Mike Bergonzi from Audio Drama Reviews

Audio Drama Reviews: The Sandman

Revisado: 06-01-22

The first audio dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is a comic book come alive in a way that combines Graphic Audio’s comic book adaptations with CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover story, loosely based on the 1980s comic book storyline of the same name by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

Where the television network took the easter egg and fan service approach to the extreme and turned off some people, Gaiman and Maggs’ original story about Morpheus and the other Endless is told as a more down-to-earth story. There’s no extinction-level crisis here, except for the one the character of Dream/Morpheus finds himself in at the beginning of the story.

The story starts out in gothic horror territory, a staple of Gaiman’s career. Maggs does a remarkable job of encapsulating the tone with the sound effects, and the musical score by James Hannigan is reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s iconic Batman (1989) theme, though different and not as iconic

Gaiman’s warm storyteller voice narrating the caption boxes of the comic book might feel out of place in the beginning but it's what keeps the story from getting too dark. The juxtaposition of his voice in the chapter “24 Hours” is sadistic in the best possible way. You feel anguish at the events as they play out in your ears and wince whenever Gaiman gives you the time one hour at a time. The delivery and cadence of the two-word lines are so visceral that you feel sweaty and gross for listening to what comes after.

James McAvoy is an interesting choice to play the Dream Lord, not because he’s bad or not a good fit. This is unlike any role he’s done and if it wasn’t for the accompanying PDF with cast and crew information, I would’ve never known he was the voice. If you’ve seen M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” where McAvoy played several different characters in his role as someone suffering from a disassociative identity disorder. I haven’t seen it but his voiceover work as Sandman in this audible original production seems to be the audio equivalent of such a taxing performance.

Other recognizable actors include Andy Serkis and Arthur Darvill, and two well-known audiobook narrators — Simon Vance and Ray Porter. To say Audible is mixing the entertainment industry together in an unprecedented way might be hyperbole, but there’s an element of truth to it.

4.5/5 Stars

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Audio Drama Reviews: The Empire Strikes Back

Revisado: 12-23-16

Yes, this is a review of the Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back radio drama. No, the title isn't a goof. When originally aired on NPR all those years ago, the second Star Wars radio drama was released episodically. There were 10 episodes in all. In fact Star Wars IV: A New Hope was always released the same way.

The first half of this adaptation of Episode V goes up to the the point where Luke reaches Dagobah system—where Jedi Master Yoda lives. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you know what happens in this story, so I won't bore you with a plot synopsis. Just know that by episode 5, we still haven't been introduced to Yoda.

This was an interesting experience, because I watched the film version at the same time when I was listening to the radio drama. Well, within a few hours of each other. This made me realize how much this radio drama matches the film in terms of the dialogue. Almost every single line from the movie is used in the radio drama. This might be a good thing, but one of the parts I liked most about "A New Hope" was the fact that it added scenes not in the original movie. Empire Strikes Back starts off similar, but the scenes in the radio drama feel like deleted ones found on a special features disc. In Episode IV it adds depth to the characters.

If there's one thing I noticed when listening vs. watching The Empire Strikes Back, it's how much of Han Solo's rogue nature and pigheadedness is exemplified in the radio drama than in the films. Harrison Ford does a great job, but watching the films a long time in a galaxy far, far away he never acted as despicable as the actor playing him in the radio drama. It wasn't bad, simply different but his character was what stood out the most. Even if some of the lines were the same, the way this actor delivered them was creepy. Like Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler kind of creepy. Han is a bit of an asshole, but there was charm to his character.

Moving past Han Solo's ego, Luke begins his training under Yoda. The furry green Jedi master is played by a different actor, but there are still remnants of the original voice. At times it was odd listening to a different interpretation of the voice. Even more so than Darth Vader, whose voice took a while to get used to in A New Hope. I mean let's face it, James Earl Jones is the voice of the iconic star wars villain. However that does not mean someone else can't do their own interpretation of the character. It will just be a harder obstacle to overcome for a good portion of the population. By this adaptation I was already sold on this acting interpretation of Darth Vader. To be more specific, it happened in A New Hope.

Perhaps one the most memorable moments in cinema history is when Darth Vader tells Luke that he is his father. That revelation paved the way for sites like TVtropes.com to exist. It's become a cliche, sure, but back then it was a WTF moment of epic proportions. Of course at this point we already know the revelation is coming. It's sort of like the Sixth Sense in that once you know the ending it's hard watch the movie without that reveal in mind, acting as a sort of one trick pony.

All in all Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a fun ride with little deviation from the movie. In fact 98% of it was taken straight from the screenplay it seemed.

4.5/5 Stars

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Audio Drama Reviews: Blood Ties...

Revisado: 12-04-15

Book one of the Magnolia series is a thrill ride that doesn’t know how to sit still. The story changes focus throughout and does so at points where the story begins to drag. This makes interest in the text a foregone conclusion. It never decreases.

As for the characters, there are two main ones. The protagonist and her mother. All the other characters are side. You could make the argument that the male viewpoint of one of the subplots is a main character, but how that particular thing wrapped up felt more like a sidequest than an integral part of the plot.

The protagonist–Karina Summers–is a character with the same internal conflict Katniss Everdeen has in the Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 1. The general consensus is that if she’s supposed to be a strong female lead, why is she pining over someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, logically.

Thankfully once the inevitable sex scene happens between her and the younger man Beau, the story takes a turn for the better. The plot points from the different viewpoints begin to weave themselves together. But by the end, all the tension is gone and you’re waiting for the book to end.

All in all, the story starts off strong, loses some steam in the middle, and any hope of an awesome climax is gone after Karina and her mother find out who’s behind everything.

The narrator does a fantastic job of keeping interest in the story, even if the content itself is borderline predictable. For that I’d give this a perfect score, but you don’t see a movie based on a reviewers opinion of the special effects.

4/5 Stars

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Audio Drama Reviews: Jump at the Sun

Revisado: 03-17-15

A dramatic presentation of African American writer, folklorist and anthropologist — Zora Neale Hurston. It’s hard to determine how much of the story is true and how much is fiction, but the suspension of disbelief was never lost.

Throughout this production I was on the edge of my seat, in part because the struggles Zora went through were things most writers —aspiring or not — fear might happen to them. Even if you’re not a writer, the anguish she goes through is so universal that you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Even if you don’t understand why, the amount of hardship she endures is worthy of a “stand up and cheer” moment.

The actress who played Zora was phenomenal. Her performance alone was enough to give this a perfect rating. And the story itself was just icing on the cake. The audio drama is not without its faults, but they’re easily forgotten and on the level of nitpicking that they don’t bear mentioning.

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Audio Drama Reviews: Steelheart

Revisado: 03-14-15

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson's first venture into the YA market (The Alcatraz series is middle grade, from what I hear) tackles this issue of absolute power corrupts absolutely into a revenge story that is both surprising and inevitable.

Readers of any age will find the David's bad metaphors a riot. It blends non-sensical humor found in younger children's books with the literary styles of a high school English teacher doing a lesson on poetry and focusing on the differences between metaphors and similes. Set in our world, the government considers super powered beings natural disasters. These Epics (humans with super powers) have taken over the United States and unleashed an era of dystopia upon the country. The main plot the book presents is defeating a villain known as Steelheart, who is the most powerful Epic in the former Chicago area. Much like Mistborn: The Final Empire, the story revolves around a group of rebels known as the Reckoners as they try to kill Epics across the nation. Steelheart is going to be their toughest challenge. Luckily Dave has spent most of his life thinking about revenge and how to defeat the Epic who killed his father.

When the third act comes, it hits you. Hard. The battle between the reckoners and Steelheart is both epic and at the same time "down to earth." With all the revelations happening by the end of the second and third acts, a sequel was inevitable. Sanderson achieves complexity with both his characters and his resolutions, making Steelheart a hybrid of YA and adult, and excellent read or listen all around.

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Audio Drama Reviews: The Beam - Season One

Revisado: 02-02-15

The first season of “The Beam” posits a future that isn’t too far fetched. The narrators do a fantastic job creating three-dimesional characters which jump off the page, and the technology created is both cool and scary at the same time.

At the heart of the story, “The Beam” is a cautionary tale about humanities tendency to overuse technology. One thing to keep in mind is that it isn’t your typical cyberpunk genre trope where all technology is evil. Rather it adds depth to the trope, making it part of the world rather than a construct of it. In fact most of the people in the story have become Beam addicts, as it were.

The Beam is basically the internet steroids. If there was one complaint to give, it would be that The Beam is too powerful, acting as a “get out of jail free” card for when characters find themselves in difficult situations, instead of serving the story. It doesn’t quite reach deus ex machina territory, but there were more than a few times where the convenience of the beam did not go unnoticed.

Perhaps the strongest selling point is how much thought and creativity went into building this world; especially the politics, which take something as familiar as the democratic and republican parties and extrapolate it to a point that is cynical, but believable.

Despite the one complaint mentioned above, this story is really worth checking out. Especially for one of its endings and the political intrigue of the season. Keep in mind, this is a serialized story, which means a cliffhanger is inevitable. That being said, the story does have a moment of closure for one of the storylines. It’s that the new information revealed near the end makes you want to pick up season 2, rather than forces you with cheap gimmicks.

4.5/5 Stars

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Audio Drama Reviews: Star Wars IV

Revisado: 06-08-14

Star Wars Radio Drama. Need I say more? Perhaps one of the greatest science fiction movies of the twentieth century, Star Wars has captured the hearts of millions and lost a few of them along the way as the series went back in time. Of course I’m talking about the prequels, but that’s not the purpose of this review.

This adaptation of Star Wars IV: A New Hope was released on NPR back in 1981. Many others, have been fortunate to get it on audible.com, years after its original broadcast. Those expecting the movie but in audio form, will be presently surprised.

The runtime of the audio drama is 5+ hours and the the movie is less than 3. That means there’s at least 2 hours of extra story that adds more dimensions to the characters. We spend more time on Tatooine in the beginning, getting to know Luke as more than just a whiny farm boy. Or, at least, he has a bigger motivation for wanting to leave the planet than originally portrayed in the movie.

The acting done by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Anthony Daniels is top quality. However, most of the cast from the first film do not make an appearance. That being said, the only actor who felt out of place was the person playing Darth Vader. Even so, near the end I came to accept the voice.

If there was one flaw early on that drove me up the wall it would be the unnatural timing of Darth Vader’s respirator. It went on and off constantly without any rhyme or reason. Thankfully it became background noise after a while, but when first introduced to one of the greatest villains in history, it came off as a grown man with breathing issues.

Fans of Star Wars and audio drama will be sure to get their money’s worth

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Audio Drama Reviews: Ender's Game Alive

Revisado: 06-08-14

Ender’s Game Alive has a wonderful cast, powerful sound effects, and a story that has stood the test of time. Just like the novel changed science fiction, this adaptation does the same for audio drama. It says “this isn’t a worn out medium and here’s proof.” This version was my first experience of the story, having never read the book, and I enjoyed the story.

The opening scene was hard to get through because of the dialogue that was written on the page and I’ve heard the same complaint from people who’ve read the book that the opening was hard to get through. From what I understand, the book starts off with dialogue with no context. It’s essentially two people talking in a white room. Audio Dramas use dialogue all the time as do movies. It’s kind of their thing. I wasn’t sure of the first scenes purpose other than to inform the reader that in this society, having a third child is illegal and how Ender was allowed to be born, despite that law.

The ending felt a bit rushed, at least in the way it was presented, but I can see how it could’ve worked well in a book. The big twist ending was foreshadowed a few scenes before the reveal actually happened and the foreshadowing was like a hit to the head with a hammer. There wasn’t enough time to collect and process the information.

Having watched the movie, I have to say I like this interpretation of Colonel Graff better than Harrison’s Ford’s portrayal. In the movie, he didn’t have a lot of depth. In Ender’s Game Alive, you understand his motivation much more clearly. Those scenes with him and the psychologist were some of the more interesting bits of the story. I felt like Graff cared for Ender like his own son. The entire cast did a great job. Even though these characters were supposed to be kids, I was never knocked out of the story—even in the beginning.

Overall this production is fantastic and there was never a dull moment where I wanted to turn it off. It was more like I had to do it.

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Audio Drama Reviews: We're Alive Season 1

Revisado: 09-01-13

Let me say that I’m not a fan of zombie-anything. I feel that this sub genre of post apocalyptic stories is overdone and there are only a handful of good ones out there. “We’re Alive” is one of the great ones

The story starts off pretty basic for a zombie story. The dead have risen and are reeking havoc. It’s only until we are introduced to two of my favorite characters: Saul and Michael that the story becomes interesting. That’s within the first couple episodes as well. I enjoy Saul, because he is just a good person. I like Michael because he’s smart. Screw it, all the characters are awesome, and that’s what makes a good zombie story (or any story for that matter). In a good zombie apocalypse story, the drama comes from the characters. The subtitle of the series: “A Story of Survival” is aptly named, because the zombies are just a backdrop. They may become important later, but as of the season 1 finale, I could really care less about the fact that there are zombies.

Most of the characters are likable, but they are by no means perfect. An excellent example is Michael. He serves as a sort of mentor figure for the people of the apartment complex. However, he also yells at people for a simple mistake. Granted any mistake could cost people their lives in such a scenario, but the way the actor played the character made it sound like the person who caused the accident did it on purpose. For me personally I hate people who do that. On the other hand, Michael is one of my favorite characters. His character flaw is what makes him more rounded and realistic as a person.

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