Bitesized Audio Classics

Bitesized Audio Classics
Read by Simon Stanhope

This is a bit of a different kind of review for me.  The subject is not a book or a traditionally produced audiobook, but a YouTube channel.  

If you like English mystery, ghost, and suspense short stories from the Victorian and Edwardian eras-- and the audiobook format-- you may enjoy Bitesized Audio Classics.  I happened to stumble upon one of the stories and have since listened to a few more and subscribed to the channel for future listening. (I like them for easy listening while doing a diamond painting!)

These short stories are selected and narrated by UK-based actor and voice artist Simon Stanhope, and they have the same sound quality and professional polish as traditional audiobooks.  The stories are all in the public domain, but while some will likely be familiar to fans of the genre, others were new to me.  

Definitely worth a listen!

(Parts of)Kiss Kiss

(Parts of) Kiss Kiss
by Roald Dahl


My Blurb:
Audio from the BBC.  Five fifteen minute radio dramatizations of some of Roald Dahl's short stories for adults.  "William and Mary", "Parson's Pleasure", "Royal Jelly", "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat", and "The Landlady".


My Reaction (with SPOILERS):
This isn't the full collection of short stories in Kiss Kiss, but the ones presented were very easy listening.  Just fifteen minutes each-- adapted for a narrator and voice actors.  Very nicely done.  I'd be interested in listening to more adaptations of this kind.


Reactions to each story (again, with potential spoilers):

"William and Mary"--
A bit predictable from a modern perspective, but not bad.   So, would you take the deal William took?  (Assuming you didn't believe in an afterlife, of course.)  I don't know that I see the point... I guess you could hope that a time would come when you'd be given a new (possibly robotic) body, but otherwise... If you at least had the ability to really communicate, possibly, but without that, no thanks.  Seems like a form of torture.


"Parson's Pleasure"--
I recognized this one.  It was in a collection of Dahl's short stories that Donald and I read together some time (years) ago, but I didn't remember the twist until just before it happened.  Even as someone who's not in the market for expensive antiques, I still felt a pang over the needless destruction of such a rare piece of furniture.  What a waste!  And yet-- what an exquisite punishment for our imparsonator.  ;o)  As if it's not bad enough to swindle people out of valuable belongings (because this goes well beyond making a decent profit-- in compensation for his expertise and for recognizing the thing), he has to go and do it in the guise of a man of God!  Shameful!


"Royal Jelly"--
Weird...  Yeah, it's Roald Dahl, so "weird" shouldn't come as a surprise.  Speaking of surprises, some of these twist endings are not quite so surprising as they ought to be, perhaps.  Is this a consequence of success?  You write a good twist and other people "borrow" it, are inspired by it, and so on, to the point that when someone well into the future reads the original idea, they've already seen so many iterations of it that they go, "Ho-hum.  Been there, done that!"  (Or maybe that's not the case here.  I don't really know.  Just a thought.)


"Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat"--
Yuck.  So many of Roald Dahl's characters aren't nice people.  I guess that's true in his children's books, too, but I don't remember noticing as much as a child as I do now, reading/listening to his stories for adults.  I was interrupted in the middle of this one, and for some reason, though I dutifully disliked her in the beginning, I found myself sympathizing with Mrs. Bixby in the second half!  Both Mrs. and Mr. Bixby are equally disgusting, though.  No reason why I should dislike him more than her-- unless it's some sort of "female solidarity" thing.  (g)


"The Landlady"--
Ooooh... ~shiver~  Creepy.  Shades of Psycho.  As such, it's another of those familiar twists, but still pretty effective.  This is definitely my favorite of the bunch, right ahead of "Parson's Pleasure".  

We're Alive

We're Alive, created by Kc Wayland and Shane Salk

Description:
In post-(zombie)-apocalyptic Los Angeles, a small group of survivors fight to stay alive.  Follow along as they seek answers about exactly what happened and search for a safe place where life might be closer to the way they remember it.

My Opinions:
This is a little different, since it's not an audio book.  However, since I listened to all of it (as much as is currently available, that is) in a relatively short period, if felt a little like listening to an audio book... so I'm treating it (almost) as such, for the purposes of this blog.

I'm not sure what to call We're Alive.  A radio drama?  An audio drama?  Whatever label you prefer, it boasts a complete cast of voice actors and some top-notch sound effects (or foley work, at the risk of sounding like a know-it-all), so it's more like listening to the TV than an audio book-- but without the annoyance of possibly missing something important because you were looking at your crochet (or whatever else) instead of watching the screen.   I heard about the program through an audio book podcast (which I will be blogging about eventually, once I finish listening to the whole novel), and was pleasantly surprised.

The series started in 2009, so I had a couple of years' worth of past episodes/chapters (usually three episodes per chapter) to catch up on, which meant I could listen to as much as I wanted as I crocheted-- the result being that I gobbled chapters at a time.  Well, now I'm all caught up, and the next episode won't come out for another couple of weeks.  See, this is what I hate about getting hooked on TV shows.  With books (well, at least those that are stand-alone, or series that have been completed), at least you know that you can get to the conclusion... that there even is a conclusion.  On the other hand, TV shows and radio programs give you something to look forward to, I guess...

Things I Like:

• Hey, it's a "zombie"-themed radio drama!  Neat!
• The sound effects-- very nice!
• Some of the characters... Sometimes.  (Some more than others.)
• The whole "survivalist" element-- though I sometimes wish it went into more detail on that aspect of the story instead of... Well, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave it at that. 
• It's not that scary, so unless you're extremely susceptible, you don't have to worry about nightmares or feeling extra nervous if you're alone in the house at night.  (That said, I don't think it's especially kid-friendly.  At times, there's cursing, and some of it is dark/depressing.)

Thing I Didn't Like:

• Some of the characters really get on my nerves.  Actually, most of them do, at some point or other, but some are just about always irritating me.  (Ohmygosh, Pegs!  And Lizzy, too, really.)
• As is apparently the law for such dramas, the characters sometimes do Really Stupid Things.  
• Some storylines have kind of fallen by the wayside, which is annoying-- especially when I just don't care as much about some of the other storylines that have come into play instead.  Lately, parts of it feel a little soap opera-y with all the coincidences, and I wonder if we'll ever get satisfactory answers.  (But this happens in most TV shows and lengthy books, so...)
• Some of the voice actors are better than others, imho.  Some are over-the-top... Sometimes they read their lines and something just feels off-- which takes me out of the story for a moment as I think to myself how it "should" have been read.  For the most part, though, they do a good job

So, it's not perfect-- but very little is, and apparently I'm already hooked.

Another plus-- it's (at least currently) available for free.  (Though you can purchase it on CD-- and there's a button here and there on the website, if you'd like to make a donation.)  Check it out here. 

This has revealed to me a new world of possible entertainment.  I'll definitely be on the look-out for other radio dramas to keep my mind occupied while I crochet.  If I find some I like enough, I'll mention them here.  I do think they qualify nearly as much as "reading" as listening to an audiobook does.