Songs of the Hallow Saints/The Coldest Winter - Double Feature

By: Brian Barr

Narrated by: Jason Sprenger

This double feature includes two dark fantasy stories featured in Brian Barr's Daemensions short story collection.

"Songs of the Hallow Saints" follows a Celtic swordsman searching for his love in the underworld.

"The Coldest Winter" follows a king haunted by the death of his beloved queen, who drowned in an ice-covered pond.

©2018 Brian Barr (P)2018 Brian Barr

Quandary

Okay, so I like Jason Sprenger’s voice and the crispness of his reading, but I had trouble with the cadence. At times it was too slow and I began losing my focus, and at times it also became too rhythmic and caused the same issue. For the first time I tried listening at 1.25 speed about halfway through the second story and that surely helped.

The stories themselves became blurred for me, to some extent. The listening issue I had is most likely the reason for this, and I feel that I probably would have enjoyed them both more if I simply read them. I don’t mean that either the story or the narration were bad, but for me personally I just didn’t get enough out of it. I did appreciate the creativity of the stories though.

Outstanding Performance

I absolutely loved this book. This mideval horror sci-fi double feature was more than I could have hoped for. I don't know which I liked better, the story or the performance by Jason Springer. What really made this book stand out was Springer's use of sound effects throughout the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was provided with this review copy at no cost and have chosen to leave a review.

Interesting

I liked the overall feel of the stories. It was hard to understand why some of the characters did what they did. Both stories fit together in tone and they could have been part of the same world. If both stories had more world building, I might have cared about the characters more. All and all, I liked the writing style.

Sing me a song, the last one in my life

I have slowly become a big fan of Brian Barr. He does some creepy and amazing stories that never go the way you expect, and hit you over the back of the head, leaving you to wake up out in left field. Some of his best work includes the Three H's and Metal Magic, and are something you will want to check out after you read/listen to this book. He can set a mood like a busboy setting a table. He can also inject you with a serious case of the Heebie Jeebies.

Songs of the Hallow Saints/The Coldest Winter features two tales, both of which are set in fantasy realms. This is a departure for Barr, as he usually sticks to horror with dark tones and themes. I also see that he now has a short story out that has a sci-fi flavor to it, and it is good to see him branching out. I just hope that he remembers his roots and does pure horror on ocassion in the future. I never talk too much about the story, as I don't do spoilers, but I will say that both stories are outstanding, although I liked the first one more than the second. It might just be my Scot-Irish heritage making me biased, though, because the second story is very good as well.

To my knowledge this is the first time that Barr hasn't used Rick Gregory to narrate one of his stories. I have to admit, it was disconcerting, because I didn't even look at the narrator when I got this book, I just assumed it was going to be Gregory again, and when I heard Jason Sprenger I was quite taken aback. I had not expected someone new to be reading the story. I got over the shock, and quickly found Sprenger to have a really great voice for these stories. I don't want to abandon Gregory, but Sprenger really does a fantastic job setting the mood, and his voice is deep and dark. He adds menace just by deeping his voice, it is pretty impressive. I enjoyed listening to him. So, I am reluctantly forced to admit that not everything Barr does requires Gregory to be a success. I still miss him, though. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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2 stories

Both stories had a sci-fi fantasy feel to them. I loved Jason Springer's voice. His voice was almost chilling at points. Great short story pair.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.