patrol boat looking for drug smugglers off of the coast of Louisiana. He and his small crew have been working for months to catch one smuggler in particular and are close to catching him. While closing in on this smuggler, they are called away by a distress call from a plane that has made an emergency landing in the water. The smuggler turns the...

A story of a man whose world has fallen apart Published in 2010 by Penguin Audio Read by: G. Valmont Thomas Duration: 9 hours, 40 minutes. Unabridged Way back in 1981 Stephen King released Roadwork under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Bachman was the name King used to sell pulp fiction type stories so that he could afford to pay his bills and not hurt his reputation as he waited for his work he submitted under his name to take off. King opens this book with an interesting introduction that explains his rather complex relationship with his pseudonym. Roadwork , on the surface, is simple enough. A man in this forties is losing his house, his job and the memories that he holds dearest to the expansion of a highway through his neighborhood. Due to imminent domain , Barton George Dawes will lose his last connections to his son who has died three years earlier due to a brain tumor. He will lose the house that he and his wife scraped and scrimped to buy. He will lose his career at t...

Published in 2006 by HighBridge Duration: 1 hour Usually Ray and Tom Magliozzi's "Car Talk" show on NPR is a mixture of humor, stories and lots of advice on car repair and maintenance. This collection, though, is all funny stories (only the barest amount of car advice is given).  There are sixteen stories in all, with topics ranging from the dangers of carrying plywood on the roof of your car to what to do if a customer brings in a really smelly car to how one of the brother's did during his stint in the army as a young man (hint: not well). Some are really funny, some are merely amusing but if you are a fan of the show you will enjoy this collection. Get this audiobook from Amazon.com here: Car Talk: The Greatest Stories Ever Told: Once Upon a Car Fire . I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. Reviewed on April 1, 2012. <br /> <img src="http://wms.assoc-amazon.com/20070822/US/img/noscript.gif?tag=dwsre-20" alt="...

Published in 1986 by Simon and Schuster Read by Leonard Nimoy and George Takei Duration: 90 minutes Abridged. I picked up this audiobook of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on cassette at a clearance book sale in the "who's going to want this stuff?" section. Mostly, it was serious junk. Educational software that only operates on Apple IIe,  VHS copies of movies that I've never heard of starring some guy that was on some TV show that I barely remember and DVDs of some pastor's sermons on any number of topics (still in the plastic!). And, suddenly, I find a memory from my high school and college years - a genuine Star Trek audiobook from 1986!...on audiocassette! And...narrated by George Takei and Leonard Nimoy! So, I scuttle out of there like I've found a gold bar and pop it in car's cassette player - one of the advantages of having an old car is that it has a multimedia (CD and cassette) stereo system. Back in the day, audiobooks were almost always ab...