UNBROKEN By Laura Hildenbrand

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

By Laura Hildenbrand

Read by Edward Herrmann

This account of the life of Lois Zamparini and his WWII exploits. It takes him from a misspent youth to his stint as a bombardier in a B24, his plane crash and months long ordeal as a castaway on a raft. This is followed by an even more trying term as a Japanese war prisoner. After the war he found alcohol then he found God and the ability to forgive his tormentors. This true tale is told in a stilting matter of fact style but after several hours of listening the sheer enormity of this man’s trials brings him to life.

Edward Herrmann, the actor, is a fine reader and is well suited to the material.

The Millennium Trilogy 3, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST

The Millennium Trilogy 3, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST.

By Steig Larsson, narrated by Simon Vance.

The Girl Who Learns to Trust

In this third episode the all the plot lines get tied up and all the characters get closure on everything. This is a continuation of the second book, and here Salander gets much less screen time than the other two books. I found this book to be the most satisfying of the lot. The first, necessarily, spent a lot of time developing the characters. In the second the deepening story of the conspiracy surrounding Salander’s family is exposed and now in the third the whole dastardly plot is exposed and dealt with. It is very much a police procedural novel. We see each of the characters doing their thing, unbeknownst to the others until the climax when the different story lines are tied together. The strong points of THE MILENNIUM TRILOGY are the realistically portrayed characters and the intricate back-story that drives their actions. None of the characters ever rise to the level of people that I think I would like but they all seem to be real in some way.

Simon Vance again gives a great reading. I noticed for the first time that when he speaks in Salander’s voice he gives her a bit of an Irish brogue. 

The Millennium Trilogy 2, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE

The Millennium Trilogy 2, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE.

By Steig Larsson, narrated by Simon Vance.

Mikael Blomqvist Repays His Debt.

This is a sequel but since the characters are already well developed the story proceeds a a more rapid pace than the first book. The central mystery is intricately woven in and around Lisbeth Salander’s life although she is still not the character. That honor is reserved for Mikael Blomqvist, a reporter for Millennium magazine. This is not typical who-dunnit. In this book the chief crimes that must be solved are perpetrated during the course of the story. This is a more involving story than the first.

Somin Vance again gives a journeyman performance. He is consistently even. His reading is excellent. He adds a good amount of drama and inflection to his reading that brings life to the story. He manages to assign a voice to nearly every character, although he seems to have only a limited number of different voices to draw upon and some of them get recycled. 

The Millennium Trilogy 1, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

The Millennium Trilogy 1, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

By Steig Larsson, narrated by Simon Vance.

Armageddon Was Yesterday. Today We Have a Serious Problem

This book, originally written in Swedish, gives a different slant on the mystery novel. A lot of time is spent developing the characters and unveiling the story. The main characters do not get underway until about a third of the way through. These are not criticisms, but illustrate some of the distinctions of this book. Because of the gradual development in the early stages the characters are given time to be well developed. One wonders how much this translation into English differs from the original Swedish? There are many American idioms used that must be quite firrerent in Swedish. I would have preferred the translator to have tried to preserve the European quality of the scene, but even with those concerns this is an engaging story with believable characters. The title character is not the main subject of the story nut her personality quirks do tend to stand out from the crowd whenever she is in a scene.

There are three European movies made from this trilogy and one American version of this first book. I am holding off on viewing them until I have listened to all three.

Simon Vance is quite good as the narrator for this book. He has a rapid delivery and excellent diction. The only fault is that he sometimes does not plan ahead and will occasionally begin a conversation with the wrong character’s voice. But he gives excellent accents, although everyone sounds British, which is just as well since giving everyone a Swedish accent would soon become a farce.  

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

Read by Grover Gardner.

Behind the Scenes Story of Megalomania

This book had been sitting on my bookcase for thirty years. It had always intimidated me, whether it was the nearly three inches it covered on the shelf or the prominent swastika on the spine, I never had the spine to read it. Now that I have finally adopted the technology to listen to it, plugging in my ear-buds seemed to be an easy was to cover this material. I found the first part of the narrative, The Rise, to be very informative. Having read or listened to many WWII books I was familiar with the general series of events surrounding Hitler’s rise to power, but Shirer’s account made it all make sense to me. I can now relate with some sense of confidence the importance of the Beer Hall Putsch. I had always though of it as some sort of comedic blunder but now I realize it to be the pivotal event propelling Hitler into the National Socialist he would become. This behind the scenes information is the best feature of the book. What I did not get from this book is the overall sense of the progress of the war. Shirer is focused solely on the machinations of the Nazi Party and the megalomania of Adolph Hiler. The amount of narrative space given to the attempts on Hitler’s life, including the famous Valkyrie plot, is enormous considered against the backdrop of the Third Reich. This account does give one a sense that Hitler was a figure of destiny and nothing was to deter him from accomplishing his nefarious goals. I enjoyed this narrative history very much, the lacuna concerning the balance of the goings on of the was have rekindled my interest so that I will certainly seek out more WWII history.

Grover Gardner is for me an acquired taste. His high-pitched nasally voice grates on my ears. But over the course of the first few hours I came to enjoy his perfect pronunciation and steady pacing. He became the voice in my head for William L. Shirer; he became transparent. Perhaps it is good to have a monotonous reader for works of history thus allowing the direct transmission of the words on the page to the brain. I found Gardner’s lack of intonation to be an obstacle to be overcome. That it can be overcome is a testimony to the dynamic force of the narrative. 

THREE DAYS TO NEVER by Tim Powers.

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers.

This is the fifth Tim Powers novel for me and it was the first one to disappoint. I had anticipated at least a thematic sequel to DECLARE when I learned that supernatural spies were involved. What is delivered here is nothing like the ingenious and deeply creepy novel that precedes it but rather a hodgepodge is various supernatural elements thrown together. This book includes time travel, astral travel, doppelgangers, harmonic convergence and several other supernatural elements, but they do not harmonize. I never managed to care about any of the characters. I always expect intricate and ingenious plotting in a Tim Powers novel, there is none of that here. The story just trudges along until the end, and mercifully it does end. Not recommended.