Tag Archives: thriller

Today I’m reviewing Compensating Controls by James Keeling.

Synopsis: Nicholas Edgwood rides a wave of good karma–a job he excels at, a new girlfriend, and a bright future. When he gets framed for a cyber-crime he did not commit, he must run for his life while his entire world crumbles around him.

Betrayal and murder replace peace and hope as he finds himself in unfamiliar territory. He may not be the biggest and baddest guy out there, but he has skills, the kind garnered from a career steeped in computers and code. Now he must leverage these skills to their fullest to stay above ground and breathing. It will take all of his talent, and courage he may not have, just to survive.

Production: Good audio quality. I don’t remember any glitches. Good use of music.

Grade: B

Cast: James does all of the voices for this production. This leads to him doing female voices as well as some accents. Interestingly enough I like his voice acting better than his straight narration.

Grade: B

Story: This is a solid techno-thriller. While you don’t have to be a geek to enjoy it, if you are one it won’t hurt. James handles the technical end of things well (since he is a geek after all). This seems like, and I believe is, a first novel. The writing could be stronger. There’s some unevenness in tone and occasional word choices that bugged me. The biggest example of the former is an interrogation scene that was more horror then thriller.

Grade: B

Verdict: This is an enjoyable podcast novel. I looked forward to each installment, even going so far as to bug James for the next one when I caught up to it. It’s wrapped up at his site and Podiobooks so you won’t have to wait as I did.

Grade: B

Archangel Reboot

By Scott

March 2, 2011

writing

2 Comments

You may have heard of this podcast novel I wrote called Archangel? It’s got a list of supporters long enough to please me, but I’ve gotten some feedback on it and as any first novel does it’s not without it’s problems. I basically “pantsed” the whole thing and now that I’ve got some experience I know that it shows in the work’s structure. I’ve gotten some very good feedback and have decided to take a whack at rewriting it. I’ll be using the snowflake method as I did with Ginnie Dare, but with this as with Liquid Diet I will be doing a more full blown version of it.

I want to finish both rough drafts by the end of the summer and have finished novels by years end. Will snowflaking let me write like a meth cranked ninja? Is that a good thing? Well I guess we’ll find out.

Anyway, here are steps one and two of the snowflake for Archangel’s reboot:

1) Former soldier defends his city from supernatural evil at the cost of all he holds dear.

2) A former army sniper, discharged after a particularly odd final mission, tries to enjoy his retirement in peace. All of that changes when he meets a local business man whose activities have a dark and supernatural edge to them. When going to the police doesn’t help, he decides to use his skills to track the man and ultimately take him down whatever the consequences. Unfortunately the consequences involve an escalation that threatens the lives of everyone he loves and the very fabric of reality. His friends and family join him in the fight, but will it be enough to quench the fires of Hell?