Journal Entry 1 by vickijo from Portland, Oregon USA on Saturday, September 29, 2007

Journal Entry 2 by KateKintail from Burke, Virginia USA on Sunday, September 30, 2007

Took out of an audio bookbox. There were no details already for this book, so hopefully everything's right now.

 

Journal Entry 3 by KateKintail from Burke, Virginia USA on Monday, November 26, 2007

I finished listening to this in the car today. As it's only one tape and three short stories, it went pretty quickly. However, this is definitely a case of quality over quantity. This is a collection of three sci-fi & fantasy (mostly sci-fi) stories by different authors and read by different readers. I'll review each separately:

Story 1: The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke and read by Alexander Siddig-
WOW. I totally missed the name of the reader when I picked this book out of the bookbox and was THRILLED that it's Siddig! His character was my absolutely FAVORITE in Star Trek: DS9. Squee! It was wonderful to listen to his voice as he read this story of a man exploring the moon and coming upon a structure man had never before encountered. The results of this encounter and heavy but the story stops there at a twist, making us all wonder what's going to happen to Earth now!

Story 2: Fat Farm by Orson Scott Card and read by Roddy McDowall-
Never since The Jungle has a short piece of writing disturbed me so very much. It reminds me of The Prestige both in content and in the number of mysterious twists, but it doesn't resemble the movie in terms of beauty. This is the story of a very fat man who wears his flab as a badge of honor. When it gets to be too much for him, he visits a special clinic that takes care of his HUGE problem and is able to walk out as a very thin man. However, it's not nearly as simple as that. In fact, the truth is terrifying and wasteful and disgusting and incredible and ultimately justice is done in some sense. The reader is left with a question that is horrifying, even though the final twist is predictable. Very enjoyable and horrifying!

Story 3: Our Lady of the Suropods by Robert Silverberg and read by Robin Curtis-
I'd never heard of Silverberg but this wasn't a bad story. At first, it's just like a tired, short version of Jurassic Park. The concept is an island which scientists have populated with dinosaurs for scientific study and tourists. Then one of the people involved gets too cocky and one scientist gets trapped alone on the island without power but with dangerous dinosaurs. We follow along with her journal as she makes observations about her stay. It starts to get interesting when changes in both her and in the dinosaurs begin... and the ending is well worth getting to! Very clever little twist and some interesting observations.

In all, a great three sci-fi stories that I'm glad I got a chance to listen to! 

Journal Entry 4 by KateKintail from Burke, Virginia USA on Monday, November 26, 2007

Gave to my dad to read. He doesn't usually listen to books on tape, so we'll see.