Review: Echoes

This Podcast Novel is completed.

Podcast Novel or Audio Drama: Podcast novel

Title: Echoes

Written by: Nathan P. Butler

I found it at: Podiobooks.com feed through iTunes

Reading/Voice Acting Quality: 3/5 - Not sure if the author is reading this or not, (It's never mentioned, so I assume that the reader is the author. Usually if someone else reads it, they are given a credit at the beginning of an episode.) but whoever is reading this? SLOW DOWN. We get that it's an exciting story. But honestly, it was hard to get used to the reader's pace at first. The reader does a good job of making the character voices in dialog distinctive, but it still a bit too fast.

Overall Production Quality: 4/5 Could have used intro/outtro music. It's not required, but it does make for a more dynamic experience. The only positive to having JUST the story in this podcast novel, is that there are no ads. Each Episode is very short compared to other podcast novels. The longest coming in at 13 minutes and 27 seconds. Most podcast novels are about two to three times longer.

Comments: This one was one of the first non-fantasy-world podcast novels that I found. I think I found a group of three the same round of Podiobooks feed shopping in iTunes. This was the first one of the three that I listened to. (And reviews of the other two are coming.) It seems that this particular author does primarily Star Wars Fandom work and this is his first attempt at something original. It's a good story, and I enjoyed it very much. I think he might have done a few things differently as far as reading. (Like I said above: SLOW DOWN.) but these are just my opinion. It's possible that I've been listening to too many podcast novels that are hugely produced. The fact that the episodes are so short presented an interesting dilemma to me. Normally, I listen to these novels at work because I work with files and it helps the time go by. But the total of this novel clocks in at 3.1 hours and my shifts are 5 hours long. Normally I'm used to listening to 6 or 7 episodes of longer podcast novels and completing one (or catching up with one) in a week. I solved this by using the other 1.9 hours catching up on new episodes of podcasts that are not completed. So just to warn anyone considering this one, it's shorter than many others that I'll review here.

Other than these nitpicks, the story is a good one. It follows Atlanta Homicide Detective Darren Fox as he tries to solve a very strange murder that was committed in Atlanta, but has connections to congressmen in Washington D.C. The politics and relationships between the characters make this story dynamic and interesting. There's an interesting twist about...I think half-way through. I don't want to give it away though. I try to make these as spoiler free as possible.

Overall Score: 4.5/5 – If you enjoy mysteries and can pay attention to the fast reading, then give Echoes a try.

Author’s Website: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/

Story Website: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/echoes/index.html

Search “Echoes” on iTunes.

Reivew: Murder at Avedon Hill

This podcast novel is completed.

Podcast Novel or Audio Drama: This one kind of blurs that line. It’s technically a podcast novel, but there is a lot of voice acting in this, several parts played by other podiobooks.com veterans.

Title: Murder at Avedon Hill

Written by: P. G. Holyfield

I found it at: Podiobooks.com feed through iTunes

Reading/Voice Acting Quality: 4/5 – With some volume issues and some quality issues in some episodes, I couldn’t give it 5, but it was still quite good.

Overall Production Quality: 4/5 – Sometimes the ads and “story-so-far” parts bugged me, but on the whole, it was good. The intro and outro music were both very good as well.

Comments: I wasn’t sure about this story in the beginning. I love mystery and suspense though, so after hearing an ad for it on…I think it was Playing for Keeps…I decided to go and look it up. I had a slight problem in listening to it at first. We were in the process of organizing our spare bedroom/office and our PC that had all our music on it was unhooked and awaiting its setup. I downloaded it through iTunes on my iPhone and managed to get to Episode 17 when we finished. I plugged my iPhone in to sync and try to download the rest of it. Before I could finish? The desktop crashed. Meaning we had to not only fix it, but re-transfer our music and re-download all of our podcasts. Despite the fact that this is my first review, I’d already had probably a good 10 podcast novels and audio dramas. I had to download them all over again. >_< 4 days later, I’d finally managed to get all of the novel listened to. I finished it this evening and I have to say, this is one of the most interesting mysteries I’ve listened to in a long time. Not only is this a murder mystery, it’s also set in an amazing fantasy setting that it seems that Mr. Holyfield has plotted all out, but still only shows us a portion of it in this story. He created a whole pantheon of deities, the children of a father deity who can choose to live mortal lives. Plus the possibility of magic, vampires, moon beasts, and a murder of a woman called a “house mistress” where that title is a misnomer of sorts. The reader is taken down an insane spiral of twists, turns and secrets as the author reads the part of Arames Kragen and his student Arrin as they try to solve the murder of the Avedon Manor House Mistress Gretta Platt. If you don’t mind some violence, a lot of twists, and all the above-mentioned elements, this is the podcast for you! I rather enjoyed it. Overall Score: 4.5/5 – If mysteries are your thing, Add this to your list!

Author’s Website: http://www.pgholyfield.com/maah/

Story Website: http://www.pgholyfield.com/maah/maah

Search “Murder at Avedon Hill” on iTunes.

Intro Post

I'm starting this blog as a means to make myself write more, and as a means to recommend preferred podcast novels or podcast audio dramas to my friends and readers. The first review will be posted next week. I plan to have a new post up each week.