Storm Front (Audiobook)

Title: Storm Front

Author: Jim Butcher

Read by: James Marsters

Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia (2009)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Crime

Length: 8 hours, 1 minute

Synopsis:  Harry Dresden is a wizard.  Not a magician, available for birthday parties and parlour tricks, but a wizard.  As his advertisement reads: "Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment."  But life as Chicago's only wizard is anything but straightforward.  Some consider him a charlatan, and others are terrified by the mere mention of magic.  All in all, it means that rent money is hard to come by, and Dresden often earns his keep consulting with the police department on unusual cases.  But when he's called in to solve a gruesome murder-by-magic, Dresden finds himself struggling trying to stay one step ahead of the killer.  Even worse, he's under suspicion himself!  With lives on the line, Dresden would have to risk everything to find a murderer.  How far is he willing to go?

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  I'd been meaning to get into The Dresden Files for quite some time.  A friend in college recommended them, and I promptly filed that away for future reference in a folder in my mind which was subsequently lost.  I stumbled across it again at 4:00 am whilst paging through the books on offer at Audible.com.  Without hesitation, I downloaded Storm Front and started listening, then promptly had to stop and double check that I'd heard correctly.  Yes, I had.  In a double-dose of nerdiness, this urban fantasy gem is narrated by James Marsters, known for his role as Spike on the Joss Whedon TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Even if I'd had no idea who he was, I would have enjoyed his performance.  Butcher's story comes to life in this fast-paced narrative that blends elements of classic detective stories with a modern take on fantasy.  Urban fantasy is a particular favorite sub-genre for me, and I found this perspective interesting.  It isn't high fantasy with its vast, cosmic powers left to roam on city streets.  This feels smaller and more contained somehow.  There are rules and conventions and everything feels as if it has a solid categorization: black and white where the ethereal is so often painted in shades of grey.  In general, I prefer my fantasy to feel a little less tamed, but I enjoyed that the danger here came less from supernatural power than from the very human people wielding it.

The engineering of this audiobook is slightly different from most of the others that I've heard; it ends up sounding slightly lower in quality, as there's a slight hiss in the background, but for a story set in an analog world, I found the sound less of a distraction and more part of an appropriate ambiance.  Marsters reads quickly and personably; his is a very believable voice for Dresden, an important consideration in first-person audiobooks, I think.  All in all, I loved it.  This is an eight hour book, but I found time to finish it in under a day.  Fantasy buffs, rejoice, and be sure to check this one out.

Neverwhere (Audiobook)

Title: Neverwhere (Author's preferred text)

Author: Neil Gaiman 

Read by: Neil Gaiman

Publisher: Harper Audio (2007)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Audiobook

Length: N/A

Synopsis: Richard Mayhew lives a perfectly normal life.  Perhaps it's a bit predictable.  Perhaps his fiancee is a bit demanding.  Perhaps there's something more... but Richard's perfectly happy where he is.  Or so he believes, until a girl stumbles out of a door that isn't there and collapses, bleeding, on the pavement.  Suddenly he's tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole into a world beneath London where Blackfriars refers to an actual order of monks and a floating market sells everything from trash to treasures at location one can only find by asking someone who already knows.  But all is not well in this strange land.  The Lady Door, the girl Richard rescued from the sidewalk, is being pursued by a pair of assassins who have already murdered her family.  With the help of the knowledgeable but capricious Marquis de Carabas and the aloof and capable woman known only as Hunter, Richard joins Door on her quest for answers, a quest that leads them far into the dangerous depths of London Below.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  I've read Neverwhere in text form before (though quite a long time ago), and even then I gave it a five star rating.  I've always found, however, that reading a book for oneself and hearing it read aloud are two entirely different experiences.  I bought this audiobook when I was planning for a 14 hour road trip, and I was very glad I did!  It's always interesting to hear authors read their own works, and in my opinion, Gaiman is particularly good.  He creates an entire cast of characters without being over the top in his characterizations.  The plot moves quickly through narrow twists and turns like the maze of alleys and passages in London Below while the characters' web of loyalties grows ever more tangled.  Despite the complexity, it's still easy to keep track of what's happening, even without the visual signposts provided by text.  Though I hate driving in general and road-trips in particular, I found the hours and miles flew by with the voices of Gaiman's characters drowning out the hum of tires on pavement. 

The Ivory and the Horn

Title: The Ivory and the Horn

Author: Charles de Lint

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. (April 1995)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Short Stories

Length: 318 pages, 15 stories

Synopsis: This collection is set in Newford, a fictional city that seems, on the surface, like any other metropolis, but where some perceptive individuals find that almost anything is possible.  Featuring a cast of characters that de Lint fans will recognize from other books in the Newford collection, these stories expand on the lives and experiences of these artists, poets, street urchins, and friends as they struggle to find meaning in their lives.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:

Sometimes a book comes along, sits down beside you, and just has a conversation.  This collection does precisely that.  Many of de Lint’s books feature Newford and its inhabitants, and many of these stories have been around long enough to be reprinted several times.  I’ve stumbled across several of them in unexpected places and every time I felt I was greeting old friends.  This collection is no exception.  Newford is a remarkable place; for the setting of many fantastical exploits, the city itself (and those who live there) seem remarkably real.  This is not a through-the-wardrobe, escapist kind of fantasy, but rather the kind that sits beside you on the bus and waves to you in the park.  There are no cloaks, no swords, no dragons.  There are people who struggle every day.  Some have lost lovers or friends.  Some cannot see the worth in themselves when society says they are worthless.  Some are looking for clarity, some for redemption.  Reading these stories, I see myself and my friends and my family.  I see the people I work with and my neighbors.  Storytelling features heavily throughout the collection, even in the tone of the narratives themselves.  It’s almost they’re told not by their narrators, but by another voice, the voice that’s just sat down beside you to talk.  See? that voice says to you.  They are like you.  They hurt and weep and exult in their lives just as you do.  And see?  The pain fades.  The lessons can be learned.  Listen to the story.  It’s a pleasure to do so.  For pure fantasy alone, this book is appealing.  It’s charming and inventive and unique, but it’s more than that.  It’s an odd combination of grit and pixie dust, like the production that might be staged if Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent were combined with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream- sweet and harsh and frightening and primal and fantastical and, above all, very, very real.

Title: The Ivory and the Horn