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The Day of The Triffids
The Day of The Triffids (audio) by John Wyndham Published: 1951 Narration: Samuel West The Chrysalids was one of my favourite books as a teenager. It was assigned reading in one of my classes, and I expected it to be dull, but it really took me by surprise. For some odd reason, though, I never looked into any of Wyndham’s other books and eventually just forgot about him. I knew of The Day of the Triffids purely because I had heard it was an inspiration for both The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later. I watched the old BBC series when I first got Netflix (holds up quite well actually…
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Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men (audio) by John Steinbeck Published: 1937 Narration: Mark Hammer I’ve always associated Steinbeck with overly descriptive, boring storytelling, but having not read anything by him, that opinion was formed from listening to people bitch about reading him in high school. I know that most teenagers will hate any book their teachers assign them, no matter its merit, so I feel a bit stupid for having essentially listened to high school students over the Nobel prize committee. The central characters are George Milton, a quick-witted man, and Lennie Small, a large mentally disabled man (and possibly the original huge guy to be ironically named Small?). They’re close…
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The Minority Report
The Minority Report (audio) by Philip K. Dick Published: 1956 Narration: Keir Dullea I’ve been meaning to read some Philip K. Dick for years, but I never quite got to it. A friend of mine at work had this audio file kicking around on his computer, though, so I figured I might as well start here with one of his most famous works. I can’t remember if I enjoyed the film adaptation of Minority Report or not. I never could stand Tom Cruise (even before everyone else caught on), so that may have tarnished my experience, but all I really remember from the movie was the awesome, but probably impractical,…
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The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife (audio) by Philip Pullman Published: 1997 Narration:Philip Pullman, Full Cast This was my first full cast audiobook, and I didn’t think I’d like it at all, but it really worked. The voice acting was all great, apart from the guy voicing Lee Scoresby sounding like he was trying to do a bad impression of John Wayne. The also started each chapter with ear-piercingly bad music, which I assumed was BBC stock music from the 70s, but it was apparently composed just for this book. Those are minor gripes, though, in what was otherwise a great production. The story starts with a new character – Will, a boy…
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Cat’s Cradle
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Published: 1963 My third Vonnegut book, and a strong contender for my favourite. Of the three, this is his most straight-forward book as far as the plot is concerned – straight-forward for Vonnegut at least. The story begins with the narrator, John, setting off to write a book on what important Americans did the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He focuses on Felix Hoenikker, a fictional physicist who developed the bomb, and while interviewing his co-workers and children, he learns that the scientist may have left behind a substance that could threaten life on earth. Cat’s Cradle centres around the juxtaposition…
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Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys (audio) by Neil Gaiman Published: 2006 Narration: Lenny Henry This was the first audio book I tried to get through, probably a year ago now, and I just couldn’t do it. I listened to the first two chapters over and over, each time I went for a jog, because I couldn’t focus on the story and would lose track of where I was. I thought it was Lenny Henry, who I’ve never even really found funny as a comedian, but now that I’ve developed a basic attention span, I can see he does a fantastic job on this narration. Quite often during this, I’d listen to him deliver…
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (audio) by J.K. Rowling Published: 2003 Narration: Stephen Fry **This will contain some spoilers, but I figure everyone who’s at all interested in Harry Potter has read the books or seen the movies by now. I’m fairly new to audio books, so I’ve only recently discovered that I quite enjoy being read to like a child. Who better for that than Mr. Stephen Fry? I read the first three of these and lost interest, but that interest was renewed when I found that Fry narrated the UK versions. He’s likely in my top five list of best people ever, so I decided…
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Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Published: 1953 I’d previously read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing. I always felt a bit ashamed of myself for never having read any of his fiction, so I decided to start with his best-known novel. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman in a dystopian future, one that seems eerily possible in many ways. In this future, fireman have nothing to do with putting out fires. Homes have been made fireproof, so there is no need for that. His job is to light fires, specifically to track down illegal books and set them alight. He very much enjoys his work…