(audiobook) Review - Jurassic Park by Michael Chrichton

I finally took the plunge and Jurassic Park far exceeded all my expectations. I also learned I had pretty low expectations, but I had a great time with this classic that spurred one of my favorite movies as a kid. BTW, anyone else root for the dinosaurs? It makes the movie way less scary, let me tell you.

Here's my review on SFFAudio.com and here's a snippet:

So this book was published in 1990 and this book had maybe a total of 15 to 20 people at risk, not counting the rest of the world that could potentially be at risk by dinosaurs escaping. We’re talking people you’re honestly worried about dying or not throughout the book.
Jump to 2015, Jurassic World, and we’ve got an entire park open with thousands and thousands of people at risk. Does that say something about how our society’s penchant for destruction?

(audiobook) Review - The Martian by Andy Weir

I like to have fun with my reviews and I sure did with this one. Check out my review for Andy Weir's The Martian over at SFFAudio.com. Check out the trailer for the new movie, starring Matt Damon, here:


From my review:

Five stars for pure entertainment and because math made it suspenseful.  

That’s right, math made it thrilling. Look at it this way, you’re stranded on a planet that’s essentially trying to kill you. You could just keel over and die … like I would most likely do in the same situation, or you could figure out how to stay alive.

(audiobook) Review - Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson

Check out my review of Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson over on SFFAudio.com. I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would. From the review:

Not your typical urban fantasy in the best possible way.

(audiobook) Review - The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

This was my first from Asimov (I know, SF isn't my strong suit) and it won't be the last. I highly enjoyed this winner of both the Nebula and Hugo awards.

As always, find it, along with all my audiobook reviews, at sffaudio.com.

Though a science fiction novel, The Gods Themselves is also primarily about magic.

Throughout the courses I took for my my undergraduate degree in Economics, we talked a lot about the driving forces behind the choices people make. One of the greatest is magic. We all want to find that magical thing that makes us not have to work as hard; magic makes life easier.

(audiobook) Review - Heraclix and Pomp by Forrest Aguirre

The wonderfully quirky book, Heraclix and Pomp, by Forrest Aguirre gets a review over at Sffaudio.com, by usual place for all audiobook reviews. Here a snippet from the review (which is found here):

There are some books that are just magical, that are written in such a way that you can’t help but be drawn into a new world even if it’s set against our own. Neil Gaiman writes this way and so does Susanna Clark in Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Forrest Aguirre, World Fantasy Award winner for his editorial work in the Leviathan 3 anthology, has created such a tale. The story of Heraclix and Pomp is magical before the magic even begins, or possibly just at the same time.

(audiobook) Review - The Legend of Drizzt: The Collected Stories by R.A. Salvatore

And yet another review has made it up, this is some kind of record for me. Here's the review (a short one) for The Legend of Drizzt: The Collected Stories by R.A. Salvatore and read by the following:

Dan Harmon, Danny Pudi, Melissa Rauch, Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, Sean Astin, Michael Chiklis, Greg Grunberg, Tom Felton, Ice-T, David Duchovny, and Weird Al Yankovic

Yeah, that's right, celebrities reading words like Zaknafein and Menzoberranzan. I don't care if these are the worst stories in the world, it's worth your time. Also, they're not. The worst that is.

(audiobook) Review - Ilium (Ilium #1) by Dan Simmons

Wow, more my reviews are making their way up on sffaudio.com. Check out my review of the brilliant Illium (book 1 of 2 in the Ilium duology) by Dan Simmons here:

If someone were to describe this book to me (if they even could), I don’t know if I would believe how much I absolutely enjoyed it. Dan Simmons is a mad genius.

(audiobook) Review - Impulse (Jumper #3) by Steven Gould

As you know, all my audiobook reviews go to sffaudio.com. I've submitted a couple just this week, but it always depends on what the blog owners' schedule as to when they get posted. Luckily, and despite the holidays, here's my review of Impulse, book 3 in the Jumper series by Steven Gould.

Progression of the Jumper series:

Book 1, Jumper: Let’s take a simple concept and weave a cool story that’s brilliant in its simplicity.

Book 2, Reflex: Let’s take that simple concept and add to it by restraining it, but while also pushing boundaries. Also, let’s add a cool mystery and some spies.

Book 3, Impulse: Let’s take all the great things we’ve built up so far … and add teenage angst! A forced romance! A holier-than-thou attitude for all the characters!

(audiobook) Review - Breach Zone (Shadow Ops #3) by Myke Cole

Myke Cole is one of my favorite authors to be published in the last couple years. He's been really consistent in his debut series and I can't wait for whatever else he publishes. Here's my review for Shadow Ops: Breach Zone and like all my audio reviews, posted at sffaudio.com. My only real gripe here was the narrator as you'll see if you check out the full review.

Overall, Breach Zone is an excellent conclusion to the entire trilogy. The action is superb and the setup through the trilogy is just about perfectly satisfied in this final volume.

(audiobook) Review - Conquest (Chronicles of the Invaders #1) by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard

As I try to explain every time I post about my audiobooks, every audio review I do gets posted on sffaudio.com. It's a fun site with a great group of reviewers and if you're into audiobooks, I'd definitely put it on your list ... not the least because I review there. Of course not.

Today is my review of Conquest, Chronicles of the Invaders #1, by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard. I'd heard lots about John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things, the Charlie Parker series), but this one didn't quite do it for me. I'll try again of course, since this was a dual effort and who knows how much of it is him.

Apparently aliens are the new vampires and I guess I’m a sucker for aliens because this is the second YA book about aliens I’ve read in a year’s time.

(audiobook) Review - The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott

Few audiobooks have me bringing my headphones to bed with me. I save bed-reading for the eyeballs not the ears, but this joins the ranks of The Magicians and Ready Player One. The Pilo Family Circus (review at sffaudio.com) is a beast all it's own and I couldn't get enough of it.

If you like clowns, you might change your mind after this. If you already don’t like them, you’ll probably think I knew it!

(audiobook) Review - Seal Team 13 by Evan Currie

I'm slowly getting back on the reviewing wagon and as long as I don't have weeks like last week at work, I can put some effort into the blog again. Sorry for the delays and random inactivity, however, I did get an audio review submitted to sffaudio a little bit ago and here's the review of Seal Team 13 by Evan Currie.

I don’t outright hate cliches. I think they can be used well and it’s an easy way to get people into the story or characters without having to waste time (i.e. pages) explaining things. The problem I had here was that once you make reference to “it’s like I’m in a movie” one too many times, it starts to pull you out of the immediate story. It’s no longer its own story, it’s someone else’s. And it just plain started to bug me since just about every character had to make mention of being in a bad horror movie.

(audiobook) Review - The Garden of Stones (Echoes of Empire #1) by Mark T. Barnes

As usual, you can find this review for The Garden of Stones by Mark T. Barnes on SFFaudio.com where I do all my audiobook reviews. I really enjoyed this one although I'm sure it would have been better had I read it with my eyes instead of ears because of the amount of characters and the fact that it's like Erikson in that it drops you right in without explaining much.

With The Garden of Stones, I wonder if I would have stalled in my reading. I’m no stranger to being thrown into the action having survived (and thoroughly enjoyed!) Erikson’s masterpiece, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, so that probably wouldn’t have been a problem. I did, however, have a difficult time keeping a lot of the characters, names, and races straight through listening only. Had I had my eyes on this one, I probably would have enjoyed it even more than I already did.

(audiobook) Review - Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez

Here's my review for Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain, my first and certainly not my last book from A. Lee Martinez.

This was a really fun book and my first by the author, I will definitely be going back to A. Lee Martinez in the future. There are some authors who can just go from one line to the next and keep you not only amused but chucking from time to time. A few I can think of are Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams and I’m in awe of their talent. Martinez may not be quite to their level, but he’s right up there.

(audiobook) Review - A Discourse in Steel (Egil and Nix #2) by Paul S. Kemp

As usual, my audiobook reviews go up on sffaudio.com. I actually read The Hammer and the Blade (review), Egil and Nix #1, via my Kindle at the end of last year and didn't think I'd be getting to A Discourse in Steel (review) this year, but it so happened that it was released on audio and sent to us for review. And, of course, I'm glad it was. I liked Discourse even better than Hammer.

A Discourse in Steel exceeds The Hammer and the Blade on just about every level (probably even the melodrama). I thoroughly enjoyed Discourse and a lot of that could be because I’ve gotten to know the characters that much more.

(audiobook) Review - Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon

My review is up of Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon. It was fun, and like all Star Wars audiobooks, there's lots of noises outside of the narrator's voice. Some I've heard don't care for this, but I you'll hardly count me in their number.

The “Je’daii” have a mysterious society that does its own thing, which tends to be for the betterment of the universe, saying “may the force go with you.”... Also, they use the force and swords and have masters and apprentices. So it’s definitely an origin story and not just an exact replication of the jedi we know and love.

(audiobook) Review - Jumper (Jumper #1) by Steven Gould

Even after all the magic of Hard Magic (review), Jumper's much simpler focus on one type of magic - teleportation - really hit its mark. Here's my review.

I’m also happy to report that the book is leaps and bounds better than the movie. With such a cool premise and such great previews, how did that movie suck so much? Oh yeah, they got the worst actor in the world to be the lead.

(audiobook) Review - Hard Magic (Grimnoir Chronicles #1) by Larry Correia

Hard Magic by Larry Correia is one of my favorite reads/listens of the year. What a cool book, highly recommended!

Hard Magic reeks of cool in the best possible way, especially when read by Bronson Pinchot. Yup, the Perfect Strangers actor is one of the coolest narrators I’ve ever listened to.

(audiobook) Review - The Stand by Stephen King

The word "review" might be stretching what this actually is. It's more of a rambling story of my history with Stephen King and The Stand. Here's my review.

I know that was the longest way in the history of anything to say, wow, what a good book. From the rise of the super-flu to the dawning of a new civilization and the ever-overshadowing and always looming confrontation, this was one epic read. Not for the faint of heart (or even close – The Kid, just think of The Kid!), but definitely an experience not to be rivaled.

(audiobook) Review - Carrie by Stephen King

As you know, my audiobook reviews are posted over at SFFaudio.com, so here's that handy dandy link and a little teaser:

First of all, this audiobook was read by Sissy Spacek. If you’ve been living under a rock, she’s the one who played Carrie in the classic film based on this book. She’s a great actress, although I’ve not seen this film, and she’s perfect for the reading of this book.

This is a bit misleading, but I'll let you check out the review of Carrie by Stephen King for the rest of my thoughts.