Pete

The Best Escape from The Worst of Times

Revisado: 02-16-25

Full Disclosure: I’ve been involved in the audiobook industry for nearly 20 years and I just found my new favorite narrator. If one could sign an audiobook, I’d ask for his autograph. And that can only be because on some level, I was awed by his ability to draw me in so deeply and completely.
He skillfully realizes the author’s intent breathing life into each character with a blend with subtlety, humor and uncanny specificity, aided by Robinson’s brilliant, accessible prose and deeply compassionate storytelling.

Jeremy Robinson is a skillful weaver of worlds within worlds, inhabited by beings we long to know and cheer on. But never as completely and personally as the Lost Tribe Books. You will laugh out loud and cry out loud or else you may be an alien.
It is exactly what I needed to listen to as the world around me became more unrecognizable and frightening than the safety of fictional friends among planet threatening aliens. So thanks for that. We all need somewhere to go sometimes.

And if anyone in Hollywood with half a brain and at least one dog is listening, heel! Sit! stay! Adapt and produce!
These amazing space dogs these may be just the heroes we need right now. As someone once said (Zephraim Cocker, I believe), “You don’t have to be a great boy. Just be a good boy.”

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A Charming Retelling of a Classic or a Beautifully Dressed Science Fiction Novel performed to storybook perfection.

Revisado: 04-15-24

The difference between a great book and a great audiobook, given the right narrator is the difference between beauty and magic. And Daniel Henning makes magic, treating this moving and hilarious fairy tale for our dark times with the reverence of our child memories. His vocal choices for the main characters instantly delight us and his effortless narration transports the listeners through a vivid landscape, both outer and more importantly, inner as we learn once again what it means to be human.

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Welcome Back Mr. O’Brien

Revisado: 12-25-23

I have been waiting for so long for another novel by Tim O’Brien. It was worth the wait. As he did for Vietnam and the 1960’s, he more than accomplishes with the troubled and psychotic political and social backdrop of the road to Covid with no one driving.
Not a single totally honest uncorrupted soul in the book and yet you keep fighting for them, although not necessarily at the same time. He may have replaced Kurt Vonnegut and the author to hold the mirror up to society. And in AMERICA FANTASTICA it’s a normal mirror with an unrecognizable funhouse reflection.
Oliver Wyman is absolutely superb, capturing the nuance of the characters and the humor and pathos that infuses the whole novel.

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Hallinan, Heller, Vonnegut…

Revisado: 11-21-23

Tim Hallinan is the one of the best and most clever writers I know. He’s right up there with Joseph Heller and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves.
Well done on the narration. Hallinan has been blessed with exceptional narrators on all of his audiobooks.

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Amazing narrator and writing

Revisado: 09-14-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Loved it all. Fantastic addition to the series. Great characters and performance. Can not wait for the next one!

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Yee haw!

Revisado: 08-28-23

Welcome back Bruno Castle and Clark! Top rate entertainment! Til next time. Love the mashup.

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Brave New Worlds

Revisado: 05-09-22

Jeremy Robinson seems to have accomplished the impossible. At a historic point in time where virtually everything that was fiction five years ago has been rendered current events, Mr. Robinson has seemingly invented a new genre: the novel as multiverse. And with RC Bray at the helm, it is alternately moving, hilarious and always humane.
Bravo!

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An Astonishing Audiobook

Revisado: 02-26-21

It's clear from the first page that author Aaron Jackson is a master storyteller, a virtuoso with language, who weaves a timeless, delightful tale with the ease of a traveling bard. Although set in New York City from the 1930's through the 1960's, the narrative voice might just as well be regaling us with tales of King Arthur or Nicholas Nickelby. Blending rapier wit with droll humor and an obvious affection for the characters, we feel we could be listening to curator of a museum or the surviving dowager of a royal family.

To that end, narrator Joel Froomkin makes a bold choice taking on the persona of a kindly British observer (or perhaps studied New York Aristocracrat) as he seamlessly inhabits the author's voice. His absolute love of the city and its inhabitants clearly comes through as he takes us on August's journey from the darkest recesses of backstage cubbies and trap doors to the highest penthouse in the city and its own traps. And in the tradition of some of the grandest coming of age stories of all time, August is a wonder who leaves his mark indelibly on our literary psyche.

I have listened to many hundreds of audiobooks during my own several decades and I can state unequivocally that Froomkin navigates the tricky waters of voicing female characters with a deftness that defies the senses. One might swear that he keeps a bevy and chorus girls and little old ladies on hand in his studio to jump in when the scene call for one.

There is a single scene early on, when August, acting as a lookout for a gang of pickpockets, discovers he can't whistle and improvises. That alone is worth every penny. And at seven hours and change, the audiobook fairly gallops past and you find yourself trying to slow it down so it doesn't get away too soon.

I only write reviews when I have been deeply moved or thrilled or surprised by the experience. And Aaron Jackson and Joel Froomkin are surprises I'll gladly enter a dark room for again and again.

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A Joyous Tribute to a Classic Genre!!

Revisado: 11-18-19

THE VAULT OF HORROR deserves a vaultful of praise, not only for its delightful, almost whimsical handling of a genre that is chock full of terror but also for it's director, listed as William Dufris, for keeping each episode/chapter authentic and consistent style-wise as he careens from one time period and geographical location to the next. And while the stories themselves are perfect campfire tales in their own way, the real joy of this collection is the way in which the actor's portrayals coalesce into an ensemble of performers who all embrace the style and period feel of these individual stories. While the writers occasionally update the details to include Ubers and cell phones, the performers rarely drift from the campiness and underlying wit of the 1940's Horror Movie or 1950's Comic book writing from which these are derived.

While each tale has it's share of chills, gore and nightmare imagery, they are skillfully played with flair and camp, revealed in such unforgettable characters as the German Scientist, the Eccentric Recluse, the Voodoo Woman, the Gravediggers and Mad Scientists and Dying Uncles and Ne'er-Do-Wells and Monsters. And since each chapter is treated as a new episode, you can binge all 24 stories or treat them like the weekly serials they're written as for a sustained listening experience.

It's hard to choose a favorite story or individual performance as all the stories are great opportunities for the talented cast to have a field day in a wide variety of accents, dialects and larger than life characters. However, some standouts deserve a mention, including the two German scientists searching the Louisiana Bayou, the prison escape story, the terrific kids reminiscent of the Goonies or Stranger Things cast exploring a graveyard, the Frozen Landlord with his Hapless Superintendent and Evil Nurse, the lost travel writer, the Southern graverobber and the penultimate tale in the collection involving a Dorian Grey type Voodoo bust.

Full disclosure: some of the special effects were so jarring or chilling at moments that I hit my brakes a couple of times while driving - a true interactive experience. And this wouldn't be complete without praise for Kevin Grevioux, the host and vault Keeper, whose voice is so deep and whose evil laugh is so classic that you can feel the air move when he speaks.

All in all, this is less a collection of scary stories as a rollicking celebration of and a tribute to the Classic Horror Genre! Bravo for a unique listening experience!!

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Impressively Original and Brilliantly Rendered

Revisado: 09-03-17

Would you listen to Library at Mount Char again? Why?

No because I want to listen to as many books as I can. But I will remember this one regardless and probably for a long time.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Library at Mount Char?

This is one of the most outstandingly original novels I have read or listened to in years and I've read and listened to hundreds of books in a wide variety of (mostly fiction) genres. The breadth of creative narrative in this story is like discovering The Golden Compass or Slaughterhouse Five. And so there are enough unique, startling, non-derivitive and mind-boggling moments in this book to fill a library of books with one spectacular moment each. I guess it would just be too hard to say.

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

Hillary Huber is my new audiobook hero!!! This performance is flawless and her characters were among the most vivid I've ever experienced as a decades long listener. By that, I found that I could see more of her characters more vividly in my mind (most especially the males, interestingly enough) than I usually consciously do even during the finest audiobooks. I always get caught up in superb acting, insightful and nuanced dialogue, skilled description and action but the actual appearance of characters in my mind as I'm hearing them is a rare and delightful occurance, something that comes unbidden and is discovered only after the fact. And this was my first time listening to Ms. Huber. I believe it's the most riveting performance by a female narrator for me since Mare Winningham's reading of Stephen King's LISEY'S STORY. And that was a doozy!!

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

Yes. Oh yes. Aw, yes.It also made me think, wince, drive too slow, talk back to my dashboard, jaw drop and possibly, once, sneeze but that may have been a coincidence.

Any additional comments?

Well, I'll certainly forge ahead and look for more compelling novels narrated by HH. I'll also see what else this author has written and look forward to following him around. And I suspect I need to start listening to more female narrators even though I'm naturally drawn to male protagonists and male writers. But this reminded me of how limiting that is. And how eventually it would be like reading only half the books there are. So bravo.

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