A Few Rapid-Fire Reviews

As mentioned, there are several podcast novels we have started and abandoned for various reasons. Losing our interest, or trying our patients, is worthy of report as it may help the reader decide on a book and it may help the writer improve. Formal scores cannot be given as the review is not a complete one.

1. The Crypt Book 01: The Crew by Scott Sigler. We made it most of the way though two episodes before tuning out. If you like Mr Sigler's style and his stories, this will most likely please you. Apparently we do not fancy his wares, as this is the third book of his we did not get very far in before aborting. We find his story telling jarring and his writing style rough and pedestrian. He is certainly able to turn out a vivid scene, full of action. His analogies are colorful, to a fault. We hear the podcast as if we were very drunk, melting over our bar-stool, and Mr. Sigler turned to us and said loudly, "Hey, pal, have you heard the one about the cursed spaceship?" The story at its core is hard to empathize with. This spaceship named The Crypt is of an alien design and is so haunted or possessed (or something equally inconveinient) that only the worst crew-members are sent there as punishment. To be transferred to The Crypt is a death-sentence. Oh my. So members of the Armed Forces so bad that they should die are not tossed out of the service but transfered, and a ship on which all the crew members die is kept in service. Oh my. That's not a promising start. Suspend disbelief, yes. Defy belief, no. In any case, as arguably PB.com's most successful author, our review is of little consequence and should have little effect. We'll simply call it a heads-up to the true neophyte.

2. The Confederacy of Heaven by Margaret R. Taylor. This is a brand new offering from a PB.com newbie. We made it most of the way though the first episode before losing interest. Ms. Taylor's narration is okay, if uninspired, and the recording is descent enough. What lost us was the story itself. It is very basic, full of cliched scenes and settings, and the beginning did not suggest anything to make us think things were likely to improve any time soon. Plucky primitives defend themselves against flying beasts with arrows. The 100 or so villagers are devastated to learn their barrel of water was knocked over, since it was to last the winter. A barrel of water was to last a hundred people more than a few days? The reluctant young warrior we follow is an unwed girl, as single people are warriors, but then aren't when they are married. Huh? Primitive societies in the past were not likely to have survived if able-bodied adults were not warriors and little barley trained girls were the go-to guys. Sorry, not enough meat on the bones of this story to hold our attention.

3. Peace Lord of the Red Planet by Steven H. Wilson. Didn't quite do it for us either. Another new offering, the premise was shaky, which is not, in and of itself, a problem, only an issue, but it ultimately crippled the tale. An annoyingly holier-than-thou doctor is hanged and turns up on a weird planet where men and women are warring against each other. He blinders his way from one side to the other side, befriends a young man who blindly follows him, and he insults almost everybody. What really did us in was that the protagonist whined and whined and whined. We can observe this behavior each and every day at work, why would we wish it to invade our quiet-time too? He exploded in righteous indignation at the boy for the alien's expectation that the ceremonially-demanded man-on-man sex act be performed. Come on, the boy's culture demanded it, how is it possible to be so insensitive, Mr Protagonist? Well, you could be if you were a poorly crafted lead in a story which an avid reader lost interest in quickly. Oh wait, you are, and we did. Nuf said.