Stevo

Back to the Beginning!

Reviewed: 09-28-23

"Genesis of the Daleks" is a classic Doctor Who story from 1975 and the Target novelisation was a reasonably straight forward adaption of that story, written by Terrance Dicks who could almost churn out Doctor Who Target novelisations in his sleep! This audiobook version is narrated excellently by John Culshaw with Nicholas Briggs voicing the Daleks/Davros.

The Fourth Doctor and his two companions, Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are on Skaro. The Time Lords have a mission for The Doctor, destroy the Daleks at birth and the Universe will be a better place in the future. A simple mission in theory, right? Enter Davros, the creator of the Daleks... and The Doctor has met his match. "Genesis of the Daleks" is a Doctor Who story that is basically a battle between good and evil, but the lines between them are sometimes blurred. So to complete his mission from the Time Lords The Doctor will have to face the ultimate moral dilemma, to commit genocide, or not?! This is one of the best Dalek stories ever, even though they don't feature too much in the early part of the story.

Jon Culshaw makes "Genesis of the Daleks" an entertaining story to revisit as his Tom Baker voice is as good as it gets. A 'dead ringer' if you like! ;-) You can almost hear the Fourth Doctor when he speaks. The story itself is as enjoyable now on audio as it was on the TV all those years ago. So I highly recommended this as a great Doctor Who audiobook to listen to. For me, it is a classic Doctor Who story from the 'classic era' of the TV show.

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Enjoyable, but not original.

Reviewed: 07-31-23

"The House on the Water" is a short murder mystery that is okay for what it is. However, it contains nothing that hasn't been done before, and done way better! I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie novels so the twist here is nothing special and I guessed who the murderer was early on. There are five people in a house, one person is murdered and so one of the surviving four people has to be the murderer... well, obviously it's the least likely person! Listening to the narrative it's clear who the least likely person is. The story itself contains all the usual possible sub-plots; greed, love, money, revenge, (etc.) but little in the way of real clues in the actual story, so it wasn't the most thrilling plot overall. In fairness you wouldn't really expect a lot of depth from a story that comes in under three hours. Although it was interesting to follow the events and hear the story play out to it's conclusion.

As a novella "The House on the Water" is enjoyable enough to pass away a couple of hours, whilst the narration - although basic - was good enough to keep me listening once it got going. I wouldn't call it a classic, but "The House on the Water" is okay for those that like a concise murder mystery that doesn't require too much thought. It would be perfect for a plane, train or bus journey.

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Trust Nobody!

Reviewed: 06-27-23

If anybody wants to know about the British "dirty war" in Ireland, then this is as good a book as any. Written by an undercover ex-British soldier from Northern Ireland who infiltrated the Provisional IRA and rose to a reasonably high rank in its organisation before being 'sold out' by his handlers to [allegedly] protect an even more important undercover agent that they had working within the IRA. At times Kevin Fulton (a pseudonym) comes across as very naive and clearly too trusting of his employers, while at the same time happy enough as an IRA man to take it to whatever level it needed to go to to convince the IRA of his loyalty, including some very serious crimes. This is a thoroughly engaging book, which is notable for what is left out than what is actually in it, but even so it tells the story from and insider's point of view on how those British agents worked in the undercover war against the IRA.

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1 person found this helpful

Summoning Evil

Reviewed: 04-10-18

Reporter Eric Braden is asked by his News Editor to write some articles on unsolved murder cases for their newspaper. Choosing the case of a man murdered in rural England with a pitch-fork, and whose body was found surrounded by pagan symbolism, Eric Braden sets off on his task and so begins a dark murder mystery involving witchcraft and strange locals in two rural communities. (All of whom could be extras in one of those old Hammer Horror movies!)

Narrator Barnaby Edwards does a great job at reading this story and he manages the various accents in a convincing style as the story unfolds and is told from various points of view as the backstory of the original murder is explained in second-hand narratives.

The Evil Therof is a murder mystery full of intrigue, red herrings and misdirection... along with the supernatural elements that give this story a dark tone. There is, of course, the obligatory twist at the end too.

Overall I found this audiobook to be an enjoyable listen that kept me interested until the end.

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1 person found this helpful

Compelling Real Life Murder Mystery

Reviewed: 02-24-18

This is an interesting release; ' West Cork' is not an audiobook but an audio documentary in thirteen episodes. (A true crime Podcast basically.) It is however a fascinating murder mystery that remains unsolved to this day and it is riveting to listen to how the producers delve in to this murder case that has perplexed the Irish justice system for over twenty years.

The 1996 murder of a French woman just yards from her holiday home in Ireland and the subsequent investigation is reviewed in this production using interviews with many of the investigators, journalists and locals tied-up in this case, along with radio clips from the time. It's a format that works well for this story but with the murder unsolved it is left for the listener to draw their own conclusions.

'West Cork' is in many ways a sad story as despite the prime suspect being arrested twice there has been no prosecution and no justice for the victim or her family... but the story is a fascinating one and this well produced documentary is definitely worth a listen for people who like true crime stories.

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Satanic Horror at it's best!

Reviewed: 02-16-18

This audio adaptation of Blood on Satan's Claw is as enjoyable to listen to as the film was to watch. This is a creepy tale that begins in the furrows of a ploughed field and leads to demonic possession of school children in a rural 17th Century English village, with plenty of supernatural happenings along the way. The acting and sound production are top notch and Blood on Satan's Claw is probably best listened to with the lights on, as this is a story dripping with a creepy macabre atmosphere.

This is an audio drama and not a narrated audiobook but the performances from the whole cast are superb and they bring this good old fashioned horror tale to life in this well produced 'Audible Original' dramatisation.

Blood on Satan's Claw is highly recommended for anyone who likes a scary horror story at bedtime.

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10 people found this helpful

Pandemic Survival

Reviewed: 02-15-18

Although this novelisation ties-in to the 1970's BBC TV series this book stands on it's own as an absorbing post-apocalyptic survival story. Survivors is a story that looks at the fall of civilisation following a pandemic and how the people who survived it deal with the world that is left behind. Even though the book features the main characters from the TV series and treads some of the same ground, no knowledge of the TV show is required as Terry Nation tells the whole story in this book.(With a different - and radical - ending!)

The atmosphere of this novel is intense. As the story unfolds the ominous sense of foreboding is palpable. From the onset of the pandemic to the struggle for survival in post-apocalyptic Britain Terry Nation takes his characters on a journey through emotional turmoil, some savagery and genuine horror as the world unravels in the catastrophe of the viral apocalypse.

This audio book is well narrated by Carolyn Seymour (Abby in the original Survivors TV Series) and Carolyn manages to keep all of the character's voices consistent and delivers the reading in just the right tone for this type of book.

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3 people found this helpful

Naturally Good

Reviewed: 11-23-15

Human Nature by Paul Cornell is the book which the Tenth Doctor TV episodes 'Human Nature' & 'Family of Blood' are based on, but the book is way better! For me this is one of the best Doctor Who novels ever published, and the audiobook version read by Lisa Bowerman is magnificently good, bringing Paul Cornell's novel of humanity to life.

This is a Seventh Doctor story with Bernice Summerfield as his companion, and was originally published as part of the New Adventures range in 1995 when there was no Doctor Who on the TV. The plot of this book is similar to the TV adaptations of course, but the details are quite different, so this book can be enjoyed separately from the TV episodes without any real conflict... unless you are a person who wonders how the same story can fit in to Doctor Who continuity twice, with two different Doctors!

Human Nature is a Doctor Who story about love, war and the emotions that make people tick, which features real characters not cardboard cut-outs. I thought the alien villains were a bit weak when it comes to being fearsome, but that is only a small minus to an otherwise excellent story.

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5 people found this helpful

The Return of the War Doctor!

Reviewed: 04-04-15

What did you love best about Doctor Who: Engines of War?

All of it!

Engines of War is an excellent book from start to finish. An epic Doctor Who adventure set during The Time War, full of action and very entertaining.

Have you listened to any of Nicholas Briggs’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Everyone knows that Nick Briggs can do Dalek voices, but his portrayal of the gruff and grumpy War Doctor was so convincing you could almost hear John Hurt.

Nick Briggs did an excellent job of the other characters too, especially the 'companion' Cinder.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not an extreme reaction, but I loved every minute of it. We need more War Doctor audios!

Any additional comments?

George Mann has managed to write a really interesting Doctor Who story that gives us an insight in to the darkest of all of the Doctor's; a violent incarnation weary of the world around him and prepared to do whatever it takes. Doctor no more!

This was a fantastic audiobook to listen to, and is highly recommended to fans of Doctor Who both old and new.

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5 people found this helpful

Unexciting Jack Reacher Adventure

Reviewed: 12-22-14

Lee Child wrote this? Really?

'Hight Heat' is an interlude to fill a gap between Jack Reacher novels, but apart from killing a two hour drive while listening to this audiobook, there isn't too much to redeem this novella. I found 'High Heat' a below average short story that is well narrated by Dick Hill, but the story itself is one of unrealistic and unbelievable fantasy, and definitely not a credible Jack Reacher at 16 adventure at all. I suppose some Lee Child/Jack Reacher fans would consider any Reacher story to be better than none at all, which is fair enough, but this is not a typical Jack Reacher adventure... or a typical Lee Child story even. So this one is for diehard fans only.

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2 people found this helpful