What's The Blog About, Alfie?

We are avid fans of literature, good literature. We prefer great writing, we'll settle for very good work, but we cannot abide anything less. We will stop reading a book if the author demonstrates mediocrity, writes incompetently, or, worse yet, simply loses our interest. That said, we will always give you our honest opinions about the books we've listened to on Podiobooks.com. We'll tell you why the great ones are great, and why the forgettable ones should be avoided.

We hope, when we've reviewed enough, you will come to this blog to see if a particular book is worthy of your time. We plan to be frank. You have come here to elicit our opinion and we shall not disappoint. Additionally, we hope this blog becomes a resource for PB.com authors to read honest and objective reviews of their efforts; no smoke blown-up the butt at any time. We have observed over time that reviews left on an author's site or iTunes are basically of two types. The first is the pie-eyed-hyperbolic-praise version of a review by a real fan. While excellent for the ego of said author, this form of assessment aids neither the potential listener nor the writer's development. The second type is the snarky-hit-and-run-slap-in-the-face negative review which may contain the kernel of an insight, but is actually significantly less valuable than the first type. Ours will be decidedly neither polar extreme. We will be as fair and complete as possible. An unavoidable off-shoot, indeed a desirable off-shoot, the clever reader will quickly appreciate is that we will undoubtably be squewering a few sacred-cows. If that happens, please keep in mind the fable of The Emporer's New Clothes and the fact that we would not review them in a less-than-stellar manner if they did not deserve it.

Our reviews are not placed on PB.com, iTunes, or any other public site. We do not wish to embarrass or ridicule any particular authors. Many of the authors are our friends, or at least were up till they read our review. We dearly appreciate that each PB.com author has poured their creative guts out for all to see with very little chance of monetary reward. This is not easy. We will not generally say anything but positives on public sites as we, in our alter ego, want the authors, even the poor ones, to have their moment in the bright-shiny sun. At the very least we want them to be happy little fish in their little ponds.

Finally a term defined, a dreaded term, one you wish never to see, one which strikes despair in the heart of any author - WSRH. This is short for "We Stopped Reading Here". Background. Our less than sainted father was a college English professor. When grading essays and term papers, especially freshman courses, we observed him many a cruel time to slash across the page with his red pen. Just below the horrific line, he would write, "I stopped reading here... F." Clearly, papa was a professor, not an editor, so he was an I while we are, well, a we. Hence, ISRH transforms into WSRH. However you begin it, it is not a good thing. Avoid writing something which earns WSRH, you will not be happy with yourself.

Your comments on our comments are most welcome. You may be as frank as we are. Contrary opinions, supported by rational argument not finger-wagging, will help the prospective PB.com readers find the books which are right for them. Bottom line: our comments plus your comments, along with author rebuttals, will in the end benefit us all, and help PB.com listeners choose wisely.

Based on the success of this blog, we have started a Forum where you can share your insights and reviews. The more information and discussion, the better informed we will all be.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

More WSRH's - Pity

Very briefly, a couple of WSRH's which earn the label, unfortunately.  Neither is by any means bad, but equally, neirther is good.

STORM OVER WARLOCK:  This is a reading of an old Andre Norton scifi effort.  The story is just too dated to fly in this day-and-age.  The production is fine, it is just the story itself that will leave you yawning.

Heritage and Empire by Tom R Baynham:  We listened to the first episode and a half.  Nothing interesting happened.  There were characters and some were developed in some detail.  The details sounded uninteresting and the uninteresting aspects of the characters were really expanded upon.  We learned a lot about a protagonist soldier who promised to be uninteresting.  The emerging plot line promised to be uninteresting.  We lost interest - WSRH.

The Little Dragons byRowan Starsmith: We made it through one and a half episodes.  We were on the edges of our seat, riveted, seriously transfixed.  We were, it turns out, waiting for something to happen.  It did not.  Writing is such a perverse medium.  Good writing goes unnoticed, and bland writing sells like warm sweet pancakes.  There was in TLD's the standard wise-old woman, the cheese and bread, the search for old knowledge, healers, dragons, and magic herbs, and Frodo, and a magic ring, and Gandolf the wizard, and this evil spider... wait, no, we're mixing up the tired old stock elements.  We hate to, and wish it were never necessary to, lambaste neophytes for their efforts.  They worked hard, invested a lot of time, and offered-up their product for free.  That said, free is sometimes too much to pay.  The Little Dragons sure as heck sounded like a templated, stock, touchy-feely version of so many other rote stories, that we were amazed anyone still releases them

Shadowmagic II - The Prince of Hazel and Oak - It Cast A Good Spell Over Us



After somewhat of a drought of inspiring audiofiction, we are please to say: "We have a winner!" The The Prince of Hazel and Oak (TPHO) is what can only be dubbed the long-awaited sequel to the marvelous Shadowmagic [still number 9 on PB,com's ALL-Time Download list].  TPHO has all the wonder of the first installment.  We would definitely classify this one as fantasy.  Banshees, fairies, imps, wizards, and sentient trees make-up part of the cast who romp in a land of make-believe.  Good battles evil, boy chases girl, all that type of thing.  Very nice!
  Here is the author's very brief teaser:

           Podiobooks no. 1 voted podcast returns for another action and laugh packed sequel. Finally listeners can find out what happened to Conor on his return to the Real World from Tir na Nog. (He was arrested for his father’s murder.)

Join Conor (and a very confused Scranton cop) as they try to survive The Prince of Duir's chaotic return to The Land.


The Prince of Hazel and Oak is the second novel from real life magician and comedian - John Lenahan. John’s first novel, Shadowmagic, is available in paperback, epub and Kindle editions from HarperCollins UK. For more details go to www.shadowmagic.co.uk 


NARRATION: John is a professional magician and comedian, and his comfort with vocal performance really shines though.  The reading is relaxed, engaging, and character voices vary just enough and are never hammy.  Yeoman's work is ever there were on PB.com.  We will award the full 20 points here.

EDITING/TECHINICAL:  John does all the narration himself and uses, as far as we can tell, no sound effects or incidental music.  Though providing us with a simple product in this regard, there are no errors, mis-speaks, and only rarely can the ear pick-up an edit patch.  In a universe where many authors dazzle us with audio-bling, we have no problem listening to this traditional presentation.  We dole-out 18 point the John is this grouping.

ORIGINALITY OF STORY:  TPHO is a very fresh and very entertaining tale, indeed.  John draws from Arthurian-stock-and-trade in a general sense, and uses many conventional achetypes to construct his universe.  He introduces some novel elements, which is very redeeming.  The magical power of gold, natural-magic (shadow-magic), and trees with diverse personalities are nice additions.  Telling a humorous fantasy is also a different angle, and the author carries this off masterfully.  At the end of the day, he does borrow heavily from established concepts, so though this is not a bad thing, we will only dish-out 16 point to him here.

QUALITY OF WRITING:  The topic at issue in the reviews we concern our self with is writing, first and foremost.  As we have mentioned many times before, the writing prowess of PB.com contributors runs a very considerable gamut, from spell-binding to why-bother.  With this as a prelude, we would rank John's writing abilities to be above average.  We imagine he would not quibble over this assessment.  He discloses at the end of his first book that he wrote the story as a gift to his child.  Hence, it is a bed-time tale for a young listener - it is meant to be read aloud.  TPHO excels in this regard.  As a novel, as literary chops, again, it is above average, but not threatening to knock any of the giants off their perches.  The characters are fairly simply constructed, the story reasonably predictable, and the dialog occasionally weak.  The inspirational speeches before the big battle, for example, are lukewarm rather than riveting.  We offer these examples, as always, not to nit-pick, but to validate our impeccable judgements [ ; ) ].  Because we are so partial to the Shadowmagic series, we will award 15 points.

WOW FACTOR:  John does not go away empty-handed in this category - no way no how.  This is a stunningly entertaining book.  It delivers on all expectations of a quality sequel, and it is an unparalleled fairy tale.  Though you most likely cannot hear it, we are still applauding in the background.  The sparse music is joyful and contributory.  The sass and spirit in John's voice is priceless.  Plus, we cannot sign-off without giving kudos to one of John's greatest strengths.  Recalling the PB.com is a serialized medium, John is the best serialize - period.  Each episode ends just when you hope it doesn't, but never with an abrupt rushing or forced twist.  Marvelous, simply marvelous!  John gets a 20 - 20 - 20, full credit for sure!

EXTRA CREDIT:  The extra credit here is awarded because Shadowmagic is Shadowmagic.  It is among the first, it is among the best, and it is a simple pleasure to listen-to.  TPHO get 5 big ones for being so dare cute and so darn Shadowmagic.

TOTAL:  TPHO racks-up a big 94 overall rating!  It is guilt-free fun and a total kick-in-the-pants.  We cannot imagine any quality listener not loving this one.  There is, in the end, only one thing to say: Get out there and give us Shadowmagic III, Mr. Lenahan!


The link to the podcast is: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-prince-of-hazel-and-oak/

John's personal website is: http://www.johnlenahan.com/