DWD's Reviews

Published by HighBridge Audio. Originally broadcast in 1993. Multicast performance. Duration: approximately 5 hours. Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (The Original Radio Drama) was created for National Public Radio and originally broadcast in 1993. It features several members of the original movie cast including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian). John Lithgow steps in and does a strong job with Yoda. Vader suffers with Brock Peters as the voice - not because he did anything wrong, but because he is just not James Earl Jones. George Lucas opened up the Star Wars vault and let NPR use the original soundtrack and original special effects - and they use them well. The soundtrack punches up the story and the special effects are used to move the story along as often as they are used to add a little detail to the experience. The story is well told and has the added bonus of being able to take a little more tim...

I laughed my way through this audiobook! Published by Eastmoor Media in 2005. Performed by Bruce Campbell and his actor friends. Duration: 6 hours, 17 minutes. Unabridged. I picked up and looked at the book version of Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way several times and never quite decided to pick it up. But, I quickly snapped up the audiobook version because of this quote from the back cover from Bruce Campbell: "...the prospects of doing a 'regular" audio adaptation weren't very appealing. But then a few things dawned on me: 1. I'm the lead character of the book. 2. As an actor by trade, I could play the part. 3. I'm knee deep in actor pals, why not record the book like a radio play?"  At that point I was sold. The story revolves around Bruce Campbell's attempt to move from being a B movie legend to a real A-list movie star. He gets his chance in "Let's Make Love", a Richard Gere/Rene Zelwegger romantic comedy directed by Mik...

Up and down - the ups are solid, the downs are low, so low I nearly quit listening Published in 2008 by Audible Studios. Performed by  Michael Hogan, Scott Brick, Kandyse McClure, Alessandro Juliani, Stefan Rudnicki, John Scalzi Duration: 9 hours, 7 minutes. Unabridged METAtropolis: The Dawn of Uncivilization  is a collection of short stories about a fictional future world in which the United States government is much weaker and local governments have had to shoulder most of the responsibility for governing. We get to see 4 future settings in this anthology - Cascadia in the American Northwest, Detroit, New St. Louis and Scandinavia. While the U.S. government is much weaker, the role of technology has grown much stronger. There are virtual on-line worlds and cellphones are everywhere and even more plugged in than they are now. The five authors sat down and mapped out the ground rules of this future world and than separated to write their stories. John Scalzi edited the colle...

Published in 2007. Read by Alfred Molina. Duration: 7 hours, 30 minutes. Unabridged. The Chopin Manuscript is not really a great story but an interesting premise and veteran actor Alfred Molina does a fantastic job performing this audiobook. This book was given an "Audie Award" (2008 Audiobook of the Year) and that is entirely due to the masterful ability of Molina to mimic accents and create voices for literally dozens of characters. His performance was much better than the material he was given to perform. The idea behind the story is pretty simple - Jeffery Deaver ( The Lesson of Her Death ), a well-known writer of action thrillers started out an international thriller by writing the first chapter. Then the story was handed off to another author and a chapter was added (15 authors in total) until it got back Deaver who wrote the concluding chapter. The story is a thrill-a-minute ride that has a herky-jerky nature. Every author seemed to be out to move the story alon...

Much like the last one in the series, the experiment in making the story is better than the story. 7 discs 9 hours + 1 interview disc lasting about 45 minutes. The Copper Bracelet is the second installment in the Harry Middleton story. Harry is former military officer, former music teacher, current hunter of war criminals. Along with his compatriots, the Volunteers, Harry Middleton is after war criminals from Kashmir. The story behind the book is pretty simple - Jeffery Deaver ( Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 ), a well-known writer of action thrillers started out an international thriller by writing the first chapter. Then the story was handed off to another author and a chapter was added (16 authors in total) until it got back Deaver who wrote the concluding chapter. This is a slightly different group of writers than in the first novel, The Chopin Manuscript: A Serial Thriller . The Copper Bracelet is a bit smoother than the first book, but it still has its herk...

Published in 2007 by Zondervan Read by the author, Lee Strobel Duration: 10 hours, 45 minutes Unabridged Lee Strobel has written several "The Case for..." books. The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ explicitly counters the arguments from many different sources that question Jesus, the teachings about him and the integrity of the New Testament. Critics argue that Strobel is not an expert on the things he writes about. I believe he would agree with that - at most he is a well-informed layman. But, Strobel did the best thing that one can do to create a rebuttal these arguments - he went out to the experts and questioned them (because, really, who is a qualified expert in all of these fields?). Strobel asks them the questions that the "anti-" crowd would ask (really a wide range, from Muslim teachers to Hollywood directors to college professors to former Christian clergy to internet bloggers). Lee S...

Published by Brilliance Audio Read by Patrick G. Lawlor Duration: 6 hours, 52 minutes Unabridged Synopsis:  Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike are hired by a Los Angeles businessman to find a missing ancient copy of the Hagakure , a book that details Bushido, or the way of the Samurai. Along the way, they discover hidden family secrets, connection to the Yakuza (Japan's ultra-violent mafia) and deal with a kidnapping and modern followers of the Bushido. My review: Written in 1989, Stalking the Angel is an early Elvis Cole book. Crais is still doing a bit of casting about to find his rhythm with the characters of Joe Pike, Elvis and even his irascible cat. The plot doesn't flow as well as later books but it still a very nice listen. It is narrated by Patrick G. Lawlor who does a solid job of catching Cole's wisecracking side but overall does not catch on to Elvis as well as the narrators of his later books do. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be...

Beautifully told - in all of its splendor and horror 5 CDs Approximately 5 Hours Abridged. Also includes a tiny 6 panel map of the war zones . Cotter Smith masterfully narrates a wonderful re-telling of Ambrose's favorite topic - the Western European theater of World War II. Citizen Soldiers would serve as a fantastic introduction to this topic, but also is told well enough that someone who has read it all before, like me, found it interesting, informative and entertaining. Ambrose spices up the story with a lot of stories about regular soldiers at the front. We learn about the challenges, the humor, and the horrors of the fight. Some are soldiers you've never heard of, others are more famous such as Kurt Vonnegut ( Slaughterhouse-five ) and Jimmy Stewart ( Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Stephen Ambrose ). Some stories make you laugh out loud, the Vonnegut Christmas story was so sad that I turned off the CD player and drove the rest of the way home in silence becau...

A tedious listen. Published by Tantor Audio in 2008. Duration: 10 hours, 25 minutes. Read by Alan Sklar. Unabridged. I am an avid reader of history. I also enjoy listening to histories as part of my daily commute. I thought Patriot Pirates would be a fantastic diversion since I knew relatively little about the naval history of the Revolutionary War besides the story of Bonhomme Richard and the fact that the Continental Congress authorized the use of privateers. Unfortunately, Patton's dry, overly wordy text coupled with Alan Sklar's (the narrator) ironic, almost mocking tone made me both both bored and irritated at the same time. If it can be said in 50 words, Patton uses 500. He tells the same stories over and over again. After listening to 5 of 9 discs I refused to force myself to slog through another chapter - partially because it was so poorly narrated, partially because I was becoming a public safety hazard - I was literally nodding off. I listen to CDs to make m...

Published by Hachette Audio 11 hours, 16 minutes Read by Peter Giles Unabridged The Scarecrow re-unites two characters from 1996's The Poet , crime reporter Jack McEvoy and FBI agent Rachel Walling. McEvoy is a victim of the ever-shrinking newsroom phenomenon that is hitting newspapers all across the country. He is the 99th out of 100 layoffs and he decides to go out with a bang. He is going to make the L.A. Times regret firing him by writing a Pulitzer prize quality series of articles. I don't want to do a book report here and re-tell the entire plot, but suffice it to say McEvoy and Walling dig up a lot more than they expected and lots of adventure and mayhem ensue. This is a highly entertaining audiobook. It made me look forward to my morning and afternoon commute - I wanted to listen to more. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly . Reviewed on April 30, 2010.

An amazing tale, fascinating to this non-Catholic Christian (a review of the audiobook) Published by Random House Audio in 2008. Read by Kirsten Potter Running time: 7 hours, 7 minutes Unabridged Let me start this review of Called Out of Darkness by saying three things: 1) I am not a Catholic (I am a Lutheran); 2) I have never left the faith in any meaningful way; 3) This is my first Anne Rice book - I've never even seen more than a tiny bit the Tom Cruise movie. I have never had much interest in the topic of Vampires and Vampire LeStat series was literally of no interest to me. When I noticed that Rice was writing the Christ the Lord series I had the same thought that she expressed in this book - what is she going to do to mess with Jesus? So, I ignored that as well. But, when I ran across this audiobook I suddenly grew interested and I was not disappointed. The book is broken into three general sections: her childhood in New Orleans, her college/career/atheism and ...

A Review of the Audiobook Published in 2005 by Hachette Audio Duration: 11 hours, 37 minutes Read by Adam Grupper Unabridged In The Lincoln Lawyer Michael Connelly leaves Harry Bosch behind for a while to introduce a new character - defense attorney Mickey Haller. Haller plays all of the angles all of the time. He knows all of the ins and outs of the L.A. court system and knows all of the ways to create revenue for his practice - he needs every penny because he has two ex-wives and a child to support. Haller saves money by using his car, a roomy Lincoln, as his office. His driver is a client who is working off what he owes to Haller. Haller is asked to defend a very rich Beverly Hills playboy in an attempted rape/murder case and soon Haller's world starts to become even more complicated. Ethical considerations, murder, love of family and the desire for justice for a man unfairly imprisoned all get tangled together. Michael Connelly The audiobook is wonderfully re...

Fantastic. A must for Petty fans and fans of NASCAR history. Published in 2009 by Audiobook Publishing, LLC. 4 CDs Running time: approximately 4 hours Richard Petty sits down for Richard Petty's Audio Scrapbook with his cousin and long-time crew chief Dale Inman (the only crew chief to win 8 championships) for a retrospective on their legendary careers with Barney Hall, the famed radio voice of NASCAR for 40 years on MRN. Barney begins the interview by having the two cousins tell about their early lives in rural North Carolina. They tell about how they got involved in Lee Petty's racing operation as part-time garage help after school and how, once Richard turned 21, they were able to start racing themselves. The give and take between these two cousins and, more importantly, long-time friends makes this a fun trip down memory lane. Petty's Dodge Charger,  a legendary ride As the interview moves along following Richard's career bits of audio from races are ...