SWORDS OF EXODUS: DEAD SIX, BOOK 2 by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari

Narrated by Bronson Pinchot

Valentine and Lorenzo Battle at the Crossroads

Listening to this book is like having a virtual reality action movie playing in your head. I don’t know if the authors and the narrator worked in conjunction while planning this book, but the result is the same — Correia and Kupari write and Pinchot reads and the bullets fly right in front of your eyes.

If you desire a straight reading without an invasive narrator placing his own character impressions on the story then listening to this book is not going to go well for you. But if you are seeking for a completely over-the-top dramatic performance, with wild, even melodramatic, character accents; clearly distinct character voicings so distinct that every speaker is immediately identified; and a word tempo that varies with the intensity of the action, then your search is over.

Pinchot is one of the very best of the performing narrators. In less capable hands, (say that of a strict book “reader”) this might have become an interminable recitation of descriptions of the arcing of tracer bullets over fields of snow, but with Pinchot’s vocal cords included in the mix this becomes more than a thriller novel.

I believe that such dramatically performed audiobook productions classify as a entirely different genre, a different art-form, if you will. You can read a book and imagine all these scenes in your head while your eyes are focused on the words on the page. You can watch a movie and see the cinematographer’s interpretation of the story while your eyes are affixed to the silver screen. But with a dramatic audiobook rendition of a great story, you can visualize the story playing out in your mind while your eyes continue to see the world around you. This book encourages your mind to engage in feats of mental multitasking that is unique to audiobooks. What to call this new genre; this new form of art? How about “Second Sight?” For that encompasses what such a work does to the aficionado: allows you to walk around, or drive, of cook, while the story is playing out before you only in your mind’s eye.