The Earth's Children Series

I have to admit I am a bit of an Earth’s Childrenite. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s a large group of fans who are borderline obsessed with the Earth’s Children series by Jean M. Auel. Having just found out that after 9 years of not-so-patiently waiting, the 6th audiobook will be releasing in March, I knew it was time to play some catch-up with the series I love. Problem: I didn’t have nearly 150 hours of free time to devote to listening to the whole series. Solution: re-listen to just the fifth audiobook in the series, The Shelters of Stone.

The first time I listened to The Shelters of Stone, I must say, I was a little disappointed. The new plot twists were great, but a lot of the audiobook seemed to be the previous audiobooks repeated. This time around however, I found the very thing I found frustrating my first time listening was ideal to catch-up on the series without the need to dedicate the time needed to re-listen to the whole set.

The Land of Painted Caves (book 6) will be releasing March 29, 2011. For those who looking for an epic saga and haven’t already listened to this series, I highly recommend these be your next audiobooks. The series that centered around a young girl named Ayla and her people, the Clan of the Cave Bear, was first written thirty years ago and is still one of my favorite audiobook series of all time. And for those Sandra Burr fans out there: the whole series is magnificently narrated by her. Listen to the series and become a fellow Earth Childrenite, you won’t be disappointed.

-H.B.

The Last Song

I have read Nicholas Sparks books before and, of course, watched The Notebook many times but I have never listened to one of his books. I decided to give The Last Song a go. Nicholas Sparks is the master of tearjerkers so I should have been prepared for this book but I apparently did not know what it was actually about when I started listening.

Ronnie is 17 and has just graduated from high school in New York City. The last thing she wants to do is spend the summer in North Carolina with her dad, who left the family a few years back. After getting off to a rocky start, she meets Will, a very rich, attractive boy who she does not like at first. As she gets to know him, they fall in love. As the summer comes to an end, Ronnie begins to notice that her dad is coughing a lot and he seems really tired. Eventually, he tells her the truth about his illness and why he wanted her and her brother to spend the summer with him.

This is probably one of the saddest books I have ever listened to. Like all of his books I have read so far, The Last Song is touching and so sad it’s impossible not to cry. I listen in the car on my way to and from work and I find the closer I get to the end, the more often I have to switch back and forth from the CD to the radio.

Despite Nicholas Sparks being a rather prolific writer, this book is as solid and as good as any other he has written. Be prepared for a good cry if you listen to this story.

-L.T.

Fantasy in Death

Fantasy in Death is the first CD that I have listened to that is an abridgement. Normally I listen to the unabridged story. My thought process is that if an author writes something it is important to the story and I want to hear it, so I choose the unabridged. But I was very surprised that I like the Abridged version so much.

Detective Eve Dallas is called to a bizarre murder of one of the gaming founders of U-Play. Eve must answer the question of how can a man be decapitated, when his is the only one locked in the room.

I was fairly shocked that I did not feel like I missed anything when I listened to this abridged version of Fantasy in Death. I almost like it better in some ways. It was nice to know who the murderer was in 5 CD’s versus 11 CD’s. The only thing that I really noticed was that there was not as many love scenes compared to the other stories I have listened to in the In Death Series. The only drawback was that I was not able to guess who the murderer was. Guessing who did is something that I love to do. It is like I am the third Detective in the story. In general I will still be drawn to the unabridged audiobooks, but I will not shun a book if it is only available as an abridgement.

Fantasy in Death was released in February of 2010. Take a virtual ride into the world of Eve Dallas. Will she be able to discover the deceptive murderer before more deadly games are played?

-ED