Dreamsongs, Vols. 1-3
By George R. R. Martin
Random House Audio, unabridged selections, various prices, various readers, introductions read by the author; also available as varied downloads from www.audible.com.
The Monsters of Templeton
By Lauren Groff
Hyperion, unabridged fiction, 12 CDs, 13 hours, $39.95, read by Nicole Roberts; also available as a download from www.audible.com, $27.97.
The Children of Húrin
By J.R.R. Tolkien
HarperCollins UK Audio, unabridged fiction, 8 CDs, 9 hours and 30 minutes, $49.95, read by Christopher Lee, with preface and introduction read by Christopher Tolkien; also available as a download from www.audible.com, $38.17.
Fans of fantasy, science fiction, and horror know well the name George R. R. Martin. But they may not realize just how prolific he is until they wrap their arms around all three volumes of "Dreamsongs" and stagger home under the weight. The print book, from which these selections were culled, covers almost 40 years of Martin's professional life and totals almost 1,185 pages.
Each volume of the audiobooks is divided into three sections and prefaced by a wonderful, lengthy introduction from Martin; he is self-deprecating, funny, and very open about his life as a writer.
Volume 1, titled "Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi From Martin's Early Years: Unabridged Selections" (12 CDs, 14 hours and 53 minutes, $34.95, or as a download from www.audible.com, $31.50), is the weakest of the three. Unless you are a true devotee and need to know everything about this man and his writing, start with Volume 2, "Stories of Fantasy, Horror/Sci-Fi, and a Man Called Tuf: Unabridged Selections" (14 CDs, 17 hours and 15 minutes, $34.95, or as a download from www.audible.com, $31.50). This volume, the most enjoyable of the three, contains such creepy favorites as "Sandkings" and "The Pear-Shaped Man." Especially memorable is "In the Lost Lands," an eerie fantasy read with authoritative grandeur by Claudia Black.
Volume 3, "Selections From Wild Cards and More Stories from Martin's Later Years: Unabridged Selections" (17 CDs, 19 hours and 52 minutes, $34.95, or as a download from www.audible.com, $31.50), contains his hair-raising World Fantasy Winner, "The Skin Trade." Read by Black and Kirby Heyborne, this three-hour-and-35-minute werewolf novella is one of the highlights of the entire series. Heyborne, a convincing nebbishy werewolf, is a riot.
In "The Monsters of Templeton," author Lauren Groff baits us from the get-go: "The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass."
Disgrace? Monster? And isn't Lake Glimmerglass in Cooperstown, N.Y., not Templeton? Well, in Groff's world, Cooperstown is Templeton, just as James Fenimore Cooper becomes Jacob Franklin Temple, an ancestor of our protagonist, Willie (Wilhelmina) Upton. Cooper wrote about a town called Templeton in "The Pioneers." This novel is nothing if not a love letter to Groff's hometown, with its baseball-loving tourists and small-town protectiveness.
Willie returns home after a disastrous affair in Alaska with a professor while working on her PhD in anthropology. Coming home means facing her mother Vi's scorching tongue, and disappointment both internally and from those around her.
The monster is a clever ploy by Groff. He gets our attention but is only a small part of this story, which is mainly about Willie discovering her true identity while trying to pull her life together.
Nicole Roberts alters her tone and timbre for the voices of Willie's long-deceased relatives, and generally brings a high energy to her performance. The CD version of this audiobook is enhanced, so that photos and a family tree of the Templetons can be seen and followed as one listens. Overall this is a surprisingly clever first effort and entertaining in both narration and content.
"The Children of Húrin" is a completed version of a fantasy novel begun by J.R.R. Tolkien nearly 100 years ago. He revised it many times but left it unfinished when he died, in 1973. His son Christopher Tolkien edited the manuscripts and published the completed book last year. Some things, sadly, are best left alone.
This is an epic narrative. It takes place in Middle-earth before the "great cataclysms" that altered it forever. The High Elves have aligned themselves with the Houses of Men, both fighting the Dark Enemy. When the story begins, there has been a devastating defeat of Elves and Men. It is then that Túrin, the son of a great human warrior, attempts to reverse the course of the war.
If you are a Tolkien fan, consider this closer in style to "The Silmarillion" than "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. If you are a moderate fan, as in "loved the movies, once read 'The Hobbit,' but have had enough," then skip this.
It is a marvelous production, with orchestrated music breaking up chapters and slightly underscoring sections. It is read by Christopher Lee, who was mesmerizing as Saruman in "The Fellowship of the Ring." However, he reads this epic much as he performed in the movie - his voice is deep and sonorous, and his vocal mannerisms are very polished but also very stylized. But soon he sounds monotonous while reading a narrative that becomes, well, monotonous. Any but the truest fan will have trouble staying awake, let alone following the story line.
Rochelle O'Gorman is publisher and editor in chief of audiobookcafe.com.
rising
falling 