John Williams

To get the obvious out of the way, Eoin Colfer is not Douglas Adams. The writing style of this new book is not quite the same as the first 5. That being said it is very clear that Eoin was immersed in the original material and does a very credible tribute to the work of Douglas Adams. With Simon Jones reading it was at almost possible to forget that this book was not penned by Douglas himself.
Now on to the book itself, we start where Mostly Harmless left off; Earth is just about to end again. And Author is about to take off on a new trip around the universe with many of the old favorite characters either joining or making a cameo appearance.
Like the previous reviewer, my only complaint is that the book references the previous 5 books too often and in ways that does not flow well. I found myself often being broken out of the story with some far too unnecessary self reference. It is a odd sensation to be both slightly annoyed because I was jarred out of the flow, yet fondly remembering the original.
Overall, I would say if you are a fan of the original series by Douglas Adams, you will love this last revisit of universe where 42 means everything. If you are not familiar with Douglas Adams, what is wrong with you? Audible has nearly his complete works right here. Go listen The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and then come back to this book.
To Eoin Colfer fans, which is a group I count myself in. This is neither Artemis Fowl nor intended for a child audience. Do not purchase for your kids by mistake. On the other hand if like myself you read Eoin Colfer because despite his books being listed for kids, you find them witty, fun, and exciting, I think you will quite enjoy this new book, but I would still recommend that you listen to the original stories first.

X – 1 does a wonderful job boiling down some of the best science fiction of early 20th century into 30 minute dramas. Like with any abridgement, the stories as written by their original authors are almost always better, but this radio series gives you exposure to stories and authors you might otherwise have missed.
Additionally, the show is just entertaining. It was well put together and performed.

Finally, this is an interesting peek into entertainment history. Before the TV was king, these radio shows were are central part of the American persona.

Pretty much says it all. “A Night of Blacker Darkness,” is a ?fresh? take on the classic genre of the British farce. Set in a world of vampires, vampire hunters, criminals and constables, this book follows the unlucky protagonist as he tries to convince everyone that a he is not a vampire. Overall, it made me laugh and if you are looking for a light read with silly circumstance and a touch of gothic, this may be the book for you.

This book is uneven. Don’t get me wrong it isn’t bad. It is in fact very good verging on quite excellent in places. I think I’ll remember Master Wu and his story of hunting ninjas and the secret for quite some time as cleaver, funny, and touching.

However, it starts out as a collection of lightly inner connected pros that could easily be independent and then enters a long story of the core of the book and switches quite a bit. The pacing changes frequently enough to distract from rather than enhance the story telling. It actually reminds me quite a bit of the works Haruki Murakami, however Haruki is more skillful in changing pace.

All that being said there is no page, nor paragraph that I could point to and say that it is not witty, well written and entertaining. I did however at several points have to stop, and listen to or read something else before I could return to this book.

Now, here is the point I really wanted to talk about. I bought this book because when I read reviews here and at amazon.com, I saw several that compared this work to those of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Nope. Not a thing like. Sure there is humor, but this is more like Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut. Which is to say it is honestly and truly well writing and does have a dry and sarcastic wit to it, but it isn’t a thing like the over the top and silly dry humor of Pratchett or Adams. Shame really as I would love to find someone like Pratchett, Adams, Wodehouse, possible more Adams and Pratchett than Wodehouse really. This book is, alas, not it. Eoin Colfer is also quite good though most of his books are targeted at a teen and younger audience.

I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and I quite enjoyed listening to some the background behind the myths and tales from which the discworld borrows. My only complaint is that is spent far too many chapters talking about the Tiffany Aching novels and not enough time on the earlier works. Further, I would have loved to have Nation and Long earth included in the analysis even though they aren’t discworld books. However, overall it was quite informative, interesting, and entertaining.

This light hearted comedy follows the travels of Brian Gulliver into marvelous and very fictional lands. Each of these lands represents the logical extreme of many of modern ideas including a land run by doctors, a land run by back to earth people, a land of just 1 law and many other fantastical scenarios. The stories are well told and very funny. If you are a fan of BBC humor, you will very likely enjoy this series. I am personally hopeful that there will be a series 2.

I quite enjoyed the first story. After years of getting spam, it is quite enjoyable to hear someone putting one over on the scammers and the spammers. However, the pleasure is quickly reduced as the overall theme simply repeats over and over again. I would say this is the equivalent of prank calls with the sole difference that the victims are getting their just treatment.
I could see why others would enjoy this book, but for me, the humor was shallow. Perhaps 1 short story would work, but as a large collection it is just appalling.

The author can be quite witty and as such, I would give this book a 2 even though I couldn’t personally finish it.

Fun little adventure into conspiracy and corruptions. The story is light and entertaining and while it centers around one of America’s largest political hot topics, the author doesn’t express favor for either side of the argument and it only serves as a driving force and background for the story.

Honestly, I’m not sure why this audio book exists. It is too stupid to actually be offensive, but so stereotyped that it isn’t funny. I’m not sure what the author was trying to accomplish.

The Hunger Pains is a spot on parody. It retells the story of the hunger games pointing out some of the more gapping plot holes and some of the sillier plot points. The story is well put together and the characters of humorous. I would recommend reading the hunger games first as it helps you understand some of the jokes.
Overall a good parody.

It is hard to articulate exactly what this book is about as it interweaves multiple tales together in a way that is somewhat reminiscing of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The core story follows the development of a girl who has many of the disadvantages that life can through at her, no money, a mother who does not seem to care about her, a father who dies on the wrong side of the law, and a society that cares little about people and less about women surrounding her. She does however have two major things going for her; a brother who loves her fiercely and puts her ahead of himself, and a book he steals for her not knowing that it was designed to develop a young mind to be able to change the world around her, The Young Lady???s illustrated Primer.

However this is also the story about that book, how it was created and the philosophy around changing the world and why the aristocracy crumbles once in power over and over again. What does it mean to be a person, how is someone set to change the world, and how do revolutions start.

Further, this is the story of pragmatic law and the conflict between western and eastern sociopolitical views: The conflict between the valuing the individual and valuing the society.

All of these ties together to tell a story that is heart jerking, compelling, inspirational, interesting and hard to put down. All said, I give this story a strong recommendation to everyone who enjoys science fiction and particularly if you have a amateur interest in sociology and philosophy.