The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan

Source: Podiobooks
Length: Approx. 9 hrs
Reader: Nathan Lowell

The book: Literature that is innovative can be challenging and mind-changing. With the long days of  summer approaching, though, a good story with familiar elements is just as welcome. The Crown Conspiracy liberally borrows from its predecessors in the medieval fantasy genre, but lack of originality can be forgiven when the tale is told well.

The main characters here are a pair of hear-of-gold thieves distinctly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.  The heroes get themselves into trouble through a obvious set-up and set about trying to escape from captivity and avoid their pursuers. There are some plot twists that aren't terribly surprising for anyone familiar with the genre, but the story is told with such humor and a sense of adventure that these tropes feel natural. The writing alternates between exciting set-pieces and long exposition conversations as the author fleshes out his fantasy world. This short novel is the first in a series of six, so there are some loose ends, but the book itself winds up to a satisfying conclusion.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: As I stated in a previous review of his own book, Lowell is a gifted reader. The recording is professionally produced with appropriate music for the beginning and end of each segment, along with shorter bits of music for scene changes. If I have any complaints, it's in Lowell's voices for his characters. I found it hard to distinguish between the voices, and the uneven distributions of British accents added to the confusion. Overall, though, this was an excellent recording.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Source: The Drama Pod
Length: about 10 hours
Reader: Winfred Henson

The book: With modern science at our backs, it's hard to take Journey to the Center of the Earth seriously. We know that there's no secret chambers beneath the Earth's surface hiding dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. From the standpoint of modern geology and biology, calling this book science fiction rather than fantasy is only a matter of its place in the history of the genre.

Yet, in the book, Verne himself, through another character, ridicules his own concept of geology. This technique is also used in Conan Doyle's The Lost World (previously reviewed). In both cases, it gives the author the chance to have an exciting, yet improbable, adventure while also wink at his audience to let them know he's not totally taken in by his own fantasies.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Henson has a deep clear voice. His speech pattern is precise, with distinctly enunciated words. He has a bit of a Southern accent in his narrating voice, but creates accents for the characters. The over-the-top voice he creates for the uncle may strike people as either silly fun or a bit annoying. The recording itself is well-produced with good quality sound.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Source: Maria Lectrix (zipped mp3s)
Length: 8 hours, 8 minutes
Reader: Maureen O'Brien

The book: Agatha Christie gets a bad reputation for writing books full of unlikely circumstances and formulaic plots. Read enough of Christie and her imitators and this reputation starts to feel earned. Still, Christie shouldn't be blamed for the work of knockoffs and the demands of her fans to write "another one like the last one but different."  At her best, Agatha Christie books are entertaining and memorable reads.

Fortunately for Free Listens, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, along with The Secret Adversary (reviewed previously) are in the public domain in the United States. Christie's first mystery featuring the Belgian detective Poirot, the mystery is told from the point of view of Poirot's own Watson, Lt. Arthur Hastings. While Hastings is home on leave from World War I, he visits his friend John Cavendish at Styles manor. A murder occurs, as it tends to do in these stories, and Hastings calls on his acquaintance Poirot, a detective who is living nearby as a war refugee. As Poirot investigates, suspicion falls on each character in turn before the murderer is finally revealed. This basic plot, with some twists, was recycled in later stories, but it's worthwhile to go back and enjoy the first incarnation of a classic devise.

Rating: 9/10

The reader: O'Brien has a lovely voice that conveys the emotions of the characters. She varies her voice slightly for the cast, with a slight Belgian-French pattern of speech for Poirot and accents that approximate English accents for most of the others. The recording is of middling quality; it's good enough to listen to, but has some muddy sound that can be overlooked for a free reading. The book is in the public domain in the U.S., but in many other countries it's still under copyright by the Christie estate, so check your local laws before downloading.

(photo by connerdowney via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution, No derivatives, Non-commercial license.)
(Review entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday Party. Follow the link for more book reviews)

Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s or M4B)
Length: 10 hrs, 11 min
Reader: Alan Winterrowd

The book: Literature is full of great detectives; less so with great criminals. The criminal masterminds that take center stage in novels are often either effeminate plotters or crooks-with-a-heart-of-gold types. Fantômas is the rare criminal genius with the brawn and cold-heartedness to carry out gruesome murders, yet the charm to seduce a princess as he robs her. Close on his heels is the detective Juve of the Paris police, a master of disguise with the intelligence to almost, but not quite, catch up with Fantômas.

In France, Fantômas stars in over 40 books by Allain and Souvestre; the authors' system of working together on the plot, then dividing the writing of the chapters led to this astounding productivity. Fantômas's criminal exploits and his pursuit by Juve make for an entertaining read, but the characters do not have the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes nor the humor of Arsene Lupin.  Although the characters are not so deep, the plot twists so much that even when I thought I knew the identity of Fantômas, there were still several more surprises. Fantômas belongs in the middle ground between the pulps and the great classics of the crime genre.

Rating: 7 / 10

Reader: Allan Winterrowd has a strong American baritone that does not distract from the story. He varies his tone slightly for the various characters, without going so far as to perform voices. As far as I could tell, he pronounces the French place-names correctly, though I'm no expert in French. Winterrowd speaks in a steady pace that allows the listener to keep up. The recording itself is well-done and clear.

(Entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Party Wednesday. Visit the link for reviews of other books.)

The Magnificant Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

Source: Librivox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 11 hours, 18 minutes
Reader: Mark F. Smith

The book: The Magnificent Ambersons won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for best novel and was famously adapted by Orson Welles in what is widely regarded as a potentially great film ruined by studio meddling. More recently, the book was included on the Modern Library list of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century. Because of these accolades, I was perhaps expecting too much from this book, so it was not surprising that I was disappointed.

The novel starts out well, introducing a family who has made their fortune in building up the commercial and residential sections of their town during the late 1800's. In the first few chapters, Tarkington beautifully sets up a pair of potential romances as well as the seeds of conflict. He then squanders the entire middle part of the book by simply reiterating the characterizations that he so efficiently established at the beginning, while beating the reader over the head with the fact that automobiles have changed the face of America. The changes in society due to new transportation could have been an interesting thesis, but very little happens in these chapters that wouldn't be improved by cutting the length. The story recovers to a satisfying conclusion in the last ten chapters or so, but not before most of my interest was lost.

Rating: 6 / 10

The reader: I've said many times before, but it bears repeating that Mark Smith is one of Librivox's best readers. His excellent narration is one of the reasons why I was able to continue listening through the doldrums of the middle chapters. Smith's petulant whine for the spoiled Georgie is spot-on and his Ward Cleaver-like George Amberson captures the character's geniality. If you're going to listen to an audiobook of The Magnificent Ambersons, this should be it.

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

Source: Forgotten Classics (Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10)
Length: about 8 hours (book itself), about 12 hours (book + commentary)
Reader: Julie

The book: Agatha Christie is widely known today for her mysteries such as Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None.  This book, one of her earliest, is not a mystery, but is what we would today call a spy thriller. Although most Agatha Christie books are still in copyright, this one is out of copyright in the United States by virtue of it being published before 1923. Other countries have different copyright regulations, so check the legality where you are before you download.

This exciting novel begins with the sinking of the Lusitania (pictured above) and centers around a post-war conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Europe. The main characters, Tommy and Tuppence, are a pair of  young people who had tasted Independence in the war years, but now in the 1920's don't have the money to support themselves. Through a series of unlikely coincidences, they become entwined into discovering the plot of a shadowy figure named Mr. Brown. As is typical for Christie, the novel runs through a series of twists and adventures that kept me entertained and always guessing.

Rating: 9/10

The reader: The amount of love that Julie has for the books she reads can be felt in her tone. She has a bright, expressive voice with an American accent. For most characters, she changes her voice to reflect the speaker, usually with great success, though as she points out, her foreign accents are amateurish. Each episode is preceded and ended with a lengthy commentary on the book, other podcasts, and Julie's life in general. These commentaries are interesting, but toward the end of the book, I found myself skipping them, although that's due more to the desire to want to know what happens next in the novel than anything to do with Julie.

(This review was entered as part of Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday contest. Visit the site for other reviews.)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 10 hours
Reader: John Greenman

The book: When I read this book in high school, I remember it being good for the about the first two-thirds of the book, then interminably boring for the last third. Now that I've read several books by Mark Twain, I can recognize a pattern in his books. Twain often starts his books with a great premise. He strings together some amusing anecdotes with very little overarching plot, but with often hilarious characters. As the book goes along, though, Twain tends to grow bitter towards his own characters and the tone turns from gentle humor to a darker misanthropy.

Huck Finn follows this pattern in that the opening chapters are filled with great episodes, like the formation of Tom Sawyer's gang, Huck dressing up as a girl, and Huck's stay with the Grangerfords. Later, after the Duke and the King join Huck and Jim on the raft, the writing turns more mean-spirited. Instead of innocent pranks, the characters are now involved in more harmful swindles, culminating in the two con-men betraying Jim. The rest of the book portrays Jim more as a racist stereotype and the adventures lose the fun quality that they had at the beginning. These final chapters mar the book's reputation and brought my personal enjoyment of the book down.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: John Greenman is a great narrator of Mark Twain. Greenman has the ability to bring out the Midwestern tone of Twain's writing. He delivers the humor without overselling it and has a light breezy style of speech that reflects the conversational style of the book. For more of Greenman's excellent narration, check out his work in Tom Sawyer.

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 8 hr, 22 min
Reader: Mark F. Smith

The book: Not to be confused with the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, Conan Doyle's The Lost World is an unbelievable adventure, in both senses of "unbelievable". Like Watson in Conan Doyle's more famous Sherlock Holmes series, the narrator, Edward Malone, is a tag-along to the real main character of the book, the conceited and quarrelsome Professor Challenger. Malone, a newspaper reporter, accompanies Challenger on  an expedition to a plateau in the jungles of South America, where dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts are rumored to live.

 Although the premise for the book can now be seen as impossible, Challenger's assertion of living dinosaurs is met with extreme skepticism by his colleagues in the novel, effectively removing the reader's ability to criticize it. The story proceeds at a gallop, with new adventures happening every chapter. This book is fast and fun, making it a great light read for the summertime.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: You probably know by now that Mark F. Smith is one of LibriVox's best readers. He's done a wide range of books, and I can't think of any of them that is bad. Smith's dialog puts the listener into the story and his narration carries a bit of sarcasm at the right places, to help the listener see the wittiness in Conan Doyle's writing. The recording, as always with Smith, is beautifully done.

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 10 hr, 45 min
Reader: Laurie Anne Walden

The book: On the frontier of Utah, Jane Withersteen, a member of the Mormon faith, owns a prosperous ranch. But as the Notorious B.I.G. once said, "mo' cattle, mo' problems" (or was that "moo cattle"?). The corrupt Mormon leader Elder Tull wants to force Jane to marry him to add to both his wealth and his harem. Her non-Mormon friend Bern Venters is being harassed and threatened. Then, an entire herd of her cattle is stolen, probably by the fearsome outlaw Oldring and his mysterious accomplice, the Masked Rider. Into all this turmoil rides Lassiter, a gunfighter and well-known killer of Mormons.

Like the other Zane Grey novel I've reviewed, The Lone Star Ranger, the novel consists of two main plots: the relationship of Jane and Lassiter and the exploits of Bern Venters against the Oldring gang. Unlike that other book, the multiple plots of this novel are intertwined and overlapping, creating a complex story. If you haven't read many westerns, this is a great introduction. Unlike later westerns, it maintains the conventions of the genre, but with more depth and interest than some of its pulpy brothers.

Rating: 9/10

The reader: Walden does not perform this work with multiple voices and strong emotion. Instead she reads clearly, smoothly, and simply. She lightly inflects her voice to carry the meaning of the story without overwhelming it. Her pleasant Southern accent fits in well with this novel. The recording is clear and well-made.

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty

Source: Podiobooks.com (or zipped mp3's)
Length: Approx. 8 hrs
Reader: Mur Lafferty

The story: Keepsie Branson has a superpower. This alone should make her a superhero: fighting crime, wearing a costume, and waving to her adoring public. Right? Well, that's not exactly the case, for three major reasons. First, Keepsie lives in Seventh City, a metropolis with lots of people who have superpowers of one sort or another. Second, Keepie's superpower isn't all that useful when it comes to fighting crime. Third, the superheroes of Seventh City, the ones with actually useful superpowers, tend to be jerks. So, instead of donning a cape and tights, then going out to fight crime, Keepsie owns and manages a bar, one that caters to other people with mostly-useless superpowers.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that Keepsie and her friends are likable characters with real human flaws. The worldbuilding is interesting, but borrows heavily from other "superheroes aren't what the public sees" worlds like Watchmen and The Incredibles. The plot often relies on characters acting stupidly or impulsively, but this can be forgiven since real people do sometimes act in these ways. This is a fun, funny novel that isn't a great work of fiction, but is an entertaining story.

Rating: 6/10


The reader: This novel was originally podcast in installments, so there's a bit of talk, promotions and music that you may want to fast-forward through at the beginning and end of each episode. The audio is well-produced, with only a bit of volume-clipping at the top ranges. Lafferty is an excellent reader of her own work. She puts emotion into her characters' voices and changes her pacing and tone to improve the novel beyond what it would be in print.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Source: LibriVox
Length: 9 hr, 20 min
Reader: Mark F. Smith

The book: What would happen if a human baby from parents of the best quality was raised by animals of the most barbaric sort? Would the child reflect the attributes of his biological parents or social environment? The nature versus nurture debate has engaged philosophers, then later scientists, for centuries, but neither Hume nor Locke wrote any treatise half as entertaining as Burroughs' pulp novel. Tarzan's animal upbringing gives him the strength and abilities of the jungle, but his "good breeding" affords him the morality and intelligence to make him a super-man.

Although Tarzan's parents were English and his upbringing African, he can be seen to be a metaphor for the United States, which was at the time just becoming a world power. Like Tarzan, the USA boasted a European heritage that had been tempered by the hardships of the frontier. Led by Teddy Roosevelt, himself a blend of aristocracy and outdoorsman, America had subjugated the savages and taken its seat at the table of the Western powers.

Of course, this version of America's place in the world is very colonialist and Tarzan reflects this prejudice. The depiction of black people, both native and Westernized, is racist. Burroughs seems to imply that black people are at worst cannibals and at best comic sidekicks, depending on the environment where they were raised. This viewpoint provides a dark contrast to Tarzan's triumph of heritage over surroundings. Although modern psychology has shown that our physical nature governs many of our basic behaviors, our human qualities are much more influenced by culture than Burroughs supposes.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: As in several other books I have reviewed, Mark F. Smith does an excellent job with this book. He reads with a moderate cadence that allows for easy understanding. His narration is in a slightly nasal American accent, but performs a few decent accents for the characters' voices. The recording is marred by a background whine. Some people will be able to ignore it, but others will find this noise distracting.

The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman

Source: Internet Archive
Length: Approx 8 hr
Reader: Maureen S. O'Brien

The book: The London police are presented with an open-and-shut case. A precious metals dealer had a large value of diamonds stolen from his office safe. The only people with access to the safe were the owner and his two nephews. Inside the safe, the police find a few drops of blood and a damning piece of evidence: the owner's ledger sheet for receipt of the diamonds marked with the bloody thumbprint of one of the nephews - Rubin Hornby.

Dr. John Thorndyke, a medical examiner for legal cases, takes up Rubin's case. Dr. Thorndyke believes he can clear Rubin's name. The most advanced science of Edwardian times will be brought to bear in this turn-of-the-century CSI. But how will Thorndyke and his new associate Christopher Jervis solve the mystery?

The difficulty of a mystery story is that, according to convention, the author should leave enough clues available to the reader to guess the outcome, but obscure the facts enough that most will not. Even so, some readers will see the solution very quickly. With the benefits of history and advancement of science, modern readers have additional advantages over Freeman's contemporaries. Although this story has a number of twists that may have thrilled past readers, I found it to be an entertaining, but predictable, mystery.

Rating: 6/10

The reader: Ms. O'Brien has a lovely American voice for narration. For the characters, she drops into voices that identify each quite well. This reading does not disguise the fact that it is amateur; O'Brien goes back to re-read phrases she flubs and there is some noise of page turning and bumps. However, if you can forgive the lack of polish, it is a very good amateur reading with acceptable sound quality.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Source: LibriVox
Length: 9 hr, 34 min
Reader: Rachelellen

The book: Anne of Green Gables is like a female version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer set in the Canadian maritime provinces rather than the American Midwest. Like Tom Sawyer, this book doesn't have so much of a plot as a series of interrelated humorous episodes. But while Tom has adventures in getting into fights, faking his own death, and tricking his friends, Anne's adventures consist of making friends, having tea parties, and going to poetry recitals.

While they may express it differently, Anne and Tom have a similar view of the world as a place of adventure to be explored. Tom's adventures get more outrageous as the book goes on until he finally ends up in mortal danger. Anne, on the other hand, channels her sense of adventure into pathways deemed acceptable to society. Yet, even though this may appear to be a capitulation to the pressures of adulthood, Anne still keeps her sense of wonder and vivacity. Montgomery seems to be propounding a philosophy that one can grow up without leaving behind the essential spirit of childhood.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: This is an excellent recording of an amazing reader. Rachelellen voices fill the characters with so much life, I can't imagine reading this book without her. Her voicing of Anne, Marilla, and Matthew, not to mention her hilarious acting of Mrs. Rachel Lynde, made me love the characters and kept me listening. Rachelellen's narrating voice is clear and bright, with wonderful phrasing and diction. I think Anne herself would applaud Rachelellen if she were to go to a recital.

Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood

Source: Podiobooks.com
Length: Approx. 10 hrs
Reader: Seth Harwood

The book: Sometimes you just need to have some fun being bad. This is both the theme and the best reason for reading Jack Wakes Up. Former action-movie star Jack Palms is stuck in a rut on his road to recovery from the nadir of drugs, divorce, and the implosion of his acting career. He has cleaned up and turned his life around, but has no direction and no income until his friend Ralph contacts him. Ralph is coordinating an agreement to supply some Czechs with cocaine to deal. All Jack has to do is help entertain the Czechs and impress them with his minor celebrity status.

Like Jack, the reader will have to check his scruples at the door. The language is harsh, with copious swearing. The plot, while fast paced and cinematic, is concerned with drugs, strippers and plenty of graphic violence. Jack himself is a likable character, but many of the others behave with stupidity, greed, or sadistic cruelty. This is not a pretty world that Harwood has drawn, but if you're a fan of Quentin Tarentino or Elmore Leonard, you'll enjoy this entertaining novel.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: Harwood's reading of his novel is good. He provides voice characterizations using patterns of pauses, tone of voice, and accents. His narrating voice is straightforward and honest-sounding, fitting Jack's personality. My biggest problem with the recording comes with everything outside the book. The introduction and exit music is hip-hop, appropriate for the mood. But almost every episode begins and ends with clips from the previous episode and next one. This may have been necessary when the chapters were first podcasted, but now that they're collected, it becomes tedious. Also tedious is the swaggering "homie" attitude that Harwood adopts for announcements and self-promotion. He's trying to sound tough, but ends up sounding ridiculous. If you can skip over everything between the introduction and first chapter of each episode, you won't miss a thing.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Source: Audiobooks.org
Length: Approx 10-11 hrs.
Reader: Dan Lezar

The book: One of the claimants to the title "First English Novel," Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719. Since then, so many adaptations, retellings, and borrowings have appeared that the story is familiar as a fairy tale. Like fairy tales, reading the original can be surprising to those who have only encountered its derivatives.

The novel shows its age in some places. Defoe was not writing with the advantage of centuries of prose fiction tradition. His plot does not flow in the way a modern reader expects, but instead progresses in fits and starts. Defoe cannot seem to end the narrative when it should end, but lets the book drag on after Crusoe's rescue. Defoe also betrays his colonialist attitudes: the natives, even Friday, are inferior and Crusoe has no moral qualms about slavery.

On the other hand, in some places the novel seems quite fresh and vibrant. Crusoe is an engaging character. Although he develops a tendency to moralizing, he can be optimistic and funny; essentially everything one would like in a desert island companion. The plot which lopes along leisurely for most of the book does have a few suspenseful moments, notably Crusoe's discovery of footprints on the supposedly uninhabited island. This episode, though I knew it was coming as well as its eventual outcome, kept me listening when I had nearly given up on the book. I'm glad I finished it, if only for the pride of having read one of the great foundations of Western literature.

Rating: 6/10

The reader: This recording is apparently taken with permission from cassette tapes produced by Random House. As such, the reading is professionally done, but the audio quality suffers from the technology. The reader has an excellent masculine voice that manages to unwrap Defoe's sometimes unwieldy sentences into listenable statements. The sound is full of tape hiss, which I was able to ignore most of the time by turning up the volume.

The Odyssey by Homer

Source: Youngstown State University, English 2610
Length: Approx 11 hrs.
Reader: Thomas Copeland

The book: As one of the oldest narratives in literature, the Odyssey has rightfully gained a place near the top of the Western canon. Having a passing knowledge of mythology, I expected the epic to be about Odysseus's wanderings and adventures across the Mediterranean Sea between leaving Troy and returning home. In actuality, the main focus of the story is Odysseus's homecoming. The story of his journeys, including all the famous episodes about the cyclopes, the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, are told in a flashback comprising only a few chapters of the entire tale.

I found the epic to be neither the rousing adventure that I had hoped for nor the boring lists of ancestors that I had feared. There are moments of both excitement and tedium in the story. Reflecting its origins as an oral tale, stories such as Penelope's weaving get repeated multiple times so that by the third or fourth retelling, I wanted to fast-forward the recording. However, the influence of the work is undeniable and having listened to the entire epic rather than the summaries I had read before, I now have a better understanding of other books I have read. I would recommend the Odyssey to others as a book to be appreciated best after one is finished rather than a page-turner for those just looking for entertainment.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: The reader conveys the poetic form of the work, giving the epic a rhythm that is not overstated, but natural as waves on a beach. Professor Copeland apparently knows his Greek, as he pronounces the names and places without difficulty. He seems to favor what is apparently the ancient Greek pronunciations, such as cyclopes with a hard /k/ sound rather than the more familiar /s/. He puts inflection into the conversations, making this sometimes difficult epic easier to understand, since Homer often uses sarcasm which can be easily misinterpreted by the uninitiated. Unfortunately, the audio quality is often quite bad, with plenty of background noise, page turning, and a train whistle in some later chapters. However, Copeland's voice is always understandable and the minor annoyances can be ignored.

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

Source: Librivox | Zipped MP3
Length: 9 hr, 52 min
Reader: John Nicholson

The book: Set in British colonial South Africa, King Solomon's Mines tells of the extraordinary adventures of big game hunter Allan Quartermain. Sir Henry Curtis hires Quartermain as a guide for an expedition to find Curtis's brother, who disappeared while searching for the biblical King Solomon's fabled diamond mines. Joining them in the expedition are Curtis's friend Captain Good and Umbopa, a porter with mysterious purposes.

The action is told in an unadorned style that, along with the descriptions of Africa and its inhabitants, makes this Lost Civilization fantasy seem real. A major part of this realism is the character of Quartermain, who narrates the adventure in the first person with a sense of dry humor and a matter-of-fact tone. Quartmain is not a hero in the traditional sense - he admits to being a coward. Instead of a hero, he is someone that the reader can positively identify with: fair, practical, smart, and opposed to injustice, racism and greed. This enlightened protagonist, the fresh writing style and exciting plot make King Solomon's Mines a great read.

Rating: 9/10

The reader: Nicholson has a deep plain voice that is a perfect match for Allan Quartermain. The book is filled with difficult-to-pronounce names and words in Afrikaans and Zulu, but Nicholson says them with confidence. Whether or not he's right, I have no idea. The pace is sometimes too slow for my taste, but he does vary both the pace and volume. The recording has some background whine and a hiss on the esses.

(Entered in the Book Review Wednesday contest at Cym Lowell. Follow the link for reviews of other books by various bloggers)

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

Source: Librivox (Zipped mp3s)
Length: 10 hrs, 23 min
Reader: Brian Roberg

The book: The Father Brown stories, of which this is the first collection, are not always as exciting as a Sherlock Holmes story or as clever as some of the better Agatha Christie tales, but they do have G.K. Chesterton's great humor and intelligence embodied in the series' main detective, a priest by the name of Brown. Father Brown is the opposite of the hardboiled detective. Instead, he is Chesterton's ideal of a priest: clear-headed, non-prejudicial, and above all, forgiving. After catching a criminal, Brown would rather calmly reason with him to change his ways rather than turn him over to the police.

Chesterton wrote a number of non-fiction pieces defending and extolling Catholicism, and his fiction bears the same mark. The Father Brown stories often feature seemingly supernatural occurrences: witchcraft, divine judgment, a ghost, an invisible man. Father Brown reasons his way past surface appearances to a rational solution, implying that his faith in a supernatural God is a rational belief, not mere superstition. Although his stories are wrapped around Catholic teachings, Chesterton never loses sight of writing a good tale. He delivers a satisfying assortment of mysteries with the first Father Brown book and from what I've read of the second, continues in The Wisdom of Father Brown.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: Brian Roberg reads with a measured pace that allows the listener to pick up clues, if they are mentally quick. He has careful pronunciation with a nondescript American accent. Roberg does not act voices for different characters, but he does vary his tone of voice with what is being said. The recording is clear and, as always with Librivox recordings, available in several formats, including two bitrates of mp3 as well as ogg vorbis.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Source: Librivox
Length: 9 hr, 8 min
Reader: Kara Shallenberg

The book: Left an orphan in India after a cholera epidemic, Mary Lennox goes to live with an uncle in the British countryside. Neither the uncle nor his housekeeper show much interest in raising the child, so she wanders about the enormous old house and grounds. Mary is spoiled and rude, but she is also inquisitive. Soon her explorations uncover two secrets. The first is the secret garden of the book's title, which influences a change in her character. The second secret involves mysterious noises in a shut-off wing of the house, which draws her in to further investigations.

Throughout the book, Burnett succeeds better at creating moods rather than weaving a plot. The atmosphere of mystery and oppression, then later joy and light, are the trade-off for a slow-moving story. Much of the novel is blatantly sentimental, with good deeds, fresh air and kindness overcoming all problems in the end. To her credit, Burnett avoids the mistake of making the child characters into either perfect angels or little adults, but places them somewhere in between. Giving Mary a unpleasant disposition, but a bright mind, rescues her from being an unsympathetic character and makes this a children's classic.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: Kara Shallenberg is one of Librivox's most prolific readers and is a wonderful example of the enthusiastic amateur spirit of the Librivox project. This is not a professional reading. Don't start listening with that expectation or you'll be disappointed. Instead what you get is Kara's bright voice over a background that can include bumps, passing trucks, and singing birds. Kara's accent is American with a slight sing-song delivery that made me feel as if I was sitting cross-legged at the local library's story time. The overall effect is not that of an actor performing in a sterile sound booth, but of a friend sharing a book that she obviously loves.

The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey

Source: Librivox
Length: 11 hr, 12 min
Reader: Mark F. Smith

The book: Lone Star Ranger is an exciting Western that follows the career of Buck Duane, a young man who kills a cowboy in a gunfight, then flees his home to escape the law. As he travels the wilds of Texas, Duane gains a reputation for both his gunfighting skills and his sense of justice. This reputation attracts the attention of both outlaws and lawmen, leading Duane to be pursued by both.

Grey writes about a Wild West that is a man's world. Duane is the white-hat gunfighter: handsome, haunted, and fatalistic. Women unfailingly fall in love with him, whether they are of the dark temptress or damsel in distress archetype. Looked at from a modern perspective, Grey's purple prose and stereotypes are uncomfortable, if not nearly laughable.

As backwards as Grey's writing may seem by today's standards, he does deliver up an exciting yarn. Every chapter has at least one action scene, and Grey mixes these up: gunfights, fistfights, chases and hiding all take their turn as Grey moves his hero across the landscape. The plot throws in so many twists and turns that by the second half of the novel, I felt I had already read an entire book. It's easy to see why Zane Grey remains a popular author, and if you can get past the flaws, this is an entertaining listen.

Rating: 6/10

The reader: This recording is of excellent quality with almost no background noise. Mark F. Smith has a steady, somber reading voice which adds weight and an understated excitement to this book. His normally slow pacing builds suspense when needed and carries the action at a faster pace. He impersonates a reasonably good Texas drawl when appropriate, but doesn't ham it up too much, though I did almost laugh out loud when he delivers the last chapter's Librivox disclaimer in character.