Dave Hemke

Juvenile 1950s feeling action x Lovecraft

Revisado: 01-06-23

This isn't a bad story, per se, but I think it is a niche read or listen. It very much feels like something that would be at home in an anthology of 1950s Weird Tales stories.

More effort is put into naming whatever fictional future weapon is being used, than character development or anything else.

Is a T70 assault rifle the right tool for the job? What about an A1000 rocket launcher? Who knows? Does anyone care?

Action. Action. Action.

Every couple minutes is a blow by blow description of a life or death battle against an indescribable horror, that the author makes the mistake of describing in a a way and level of detail that Lovecraft never would.

If you had a time machine, I imagine your 1954 junior boy scout troop would absolutely love this.

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The literary equivalent to an Olivia Rodrigo song

Revisado: 02-12-22

It is an enjoyable listen, but afterwards you might wonder if there weren't better ways to have spent your time.

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Great story - horrible performance

Revisado: 06-30-21

This was a great 'inspired by real life' story that touches on a number of the many problems connected to slick business men obsessed with shaking every last dollar out of youth sports.

The story was so good that I was willing to endure the amateur-sounding audio performance which suffers from objectively poor recording quality, numerous technical glitches, sudden and jarring volume changes, and a subjectively grating Northeastern accent.

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Tale of Two Parts

Revisado: 04-01-17

Great start, slow disappointing finish. Maybe that was intentional, to mirror the rise and decline of Mr. Peace.

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Good intro to Norse Myth suitable for children

Revisado: 03-22-17

All the stories you remember, told with a decent amount of characterization. There is nothing really new here, just vanilla tales of Norse Myth. My 7 year old daughter loved it.

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Great reader can't save bad prose

Revisado: 11-10-14

Duke Fontaine does a great job - bringing every character to life and providing enough vocal distinction between characters that I was never at a loss of who was speaking or acting.

The prose, itself, however, is quite bad.

The first thing that will strike the reader/listener, is that there are no common nouns to be found, everything is a proper noun. It is never a backpack, it is instead a reinforced and customized Maxpedition Devil Dog in black canvas; it isn't a pistol or even a 9mm, but rather a chrome Taurus PT92. This was annoyingly compounded by the author feeling compelled to constantly re-catalog the items the main character was carrying. I fully expect that the physical copy comes with a catalog insert to allow the reader to effortlessly purchase the gear featured in the story from Cabelas (also mentioned by name several times).

The story itself is an almost embarrassing adolescent male violent fantasy. The main character is required to kill one dimensional "bad guys" at every turn, and does so with the ease of a psychopath.

The author seems to realize how ridiculous his own writing is, because at times he practically has the main character break the 4th wall and state what the reader is probably thinking whether its the amount of magical gear being carried by the every ready hero, how quickly the thin veneer of civilization melts away from everyone, the string of fortuitous events that deliver our hero from harm and risk, etc...

Even so, it was somewhat bearable as a guilty, pulp-trash fantasy, on par with Golden Age Sci-Fi cowboys in space, until the "big reveal."

I won't spoil it, you'll know when you get there, and if you can stick with it past that point, you are a more indulgent person than I.

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Soul wrenching sojourn through evil

Revisado: 05-28-12

What did you love best about Escape from Camp 14?

It is hard to "love" anything in such a dark book. I felt compelled to finish it - I couldn't bear not to learn what had become of the subject, but there was no joy to be found. Even the glimmer of hope at the end of the story does little to assuage fears that the subject is a deeply broken person who can never be made whole.

Most depressing is the fact that this is real and happening today. There are some very dark places left in this world where the light of liberal democracy and the Western enlightenment don't even cast a shadow.

What other book might you compare Escape from Camp 14 to and why?

Night - although it lacks the deep visceral punch that this book carries.

What didn’t you like about Blaine Harden’s performance?

Recording was very uneven, with noticeable points where a second take was interjected over the first. There was no attempt to normalize the volume across the recording, so the narrator will sound as though he is emphasising certain lines for absolutely no reason.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely.

Any additional comments?

I would make this required reading for highschool students (replace the tired Catcher in the Rye or some such). It is a necessary reminder of the true evil man is capable of, and the dangers of a monolithic, powerful state.

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