Thursday, October 15, 2009

Audio Drama podcast based on "Autumn" By David Moody

Audio Drama podcast based on "Autumn"
By David Moody
Multicast performance
produced by DarkerProjects.com
Approx 3 hour podcast.

Recently I listened to the audio book "Hater" by David Moody and I really enjoyed the story and the original concept behind this horror story. I decided to look into the author's other works and found some really cool stuff on this David Moody. He's published most of his books on the web and offered them for free and it looks like it has paid off. He now has movie companies interested in turning his books to movies. During this research I found the website DarkerProjects.com. Darker Projects is a darker audio drama company who present original projects such as Tales from the Museum, The Byron Chronicles, and The Falcon Banner in addition to other popular Star Trek and Doctor Who interpretations. All you have to do to listen to these creative works is, download audio or subscribe to their podcasts. One of their projects is to take this book by David Moody and turn it into one of their audio dramas.

All in all the production was some very good listening. They sound effects and music were very well mixed with som pretty decent acting. My biggest complaint is that it lacked narration. Many times during production there would be a series of events happening and all you heard was sound effects and some small dialogue. I found myself wondering what was happening, the sound effects were enough to tease but not enough to tell the story. There were some moments with narration but not nearly enough to tell the story. Once the story got rolling along the dialogue between characters would keep the story going, but when moments of action I was left wonder what was happening. It would be like listening to a television cop show car chase with your eyes closed, you hear the sounds but don't know who is gaining on who. Aside from that the dialogue and acting were enough to keep me interested. Don't get me wrong, the sound effects were very well done for the most part, but without that extra narration I would get frustrated. There were some "Dukes of Hazzard" sound effect moments that made me giggle but nothing too bad. By "Dukes of Hazzard" sound effect moments I'm talking about the tires squealing on a dirt road effect. But I still enjoyed the story.

Okay as for the story the book and this audio drama are about zombies. Zombies can be a fun genre of horror. In this story a plague kills off about 99 pecent of the population. The stricken immediately choke to death and die. The survivors in this story are few and as humans do seek out other survivors. Keep in mind the dead are not zombies, yet, they are just dead bodies that died instantly and the land is covered by them where they fell. Soon many of the living come together in a community center and begin to "survive." After a day or so some of the dead bodies begin to get up and walk around. Nothing threatening, just walking. Some members of the group decide it would be safer in the country and leave the group. After a few more days the dead become full blown zombies and begin to attack.

I will definitely have to pick up this book and give it a good read after this thrilling introduction. "Autumn" by David Moody is book one of a 6 book series with a bit of an original take on the Zombie Genre. Also I'm going to be checking out some other productions by Darker Projects.

By the way the movie based on this book is slated for release in 2010.

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posted by Gil T. @ 9:47 PM Comments: 0

Monday, March 23, 2009

Danger in the Dark By L. Ron Hubbard

Danger in the Dark
By L. Ron Hubbard
Multicast Performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio


Remember the old Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines? You know the ones that featured short stories written by great sci-fi authors. This audiobook was like going back to those old pulps and reliving the golden age of sci-fi. This audiobook contains 3 short stories written by L. Ron Hubbard that are as diverse in subject matter as they are fun to listen to.

The production is a multicast performance complete with music and sound effects and featuring the actress Karen Black. The other voices are R.F Dailey, Christina Huntington, Jim Meskimen, Gino Montesinos, Noelle North, and Josh R. Thompson. All the voices throughout the stories in this audiobook along with the music and sound effects create an aura about this production that makes it easy to get lost in the simple and fun stories.

The main story is the title story, “Danger in the Dark.” It tells the tale of Billy Newman, who strikes gold and buys an island in the Philippines. He gets the island at a bargain price and later finds out why. The natives all fall ill and crops begin to fail and the tribal chiefs blame Billy for angering the god Tadamona. Tadamona is a 75 foot god that runs the island and unless Billy can come up with stronger “magic” he will destroy the island.

The next story is a fun fantasy called “The Room.” A small town veterinarian goes missing. The last time he was seen was entering his room. This room is one that was his exclusively and no one was to clean, ever. After his disappearance, the veterinarian’s nephew inherits the room to find that things are not as they seem in this room.

The third story, "He Didn't Like Cats," is a morality tale along the lines of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart.” A man, who as the title says, doesn’t like cats, comes across the cat and gives it a quick kick. The cat falls into the street and is run over by a vehicle. Before it dies it howls in pain to the point that it almost sounds human. The ordeal shakes the man up a bit and is haunted by the cat through the rest of the night.

These are some great sci-fi/fantasy stories from the late 30s to the early 40s and the production on this audiobook make this an entertaining listen.

Listen to the audio review below.



Click here to get the MP3 podcast file from sfsite.com

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posted by Gil T. @ 8:51 PM Comments: 0