Tag: Audiobook

What Cannot Be Said by C.S. Harris (Historical Mystery — audio book)

The latest (number 19!) of the early 19th century series centered around Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, who has a calling to help Bow Street untangle tricky murder cases, particularly when the upper classes are involved.

This episode takes place in July, 1815 — just as Napoleon is captured for the second time, his fate left to the British to determine (exile was chosen because nobody wanted to create a precedent for murdering heads of state, regardless of their crimes). Sebastian is brought in to investigate the brutal murder of a Baronet’s wife and her 16 year old daughter, their bodies posed in the exact same positions as those in a prior crime fourteen years earlier. Through an investigation tangled with possibilities, we are led to a dark conclusion that I admit I never would have suspected (though all the clues were there).

Harris excels at the successive unfolding of layer after layer of intrigue, suspects, and background stories. From lunatic asylums to the work houses to neglectful baby fostering to Dickensian apprenticeships and cruel taskmasters for the unfortunate orphans to soldiers returning from war along with the ever present sniping, posturing, and opportunities for outrage of the upper classes, the story gets richer and richer as it progresses.

The audio book reader was new for me — the first 16 books were narrated by Davina Porter who is one of my absolute favorites. I have no complaints at all about Amy Scanlon but I do miss Ms Porter’s voice.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (SciFi — Audio Book)

Book two in Martha Well’s MurderBot series following the adventures of a rogue “Sec Unit” (part organic / part inorganic bot uber-designed for security). Just as good as the first one! Our hero is a perfect symbol of what I have recently heard called “Heroic Masculinity” as opposed to “Toxic Masculinity.” Strong, caring, and bent on protection. (In truth, our Sec Bot is an it — I think of it as “male” because the audio book reader was male and the story is told in the first person, but SecBots have no genitals so … “it” it is even though it makes the next paragraph read poorly IMHO.)

I like its funny and acerbic “voice” and its constant search for how to pretend to be human to evade capture but also to understand interactions well — kind of reads like the story of someone with autism struggling both to fit in and to understand what it is it wants to fit into. In this story it (we never get a name!) makes a “friend” and finds that it surprisingly “misses” its team from book one. Its new friend is called ART for Asshole Research Transport — they weren’t friends when the name was coined. ART is a supremely intelligent and advanced bot pilot who helps our hero purely out boredom and excitement at the challenge. Plenty of action but without the dull and pointless extended chase scenes. Lots of exploration of evolving cultural norms as new types of beings are brought into play.

Moving on to book three — there are many and they are short!

Holmes Coming by Kenneth Johnson (Audio book)

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 3.5/5

Pretty entertaining audio book with a fantastic radio-style cast of readers (including the author) who make it a very entertaining background for driving or long, solo walks. Part speculative fiction, part crime novel, and part literary novel, the premise is that Hubert Holmes (the real man behind Sherlock) put himself into a cryogenic hibernation and woke up a few years early in 2022 in a Marin based manor home maintained faithfully through the years by successive generations of Hudsons. With the help of Dr. Winslow (a female pediatrician who happened to be visiting the house when Holmes “woke up”), Holmes discovers not only a fresh but a world with decidedly different moral tenets, attitudes towards women, and delightful sources of data (think — Internet).

Nicely convoluted plot, some very good characters, fantastic readers (loved all of the accents), and some fun and thought tweaking contrasts between the world of 1899 and 2022 as seen through the eyes of someone who “popped” quickly from one to the other. Personally, I had a little trouble with the superior attitude of Dr. Winslow who continually pointed out Holmes’ inferior empathy / emotional engagement attributes (but oddly enough I had no problems with his superior attitude towards … everything else. Go figure!). She was actually my least favorite character but perhaps that says more about me than the book. I happen to love know-it-alls (men or women) who actually do know-it-all and don’t always like others putting them in their place for not “playing well with others.” As I said … more about me than the book!