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Thunderbird Rising

Revisado: 04-09-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Thunderbird Rising is a fast-paced, high-stakes techno-thriller which blends espionage, action, and science fiction into one wild ride in the week leading up to the events on September 11th, 2001. The story follows Maxx King, an ex-special forces operative turned cybercrime investigator, who finds himself in the middle of a global conspiracy that could change the world as we know it.

A mysterious “Omega” device of alien origin is at the centre of a deadly game between the U.S. and China. Being the winner means the ability to call down the wrath of the alien protectors who aren’t averse to the odd natural disaster. Mount St. Helens? That’s what you get for misusing the device.

The race has been on since the mid-1950s, with DARPA and other government agencies only now starting to fully decode the instructions.

Maxx is thrust into the middle of all this by accident. The Chinese operatives looking to steal information on the US version of the Omega device try taking him out of the picture, which doesn’t go too well for them. Maxx is a tough, no-nonsense kind of ex-military guy, so when his friends and loved ones are being threatened, it can only end one way.

The whole science fiction angle was a pleasant surprise. I thought I was in for a Borne-style thriller based on the blurb, but the sci-fi element added an interesting twist on the whole genre.

The pacing is one of the book’s strongest points, with a narrative that never lets up. The opening chapter has Maxx in peril almost instantly on the eve of September 11th, and things don’t get less intense as we flash back one-week to how he got there.

An additional layer of intrigue is the effective way it incorporates an alternate history timeline without re-writing the whole narrative. As mentioned, the events of the book take place in the leadup to the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center towers, but not as an alternate explanation for that day, but as a side conspiracy that plays out in the shadows.

Weaving the two together works well, and the slightly conspiratorial side of me thinks it adds plausibility, blurring the lines between real-world and fiction. It’s an approach that ratchets up the tension because we all know how that day played out and it keeps you guessing how the plot may get intertwined.

The narration by Scott Fleming was easy to listen to. He’s got a gruff kind of voice which works well for Maxx and the story in general. I had no notes on production issues, so no obvious re-takes, background noises or other distractions. Fleming is certainly the right voice for the book.

A small bonus at the end where the author lists out the various songs that helped provide inspiration. He’s even got a Spotify playlist you can check out if you’re interested!

If you’re a fan of thrillers that don’t just rush to the finish line but also make you think about what’s else might be out there, Thunderbird Rising is a must-listen. I enjoyed the heck out this one!

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Mal Goes to War

Revisado: 03-23-25

Mal Goes to War is an interesting and darkly comedic look at artificial intelligence (AI), war, and what it means to be human. Told from the perspective of a mostly dispassionate “free AI” called Mal (short for Malware), we’re thrust into the middle of a war between two factions: the hyper-modified Federals and the Humanists, who reject cybernetic enhancements.

Not caring much for either side of the “monkeys” fighting each other, Mal looks on with a kind of detached amusement until, while inhabiting the body of a recently deceased human cyborg mercenary, he is cut off from “infospace” (basically the next generation internet) so he can no longer easily reach safety. The merc was protecting a girl, Kayleigh, who looks around five but is reality around eighteen thanks to gene modifications designed to prolong her lifespan.

Mal isn’t entirely cut off – he can jump between any machine capable of holding and running his software, including the hardware inside augmented human heads. Depending on the level of augmentation, Mal can puppet an entire person or just jack into their senses and communicate with them. He can also take over non-human hardware as well, like drones and smart weapons and the like.

With no allegiance to either side of the battle, Mal does whatever he needs to do at first to find his way back to safety of the infospace, but along the way grows a bit of a conscience and an attachment to Kayleigh and to a lesser extent, the host body he is riding.

The viewpoint of an AI with no particular dog in the fight, so to speak, gives the whole thing an interesting perspective. As an AI, everything he knows he has learned in the three years he’s been operational, so mostly from TV shows and movies and whatever else he can pick up, which makes for some humorous interactions when he tries to pass himself off as human.

The future the story paints for humankind is rather bleak, with atrocities being committed in the name of winning and survival. The humanists, for example, will burn anyone with an augmentation “just in case” to stop the spread which involves chucking them into “burn pits”. Dead or alive, children or adults, so pretty grim stuff.

Nothing too tech-heavy either, considering the subject matter. While there’s a little on ramping up clock-speeds to essentially slow down subjective time, electronic handshakes when establishing connections and the like, for the most part that’s about as heavy as a lot of the story gets, so you don’t need to worry about needing to be a geek to understand what is going on.

Even some of the parts where Mal is fighting off hacking attempts (or indeed engaging in them) is often told with a simulated environment, so when he is under attack, for example, his mind creates a scenario of a medieval castle that’s under attack and he’s fighting off hordes of monsters.

The pacing of the overall story was good, with no particular area dragging or getting bogged down. I did find the ending rather abrupt though. Given how much lead up and detail we had got to get us to that point, it felt incongruous to the rest of the story. I felt a little cheated out of details I thought we deserved to get. The story wraps up though, it’s just more how the author went about it that bothered me.

The narration by John Pirhalla was excellent and engaging, and the production too was excellent. Some not-overused effects are used when Mal is talking electronically to others, like when talking to the mind of his host or to other AIs, like phone-quality audio which I think helped keep things straight.

So overall, Mal Goes to War is a thought-provoking sci-fi with a heavy dose of dark humour. An entertaining, if at times unsettling, exploration of war through the eyes of an AI who never wanted to be part of it.

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Six Moons, Seven Gods

Revisado: 03-11-25

Robert Walker’s Six Moons, Seven Gods is a rich fantasy in a medieval style setting filled with royal intrigue, ruthless ambition, and a vast array of characters from shady thieves to knights and kings. A moderately slow-burning story but one that kept me hooked all the way through. It’s a story of vengeance, of revenge, of honour and of loyalty.

Honour amongst thieves and loyalty to their guild of thieves, and honour and loyalty to the crown and those they were sworn to protect. The Takers Guild has its sights set on a quiet conquering of the land by getting rid of the monarchy and replacing it with a democracy of sorts. This is to let them get away with even more thievery and the sort of underhanded dealings a guild like the Takers Guild would get up to.

We get a rather dark look at the harsh life the guild has on offer as overseer Reynard Rascall (great name for a thief!) and his enforcer, Spiro, hand out brutal justice to those who fail to meet their obligations. Someone is skimming off the top, and Reynard needs to put a stop to that lest he too be on the receiving end of the guild’s ire. When they go to investigate, this kicks off a series of events that intersect with the guild’s master plan.

Meanwhile, former Kings guard Rolft is hunting down those responsible for the death of a princess he was sworn to protect, and the death of her mother shortly thereafter. This throws a metaphorical spanner into the Machiavellian plans of the guild, in particular after he saves the life of a young woman, Sibble, a friend of the late princess whose mother may be the key to saving the kingdom and thwarting the guild.

The story itself doesn’t follow a single viewpoint, instead we follow multiple perspectives throughout. This took a little getting used to for me as there were quite a few to follow, but it meant we got depth through the characters instead of exposition or info-dumps. The dialogue between characters was something I made a particular note of, particularly between Reynard and Spiro. Their back-and-forth banter and sharp-tongued jibes made these two bad guys hard not to like, and I could feel the history they shared ran deep.

The crossover of all the plans and counterplans makes for a complex storyline that is intricate and woven together yet not one I had any trouble following. So many different schemes all intersecting send the body count rocketing up. The story is well paced so even the action scenes seem deliberately measured but not so that it drags but instead weighted to capture the mood behind the scenes perfectly.

The audiobook is narrated by the author, Robert Walker, and he did a surprisingly good job. So often author-narrated books can suffer as narration is an artform in itself, so I am often wary of these, but the characterisation and the voices Walker lends to the various players was excellent. I noted a few minor issues with the production with background sounds creeping in occasionally, but nothing major or any that pulled me of out of enjoying the story.

Overall, a complex and character-driven fantasy in a richly detailed world. A cast of interesting characters and plenty of scheming, murder and intrigue in a medieval-style kingdom that kept me listening late into the night. Highly recommended for a listen that won’t disappoint.

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Becoming Carly Klein

Revisado: 03-01-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Set in and around summer in early 1990, this coming-of-age story follows Carly Klein, a sophomore student (15 going on 16) at an all-girls school where she struggles to care about anything going on. Her homelife is rough, with two parents with professional careers – her mother a psychiatrist and her father an advertising guy – who are too absorbed in their own lives to really care that much about Carly.

With a rebellious streak just beginning, Carly reads her mother’s confidential patient notes and forms a crush on a blind college student, Daniel, a few years older than her. She follows him home on occasion to find out more about him, though actually having anything to do with him doesn’t begin until around two-thirds of the way through, which based on the blurb I expected to happen much sooner.

The early part of the story is more focussed on Carly and her gradual decline in mental health and the ramping up of her rebelling. She is sent away to summer camp which doesn’t go well, drops out of school without her parents knowing, and generally doing anything she can to avoid her parents. Eventually she forms a professional relationship with Daniel where she reads his course work to him. A relationship which slowly turns romantic. Daniel is toxic, although Carly seems oblivious for the most part as she is too young and too smitten with her college lifestyle to notice.

The story was a riveting listen, like watching a train wreck it was hard to turn away as Carly seemed hellbent on ruining her life. Some excellent character growth over the story as the traumatic circumstances and tumultuous relationship takes their toll on Carly and her family.

It did take me a while to pinpoint when this story was set, with early mentions of the Iran-Contra Affair and Ronald Reagan, I thought it was mid-’80s, but it’s actually set in the early ’90s. So, while billed as “contemporary” it is set 35-odd years ago, which is actually a nice change to not have the ubiquitous technology of today everywhere. The themes of a troubled family life, emotional turmoil and trying to fit in still resonate today though, so still generally fits the bill in the contemporary sense.

I did have to wonder about the accuracy in the portrayal of Daniel. Admittedly, I don’t know anyone who is blind, but from other stories, TV shows, and movies it feels to me like there were a few things that were out of place. Carly, for example, hides her presence from Daniel by simply being as quite as possible while standing near him, even though she’d smell like cigarette smoke. She always wore a wig, but that was never questioned even though you’d assume he’d have touched her hair at least once.

The narration by Lauren Dietzel is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, her voice was pleasant and easy to listen to for long stretches. On the other, though, the production quality is dreadful. With very obvious retakes as the sound and quality mismatch dramatically all the way throughout this audiobook. With multiple occurrences of background noises throughout, this really dampened the whole thing for me.

A few other issues I noted were the extra-long silences between chapters which had me reaching for the app to see if it had stopped playing, and the first five minutes of chapter one appears in the “Dedication” chapter, so that gets repeated once you get to chapter one.

Overall, the story was absorbing, and it’s a bit of a shame it was let down the by audio quality. Listening to the rollercoaster ride of Carly’s life over the few months of her life and how she tackled it was enjoyable and made me want to go give my kids some extra hugs. Some open questions remain by the end, but much like life and as Carly found out, you don’t always get all the answers.

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Hard Science Fiction

Revisado: 02-22-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Assist, by Steven Mathew Zellers, paints a bleak and grim future for humanity where global warming and overpopulation have driven countries to the brink. Millions starve or are involved in endless conflict, and with their eyes on Mars and beyond into the galaxy, humankind’s reach for the stars is at hand. Much of this is covered in the opening preface which I found a little dry, but it served to recount the history of things to come and set the stage for where we find ourselves when the story picks up in the closing decade of the 21st century.

While it is set some 70+ years in earth’s future, so much of what they rely on is still recognisable contemporary technology as if the advancement has stalled out. Text messages, emails, laptops and the like are still used where I’d hope it’d have evolved beyond that by the end of the century. Yet some major advances too, namely the outpost on Mars and its space elevator, and the giant space ark – a generation ship that’ll carry a few hundred of the best and brightest humans have to offer to Kepler B in order to start over.

Fans of hard science fiction will enjoy the attention to detail. Most of the science sounded rooted in reality, and if it wasn’t, it was believable enough that I didn’t question it. While the zero-point energy propulsion drive doesn’t exist, it wasn’t a “magic wand drive” and also wasn’t the primary source of the ark’s engine output. That, as the title implies, refers to the gravity assistance (often called a slingshot manoeuvre) where you use the moon, sun, or other planets to increase velocity by sling-shotting into their gravity well to increase your speed.

The story itself rockets along, almost like a speedrun through galactic resettlement. Here I found myself wanting more time spent on the story, as if often feels like we’re being told everything rather than shown through action. At times it felt more like an outline, albeit a detailed outline, of a larger story, where each part could be expanded on to give that extra detail I found I was looking for.

I think this is perhaps due to not following a single person for the duration of the story, but more because we’re following the idea of the mission to the exoplanet in the Kepler system. While parts do follow certain characters, like Sarah and Shane – a couple of scientists trying to get into the cryo-pods to sleep their way through the 300+ year trip – the focus isn’t on them for the whole story. I found them a little hard to like as the launch day grew closer, as some of their decisions, though pragmatic, seemed selfish and harsh considering the mission was to create a better future for humankind.

Following the idea of the mission is an interesting approach to telling the story, and it feels much like a historical record being told at some far distant future of how humans made it out of the solar system. No spoilers because it’s in the blurb, but once they reach the new world it feels like they are woefully unprepared for settling a planet. Given all the time and money and brainpower that went into designing the mission, a little more time spent on thinking how not to start over in almost cavepeople-like conditions should have been higher on the agenda.

The narration by Melissa-Marie Shriner was clean without any obvious retakes, background noises or other issues. So, a good, clean read with good production. I wasn’t a fan of a couple of voices, but that’s likely more of a personal dislike. Not a standout performance, but not terrible either – just solidly middle-of-the-road

As hinted at in the blurb, there’s something rather significant that seems like it’s going to shift the direction of the story. It felt a little abrupt, partly because I wasn’t watching how far through the story I was and partly because I wasn’t expecting it given the story so far. There’s definitely another story to come which undoubtably digs into this further.

Overall, Assist is an interesting look at a possible future with plenty of realistic science to back up the plot. Admittedly, I am not a scientist but most of it certainly sounded plausible. I often wonder what it’d be like travelling to an entirely new world and setting it up from scratch, and then I remember I can’t stand being on an airplane for even short trips and the feeling passes, so I suspect even if this were possible, I’d need to live out those fantasies vicariously through stories like this one.

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YA Sci-Fi

Revisado: 02-03-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Some rough edges, but Stellar Heir is a reasonably well-paced and action-filled space opera that I think lands well in the young adult market for science fiction. It doesn’t have an overly complicated plot, but it was easy to listen to and a fun story to boot. The story follows Jael, a scavenger who stumbles upon a mysterious artifact, a gold and onyx bracelet that immediately binds to his wrist. It makes him awfully hard to kill and the most wanted man in the galaxy.

With the bracelet, he starts getting messages about the future of the galaxy, and it doesn’t look good. There’s something vast and evil trying to claw its way back into the universe, and Jael holds one of the keys to stopping them.

Along with his snarky sidekick, Goni (a kid-sized half-monkey type thing), they battle alien creatures in frozen wastelands and plenty of shipboard combat with gun battles and martial arts. Goni is probably my favourite character. Jael is your standard reluctant hero and saviour of the universe, and Goni is your standard snark-fuelled sidekick who mostly only looks out for himself but has a heart of gold and of course looks out for his friends.

Shamaan Casey, the narrator, gave Goni a gruff New York style voice and I think it fits his character perfectly. I’d quite enjoy a backstory just of his adventures! The banter between Jael and Goni is fun though and adds the feeling that they’ve known each other for years.

There’s a lot of action, and worth noting that being aimed at a young adult market the cussing is kept to clean alternatives. The only f-bombs being dropped are swapped out with “frax” or “fraxxing” – which keeps it clean while keeping the intent.

The narration by Shamaan Casey was smooth and professional, with no obvious retakes or background noises to distract you. My only minor quibble was his pronunciation of “viscount” (rhyming it with “discount” instead of the silent “s”), which stood out to me. I’m not sure if that’s a regional pronunciation, but it comes up a few times throughout and sort of bugged me… but I concede that’s possibly just a me thing! Not a big deal, just something that caught my ear.

Overall, this was a fun sci-fi story with lots of action and a straightforward plot. Well-paced with humour sprinkled throughout and space battles in and out of the star lanes. While it’s not the most groundbreaking sci-fi or reinventing the genre, it delivered what it promised.

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Couldn't stop listening!

Revisado: 01-26-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s always interesting to me when I listen to a story where the central characters are. In The Evil Inclination, Daniel Victor explores the meshing of two quite different religions of Judaism and Catholicism as told through the story of two young college-aged students falling in love in New York, and the trials and tribulations that follow.

Lev Levitski and his family are a devout Orthodox Jewish family. Lev tries to live his life by the Torah and the Talmud. His faith is put to the test when he spies Angela Pizatto in his economics class. She’s a stereotypical Italian American Catholic from New York, so the polar opposite of everything he tries to be. She’s loud, brash, and actually rather hard to like at first.

She comes across as a rather dreadful human being during their first date, so it all looks doomed, but of course being the main characters, you know it has to get better. What follows is a whirlwind romance coupled with a crisis of faith as they both dive headlong into the relationship. Angela as a character settles down quickly from the person we first met into someone who is genuinely interested in learning more about Lev and his traditions.

This was in part a romance and at the same time a lesson or brief introduction, to what it means to be someone of the Jewish faith. From Talmudic quotes to the intricate customs and traditions of Judaism they must follow that I’d never heard of before such as a prohibition on turning on lights during the sabbath to not dating outside of your religion.

While the latter is not exactly prohibited, the struggles the Lev has as he hides the relationship from everyone he knows as they wouldn’t understand was a bit of an eyeopener. He feels as if it’s a betrayal of everything he holds to be true while also accepting his love for Angela is also true.

Lev and Angela crisscross New York using the multitude of subway lines as they seek to keep their relationship secret. From gritty out-of-the-way diners to a tiny rundown apartment, they pursue their relationship. The writing is excellent, and I could picture these parts of the city most people never see without ever having visited.

Narration by Laura Patinkin was excellent and well-paced. She has a voice that’s easy to listen to, and the production was clean and error free.

This was an eye-opening and thoroughly enjoyable story of two people in love and an exploration of “the evil inclination” from Jewish theology. As I understand it from this book, the evil inclination refers to the human inclination toward things like selfishness, base desires, and moral failing. Not inherently “evil” in a purely negative sense but as part of the tension between self-interest and spiritual or ethical living.

Victor digs into this concept with Lev as his emotions and mind war with what he was brought up to believe and the life he finds himself presented with. So overall, a heartfelt exploration of faith, identity and love that I think will give me things to ponder on for a while.

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Interesting short sci-fi

Revisado: 12-16-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Set in the not-too-distant future where humans have created artificial intelligences and androids to help with their everyday needs, this novella is told from the perspective of the AI as the main character. Somewhat reminiscent of I, Robot, possibly helped along by the cover art, which had me thinking more Will Smith than Pinocchio.

The androids aren’t sapient but are generally clever enough to pass as human when needed. While intelligent, they still have strange quirks that I think would make them stand out-such as using terms like “leaking from their eyes” rather than “crying”. Photina is a particularly advanced AI whose world starts to fall apart when some malicious code is uploaded to her during an update.

She experiences gaps in her memory during unexplained periods of time, which coincide with the murder of an anti-AI politician. Flashes of memories or visions of other events begin to plague her, so, on the run, she turns to a sympathetic underground society.

It’s a well-paced story, and I listened through in one non-stop session. At a little under three hours, it was an easy listen over a lazy weekend. Short sci-fi is one of my favourite genres to listen to, especially ones with interesting dives into ideas like this one.

The narration by Joe Smith felt a little robotic, which, as it happens, suits this story, as it’s told from the perspective of the AI. However, I did often find myself forgetting that Photina is a “female” robot in her design. There were no issues with production, with no noticeable background noises or retakes.

Overall, this is an interesting short story, giving us a glimpse into what a possible future may bring. With the ever-evolving pace of technology-and AI in particular-the tech in this story may not be too far off. What happens, though, when we push it too far with emotions and feelings, and begin to blur the line between sentient and sapient artificial beings? Perhaps this story gives us a hint.

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A straight-forward and comfortable fantasy adventu

Revisado: 11-05-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

“Kianola” by Nathan Roth is a look through the eyes at the often turbulent times of a kid’s life, when they’re just barely teenagers and struggling with identity and fitting in at school and working out how to be themselves.

The story follows a young boy named Nole who’s a bit of an introvert who finds escape from real life in the online world of “Enix” which based on the description of in-game quests sounds like an MMO similar to an early World of Warcraft or others like it. Nole’s interactions with the game, the NPC, and other players is written though as if Nole is fully immersed.

I don’t recall it being specifically mentioned, but I’d guess the time period would be early 2000s based on some of the pop-culture and technology references. This was probably the biggest thing I had to adjust to. Most of the time, I kept thinking it was a VR simulation, when he’s actually playing on an old PC that’s on the edge of crashing for good.

That I think took me the longest to get my head around. Nole and his friends are all playing on PCs in front of screens and talking through chat, but it’s described as if they are fully there like virtual reality. For Nole, I believe that’s how he sees it. I’m so used to reading books where the characters are inside the game, it took me a while to mentally readjust. So for Nole it feels like full immersion, actually being there and not just a character on a screen.

Nole’s online life is somewhat similar to the problems he has in real life. He finds it difficult to connect with people emotionally. His reaction when he gets friend-zoned by a female player he likes makes him retreat into shell and react in a typical young male way. A little cringey but honest to his character, I think.

The gaming parts were well written, though the battles tended to be a little brief at times. Early level adventurers getting a fairly easy run through the world and racking up max-level achievements with little effort made me wonder how much staying power the game would actually have if it were real.

The online world though spurs on some change in his real-world persona, which was generally handled well. Losing weight through essentially starvation may not be the best message to be sending to young readers, however it was mixed with getting in exercise and socialising by spending time with friends all of which are good themes.

Overall, I think it offers a heartfelt exploration of growth and resilience for young boys. While much of the story is in-game, you don’t need to be a gamer to follow along. A straight-forward and comfortable fantasy adventure for kids in the middle grade to young adult age range.

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My kind of zombie novel

Revisado: 09-10-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Is Cancelled by Craig Kimber is sort of like if Shaun of the Dead was an 80s-style sex comedy mixed with a little bit of Mad Max. A group of no-hopers manage to dodge the zombie apocalypse by being too drunk and stoned. Getting smashed on Christmas Eve, they wake a week and a half later to find things have gone a bit zombie.

Steve, along with his best mates Dave and Spike, wake to a world where zombies are on the street and doing the usual – trying to kill everyone who isn’t a zombie.

In their rush to get out of the city and to safety, they recruit buxom elves fresh from Santa’s grotto, an American cowboy, and a slowly growing cast of hangers-on as they navigate the minefield of zombies and try to dodge a roving band of perverts dead set on making them unwilling contestants in their human vs zombie fight club.

It’s like the only ones the zombie plague spared were the worst of humanity. Steve and his mates fall into this, happy to chuck each other under the bus if it means a chance of getting laid, stoned, or both.

Steve probably has it together the most out of the band of misfits. Spike is like a more-stoned version of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, and Dave wouldn’t be out of place in a “Carry On” movie.

For me, I found the narration by David Winter was a little flat. I get that the characters are all stoners or losers to some degree, but some of them just sounded brain dead. A little more variety in tone or a change of energy could have lifted the performance, especially in the more chaotic moments. The production quality, however, was excellent, with no noticeable background noises or repeated lines.

Overall, this was my kind of zombie novel. I enjoy absurd situations that escalate in ridiculousness, and I’m a fan of humorous end-of-the-world stories. It’s crass, unapologetically politically incorrect, but a fun, silly zombie romp that was an easy listen for me.

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