Monthly Archives: February 2013

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Review – Stolen Time by Keith Hughes (Podcast)

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stolen_timeToday I’m reviewing Stolen Time, an audiobook/podcast novel by Keith Hughes. You can follow follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edgizmo.

Synopsis: Ness Relevant has traveled through time before. Now once again he must use his machine to confront a determined foe. Only this time his personal stakes are even higher. Threatened by his future, he must find a way to save his wife and thwart a mad-man’s schemes for world conquest, or he’ll never regain his stolen time.

Production: The recording quality is very good. The music he chose for the intro is fitting.

Grade: B

Cast: Keith does this in a “reader’s theater” style, voicing all of the characters himself. He does a good job, as he did with his prior podcast outings.

Grade: B

Story: This is the sequel to Borrowed Time (click the title for a review I wrote). If you haven’t read or listened to the first story, go check it out. This is more of a thriller with science fiction elements than a true science fiction story. Keith does a good job building tension. Ness and his wife Angie are working together. She’s been kidnapped in the future and her only hope is for her and her husband to save her and for them both to get to the bottom of why she will have been kidnapped. Sound a little confusing? Well it is a time travel story.

Truthfully, though I enjoyed this story, it illuminates some of the problems I have with the whole “time travel” trope. You often end up with a fair amount of confusion in the characters’ efforts to either set the future or past right or prevent a paradox from happening. The listeners are treated with a little more information on how it works in this world, but since Ness isn’t an expert and the only real expert died in the first book, it remains something of a mystery. What’s important to know is that at one point Ness is chasing himself through time and helps himself to save himself more than once.

The drawback to this is the deus ex machina of the PDA is used too often. Ness gets in trouble? So long as he can reach the device he’s okay. The final confrontation in the book is a good example of this and of the confusion that can result. That served to rob some of the tension that the story could have had.

So what helped me to overcome that? Angie. I really enjoyed watching her deal with her husband’s adventures in time from the first book (something she wasn’t privy to) and I like watching her get a little bloodthirsty. I’m a sucker for women who kick butt. Ness wasn’t as well developed of a character in this one as he was in the first book. Maybe the inclusion of Angie as a more active character in the book contributed to that.

Grade: B-

Verdict: There were some definite weaknesses in Stolen Time, but I did enjoy it. If you want some lighter fare with a good dose of action then this might be the podcast for you. It gets moving quickly and if time travel is your bread and butter then add it to your MP3 player today.

Grade: B

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Quality Audio Stories Forthcoming!

IMG_20130215_140212 I have a friend in town that has a brand new recording studio! Zoo Station Studios is open for business and he’s charging $30/hour at this point. Here’s the picture of the booth that I spent some quality time in today.

By the end of the week I should have two short stories recorded. I will be putting these up for sale. I had to pay for the production, so I’ll be asking you to pony up for the product. Business is business and business must grow. That’s especially true now that I’m unemployed in the traditional sense. So, soon you’ll be able to buy versions of “With Power Comes Responsibility” and an unpublished anywhere (though soon available in e-print from Flying Island Press) story called “Stand Up Fight”.

Both of these stories weigh in at 7,000 words and that means around a half hour to forty-five minutes of audio. I was thinking of charging $1.99 for this pro-quality recording. Sound off in the comments about the cost, your interest and anything else you’d like to say. If these do well then we’re looking at a pro-quality audio versions of Archangel books one and two.

More details as they transpire!

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Review – Underwood and Flinch by Mike Bennett (Podcast)

mb-underwood-and-flinchToday I’m reviewing Underwood and Flinch, an audiobook/podcast novel by Mike Bennett. His site can be found at http://www.mikebennettpodcast.com// or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themikebennett. This novel is in the horror genre (in case you couldn’t tell.)

Synopsis: All David Flinch ever wanted was a normal life.

But when you’re a member of the Flinch family, normal has never been easy.

For hundreds of years, the eldest male Flinch has been servant and guardian to the Lord Underwood. While the Flinches have changed through the generations, Underwood, a vampire, has been eternal. David had hoped to be spared the horror of serving his family’s lord and master, but when he is summoned to the Flinch home in Spain by his dying older brother, he knows his luck has run out. Underwood must be resurrected from the grave in a ritual of human sacrifice, and David must be the man to do it. Because if he doesn’t, an even greater evil than Underwood will rise: the evil that is David’s sister.

Underwood and Flinch is an epic horror-thriller that spans the centuries. From the teeming slums of 17th Century London to an ex-pat community in modern-day Spain, this is the new novel from Mike Bennett, author of ‘One Among the Sleepless’ and ‘Hall of Mirrors’.

Production: The recording quality is excellent. I loved the music he chose. He does a bit more with music as the podcast progresses but it never gets in the way. I remember perhaps one duplicated line late in the series.

Grade: A

Cast: Mike does the narration and character voices. He does quite a broad range of accents and voices both the male and female characters. Unlike some podcasters who shall remain nameless (*cough* Scott Sigler *cough*), he does a great job.

Grade: A

Story: This podcast novel weighs in at forty-five episodes. Some of them push past the forty-five minute mark and go into an hour. It consumed my listening for a month. I didn’t listen to a single other podcast during this time. No idea what the word count on this bugger is, but it’s huge and worth (nearly) every second.

I gave some thought about what this podcast is “like”. I decided that it’s very much a soap opera. And I mean that in the best possible way. The writing could use some tweaks, but I kept coming back for the OMG moments and to find out what complete insanity the characters were up to this time. There’s incest, blood, Russian mobsters, decapitations, defenestrations, melodrama, wonderful British slang, pirates, gun fights and absolutely OCEANS of blood. I could see this working well as an HBO miniseries (and it would need to be for the language if nothing else). The whole thing is very cinematic.

Some of the typical vampire tropes are on display here (my favorite ones), but Mike’s obviously thought through them and gives them a few “real world” tweaks. I also love the idea of a human family serving their undead master throughout history. I’d love to see earlier generations of the Flinch family and the capers they got up to. There’s a sequel in the works so maybe I’ll get my wish.

Are there any weaknesses? Sure. More than once characters’ behaviors pull one eighties out of nowhere. I also got taken out of the story once or twice due to a character’s lack of reaction to the supernatural. If this gets turned into a novel it would benefit from an editor and another draft. Still, none of this kept me from coming back for more.

Grade: B

Verdict: I highly recommend this podcast. I think it actually may work better as an audio book than it might as a novel. The aforementioned cinematic quality comes out strongly in this format. Still, when this comes out in book form I’ll be buying it and this is one of those podcasts that will get my financial support down the road.

Grade: A

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Review – Matters of Mortology by T. M. Camp (Dead Tree Book)

mom-cover-final Mr. Camp is a author whose works are new to me, though I’ve been following him on Twitter for some time. He put out some news about a sale on his books and there was one in my price range, so I snapped it up. I believe in supporting independent authors as much as I can, where I can. As a result I bring you the following review.

Alone in a crumbling manor, an aging undertaker recounts a horrifying episode from the early days of his career. When an unspeakable monster trespasses the border between life and death, the undertaker finds himself in a struggle to save the village he has sworn to serve — even if it means sacrificing his own family and faith in the process.

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect. That’s always the case with a new author. Mr. Camp’s work has come highly recommended to me by some friends, so I was pretty certain I’d enjoy it. I’m pleased to say that I was right and my friends have come through yet again. The first thing that struck me about this book was that I felt like I was reading something akin to Edgar Alan Poe’s work. This is written in first person and the melancholy narrator would fit well in Poe’s oeuvre. The further I got into it the more I saw how true this was and yet how much it was its own work.

This takes place in a world that’s much like our own and yet, like something from The Twilight Zone, has its own history, gods, and sources of conflict. I wouldn’t call this a work of fantasy or science fiction per se, but it’s a world all its own. I think that will be helpful for you going in, since for me at least it lead to a few moments of confusion. Like Poe’s works, the building sense of dread as the monster in the above description begins its unholy work, and the atmosphere that Mr. Camp builds all happen at a slow pace. I like that quite a bit. I’m a fan of the slow burn, so long as the candle doesn’t flicker out.

There’s no danger of that here. The book is short and the pace almost languid, but Mr. Camp uses that space to good effect. It’s a much richer work than stories twice its length. That also makes the few scenes of violence that much more intense. I won’t tell you what’s tearing this world apart, or why, but the reveal is more than satisfactory and he gives the tropes in play a freshness that I appreciate.

I give this book five headstones and I highly recommend that you check it out.

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