Maximilian Uriarte

My original The White Donkey: Terminal Lance audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Terminal Lance is Maximillian Uriarte’s very popular webcomic about life as Marine. This book, The White Donkey, was originally a graphic novel following two of the comic’s recurring characters, Abe and Garcia. The book’s audio treatment is good. And short, less than three hours. Sound effects abound. Each character has a different voice. There’s some background music. Essentially it’s a radio play. And a very good one.

Abe and Garcia go from training to battlefield to post-traumatic stress. They learn that being a soldier is hard: physical exhaustion, loneliness, bullies, and a wide range of leadership competence. The absurdity of military bureaucracy is on full display. So is the weirdness of military life. Sometimes, for example, you’re sighting your rifle at an enemy, waiting for the order to shoot. While you’re sweating out life and death, a white donkey at the side of the road stares at everything impassively. Including you.

And as the reader, you really are there. The production is enveloping. The changing actors and sound effects generate a lot of sensory information. Though fictional the events of the story feel more like life than plot. It reads like a soldier’s narrative. And that’s a good thing. It’s not excessively dramatic, or reflective, or lyrical.

The busy-ness of the actors and sounds got in the way as I listened, but I got used to it. That’s one reason I wish the book were longer. It seemed like I had only just gotten involved in the story, and it had ended. The extra audio elements belong there, like pictures to words in a graphic novel. This was produced professionally and it shows. Among the many readers are Kiff Vandenheuvel, Grace Lee, Benita Robledo, Eric Lopez, and the author.

One final note: the portrayal of post-traumatic stress here can be hard. But it feels real, which is all the more unsettling.

My review is 4 stars instead of 5 only because the ending doesn’t sit right with me.

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

I'm not entirely sure that I understand everything that went on in Uriarte's The White Donkey: Terminal Lance (a lot of the military jargon was lost on me, and it wasn't always easy to distinguish between characters as many of them looked the same), but I think Uriarte manages to give the reader a normally unseen aspect of what it's like to be a Marine, and how that can affect you, regardless of how much action you see. The writing and art is good (even tho, as previously mentioned, it was sometimes hard to distinguish between some characters), but I probably won't read anything else by Uriarte based on his Terminal Lance online comic strip. Just isn't entirely my thing, but for military enthusiasts, I think this would be a great book.

I received a finished copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review.… (mehr)