LINES OF DEPARTURE by Marko Kloos

Narrated by Luke Daniels

…..Top Notch Performance by Daniels

Things are looking increasingly bleak for mankind and Andrew Grayson in this sequel to TERMS OF ENLISTMENT. Marcos Kloos is attempting to give us a space opera with a sense of authenticity—no mean feat for a work of Science Fiction set largely in outer space. As a result this book series has a lot of military attention to detail. It also has a lot of military personnel. Their gung-ho lingo and gruff matter-of-fact banter are the highlights of this series. This book is every bit as good as the first, and is a fine example of a tightly plotted story. I will leave you to discover the story for yourselves.

Luke Daniels gives a top level performance. He places a tremendous amount of emotion into his performance. I greatly enjoyed his effort in bringing every dialog scene to life. This is a kind of one man show where the actor plays all the parts. The amazing thing is that oftentimes it seems like a cast of voice actors are on stage—but no—Luke Daniels does them all himself. His portrayal of the female characters is particularly good to my ear. Somehow he manages to mimic the female vocal cords with a superb sense of pacing and inflection and manages to avoid the all too common sense I get from some other narrators of a two-hundred pound man in drag imitating a woman’s voice in falsetto. When this book came out I went back and listened to the first book again not only to refresh my memory of the story but to relive Luke Daniels’ performance. If all narrators were as competent as Daniels we would have a an explosion of new audiobook listeners who, after listening to just their first audiobook, would be instantly convinced of the beauty of the medium. 

TECH WORLD: Undying Mercenaries, Book 3 by B.V. Larson

Narrated by Mark Boyett

…..James McGill is a Weapon with a Conscience

Another fun installment in the continuing misadventures of James McGill and Legion Varis. This time they start the mission thinking they were on a milk run; of course things turn out to be not so simple. McGill is again faced with a situation that could get him killed permanently (permed in the jargon of the book). And again McGill responds with insubordination compelled with some sense of baseless morality to do the right thing. Larson has created an enduring character in James McGill that keeps getting more and more interesting with every new book. I like the dynamics of the Legion Varis chain of command. I like the space opera scenario of the series, with the technologically vastly superior Galactics making the rules. I like the way Mankind always finds a way to live within the system, but untamed enough that they are not afraid to bend the rules. You just can’t keep those spunky humans on a short leash. Most of all I like straight-shooter McGill always leading with his heart and too compulsive to reign in his tongue. This continues to be an interesting and entertaining series.

Mark Boyett is excellent in his portrayal of the different characters in the book. He handles both male and female voices with deft adroitness. He has a great sense of the sarcastic, a quality I much appreciate in a narrator. 

REAMDE by Neal Stevenson

Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

…..Paradox of Pot-Boiler and Character Study

What begins as a geek hacker-gamer mystery quickly escalates into a full blown spy thriller with Russian Mobsters, rich (though far from helpless) damsels in distress, and British-born Jihadists. The book is full of great characters and exciting situations. I have enjoyed several other Neal Stephenson novels very much including the farcical and fun Snow Crash  the massive Cryptonomicon and his multi-volume exploration of the dawn of the scientific age: The Baroque Cycle. This here is a whole different type of story. REAMDE is akin to a patriotic thriller novel but twice as long and three times more convoluted. The similarity between them all is in the quality of the writing—all are engaging and nicely done. I continue to be impressed, paradoxically, with the variety and consistency of the work of Neal Stephenson.

After a brief period I quickly became accustomed to Malcolm Hillgartner as the voice of REAMDE. He provides great pacing and emotes his various characterization with style and aplomb. Occasionally his characterizations are worthy of a rewind just to hear him turn a phrase in a marvelous accent. Sometimes he fades into the background and the story seems to be emanating directly from your brain. Always he delivers the text better that I could have read it silently to myself.