Something's terribly wrong in Turner Falls, Oregon. Narrator Inés del Castillo gets this audiobook off to a quick start with an excerpt from a conspiracy-laden podcast. She introduces a class of students who are counting down their final days of high school. The story focuses on Lucy and her best friend, Bucket, who have the taint of being brown-skinned in a white school. As the students celebrate the end of school, Castillo creates a realistic atmosphere consisting of the in-crowd and those who wish they were part of it. When something bad happens at a party, she shows Lucy and Bucket's terror as they run for their lives. Castillo makes the suspense tangible.
Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781797111889
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Multiple award winner Card is one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction; here he delivers a history fantasy of the Wabash Valley circa 1800, a world of hexes and folk magic. This is the first book about Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son, who has remarkable psychic powers. Card is a very good narrator, expressive and well paced. One can hear the excitement of an author as he brings his own well described characters to life. There is one momentary technical glitch, the only slip up in an exemplary presentation. Highly recommended for fiction collections everywhere.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 7 hrs
Publisher: The Literate Ear
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Asimov's sweeping tale of the disintegration and fall of the Galactic Empire has never been more relevant or poignant. In the third book of the original trilogy, Dan Lazar handles the material adequately. He uses his limited range of voices nicely, if sometimes amusingly--he sometimes sounds like a foreigner attempting to mimic American accents. Varying pitch and pacing make for a lively narration, and his reading of a precocious young woman, who is ultimately an important figure, is delightful. Technical and editorial problems plague the title. Hearing Lazar repeatedly mispronounce a word that the text itself explains how to pronounce is very frustrating. Intermittent fade-outs on one channel; inconsistencies when switching sides; and low, rumbling background noise mar the sound quality.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 8 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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