Introduction
Author: Listening Guy
Written by Ted Dekker
I was very pleased to discover that Ted Dekker has another audiobook available, and quickly picked it up. This is part of a string of related stories which began…well, with the way Dekker strings stories together, sometimes it’s hard to tell. But it would be fair to say that this particular story thread largely originated with Showdown. I think it’s quite possible to enjoy this story without having read that story first, but there are some basic concepts that you’d need to get a handle on first: especially “The Books of History”, which are blank books that have the power to create new realities when they are written into by the right people in the right fame of mind. Surprisingly, however…this “magical” concept plays a background role in the story…so once you get it, you wouldn’t need to be up on all the details.
The theme of this story is a very contemporary one: The politically-correct mantra of “tolerance”. It deals with hate speech as related to race and religious preference, and addresses whether or not the Constitution should be amended to ensure free speech only to the extent that it respects the rights and preferences of others. **That is the material for interest of a political sort, and furthermore incorporates some genuinely breath taking “super powers” gave to 3 of the story’s primary characters. It’s about desire for power, the profound requirement for warmth, and (similarly as with all Dekker stories) individual confidence.**
I loved it, and my only complaint would be that I wish it could have gone on longer. However, 11 hours and 4 minutes ain’t so bad.
Now, to the narration. Once again, I feel that Oasis Audio delivered a product that was less than up-to-snuff. It was certainly not terrible…but Adam Verner was adequate at best. The character voices were OK…but the pronunciation was all over the place. Not only were the character names pronounced differently than in previous related audio versions, but apparently there’s a state called “Cal-a-rado” now (Ah-nold..is that you?). Again, it’s not like I wouldn’t listen to another book read by this guy…but it’s really distracting to me as a listener. I guess I have to chalk it up to the fact that Dekker’s sales (and therefore, the audio book production budget) just don’t stack up with the sales of Top 10 authors. Seems a shame, though. At least this time, there weren’t any noticeable gaffes in editing.
Child 44 Audiobook | Audiobooks in Review
If you’ve never read Dekker before, you should certainly give one of his books a shot. He’s a Christian and his personal faith plays some role in all his stories, but I don’t think you have to be a Christian to find his writing compelling. I find him imaginative and hip (although I don’t think it’s hip to use the word “hip” anymore…). But he’s a very solid writer. And by the way, his major motion picture release (co-written with Frank Peretti) called House is in theaters this month (November 08).
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