Mish Medhat
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Jungle Green
- The Balcom Dynasty, Book 2
- De: Richard Dee
- Narrado por: Stephen Bungay
- Duración: 7 h y 53 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 4
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 4
One tablet a day, it’s supposed to keep you alive. But it might just kill you. TC is the wonder drug. Manufactured in secrecy on a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy. It makes worlds inhabitable; and Balcom Industrial lots of money. Suddenly, the people who need to take it to stay alive start to die! For Layla Balcom, the news is devastating. She’s just resumed her rightful place as head of Balcom. This problem threatens to spoil her moment of triumph. Can the drug be flawed? Or is something else going on?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unswitchoffable, thrilling entertainment
- De Mish Medhat en 05-04-21
- Jungle Green
- The Balcom Dynasty, Book 2
- De: Richard Dee
- Narrado por: Stephen Bungay
Unswitchoffable, thrilling entertainment
Revisado: 05-04-21
I heard a sample chapter of Jungle Green at the end of the audiobook Ribbonworld, and it took me little time to buy, download and start listening. Stephen Bungay’s adaptation of Mr Richard Dee’s second book in Balcom Dynasty is brilliant, and holds the listener captive. In fact I did my chores and errands whilst listening to this book, it was that good, and I was unable to turn it off.
I really enjoyed the crime noir vibe that Mr Bungay delivers, and his rendition of a ‘now secure and settled’ Miles Goram shows in his voice. The slight underlying nervousness, dominant in Ribbonworld, reflecting the apprehension of a newly released convict under suspicion again for a crime he didn’t commit, has now completely vanished. Miles’ voice has an assured depth and richness, mirroring his new found status as the husband of Layla Balcom and Press Officer to Balcom Industries. Layla is gently voiced, with an assertive timbre and you know instantly this is a woman who has the galaxy at her feet. Layla as a character isn’t easy to capture in a vocal portrayal, hard enough for a woman narrator, doubly-difficult for a man, but Mr Bungay’s vocal ability gives this protagonist a life of her own. You forget that it’s been delivered by a male narrator, Mr Bungay’s capture of her tone and temperament is that good.
Jungle Green is quite a novel to be made into an audiobook, as it has an array of characters. Dashper in particular, the physically-impaired (he lost an arm in an explosion a few years back) General Manager of Sayshoo Pharma (a Balcom company) is voiced with a certain deference and austere authority, capturing the personality of Dashper, and getting the listener to understand him better. He’s been pitied, and that is something he despises. You can feel his sense of responsibility and the need to see things through, whatever the cost.
Marrisa, another female, is a vet on Sayshoo, and her Baysen (similar to Bison) that she husbands and cares for, play a critical part in the manufacture of Sayshoo pharma’s wonder drug TC. Her voice is crisper, younger than Layla, with a touch of angst and hurt of the damage humans do. She has the proverbial ‘chip’ on her shoulder. In a very fiery interaction Layla and Marissa go one to one in a confrontation, and it’s here that Mr Bungay’s incredible vocal skillset in narrating two different female voices, that are both assertive and powerful, comes into its own. It is quite breath-taking!
Other characters, such as DS Hugo Moritiz, part of an interconnecting storyline on the planet Trevia, are voiced with a touch of pathos. An underlying tone of regret that crimes are often swept under the carpet in favor of Trevia keeping their ‘leisure party planet’ tagline unblemished. You also hear the genuine fear of what a man like the millionaire father of the dead boy found could do to Moritiz’s career and promotion prospects if he’s rubbed up a little bit, the wrong way. A case of egg-shell walking, and Mr Bungay delivers this feeling in his narration of Moritiz’s investigations.
Jungle Green is a captivating story with a chilling subtext about counterfeit medication, and given the true impact of these underground drugs on the world, with millions dying every year, and criminals garnering billions from their pain, this is book that stays with you. Brilliant and absolutely unmissable, and I recommend this audiobook to anyone who really appreciates good listening entertainment with a factual, gripping edge!
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Ribbonworld
- The Balcom Dynasty, Book 1
- De: Richard Dee
- Narrado por: Stephen Bungay
- Duración: 7 h y 11 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 10
"Review a hotel for me," she said. "It'll be easy," she said. I haven't even got started, and there's a body in the bathroom. It was only supposed to be a hotel review. All Miles Goram wants to do is finish up and get off Reevis as quickly as he can. It's an airless planet where everyone lives under a giant dome. Not the sort of place he wants to be stuck on. The body in his bath has really fouled his plans up.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Original
- De Shanna Tidwell en 04-28-21
- Ribbonworld
- The Balcom Dynasty, Book 1
- De: Richard Dee
- Narrado por: Stephen Bungay
Absolutely nailed the crime noir vibe perfectly
Revisado: 04-20-21
I was motivated to grab a copy of Ribbonworld on Audible when I heard a sample of Chapter one. The narrator, Stephen Bungay captures the crime noir tone of the book exactly. His vocal interpretation of Miles Goram, the chief protagonist in the book is incisive, and perfectly nuanced with elements of cynicism and mystery, making Miles an easy but intriguing character that you warm to instantly. That instant connection hurls you into the life of Miles, a slightly down (he’s just got out of a jail spaceship), but no quite out, gossip columnist who needs to find out who’s killed Nic Stavriedies, a star hotelier and famous entrepreneur whom he was sent to Reevis to interview, and who ends up lying dead on Miles’ bathroom floor in his hotel. And so begins the adventure on Reevis – the Ribbonworld of the title – and the many fierce and fascinating characters that Miles discovers on his journey to clear his name and uncover the real killer of the hotel owner.
Throughout Ribbonworld, Mr Bungay’s depiction of characters voices is spot-on. From the strange police duo Flanagan and Chumna, with Flanagan’s gentle Irish lilt, soothing possible offenders into a false sense of security to Chumna’s brash, uncompromising timbre that clearly shouts ‘I don’t suffer fools gladly’, the vocal expertise of Mr Bungay in his adaption of Ribbonworld shines through.
I particularly enjoyed the audible realization of Tash Perdue – the practical, intelligent planetary explorer and Donna Markes, the conniving PA of head of the Balcom dynasty - Igor Balcom himself. In audiobooks, a male voice undertaking a female one can sometimes not quite work, but Mr Bungay’s skill in this area is heard, and the listener quickly feels the words being said come alive by the female characters, and are audibly transported into each scene.
Ribbonworld is a story set far into the future on a distant planet, but such is the power of Mr Dee’s writing, his amazing worldbuilding and the grounded scientific foundations that this story is built on, that you feel this is a world that’s close by, indeed, it could be a shuttle hop away. The story itself is beautifully woven whodunnit with a flavor of an industrial espionage and conspiratorial activities. It holds the listener gripped, waiting on the next chapter. I really recommend this audiobook to anyone who wants to escape and immerse themselves in Dashiell Hammett-style story in space!
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