It may seem odd for a site dedicated to audio drama to review an audiobook–after all, audiobooks are the enemy, right? Not really. I must confess, my biggest critique with audiobooks is due to my own dwindling attention span, and with most of my listening occuring in my 40 minutes each way commute, tackling a 13+ hour audiobook can be a listening venture of epic proportions. This is from the same guy who’ll have a 400 page book on his bedside stand. I can’t explain it, but I like my audio in small doses.

That’s why it was with great enthusiasm that I picked up Jonathan Lethem’s “Men and Cartoons,” an unabridged audiobook with 9 of Lethem’s stories published by Random House. I first ran across Lethem when I found out he’d be a faculty member at a writing conference up here in Maine, and voraciously starting reading any of his work I could get my hands on. I found his work (Mother Brooklyn, especially) almost painfully clever, delightfully bizarre, and thoroughly intelligent. He weaves unexpected language, hapless characters, and basic human situations together in a way that almost looks easy. And the stories in “Men and Cartoons” don’t disappoint.

9 stories over four CDs averages to about 2 stories a CD, meaning I could listen to an entire story in one commute and let it sink in as I first sat down at my desk to begin (or end) the day. The stories are all read by different voices from a capable cast, and sprinkled with little bits of production magic that make the listening experience that much nicer. The highlights of this collection for me were “Access Fantasy” and “Super Goat Man.”

The former is about a city where the privileged and the underclass are separated by a forcefield, a division enforced by robots. Those in the underclass yearn to be on the other side, and one man sets out to get there. Twisted social commentary and a murder mystery keep the suspense going in this tale (though it takes a few minutes to figure out what the hell’s going on). This is also probably the production highlight of the collection. Sandra Bernhard has great wryness and inflection, and when the robots come to talk business with the protagonist a voice filter delivers great life to the piece. Though it’s far from out-and-out drama, a captivating reader and good use of the reverberating effect delivers a more interesting listening experience.

“Super Goat Man” is the tale of a retired comic book hero and his influence on a young man’s life. This is a surprisingly epic tale, spanning the main character’s boyhood to middle age. While it might seem bizarre to have an impact character with pointed horns and hooves, Lethem is quite adept at suspending your disbelief, and paints Super Goat Man as tragic a character as any, a super hero that fails at saving anyone, embodying an entire generation of failed ideals. Read by the author, “Super Goat Man” exemplifies Lethem’s ability to weave the hypernatural into the traditional short story.

I’m impressed with Random House’s effort with this collection, as it’s little details that make the listening experience delightful. The filter effects I mentioned, plus there is triumphant music bridging the stories that wraps the stories up into digestible doses and makes everything feel like a finished product. Kudos to Random House and Jonathan Lethem for a great example of how a little production value goes a long way in an audio work, and let’s cross our fingers that they’ll seek dramatization one day as the logical next step.

Well, I’m going to jump right into my audio theater reviews with a piece of modern horror that recently reached my ears: “God of the Razor,” a grisly horror short story by Joe Lansdale realized by AM/FM Theater in Lowell, MA.

I had recently written on the radio drama digest (a mailing list for audio theater enthusiasts such as myself) bemoaning the lack of contemporary fiction stories told through sound. There’s no shortage of classic tales, whether it’s derived from the canon of American or British Literature, mythology, or folktales. Don’t get me wrong, such content is great, but my passion is in hearing the work of compelling living writers, and such content tends to be rare in the fully dramatized arena. That’s why it was such a treat to learn have Brian Price (from Great Northern Audio Theater, also the sound designer and director of “God of the Razor”) respond to my posting telling me to buy “God of the Razor” from AM/FM Theater without asking questions.

I’m glad I did! Scott Hickey, who produced the piece, obviously has a great love of modern horror–not the hack and slash, teens screaming and dorky CGI monsters kind of horror–but the cerebral, psychological kind, ala HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allen Poe (two of the authors commonly dramatized in the ‘classic’ tradition of radio theatre). Joe R. Lansdale, accomplished thriller, horror, sci-fi, dark fantasy self-appointed “Mojo storyteller,” is the epitome of the author whose work translate well to the audio realm. In “God of the Razor,” the haunting environs of the dark tale are brought to life through stellar voice-acting, cutting-edge sound design, and unsettling music.

The story starts with an antique connoisseur checking out a creepy old house for any treasures that may have been forgotten in it. We are immediately placed in the uncomfortable, dark universe of the piece by carefully selected chords of music, effects, and dialogue that suggests something is going to happen without overstating too much.

The narrator, who’s also the main character, heads into the creepy house as the full moon comes and goes from behind clouds. As he heads into the basement, he sees a site that shocks him, and an unexpected voice from the shadows starts to recount a tale to chill his bones and yours: the story of an ancient evil accidentally revived, of a razor blade that demands blood sacrifices regardless of the wielder’s wishes…

While there are a couple of minor issues that drew me out of the piece (for instance, the story begins with a one-way cell phone conversation with a character that never comes back again), “God of the Razor” succeeded in scaring me and that’s no small feat. It uses violence in a restrained, “less is more,” manner, meaning that the moments of violence in the piece are that much more of a shock. And the ending will send a thorough chill up your spine!

If you really want to treat yourself to some good modern horror, produced by a great group of pros who really have a passion and sense of the art, check out “God of the Razor.” If you order now, you get a poster signed by the cast, producer, director, and author, plus the CD comes with another treat, a short tale called “If You Take My Hand My Son.”

I haven’t heard the rest of the “Grist Mill” catalog but “God of the Razor” was enough to get me interested.  Check out more audio horror stories at the AM/FM Theater Site

Hello, and welcome to Radio Drama Revival, the site that’s your source for the latest reviews, news, and sources for the latest audio stories.

Just so we get it out in the open, I’m Frederick Greenhalgh, the writer/director/producer over at FinalRune Productions, your source of original radio drama by new and outstanding (so I imagine) writers, so the perspectives of this site are not entirely unbiased–not that anything anywhere, let alone on the web, ever has been.

I will restrict myself from reviewing my own works for obvious reasons, but this will not stop me from shamelessly self-promoting all new releases and chatting up my friends and other collaborators. Having only been an audio theatre producer for about a year now, I’ve quickly found that it’s a small world and we can all use as much free press as we can get.

So I hope you enjoy this little blog, and I’m going to try and make it worth your while to come back often. Expect links to great pieces of audio soon, reviews of the stuff I’ve been listening to (Roger Gregg with Crazy Dog Audio Theatre, Brian Price with Great Northern Audio, AM/FM Theatre by Scott Hickey, and others…).

A place to keep your mind and ears open. Welcome to Radio Drama Revival!