In 1920s Swandyke, Colorado, nine children on their way home from school are trapped in a deadly avalanche. From the outset, author Sandra Dallas teases listeners with the fact that only four survive. But which four? The novel then leaves the kids in the snow and flashes back, developing connections between the principal players and their relationships to one another and the trapped children. Narrator Ali Ahn does an adequate job portraying the East Coast transplants and the Colorado mining types, but her ethnic characters—the black sharecroppers, the Eastern European immigrant family—are lacking in credibility. Listeners will feel manipulated by predictable plotting, awkward dialogue, and unconvincing characters. Thornton Wilder’s THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY does it better, without the melodrama.
Pub Date: March 30, 2010
Duration: 8 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781440792564
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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