Category Archives: Audio

December 3, 2024 · 4:52 pm

The Trouble With Peace – Joe Abercrombie

The Trouble With Peace – Joe Abercrombie

I moved straight onto this one after finishing A Little Hatred. That way it will all still be fresh in my mind.

Here is the blurb …

Conspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion.
Peace is just another kind of battlefield…

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye . . . before it kills her.

The Breakers still lurk in the shadows, plotting to free the common man from his shackles, while noblemen bicker for their own advantage. Orso struggles to find a safe path through the maze of knives that is politics, only for his enemies, and his debts, to multiply.

The old ways are swept aside, and the old leaders with them, but those who would seize the reins of power will find no alliance, no friendship, and no peace, lasts forever.

These novels are very interesting. We follow a few characters; Orso, Leo, Savine, Broad, Vic and Rikke. All of the characters are likeable (except maybe Savine) and it easy to follow their thoughts and to understand why they end up doing what they do (betrayal, sedition, etc.). My sympathies change depending on the point of view. Although, I will always have a soft spot for Orso – he seems to be reaping the rewards for other people’s mismanagement and poor judgement. And he is charming.

This novel is funny, violent and thought-provoking plus there are some astonishing, unexpected sneaky plans.

Once again, the world building is amazing – the battle scenes in particular.

A review

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November 20, 2024 · 4:35 pm

A Little Hatred – Joe Abercrombie

A Little Hatred – Joe Abercrombie

Why hasn’t this been made into a TV series? There’s beautiful people, swords and magic. I listened to this, and the narrator (Steven Pacey) is superb!

Here’s the blurb …

The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.

On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.

Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.

The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another…

I really enjoyed this (so much so I am currently listening to the second) – it has a very medieval Europe feel to it. We follow various different characters from all walks of life – (some of them have great names – it took me a while to work out that ‘the bloody nine’ was in fact one person and not nine!) It’s witty and the world building is fabulous.

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November 12, 2024 · 5:41 pm

London Rules – Mick Herron

London Rules – Mick Herron

I have been keeping ahead of the Apple TV series of Slow Horses, we have just watched series four, so I decided it was time to read (listen) book 5 London Rules.

Here’s the blurb …

London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one.

Cover your arse.

Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he’s facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat’s wife, a tabloid columnist, who’s crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who’s alert for Claude’s every stumble.

Meanwhile, the country’s being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone’s trying to kill Roddy Ho.

Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they’re about to rediscover their greatest strength – that of making a bad situation much, much worse.

It’s a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren’t going to break themselves.

I do hope the secret service is not like it is described in these novels (although it probably is). I do like how these books are written; there is funny bits, moving bits, adventure and excitement, not to mention double-dealing and back-stabbing, but the slow horses look after their own.

A review.

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November 4, 2024 · 3:06 pm

Juice – Tim Winton

Juice – Tim Winton

I am not a huge Tim Winton fan, I usually find his characters to be unsympathetic, but I have always admired his creation of place. I heard him being interviewed by Claire Nicols and it sounded like something I would like. In the end, I listened to it.

Here’s the blurb …

An epic novel of determination, survival, and the limits of the human spirit. This is Tim Winton as you’ve never read him before.

Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place – middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.

The descriptions of the different landscapes were fabulous. I enjoyed how the story unfolded slowly and we gradually learnt what had brought our protagonist to this bleak place. It is a story for our times and might hopefully get people thinking about the environment and the impact of climate change. It is a bleak story and (without giving away spoilers) it has a ‘Winton’ ending. I can see this being made into a movie.

A review.

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October 28, 2024 · 4:38 pm

Intermezzo – Sally Rooney

Intermezzo – Sally Rooney

I am a Sally Rooney fan. I was keen to read this and my daughter received an ARC, but she didn’t get onto it, so in the end I listened to it (highly recommended by someone from my stitching group). It was a very good decision to listen to it, the narrator was fabulous.

Here’s the blurb …

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair and possibility—a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

I think this is my favourite of her novels. The writing is beautiful, it’s written from the perspectives of Ivan, Margaret and Peter, and each of their voices are different. I loved how internal it was, we were in their heads. Ivan was my favourite. There is a lot of thinking about what it means to be a good person and to live a good life. It is very thought provoking. And it’s about relationships: brothers, mothers and sons, lovers, and friends.

A review.

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October 14, 2024 · 3:21 pm

Big Sky – Kate Atkinson

Big Sky – Kate Atkinson

Sadly, I have now finished all of the Jackson Brodie books. Number six – Death at the Sign of the Rook, has just been released, so it will be a while before another one is published.

Here’s the blurb …

Jackson Brodie, ex-military police, ex-Cambridge Constabulary, currently working as a private investigator, makes a highly anticipated return, nine years after the last Brodie, Started Early, Took My Dog.

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.

This was excellent. Different strands coming together in a beautiful tapestry. All of the good literary Atkinson things – literary references, great sense of place, fabulous characters (I particularly liked Harry and Bunny). A return of old characters – Reggie and Julia. Julia seems to live in Brodie’s head – always making comments on his thoughts.

Guardian Review

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October 8, 2024 · 1:45 pm

Started Early, Took my Dog – Kate Atkinson

Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson

I am continuing on my Jackson Brodie audio marathon (this narrator pronounces Niamh wrong, which is grating).

Here’s the blurb …

Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective – a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other – or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.

Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as Case Histories, is embarking on a different sort of rescue – that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.

This was very good. The new characters Tracy, Barry, Tilly and Courtney are excellent. I enjoyed getting their perspective (not Courtney – she’s only four). Jackson’s new dog was an added bonus. There were crimes and they do get solved, but it’s more about the characters, their interactions and how they develop or not over the course of the story.

A review.

I have read this before, so here is my previous thoughts. (It was 14 years ago).

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October 3, 2024 · 1:37 pm

When Will There Be Good News – Kate Atkinson

When Will There Be Good News – Kate Atkinson

I am making my way through Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels – this one is number 3 (and I have read number 6, so just two more).

Here’s the blurb …

Three lives come together in unexpected and thrilling ways in Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News?

On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason’s family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna’s life is changed forever…

On a dark night thirty years later, ex-detective Jackson Brodie finds himself on a train that is both crowded and late. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly hears a shocking sound…

At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency…

These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls “an absolute must-read.”

Kate Atkinson writes what I am calling ‘literary fiction’. There are references and quotes to other novels – Austen and Henry James for example. The characters are great, funny, annoying, kind. We get inside the heads of various characters and I love their internal monologues. I found myself inventing tasks so I could listen to this story.

A review.

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October 1, 2024 · 1:10 pm

The Satsuma Complex – Bill Mortimer

The Satsuma Complex – Bill Mortimer

We needed an audio book that was about 7 hours and we wanted something funny, and this is what we found on Audible.

Here’s the blurb …

‘My name is Gary. I’m a thirty-year-old legal assistant with a firm of solicitors in London. To describe me as anonymous would be unfair but to notice me other than in passing would be a rarity. I did make a good connection with a girl, but that blew up in my face and smacked my arse with a fish slice.’

Gary Thorn goes for a pint with a work acquaintance called Brendan. When Brendan leaves early, Gary meets a girl in the pub. He doesn’t catch her name, but falls for her anyway. When she suddenly disappears without saying goodbye, all Gary has to remember her by is the book she was The Satsuma Complex. But when Brendan goes missing, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Satsuma to get some answers.

And so begins Gary’s quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to finally bring some love and excitement into his unremarkable life…

A page-turning story with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Satsuma Complex is the brilliantly funny first novel by bestselling author and comedian Bob Mortimer.

This novel was very fun. I particularly liked the dialogue (does that come from being a comedian?). It’s got good pacing and the characters are fabulous; funny, a bit weird, but believable.

I will be reading/listening to more.

A review.

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September 23, 2024 · 5:40 pm

James – Percival Everett

James – Percival Everett

I am back on my Booker shortlist reading task – three down and three to go (and I am halfway through Creation Lake). I was loathe to read this one, I thought it was ticking too many boxes, but I read it (listened to it) and it was very good.

Here is the blurb …

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with electrifying humor and lacerating observations, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

I think I had to read Tom Sawyer when I was at school, but I haven’t read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

First, I just want to say that this was beautifully narrated by Dominic Hoffman,

As I mentioned above, I came to this as a new story with no pre-conceived notions of the characters; the judge, Mrs Anderson, etc. I think this is beautifully written – the setting, the characters and the dialogue are all fabulous. James is articulate, witty, intelligent, principled and determined to find a better life for himself and his family.

I am sure if you are familiar with Huckleberry Finn, you will get even more out of this novel.

As an Australian, I hope Charlotte Wood wins, but I think this will be the winner.

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