Genre: Horror
Publisher: Kit Power
Publication Date: 19th Nov 2015
Length: 5 hours and 56 minutes
MY REVIEW:
A copy of GodBomb!,
the audio book was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the narrator, Chris
Barnes in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is
written by Kit Power and published by The Sinister Horror Company.
Confessions of a Reviewer reviewing an audio book? Never!
Well yes, I am actually. I am as much an audio book virgin as Chris Barnes is
at featuring on Confessions. I have never finished a whole one before. I
normally get bored very easily, or fall asleep and wake up as the credits are
rolling.
With GodBomb!
hitting my joint top spot in my books of 2015, and Chris Barnes being a
generally all round nice guy, I decided to give this one a go. I was a bit
dubious to be honest because I loved the book so much that I didn’t know how to
approach this. I didn’t want it to end up spoiling it for me.
This review is not of GodBomb!
itself. If you want to read my opinion on what I thought of the book and the
story in general, then check out my review of it here. This review is purely of the audio book and my
impressions on how it was put together.
First things first. It was good. It was bloody good. The
first thing that struck me straight away was the clarity of the sound. It was
super crystal clear with not so much as a rustle or a fart or burp or anything
coming through other than the voice of Mr Barnes. I honestly thought there
would be at least some background noise on this. A distant dog barking or an
ice cream van doing it's rounds. Nothing. I have no idea how this is done and
what technology is used but again, it’s bloody good.
I was worried about how the book would sound. When I read
a book to myself I really get inside the characters and I didn’t think it would
be possible with someone else reading to me. This, however, is something that
Mr Barnes does very well. He doesn’t use different accents in this that I have
heard him use in snippets of other books. There is only one character in
this that doesn’t get the Scottish touch to his words. Why that was done was a
little bit of a surprise to me to be honest but didn’t affect the overall
experience.
Can I get my negative out of the way now while I’m
talking about the accents?
Now I know Chris Barnes is a male. He can’t grow a
beard too well but he is definitely a man. For this reason, it would be
difficult for him to do a woman’s voice. Like I said earlier he can certainly
do accents, I have heard them. Doing a woman’s voice though is a little bit
more delicate and there were a couple of times listening to this that I thought
there has to be a better way of doing a female voice. Sometimes it just sounded
a little bit over timid to me. A bit weak. Putting that aside though, the rest
of it went very well for me.
Again, reading a book to me is about personal
interpretation of the story. When you read it yourself it is down to you to put the feeling into it. In
listening to GodBomb! I have
discovered that it is definitely possible for someone else to read to you with emotion.
Chris Barnes is able to differentiate between the characters very well. Little
inflections in his voice tone, little pauses and sometimes just cutting a word
or sentence by a fraction of a second made it perfectly clear who the character
was that was talking at any particular time.
If you read my review of GodBomb! you will see in it that
I mention a passage in this story that is probably my single most favourite
portion of writing I have ever read. I was extra worried how this would sound
with someone else reading it. It is so full of emotion and feeling and wonder
that I was praying it wasn’t ruined in my mind. It wasn’t. Mr Barnes got the
feeling of the scene, the humour, the lust, the fear and the sheer boiling
emotion just perfect. This is no mean feat. To be able to take a scene that
someone remembers so well and loves so much and make it sound perfect to them
when you read it in your own style is a job I wouldn’t fancy taking on.
That’s another thing. How do you put yourself in a story
that you didn’t write? It’s someone else’s work that you are reading. How do
you determine exactly what way you are going to do it? I think I have a lot of
questions for Mr Barnes.
I think I have a hell of a lot more respect for him as
well. He has done a fantastic job of literally telling a story exactly how it
should be told. Bravo sir.
To summarise: if audio books are your thing then this is
a must for you. A fantastic story, read in a way that brings it to life
beautifully, without having the words in front of you.
General rating:
★★★★★ excellent.
Reading rating:
★★★★★ see above.
If you would like to help support Confessions of a
Reviewer then please consider using the links below to buy GodBomb! Audio Book or any other books from Kit or Chris. This not
only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy
books after reading my reviews.
Thanks.
Book Synopsis:
Somebody wants answers.
North Devon, England. 1995. A born-again revival meeting
in a public building. The usual mix of the faithful, the curious, and the
desperate. And one other – an atheist suicide bomber. He's angry. He wants
answers. And if God doesn't come and talk to him personally, he's going to kill
everyone in the building...
Chris
Barnes is an Audio Book narrator and producer from Scotland. He has narrated
several horror genre novels and is the voice of the High Moor series. You can
usually find him in a small soundproofed cupboard finding new ways to terrify
audiences.
And
for more about Chris, visit his site or find him on social media:
In his secret alter ego of Kit Gonzo, he also performs as front man (and occasionally blogs) for death cult and popular beat combo The Disciples Of Gonzo,
www.disciplesofgonzo.com
And for more about Kit, visit his site or find him on social media:
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