THE SECRET SOLDIER (John Wells #5) (audiobook) by Alex Berenson

Published by Recorded Books in 2011.
Read by George Guidall
Duration: 11 hours, 23 minutes
Unabridged

The Secret Soldier is my first John Wells book. For those not in the know, John Wells is a former CIA agent who is also a Muslim (if not a particularly devout one when it comes to all of the formalities). He now freelances, sometimes working with the CIA, sometimes not.

The first part of The Secret Soldier deals with John Wells tracking down a former operative in Jamaica and bringing him back to the United States. I am unsure as to why this was included in the book - it had nothing to do with the rest of the story except to establish that John Wells is burned out and is unsure about the life of violence that he has led. 

The heart of the story involves a plot against the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Wells is hired by the King  of Saudi Arabia himself to investigate a series of terrorist attacks within Saudi Arabia. As Wells investigates he discovers that the source of these attacks may by closer to the King than he ever imagined and the trail leads Wells to the Saudi kingdom and into the holy city of Mecca itself.

Once the audiobook moves into the main plot, this book hums along. There is plenty of action, intrigue and the occasional funny moment. The author includes plenty of background information about the political state of Saudi Arabia and its relationship with the Wahhabi movement in Islam so the reader gets a solid grasp of what is at stake. This book is eerily on track with current events even though it was published two years ago. The NSA program that became so controversial in the summer of 2013 is explained in detail as well as the dangerous line walked by governments that do not completely kowtow to the rule of Muslim clerics (witness the current struggles in Egypt and Syria).

Legendary audiobook reader George Guidall reads The Secret Soldier. Guidall covers the wide variety of accents that a book of this scope requires in his typical professional and competent manner. But, in the fight scenes Guidall shines - he speeds up and slows down and makes it like a movie scene with sped up segments and slow-mo parts that makes the reader sit up and take notice. Well done, sir.

This is an excellent book with the exception of the Jamaica-based introduction. Overall, it comes out to a score of 4 out of 5.

Reviewed on October 10, 2013.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Secret Soldier. 

NOBODY'S PERFECT (Dortmunder #4) (audiobook) by Donald E. Westlake

Published by HighBridge Audio (Mysterious Press- HighBridge Audio Classics) in 2013.

Read by Jeff Woodman

Duration: 7 hours, 24 minutes.

Unabridged.

Originally published in 1977.

This is my first Dortmunder novel. I know this is a classic series and I was looking forward to hearing it once I saw HighBridge audio was re-issuing these books.

Nobody's Perfect features a master thief named Dortmunder who always has the worst luck. Dortmunder is recruited by a "rich" man who has run out of cash thanks to his philandering and spendthrift ways. This man wants Dortmunder to recruit a team and steal a piece of art in an insurance fraud scheme. Dortmunder will keep the painting and then return it once the insurance check clears in exchange for $100,000.

Sadly, I have to say that while I found the oddball characters refreshing at first, the first half of the book was slow and the amusing situations took too long to develop. they stopped being funny and started being unwelcome intrusions into already slow-moving story. Once the book moves into its second phase (the original plan goes very awry) the book picks up and becomes much more interesting and funny but does not make up for the slow-moving first half.

Jeff Woodman did a great job of creating numerous accents and voices in this audiobook. He delivered the funny lines well but just could not save the first half of the book.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: NOBODY'S PERFECT by Donald E. Westlake.

Reviewed on October 9, 2013.

THE LAST PRAETORIAN (The Redemption Trilogy #1) By Mike Smith

Published November 1, 2012.
Kindle e-book.
Estimated length: 405 pages.

Reminiscent of the TV show Firefly, The Last Praetorian has humanity moving out into the galaxy and occupying multiple planets. Also, like in Firefly, the newly settled planets fought a civil war. But, instead of an oligarchy, this universe's civil war resulted in an emperor, much like the chaos at the end of the Roman Republic led to Julius and Augustus Caesar.

Now, hundreds of years later, the current emperor is assassinated in a plot led by one of the admirals of one of his fleets of star ships. The fleet proceeds to move against the emperor's only heir, his daughter, as she travels to the planet where her school is. But, she is protected by the praetorian guards and their leader Jonathan Radec. At the cost of all of the praetorian guards (except for Radec) the princess survives.

The Last Praetorian is the story of the Radec and the the princess and their romance and why they broke up and how they still like each other from afar as Radec and his new crew fight space mobsters and the like.

The positives:

Smith knows how to describe space battles - they are vivid and interesting.

The negatives:

-Poor, poor, poor editing. Missing apostrophes, confusion over the uses of  "to" and "too" and sometimes just plain old clunky writing. For example: "Silently Sofia hoped that Albert was safe, as in the short time she had met him she had grown fond of the man."

-Unrealistic plot details. For example, while the princess and Radec are on the run from the assassins she is able to tap into her bank accounts without being traced.

-Radec's emotional range is simple: he broods or he gets angry and throws things or he tries to seduce women he works with (or for).  Plus, his ultra-sharp sword is a rip off of the light saber from Star Wars.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: THE LAST PRAETORIAN (The Redemption Trilogy #1) By Mike Smith.

Reviewed on October 7, 2013.

RETURN of the JEDI: THE ORIGINAL RADIO DRAMA (audiobook) by Brian Daley

Published by HighBridge Audio.
Originally broadcast in 1996.
Multicast performance.
Duration: approximately 3 hours, 15 minutes.

The third installment of NPR's STAR WARS-based radio dramas was also written by sci-fi author Brian Daley (Sadly, he died of cancer very soon after it was recorded). The budget for RETURN of the JEDI was much, much smaller than the original so the recording was about half the length of the first. It still features the wonderful original music soundtrack by John Williams and the original sound effects that make the listener feel like they are part of the action. 

Anthony Daniels returned as See-Threepio. Mark Hamill, however, decided to opt out of this one. Ed Asner stepped in as Jabba the Hutt (he sounded like he was choking as he spoke, though) and John Lithgow took over as Yoda (sadly, he sounded like John Lithgow pretending to be Yoda rather than creating a real voice).

The shorter run time hurts RETURN of the JEDI when compared to the other installments (6 episodes versus 10 and 12 episodes respectively). There are no big expansions to the story - there is basically just enough time to describe the action that moviegoers saw in the movie.

That being said, if you are a fan this is almost a must listen, if just to finish the series up. 

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Return of the Jedi (Star Wars)

Reviewed on October 3, 2013. 

Link to my review of STAR WARS (Episode IV).
Link to my review of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. 

STAR WARS: THE ORIGINAL RADIO DRAMA (audiobook) by Brian Daley

If you are a fan of this series and have not listened to this version of the story you need to pick it up today - it is that good

Published by HighBridge Audio.
Originally broadcast in 1981.
Multicast performance.
Duration: approximately 6 hours.

When Star Wars was at the height of its popularity in 1981, George Lucas gave a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate permission to create a radio drama of the original movie, now known as Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Sci-fi author Brian Daley was tapped to adapt the movies since he had experience with the series having written a trilogy of Han Solo novels in 1979 and 1980.

I have no idea what Daley's qualifications were for writing radio drama were besides those books, but he clearly was an inspired choice. He had a feel for the story and, more importantly, the characters as he more than doubles the original length of the movie. Listeners get more about Luke's life on Tatooine and a lot more about his friend Biggs (who originally appeared at the beginning of the movie but it was cut and mysteriously reappears at the end as an X-Wing pilot). There is more about the Force and how Ben began teaching Luke. In fact, there is just more of everything.

The audio drama features the original actors Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and Anthony Daniels as C3P0 as well as music from the original Academy Award-winning soundtrack as well as original sound effects that make the experience complete.

If you are a fan of this series and have not listened to this version of the story you need to pick it up today - it is that good.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here:  Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama

Reviewed on September 28, 2013

Link to my review of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
Link to my review of RETURN of the JEDI.

STAR TREK: THE LOST YEARS (Lost Years #1) by J. M. Dillard

Published in 1989 by Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster)

The idea behind Star Trek: The Lost Years is interesting: What happened to the characters from the original Star Trek series between the end of their original five year mission and the events of the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

But, the follow-through is quite weak.

The characters feel like cardboard cut-outs of themselves, especially McCoy. Kirk's decision to become an admiral makes sense. but McCoy's outlandish, petulant, even childish response to Kirk's decision was simply not believable to me. Even worse, the new characters are, at best, one-note wonders.

McCoy and Natira, 

McCoy quits Star Fleet to find Natira, a former love interest from the TV episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky." She is the leader of a group of refugees who live inside a giant spaceship that they thought was a planet. They had a romantic spark but when McCoy returns to visit her he finds that she has made a political marriage because her people need her more than McCoy did. McCoy responds by consuming lots and lots of alcohol.

The book would have been so much better if it had just went with the Spock/Vulcan story line. It was by far the most interesting and had real possibilities. But, it was skimped on to make room for the other parts - and all of those parts come together in a rather unconvincing manner - in a series of galactic-sized coincidences.

There is simply too much going on in this book - too many new characters, too many plot lines and too many romances. The overall quality of the book suffers as a consequence.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek: The Lost Years.

Reviewed on September 21, 2013.

KENOBI by John Jackson Miller

What does Ben Kenobi do for all of those years while he's waiting for Luke to grow up?

Published by LucasBooks in August of 2013.

Between the two Star Wars trilogies there is an empty space. What happens in the 20 years or so between the birth of Luke and Leia and the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Fans know, of course, that Leia was sent off to Alderaan and raised as part of the royal family - hidden in plain sight. Luke, on the other hand was taken to Tatooine and secretly raised by his grandmother's relatives in a place as far away from the Emperor as possible. As Luke famously describes his home planet in Episode IV, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."

So, what does Ben Kenobi do for all of those years? This book gives the reader an idea about the first few months and leaves the possibility for more books.

Kenobi is much more like a Western than the typical science fiction book. A typical Western has a mysterious stranger arrive in a troubled town. Typically, a widow is struggling with a farm or business and a local banker/rancher/rich guy is pressuring her in some way. Sometimes, there are interactions with Native Americans.

In Kenobi, Ben Kenobi is the stranger, the widow is running a store and her deceased husband's best friend, the area's biggest moisture farmer, is pressuring her, both personally and professionally (although mostly professionally). The Tusken Raiders (Sand People) take the role of the Native Americans in this space western.

Ben tries his best to stay out of the lives of the people of this frontier because he is supposed to be secretly watching over Luke. He  chooses to live as a hermit in the midst of some of the most dangerously wild areas. But, Ben's do-gooder ways keep him involved. Plus, the widow lady is quite fetching to this old cowpoke ... er, Jedi.

The most interesting aspect of the book for me was the up close look at Tusken Raider society. Miller creates a plausible reason for farmer/Tusken hostilities. The story itself was solid, but not a particularly great Star Wars story (or Western, for that matter).  The supporting characters were pretty much one-dimensional, although sometimes quite amusing. The ending was all tied up in a much-too-neat package. That being said, I was glad to have read it just for the additional insight to Tatooine and the Sand People and would like to read further adventures of Ben Kenobi on Tatooine.

Note: I received an e-book copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here:  Kenobi (Star Wars - Legends)
                                                       
Reviewed on September 13, 2013.