D

Well crafted and engaging

Reviewed: 05-02-23

The author is a well known figure in the realm of high end stereo gear, who evidently found free time during the pandemic lockdown year(s) to try his hand at fiction. Thankfully the result doesn’t display hallmarks of dilettantism, this is stylistically assured and commercial-grade thriller writing. Having a reader on the level of Edoardo Ballerini may have elevated the perceived quality, but I suspect Elmore Leonard’s advice to aspiring writers, to leave out the boring parts people skip over, played a role here. It’s a good page turner.

We’re told this is the first of a series of four, and part one is rather like Wagner’s Das Rheingold, not self-contained but a prelude. The protaganists are climate researchers, and it’s mostly set in Greenland and Antartica. They discover evidence of an ancient, far too ancient civilization, so we’re in the world of Graham Hancock, albeit properly presented as fiction. I was hearing echoes of Call of the Wild and White Fang, between the frozen settings and the prominent role of the faithful, suffering dog among the dramatis personae. Also a bit of Indiana Jones, perhaps his adventures on Hoth. There’s surely a Harrison Ford role in here.

When we make it to Act 3 of Götterdämmerung, after the fat lady to sings, a fuller appraisal can be offered.

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The Bourne Inspiration?

Reviewed: 01-31-20

This book has striking similarities to Robert Ludlum’s novel The Bourne Identity. Hamilton’s book was published 3 years prior. Matt Helm has lost his memory following a near drowning, he has to rediscover his identity (including his name) while surprising himself with his own skill at busting the heads of the shadowy evildoers who are pursuing him. And so on.

It’s an excellent thriller, I recommend it whether you’re a Ludlum fan or not. The fundamental difference is that the Matt Helm series is narrated in the first person, while Ludlum uses the third person for Bourne. First person works better for this scenario, IMO.

My suggestion: start the series from the beginning. This one will serve as a good sampler, however.

Stefan Rudnicki's performance is ideal, as usual.

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6 people found this helpful

A masterpiece well performed

Reviewed: 04-07-19

In his 1990 review of Vineland, Salman Rushdie called it “free-flowing and light and funny and maybe the most readily accessible piece of writing the old Invisible Man ever came up with”. Refer to its Wikipedia page if you desire a plot summary before wading in. This is Pynchon’s California style in its fullest flowering. If you’re looking for an entry point to his oeuvre, this is an excellent place to start.

Graham Winton’s performance is exemplary. It only suffers by comparison to Ron McLarty’s top-shelf rendition of Inherent Vice, which is Vineland’s younger (and less ambitious) sibling. My main complaint is that Winton’s tempo is, only slighty, too fast. Pynchon is one of the supreme wordsmiths, and the reader wants to linger more over the music built into the sentences. Speaking of music, the songs are satisfactorily rendered; most of the other audio versions of Pynchon’s books have the song lyrics read, not sung, which is a loss. But Winton’s musical performance suffers, again, by comparison to McLarty’s. Nevertheless, I’d be very happy if Winton were to be the reader for V., for which, as yet, there is no audio version. Hint hint.

Audible regularly sends emails notifying me that there’s a new book by “an author I like”. Often these are for authors I’ve purchased a single book by, and didn’t review. I have all the Pynchon books Audible offers, and have written reviews of most of them, yet I received no such notification in this case. I learned this book was available, by chance, four months after its release. Strange.

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3 people found this helpful

Serge, Coleman, Russian Interference

Reviewed: 01-18-19

Been wondering how pairing Elmer’s Glue with a humidifier could serve as a murder weapon? How about a 9 volt battery with Brillo Pads? Have a taste for poetic justice? You’ve come to the right place.

If you haven’t tried the Serge Storms series yet, you ought to start at the beginning. But this latest volume should serve well as a stand-alone sampler, if that's how you're coming to it.

Two complaints: 1. The dynamic range of the recording is too wide. The screams of Serge’s victims had me reaching for the volume control, only to have to turn it back up when the normal text resumed. The previous volumes read by Oliver Wyman (excellent here as always) didn’t have this problem. 2. Given the author’s rate of production, it will be a whole year before the next volume appears. Serge would not have the patience for such a lengthy wait.

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9 people found this helpful

Hunter's bodycount migrates ever northward

Reviewed: 06-14-18

If you liked the prior two in the series, you’ll like Winner Takes All. Starkly anti-Left politics, fight scenes matching Lee Child’s best, logical plot progression. There’s a nice homage to that supreme masterpiece of the thriller genre, The Day of the Jackal. A worthy sequel.

IMO you need to have gone through the prior two first, this book doesn’t stand on its own. Most of the great thriller series (Jack Reacher, Travis McGee, Matt Helm, James Bond) hit a reset button at the beginning of each installment. New love interest, and little or no carryover of plot strands. Not here. And the length keeps increasing (Hunter 12 hours, Bad Deeds 15, now 18 for Winner Takes All). I think something will have to give if this series is to stay on track.

My main criticism is well stated by the (fictional) thriller writer James Rodman: “an artist with a true reverence for his craft should not descend to gooey love stories, but should stick austerely to revolvers, cries in the night, missing papers, mysterious Chinamen, and dead bodies — with or without gash in throat.” We’re now on a third installment with Hunter and Annie together, and there’s not much room left for relationship progression. Their conflict is now about whether/when Hunter is going to inform Annie’s father that they’re engaged. Sorry, but this is fit for Barbara Cartland, alternately P.G. Wodehouse, depending on whether the treatment is one of forthright glutinous sentimentality or (preferably) something gently satirical and humorous. It’s just not thriller material. So by the end of Winner Takes All I found myself hoping that the author’s next homage would be to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Specifically its final chapter.

The reader is excellent.

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1 person found this helpful

Eco Ultra-Lite

Reviewed: 11-05-15

Just notice the length of this book and you know it can’t be a typical Eco novel. If you’ve read Foucault’s Pendulum, just imagine taking that book, swapping out the occult for a few largely Italy-specific political conspiracies, and scaling it way down (it’s about 1/4th the size and scope). Eco even recycles jokes from FP (e.g. I love you even though you’re stupid, and knowing German means never graduating). It reminds me of Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49, being the author’s shortest and (alas) weakest work. But still enjoyable, minute for minute I rank it higher than the latest Lee Child (for example, and not that that was bad at all), hence the top rating I’m giving it.

The reader did an excellent job.

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3 people found this helpful

Wodehouse completists want more

Reviewed: 09-02-15

Simon Vance is one of the most accomplished readers out there, and here he tries his hand (throat? tongue?) at Wodehouse. He does a fine job with the character’s dialogue, though his rendering of the prose lacks the exuberance of the late (and great) Jonathan Cecil. Frankly, it's a bit like an opera star crossing over to operetta, or doing a Broadway show tunes album. Or it might be the sound of Vance's fine rendition of Proust's Swann's Way triggering involuntary memories/associations in this listener. Nevertheless, the ear adjusts, and Wodehouse works his magic regardless.

So far his Wodehouse recordings have been of lesser known works that no one else has recorded yet, so they are very welcome additions to the catalog. I hope there is more to come. How about: If I Were You, French Leave, and Do Butlers Burgle Banks?

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6 people found this helpful

Like being belted in the head with a Swiss Alp

Reviewed: 11-08-14

At last George Guidall has re-recorded Gravity’s Rainbow, and the result is magnificent. The tempo is a little slower, which is altogether to the good, but he recites instead of singing the songs, a loss (though thankfully he does vocalize the melody to Cielito Lindo recognizably (Ja, ja, ja ja! In Prussia they never eat p?ssy…)). Please, audiobook producers, have him record V., Pynchon’s first novel. And don’t skimp on Pynchon’s hilarious take on the Colonel Bogie March, let ‘er rip.

Concerning the novel itself, I’ve known intelligent people of good taste who simply couldn’t get through it. It’s very challenging, and not for everyone. I suggest trying Inherent Vice, or even The Crying of Lot 49 (which was my first), to test the waters. Just as one should read Portrait of the Artist before trying Ulysses. Then, prepare to be absorbed: study of this book will surely knock out a couple months of your life. In a good way.

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86 people found this helpful

Footnotes included

Reviewed: 02-02-14

This version includes Gibbon's lengthy (and often essential) footnotes, inserted into the body of the text (with the words "footnote" and "end footnote" before and after). I believe the result is the best audiobook version of this classic. The reader is excellent: always energetic, while bringing the required weight, wit, and occasional sarcasm into his delivery.

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17 people found this helpful

Defending the narrator

Reviewed: 09-28-13

Pynchon (who presumably wrote the jacket copy) says he’s channeling his inner Jewish mother in Bleeding Edge, and I suspect this is what inspired the choice of reader. Jeannie Berlin is soon to be seen as Aunt Reet in the film version of Inherent Vice, and sounds like a middle-aged New York Jew. Older than Maxine, the main character, so perhaps we're hearing Maxine’s chronically disapproving mother tell her story. Like all the other reviewers to date, my initial reaction to the narration of this audiobook was, to quote from the text: Wahhabi Transreligious Friendship (to the unitiated, that’s Whisky Tango Foxtrot)! But I made it to the end, then read through my hard copy, and finally started the audiobook again (yeah, I’m that big a Pynchon fan). Now I’m liking it quite a bit.

True, the cool jazz rhythms of Pynchon’s prose become jarringly stilted at times, and the characterizations are hit and miss, particularly with the male characters. She doesn’t even try to perform the songs, and I don’t think I’d want to hear her try. Nevertheless, it has grown on me, and I think it got better as it went on. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that Pynchon himself advised on and approved this production. It's unique.

About the book, if you’re not already a Pynchon fan this is a good place to start, though if you’re going to start with an audiobook I’d suggest Inherent Vice, with is masterfully performed. If you’re already a fan you’re going to get it (in one form or another) no matter what I say, so try the sample of the audiobook and decide from there.

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4 people found this helpful