Today I finished the audiobook Balak by Stephen Mark Rainey from Crossroad Press. I am the perfect market for this book, so keep that in mind when you read this review.

Here’s the blurb from the cover (if digital books can have covers):

Two years ago, Claire Challis’s four-year-old son disappeared without a trace. Now, a neighbor’s child has vanished from right outside of her apartment. Determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Claire set out on a quest that will lead to a place of madness, horror, and fate worse than death.

The book starts off with a very creepy scene and keeps up the unease the whole book. There are also some scenes in which I genuinely didn’t know if the viewpoint character would survive. Any book that does that gets bonus points.

The characters are all different and feel like real people. There are different motives and personalities in each of them.

While that characters drive the story, the plot is well constructed and stays consistent. I didn’t notice any holes in it.

Overall the book deals with relationships with children, romance, detective work, and a whole lot of cosmic horror thrown into the mix. I loved it.

The reader of the audio book is good. Not the best, but nothing your ears will complain about. I think I heard a couple misspoken words near the end, but they were so close to the word that should have been there than I wasn’t totally sure there was a mistake. He didn’t stumble over any words, in any case.

The book kept my attention from beginning to end. The start is a nice hook, the middle is engaging, and the ending wraps it all up nicely.

If you like stories of horror, mystery, suspense, and mind-altering horror from the dark reaches of the cosmos, then give this a go.

Additional:

There are five audio files. I thought there were four for some reason and make a playlist for two files at a time (I only have a 4gb ipod, and it’s loaded with podcasts too.) When the book suddenly stopped after part four, I cried out in dismay, for I wasn’t able to hear the rest until later!

Balak is a story set in the H.P. Lovecraft mythos. If you don’t know what that means, I think you’ll still like the story. If you do, you’ll get a bit of extra enjoyment out of it.

I also liked how the story is tied to Biblical references. It’s fun to see stories make use of parts of the Old Testament to further anchor the plot into reality and the world we live in.

Spirit Blade SE

Spirit Blade: Special Edition is an audio drama from Spirit Blade Productions and is written by Paeter Frandsen. I did a review of their Pilgrim’s Progress audio drama in the past.

I enjoyed this project. It has some of my favorite things.

• A futuristic setting
• Hope is a dystopia
• Sword fights with demons
• Electronic music

Spirit Blade tells the tale of a musician who feels that down inside, something is wrong with the world, that there is more than meet the eye, and more than ‘the man’ is wanting everyone to believe. Deeper still, things get hairy when he discovers who ‘the man’ really is.

Most of the story is traditional audio drama, and the dialog and acting is well done. I don’t recall any of the faux paws some audio dramas have, such as “Look at that robot that is 50 feet tall, made of a shiny silver metal and is pulling that building apart by taking handfuls of bricks and tossing them into the bay!” or otherwise overly dramatized exposition. The other way the story is told is through music. Spirit Blade is unapologetically a musical. Some of the songs are ‘regular’ songs as in they are a song written by one of the characters while most are just people breaking into song as happens in musicals.

The music has a dark industrial feel to it and it’s good that all the songs have a general tone, but in some way they are also a bit too similar. Kind of like a CD with all goods songs, but they start to all sound the same near the end of the CD. One of the songs sounds like the intro to a Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s as well … I really don’t know if that is good or bad. Perhaps it qualifies as a ‘guilty pleasure’. Overall though, the music is good and should be a reason to give Spirit Blade a listen, unless you hate musicals on the basis that they are musicals.

There are religious themes woven deep into the story of Spirit Blade, but they don’t feel preachy. Being a Christian, I am probably overly critical of religious themed material. Nothing bugs me more than preachy, scripture drenched dialog. I know lots of Christians, and almost none of them quote Bible verses every other line of speech. This production gets a thumbs up from me because I think even someone with different religious beliefs could listen without being so annoyed they’d turn it off.

If you happen to have heard the original Spirit Blade, know that this Special Edition is remastered and has a far higher audio quality than the original. I have not heard the original, but I have heard the comparison promo (mp3 link) and the difference is incredibly noticeable. If you enjoyed the first, you might want to give this version a try. If you are new to the project, then now is a great time to listen.

I enjoyed Spirit Blade quite a bit and if you enjoy supernatural in your sci-fi, battles with dark powers, and music, then you will probably like Spirit Blade.

There’s also a regular promo for the project.

More of Spirit Blade Productions can be found at the following places:

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Buy it directly from Crossroad Press.

Pilgrim’s Progress: Similitude Of A Dream is the first part of a remake of the classic story. It takes the original plot and ideas of the story, and converts them into an exciting reimagining of the original, and in an audio drama format. In the intro, Paeter, the writer and producer of the project, explains that his desire is to make a version of the story that will appeal to todays audiences. I was glad when he said that the rule of thumb was to add before subtracting. I can say that these motives and ideas have worked out well.

When I listened, I first listened to the bonus content first. This was a reading of the original text of the first section of Pilgrim’s Progress. Paeter reads this and does an excellent job. I found my mind wandering just a bit here and there due to the writing style. While understandable well read, it is still an older book, and not written in a style you or I am used to in today’s modern writing. The audio drama on the other hand was a different experience.

Similitude Of A Dream starts off by dumping the listener into an unfamiliar world, even for someone who knows the original story well. Soon though, the parallels to the original reveal themselves. What I liked about this was that is adds a depth to the story and layers upon what I already knew, so even though I had just listened to the original story, I was completely engaged. Though each plot point is essentially the same, there is so much more on top, that it is an entirely different experience.

If you’re not familiar with the original, the story follows Pilgrim, a man who has found that the world is not quite how he suspected and dire things are about to happen. He finds that he carried a burden and has no idea how to be rid of it. He tries to convince others of what he believes, but no one listens. The story unfolds as he travels across the land and discovers many things and learns the truth.

The production quality is fantastic. The voice acting is top notch and natural sounding. The music and effects blend well. The sound levels are good because even with the sound low, I had no trouble hearing the different parts.

If you are a fan on the original, I really think you will like Similitude Of A Dream. If you have never read Pilgrim’s Progress, here is your chance. The story is filled with adventure, wonder, and action.

This is only the first installment and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story.

Purchase Similitude of a Dream directly from Spirit Blade via digital download.