Jake Underwood, the contract killer at the center of this futuristic thriller, believes he's dead--he suffers from "Cotard delusion," a rare condition in which the brain refuses to acknowledge its existence. The setup poses a challenge for an audiobook narrator. How do you keep the thrill in a thriller when the main character, the book's narrator, is emotionally flat-lined? Scott Brick succeeds by emphasizing tempo over tone and by occasionally infusing Underwood's resigned persona with a spark of excitement, a maneuver that also helps to make the ending more palatable. Fans of dystopian tales will feel at home in this novel's dark near-future, a bleak, frightening controlled world of corporate surveillance, robotic interactions, and morality-free decision making.
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
Duration: 11 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780553399073
Publisher: Random House 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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