Audiobook--The Road

The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Read by Tom Stechschulte

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is a powerful and involving book--high praise for a story that essentially has no plot.

The Road is set in an unspecified future, after what appears to be a nuclear cataclysm has devastated the world, or at least the part of the world we're shown in the course of the novel. The nature of the cataclysm is never explicitly discussed, but the description of a distant flash and the ensuing nuclear winter-shrouded landscape makes it fairly clear.

The story itself focuses on a father and his son, never given names, who are traveling "The Road," trying to reach the coast. The holocaust seems to have destroyed all life except human beings. The only available food is canned goods and other stores that they can raid along the way, as well as the occasional edible vegetation, including a memorable apple tree. The man and the boy peripherally encounter elements of the remaining human race, which has largely slid into an animalistic existence. One group keeps people in a cellar for food. Another cooks babies. The main characters discuss what they will and won't to do survive, clinging to their identity as "good guys," but as the story progresses this line seems less and less clear.

My major problems with this book were technical. McCarthy's refusal to supply names to anyone is metaphorically sound, but isn't always executed as well as it could be, leaving room for pronoun confusion that makes the reader stumble (or the listener, in this case). Also, I'm glad I didn't try to read this in book form, or I would have given up after a chapter or so. (God gave us quotation marks for a reason, sir. Use them.) The lack of female characters is disturbing, as well. The mother, shown in flashbacks, committed suicide to avoid the savagery she knew would grow around them. Other female characters are faceless and enslaved, until the very end, and even this nameless woman is barely given shape.

Tom Stechschulte's reading was flawless. Avoiding all the slips and confusions of McCarthy's style, he made the book completely understandable and added a powerful dramatic flair that only drew me in deeper. His treatment emphasized McCarthy's spare prose and added an emotional element that made this a truly dramatic presentation, not just an audiobook.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter--Audio Book Review

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Jeff Lindsay
Read by Nick Landrum

If you know anything about the TV series Dexter, based on the series of books of which this is the first, you know the basic plot of Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Traumatized by a childhood event he can't remember, Dexter grows up a sociopath with a need to periodically kill. He was adopted by a police officer, however, who recognized his condition and taught him a "code" to use to control it. When Dexter can no longer ignore the demands of what he calls the "Dark Passenger," he kills. But he only kills other serial killers--people who, according to his code, deserve it.

In his more socially acceptable life, Dexter works as a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Police Department. His sister Debra is a police officer desperately trying to gain a promotion to Detective. Her chance comes in the wake of a series of bizarre murders, as she and the rest of the Miami PD try to find a killer who dismembers his victims and leaves their body parts in trash bags, completely drained of blood.

Except Dexter is starting to believe the killer is actually him.

The plot of the television adaptation diverges in several ways from the book, and this is a rare case where I felt the TV version is actually more involving and more fully realized than the book. The book's climax seems incomplete and a bit too pat. The book is definitely entertaining, though, with dark humor and well-written character voices. I look forward to reading more in the series.

Nick Landrum's reading is competent but not especially powerful, though he does a good job with various accents and maintaining suspense through the last act.

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife tells the love story of Clare and Henry, whose romance and eventual life together is marred by the fact that Henry time travels randomly. Like Sam Beckett, he travels only within his own lifetime, but he also stays fairly close to home during his temporal adventures. The romance between Clare and Henry is muddled by their braided timestreams, but manages to work itself out, anyway.

While this book dragged me in and held my attention thoroughly for the most part, in the end I had mixed feelings about it.

From a technical standpoint, the book is a tour de force, leaping from time frame to time frame, incident to incident, forward and backward in time in an alternating first person narrative between hero and heroine, without ever leaving the reader behind. But from a character and plot standpoint, I was left not entirely satisfied.

Clare is a seemingly strong, well-developed character through the first two-thirds or so of the novel, until the birth of Clare and Henry's daughter. From this point on, she seems almost like a accessory to the story, as Henry's condition worsens. After his eventual death, the rest of Clare's life is glossed over. There's no indication that she moved on or found another relationship after Henry--as far as we can tell, she simply pined away for the rest of her life, waiting for their final reunion when he time travels far into her future. I would have liked to have seen at least a brief recap and some closure for Clare, rather than have her become just an appendage for the wrap-up of Henry's story.

Henry's story, too, didn't quite work for me. Many hints were dropped that his death would come about due to a complication of his temporal displacement condition, but with one large foreshadowing event indicating it would be otherwise, this was never to develop. Having him die at the mercy of his "illness" would have been much more satisfying to me. As it was, his death was, in my opinion, too mundane.

I didn't dislike the book by any means, and would recommend it, as it's a good read that lingers long after you've reached the end. But it seemed to me to miss the mark--though just barely--that would have made it a classic.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Published in 1994, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a "non-fiction novel," based on factual events but with these events modified to fit the format of a novel. Bringing in a variety of eccentric characters, author John Berendt paints a colorful picture of the social life of Savannah, Georgia.

For those expecting a novel structure, Midnight takes its time getting around to the action. The inciting event of the plot doesn't happen until almost halfway through the book, though Berendt's fast-moving prose and entertaining introductions to the various characters involved in the story keeps this from being a detriment. The book overall is a fast and entertaining read, exposing the less savory side of Savannah's culture without ever losing the reader's sympathy for the characters or the city itself. With plenty to say about homophobia, racism, and the debilitating effect of social stagnation, Midnight never shoves any of its message down the reader's throat.

Kathy Reichs--Bones to Ashes--Audio Book Review

Reader: Linda Emond

Fans of TV's Bones might be a bit surprised at the liberties taken with Kathy Reichs' original Temperance Brennan character (or vice-versa). But taken as separate incarnations, Book Tempe's adventures are just as entertaining as TV Tempe's.

In this installment of the series, Tempe finds herself facing what might be the remains of a childhood friend. The investigation takes her through a variety of twists and turns, revealing secrets in both the present and in her own past. One particular plot item in this book didn't make sense to me on a character level, but otherwise this is another good installment in the series.

Linda Emond's reading is serviceable, if not exceptional, and better than the readings on a couple of the other books in this series.

Dead Until Dark--Charlaine Harris--Audio Book Review

Reader: Johanna Parker

Dead Until Dark is a solid introduction to Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series. With detailed world-building and a plot grounded in the details of rural Louisiana, Harris brings her unique urban fantasy to life. Aside from a few very minor plot quibbles, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable story. Sookie Stackhouse is a kickass heroine, and the Vampire Bill is as intriguing and sexy as a vampire hero should be.

Reader Johanna Parker is practically flawless, providing easily distinguishable voices and an involving, dramatic read that makes this even more engaging than the typical audio book.