dave

Dune Messiah

Reviewed: 28-10-2020

For the same reasons as for "Dune" this was a thoroughly enjoyable & entertaining production.
High standards in narration and characterisation from all performers.
Highly recommended

Dune

Reviewed: 25-10-2020

Excellent in every way.
Faultless running. Beautifully produced. Good soundtrack and FX.
Great characterisations from the cast (although I admit my mind's eye was watching David Lynch's cast from the 1984 film).
And once again Simon Vance provides excellent reading.
Highly recommended

Smegging excellent

Reviewed: 27-04-2020

Brilliantly read by Chris Barrie and a cracking funny tale that puts meat on the bones of the TV shows

Complete Sherlock Holmes - Heirloom collectiom

Reviewed: 26-07-2019

Have been a fan of Mr Holmes & Dr Watson for many years.
Have hardback and ebook collections.
Needed a decent audiobook of the whole for a long time. Used Librivox for a longtime but the app isn't brilliant and as the readings are mostly free there is a lot that didn't suit my aural standards.
Trawled Audible for a while before settling on this one. I did listen to a few samples, each more than once, including the wonderful Stephen Fry version but once I heard the Simon Vance edition there was no viable alternative.
If I have one whinge about this version it's the fact that each story, including the four novellas, is not accorde it's own natural distinction - for example "A scandal in Bohemia" doesn't appear under that title as the individual stories are concatenated into arbitrary audio chapters. That means you cannot browse Chapters to select a particular story, other than by adding a note or bookmark.
Fairly minor considering the excellence of narration and recording quality.
Highly recommended

The Silmarillion - reader Martin Shaw

Reviewed: 15-06-2019

I first read The Silmarillion when it was first published in 1977. Compared with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings it is a much more difficult book to read being a semi-academical version of several myths and historical legends of the creation, the histories of the Elves, humans and their struggles against evil.
It is the Bilbo Baggins' translation of some of the Elvish historical records retained in Rivendell. Bilbo worked on the translations after his leaving of The Shire on his eleventy-first birthday.
As such the style doesn't flow as well as the other JRRT tales.
However this version is an absolute cracker of a book and that it works so well is down to the wonderful reading by Martin Shaw. For me he brings the dry histories into real flowing life. I consider this performance to be one of the best I've heard. It is a truly wonderful rendition. Yes I'm a Tolkien nerd but I highly recommend this. I'd love to hear Martin Shaw perform The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

12 people found this helpful

The Devil rides out (Christopher Lee, abridged)

Reviewed: 05-04-2019

Bought mainly for the wonderful voice of Christopher Lee. Not keen on abridged versions but the story is still good. I did prefer Nick Mercer's unabridged version as the story hangs together better and Mercer is a fine performer but Lee's voice is pure joy

The Ka of Gifford Hillary

Reviewed: 31-03-2019

An interesting mix of murder, espionage and occultism wrapped in behaviours and opinions remote from the present day and to be honest remote even when I first read the novel well over 40 years ago: for example, the treatment of women for one thing - 2nd class humans; capable only of achieving marriage or working in retail. The concept of servants. My adult kids would be both appalled and sadly amused. Still for all the author's out-dated social and political opinions it is an entertaining story. Be warned though: there are long verbose passages of text and dialogue dealing with perceptions of UK defence policy and reds-under-the-bed fears prevalent post WWII. Apart from those bits it is entertaining and Nick Mercer's excellent performance and characterisations makes it bounce along nicely.

The devil rides out

Reviewed: 25-03-2019

First read the book in the late '60s as a young teenager. It provided plenty of enjoyment then. Like all books I like I'll read them over and over but I admit to not having read any Wheatley yarn in over 35 years.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable return to this novel.
The story is well paced and constructed. And while as an adult I'm a lot more sceptical on many things I once firmly believed in as a 16 year old the novel is no less captivating.
Nick Mercer does a great job as reader; a wonderful performance

1 person found this helpful

The courts of the morning

Reviewed: 13-03-2019

Readers expecting another rollicking Dick Hannay adventure may be a bit miffed to discover that Hannay only appears as the author of a story-setting prologue. However this shouldn't dissuade a reader from enjoying a somewhat longer adventure containing Buchan's other heroes from previous novels: Sandy Arbuthnot, John S Blenkiron, Geordie Hamilton plus Archie & Janet Roylance. There's also a nice set of villains. Most of the action occurs in a fictional country in South America.
Regime change is obviously not just a more recent US preoccupation.
A good story, not Buchan's best, but still entertaining

Lock in - John Scalzi (Will Wheaton)

Reviewed: 03-11-2018

Highly entertaining novel. The premise is very plausible and the police drama moves along with good pace. Never a dull moment. Liked the characters, liked the history.
The novella was a great wrap up and helped clarify the main story. Wil Wheaton again does a great job in bringing the whole thing alive and rocketing along.