Consider the Elephant, by Aram Schefrin

This book is available for free from Podiobooks.com, and is available in 37 installments. Find it here. This dramatized, unabridged audiobook is not suitable for younger listeners because of explicit sexual content.

This is a novel about John Wilkes Booth and the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. It is based on extensive research, using actual letters to and from Booth that reveal a great deal of detail about events and his state of mind. It is very well written. The characters are vividly portrayed, and the story is riveting, even if you know how it turns out.

Your American History class would have been a whole lot more interesting if portions of this book had been made available. A film adaptation of this book would be a unique offering that I would love to see.

This gets 4 stars.

Marwan, by Aram Schefrin

This audiobook came in 32 episodes from Podiobooks.com, was in mp3 format, and is narrated by several unidentified persons.

This is a novel about Marwan al Shehhi, one of the September 11 hijackers. It is a chilling story based on the documented investigation into the terror attacks. I was curious to see how the author, Aram Schefrin, managed to humanize such a monster. Could a complex individual full of misgivings have flown into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center? Or would he have to be a complete sociopath?

This book was hard to put aside, and the time flew by. "Marwan" was both sad and riveting. Schefrin succeeds at keeping your pity for Marwan separated from your horror of what he has done. And you need to do that to see the next terror attack coming. Marwan was not a "bad seed", but he had many of them sown in his brain. Ideas matter, and you cannot fight them with mere law enforcement.

The Rookie, by Scott Sigler

This audiobook came from Scott Sigler's Podshow Page, was 26 episodes long, and includes a lot of author's extras.

I have been hesitant about reviewing these audiobooks because they are not just audiobooks. Each episode is a show, with some chatter from Scott, and promos of other podcasts. However, I just got done listening to another dog of a book that was published the conventional way, and realized that some of these books were much better.

"The Rookie" is set hundreds of years in the future, when the known Universe has been conquered by an alien race. In a new twist, human beings are not the only planetary race that has been subjugated. Several other alien races are now part of a greater empire, and that master race has found a pacifying replacement for war: American style football.

Scott Sigler has created a universe in which all the alien races have something to bring to the field. Some make great linemen, some receivers, but the Ionath Krakens have a great rookie quarterback named Quentin Barnes.

Barnes grew up in the quarries, an orphan in a slave labor camp, where they only had really big stones to use as the ball. He is recruited by a scout for the Krakens, a team that is owned by an alien organized crime boss. This is Quentin's ticket off the rock pile. But it's a dangerous game in this new universal order. It is not all that unusual for players to be killed in the game.

Sigler has given us alien creatures with flaws and foibles as well as loyalty and honor. Religion, politics, crime and prejudice have not been bleached out of the story; overwhelming us with technology. I am NOT a fan of science fiction, but this was an episode I waited eagerly for every week.

Books that can do that get 4 stars.

A break for podcasts

Yesterday I took a break from audiobooks to just zone out with podcasts. I usually have a few podcasts as a part of my listening diet, but yesterday I caught up with a lot of shows I had not heard in awhile.

For those of you who are mystified about what a podcast is, it is simply a down loadable audio program that is attached to an rss feed, so you can subscribe to it and be notified of the latest episode. Some will argue that the rss feed is not required, and I can understand that, but I have to admit that I don't listen to such podcasts. Everything I download is part of someone's rss feed, and the podcasting community all seems to agree on this, so I think I will let them define themselves.

Relax. I know I just numbed your brain a little bit with a bit of geek-speak, but you don't have to have a clue about rss feeds to enjoy podcasts. It's like your mp3 player: you don't have to understand it to use it. But if you want to subscribe to podcasts, it will be helpful to use a program or application to track the ones to which you want to subscribe. Forunately, some sites like yahoo.com and google.com provide a means of doing that through their "mypage" portals. (Yahoo's is called MyYahoo, and Google's is My Account, but you get the point.)

Here are some of the websites for some of my favorite podcasts that are a good jumping off point. You can find recent episodes, get subscribing information, etc.

Scott Sigler's "The Rookie" This one is a podcast novel. As he says in the intro, "you can't peek at the end!" I am not a science fiction fan, as a rule, but Sigler is a very good writer, and that comes out in any genre. It takes place in a future where an alien race has conquered the known universe, but has the same governinng problems that come with any overextended empire. In order to channel the aggression of all these alien species into a less destructive venue, the victors have encouraged athletic competition, and American Football is the overwhelming fan favorite. So, you have receivers and cornerbakc who can jump 25 feet in the air.

Another thing you have in a huge empire that tries to control everything is organized crime. Some of these criminal elements own football teams, and use the team spaceships to move contraband. And on the teams themselves you have issues of racism. This sounds like a crazy book, but I have to tell you that I am hooked! So, here I am waiting eagerly for episode 13.

The Daily Breakfast Father Roderick in the Netherlands does this English language podcast with upbeat music, humor, and a touch of spiritual inquiry. I am not even Catholic, but this show is a pleasant diversion that anyone could enjoy. Fatehr Roderick is a 38 year old priest who watches over 3 parishes in the Diocese of Utrecht, and he makes the time to produce a half hour program with podsafe music, geek news, movie reviews, and even an ocassional Latin segment that begins with a sound clip of Bart Simpson praying in Latin, followed by Homer yelling, "Bart, what in hell are you saying?"

There are many others, but I have to go to work! Happy listening!