Sky Birds Dare! (audiobook) by L. Ron Hubbard

Lots of Fun!

Duration: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Multicast Performance
Published by Galaxy Press

First published in 1936, Sky Birds Dare! 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.



Sky Birds Dare! is the story of Breeze Callahan, a young glider pilot who is convinced that the U.S. military's pilots could learn a lot from learning how to pilot gliders before they fly motorized aircraft. A glider is like a small plane that has no engine and is towed into the air by a motorized plane or by a car with a rope (much like a person running with a kite trailing behind). Callahan and his mentor Pop Donegon are thwarted over and over again by Badger O'Dowell, a rival that wants to sell the military his conventional motorized training planes.

This is not a subtle story - there are no shades of grey. But, it is a fun story and there is plenty of adventure, danger and brawling - all of which was surprisingly entertaining for me, a listener with absolutely no experience with flying a plane. Hubbard's extensive experience as a glider pilot shines through as he explains it all while telling the story. I was particularly intrigued by his suggestion that gliders could be used to insert soldiers behind enemy lines. We did that 8 years after he published this story during the D-Day invasion in June of 1944.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Sky Birds Dare! by L. Ron Hubbard.

Reviewed on October 19, 2011.

Germline (The Subterrene War, Book 1) (audiobook) by T.C. McCarthy.

Wow!

Read by Donald Corren

Duration: Approximately 9 hours.

Published by Blackstone Audio, 2011.

Unabridged.

T.C. McCarthy’s Germline is a non-stop military techno-adventure set in the middle of a war in Central Asia in the 22^nd century. Russia and the United States are fighting over the resources of Kazakhstan. It turns out that Kazakhstan is rich in rare metals that are needed for the 22^nd century’s technological devices. They have to be mined deep in the mountains of Kazakhstan and the mines, countryside, little villages and cities of Central Asia become battlefields.

Oscar Wendell is a washed-up, drug-addicted reporter for Stars and Stripes. He is the only reporter in the entire theater of war and he is not quite sure how he was picked over better-known reporters. But, he is determined to make the best of his opportunity, already envisioning the Pulitzer Prize as the world’s biggest story unfolds in his lap. He is given some very basic training sent to the front, attached to a unit and outfitted with the latest gear – a self-contained mechanized body suit that provides heat or cooling and even has a rather gruesome system of self-contained waste disposal.

T.C. McCarthy

I mention that system because this book excels at putting the reader (in my case, listener) at the ground level – what famed World War II reporter Ernie Pyle called the “worm’s eye view.” McCarthy’s characters are vivid, earthy and exposed to one insane situation after another – which they can only respond to by going crazy themselves. Some decide to drug themselves, some decide to retreat into themselves, some decide die in battle and others kill themselves. The wide-ranging battlefield leads Wendell from one complicated scenario to another as he drops all pretense of being a reporter and simply fights alongside the men he was supposed to be covering – not because he believes in the cause but because he is so tied to these men that he can that he cannot leave them.

An added dimension is America’s introduction of genetically modified soldiers – all identical and all grown from a test tube and all 16 to 18 year old females (the males were too aggressive) who have been raised in an environment that worships death and sacrifice. Their bodies are programmed to begin to die at the beginning of their 18^th year. The title of the book, Germline, comes from a slang term for the military program that developed these super soldiers. Soon, the Russians have their own genetically modified soldiers (all males) and the war takes on a whole new face. Wendell decides to get close to an American “genetic” and soon finds himself falling for her despite the overt prejudice against them.

Donald Corren reads Germline and he does a great job of covering an amazing number of accents. His voice characterization of Oscar Wendell is perfect – he is loose and jaded and wound too tight all at the same time. The only problem was his inexplicable mispronunciation of the word “corpsmen” – he pronounced it “corzman” when it is pronounced "coreman".

This is a roller coaster of a read. The technology is advanced, but this is not a gizmo-based story. Instead, it is character-driven story and it is well worth the read. It is the first in a trilogy about the war that is supposed to follow the separate experiences of three different characters that interact briefly in all of the books but have their own stories.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Germline (The Subterrene War, Book 1)

Reviewed on September 26, 2011.

Click here to see the review of the second book in the series, Exogene.

Fyodor Dostoevsky by Peter Leithart

A tepid introduction to Dostoevsky

Published in 2011 by Thomas Nelson.

I freely admit to knowing only the barest of details about Fyodor Dostoevsky before starting this book. I was aware of the arguments of some of his works and am familiar with the broad strokes Tsarist Russian politics before the Revolution.

I picked up this book after becoming intrigued with some of Dostoevsky's ideas while reading a book by A Point in Time by David Horowitz. Horowitz quotes extensively from Dostoevsky and talks about his thoughts about evil in the world, God's place in the world, if there is one. Sadly, I learned more about Dostoevsky's philosophy from Horowitz than I did from this slender biography dedicated to the man.

Fyodor Dostoevsky
(1821-1881)

Don't get me wrong, this is a solid little book to learn about the details of his personal life, but it suffers from the lack of in-depth discussion about his ideas and the use of reconstructed conversations throughout that really makes it much more like a piece of well-researched historical fiction than like a true biography.

Note: I received a copy of this book at no cost from Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for an honest review of the work.

I rate this biography 3 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Fyodor Dostoevsky by Peter Leithart.

Reviewed on October 8, 2011.

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn

An entertaining superhero story with a twist

Published 2011 by Tor.

Imagine if your parents were both legendary superheroes and you have no super powers at all. In fact, the closest you have come to being physically heroic is winning a silver medal at a high school swim meet.They have been "outed" and everyone knows them by their regular identities and as superheroes and you are a frequent target of various super criminals who kidnap you to try to influence your parents. It happens so often that it would be funny if it wasn't interrupting your attempt to blend in, be normal and succeed in your career as an accountant.

Carrie Vaughn

That's the premise of After the Golden Age, a book that promises a superhero story with a twist and delivers. Celia West is a promising young accountant whose parents are the larger-than-life superhero duo of Captain Olympus and Spark. He's a Superman knock off with the nasty attitude and wealth of Batman. She creates fire at will. They have founded Commerce City's version of the Justice League. They are legends. They are beloved. They are just so-so parents and Celia has major issues with her parents.

Celia has tried to distance herself from her parents but the trial of a super criminal has demanded her skills as a forensic accountant. As she digs and digs in the records of the case she may have discovered information that no one wants disclosed about the origins of both the superheroes and the super criminals as her love life heats up, a new type of crime wave is sweeping the city and the mayor begins a crackdown on the vigilante actions of the superheroes.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on October 4, 2011.

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever (audiobook) by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

An interesting history that has been told plenty of times before.

Read by the author, Bill O'Reilly
Duration: 8 hours
Published by Macmillan Audio

Unabridged.

Probably no figure in American history has received more attention than Abraham Lincoln. Political commentator Bill O'Reilly was, in the early 1970s, a high school history teacher. He wrote this book out of a true passion for Abraham Lincoln. It is clearly not a professional work since it does contain many simple mistakes (for instance, he refers to the Oval Office when it was not actually added to the White House until the early 1900s).

I listened to the audio version of Killing Lincoln. To be honest, I was reluctant to listen to it since it is narrated by O'Reilly and I am not a huge fan of his work as a political commentator. In fact, O'Reilly's rather odd style of speech both made the read more interesting.

John Wilkes Booth
(1838-1865)

The book tells the story of the last few days of Lincoln's life, including the flight of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia from the lines of Petersburg, the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the celebrations in Washington, Booth's various plots to kidnap and/or kill Lincoln, the assassination of Lincoln and the manhunt for Booth.

O'Reilly is known for taking stands on issues and defending those points of view loudly and vociferously. He does the same here. The historical figures are simplified: Lincoln is the long-suffering hero, Booth is evil personified (not that I sympathize with Booth, but O'Reilly comes on a little strong). The history is enthusiastic, if not particularly deep. His descriptions are strong and the story is paced quite well. Much to the chagrin of my ever-patient wife, I am a serious student of the Civil War (I personally own more than 100 books on the topic and have read dozens more) and I found the book to be entertaining, well-told and I even learned a couple of new things.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Killing Lincoln.

Reviewed on October 3, 2011.

Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files (audiobook) by Tom and Ray Maggliozzi

Fun and you just might learn something.

Narrated by Tom and Ray Maggliozzi
Duration: 3.5 hours.
Publisher: HighBridge Audio

Tom and Ray Maggliozzi's car repair show, Car Talk, has been a NPR staple for years now. The show features the two wise-cracking brothers as they field questions about cars and car repairs from all over the country.

Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files features four complete shows from the mid-1990s that featured phone calls from author and NPR commentator Daniel Pinkwater. Pinkwater's sense of humor is different than the Maggliozzi brothers, but they roll with him quite well and those four phone calls are the highlight of the collection. Pinkwater never really has a question for the brothers but instead offers his observations concerning his struggles with getting a car that fits his stocky build, how to know when your dog is going to throw up in your car and the Theory of Displaced Misery (this theory states that a person can only have so much misery in their life and if you buy a French car, the rest of your life will be quite happy).

The rest of the collection is enjoyable as well. This was a welcome respite during a difficult week for me - it was great to know that my extra-long commute was going to be alleviated by the Magglioni brothers' humor (and their car diagnoses are informative as well!)

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files

Reviewed on September 18, 2011

Portrait of a Spy (Gabriel Allon #11)(audiobook) by Daniel Silva

A smart spy thriller

Published in 2011 by HarperAudio.

Read by Simon Vance
Duration: 12 hours, 15 minutes

Unabridged.

Daniel Silva's Portrait of a Spy features Israeli master spy Gabriel Allon, now semi-retired and living and working in rural England as a restorer of paintings. Europe is suffering a wave a suicide bombings. While in London on business he spots a suicide bomber on his way to blow himself up in a London open-air area of markets and restaurants. He steps in with his weapon but is stopped by UK agents that think that he is the threat and the bomber detonates himself.

Allon is told to walk away but he is haunted by his failure. When he is approached with the chance to infiltrate the financial network of the same terror network he leaps at the chance. This is a joint CIA/Israeli operation and the muddled politics of our current administration (make grand overtures, continue the rendition program, bomb some dictators, not others) are mirrored in this fictional administration. Silva has brought the "Arab spring" in as well so the book has a real current events feel to it.

The plan they develop is just simple enough and just crazy enough to have some sort of chance. Silva does a great job of giving the "feel" of the cities and countrysides that the book travels through - London, Paris, rural France D.C., Dubai, the Empty Quarter. He takes the time to flesh out plenty of supporting characters. But, sometimes the story drags as a result.

Reader Simon Vance does a great job with every character except for Gabriel Allon, who sounds more like a sleepy Alec Guinness than a confident, professional spymaster. I kept imagining him in Jedi robes, rather than carrying a pistol and tracking terrorists.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva.

Reviewed on September 16, 2011.