D. Alan Lewis

My original The Lightning Bolts of Zeus audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Jasmine and Thyme Hawke are investigators working for the U.S Government after the Secession War in an alternate world. They are after a stolen train loaded with guns, when they discover that a much dire conspiracy is behind it all.

I loved the premises of this book: two badass sisters investigating a conspiracy, all in a steampunk environment and described in a way that I was able to see how they were dressed and how their weapons looked like. It started as a great book, one that I was sure I was going to enjoy. But then they met the professor specialized in the Zeus, and his team, and it all started to be terribly predictable. I just wanted to be wrong, since it was so evident that it could not just be like that, but the bad guy was the one I was sure about all along. There was also a mystique element that did not quite convince me, but it is just a personal opinion.

I also found a mistake that could have been prevented with a very simple Google search. Lewis mentions Selene as the Roman moon goddess, and Luna its Greek equivalent. Well, anyone with a basic knowledge of any Roman language will know that it is the opposite.

I could have still enjoyed this book, since there is a lot of action and it is all very well described, but the audio production is one of the worst that I have stumbled upon until now. The narration was okay, although nothing special. There are two narrators in this book: J.C. Brazil for the main narrator and female characters, and Saul Goode for male characters. Brazil's monotone voice was something it took me some time to get used to, but everything was done correctly. Saul nevertheless was a bit sub-par. All male voices sounded the same, there were a couple of then with a different accent, but it was quite subtle. It just confused me, and I think I would have preferred just one narrator if it was going to be done like this. Goode's also produced some mouth noises that I found disturbing.

The audio production, as I have said, was disastrous. There were repeated sentences in eight occasions for Brazil, and two for Goode, but these two were not mere repetitions, since they included sentences like 'one more take' that were clearly meant to be left out of the final mix. I also had troubles with the volume. I think more care should have been taken in normalizing the final mix, especially when counting with two different narrators. Goode's parts were much louder than Brazil's, and I found it especially annoying since I tend to use headphones to listen to audiobooks.

This book had a lot of potential, but its predictability and the little care put into the audio production ruined it for me.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.… (mehr)

Do you believe in Santa? In an alternative universe the North Pole is not the enchanting frosted Christmas card place everyone would like it to be. In this reality, the North Pole is an industrial complex of dingy factories, churning out masses of toys. Elves have no rights and are basically the worker ants of society; not many reindeer can fly and those that can are worked every inch of their short lives. And as for Santa, think again. Santa is a grief-stricken, guilt-ridden, sentimental old drunk who has let the reins of command slip from his hands. His territory is riven with racism, human/elf conflict, labor problems and worker revolts, and a faltering economy. While Santa surveys his life through the bottom of a bottle, power has surreptitiously been transferred to a shadowy figure, someone who has other ideas for the North Pole, including contracts with major U.S. armaments manufacturers. Detective Max Sneed is dragged out of retirement when Vlad Volsky, the much-loved Premier of gun-free North Pole City, is mysteriously shot to death in Snowflake Garden. He is joined in his investigations by Robert Watson, a journalist for a London newspaper, who is keen to help Max untangle the intricacies of this far from simple murder. The novel echoes the political turmoil of the sixties, in a different kind of Cold War with Santa being the victim of McCarthyism and banned from U.S. airspace for his so called Communist tendencies—delivering toys to children in Russia and the Eastern Bloc countries!

The author succeeds admirably in creating a kind of parallel universe in which the reader can totally believe. The politics, internal bickering, dissatisfaction, dark secrets, and failed lives and loves all serve to enhance the image of a truly dystopian fairy-tale gone horribly wrong. The various characters have complex motives and underlying reasons for their strange behavior. This includes Santa, who might just be the murderer. Max Sneed and Robert Watson find themselves in a veritable labyrinth of conflicting facts and stories. The main characters share a common dark history in which the seeds of the current situation were planted many years ago. The author uses several flashbacks to introduce this backstory but I found this device bogged the story down. The novel would flow better and faster without so much often-extraneous detail behind it. The author has a mordant wit and uses black humor and satire to highlight the sad reality behind the tinsel empire. An enjoyable, thought-provoking read for detective novel fans looking for a different kind of murder.

First reviewed for Readers Favorite by Fiona Ingram… (mehr)