Tag: Ray Sawyer

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It

by K J Parker (Orbit, 2020); audiobook read by Ray Sawyer (Isis, 2020)

Parker_How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It

The besieged stalemate that Parker envisages evokes Hannibal’s 15-year occupation of Italy, only with sardonic observational humour and a cynical, world-weary thespian placed in charge of the defence. Sawyer’s audiobook reading matches the protagonist’s pessimism a little too closely, to enervating effect.

 

 

An Orc on the Wild Side

An Orc on the Wild Side

by Tom Holt (Orbit, 2019); audiobook read by Ray Sawyer (Isis, 2019)

Holt_Orc Wild Side

The satirical fantasy setting and plethora of characters (none them especially purposeful) constitute an ambitious attempt at osmotic, jigsaw-puzzle storytelling. The execution no doubt comes off better in written form, where Holt’s non-stop, at times throwaway drollery isn’t subjected to read-aloud precision.

 

 

The Management Style of the Supreme Beings

The Management Style of the Supreme Beings

by Tom Holt (Orbit, 2017); audiobook read by Ray Sawyer (ISIS, 2017)

Holt_Management Style

Tom Holt returns to comedic fantasy with irreverent vengeance, not so much attacking religion as reducing it to absurdity. When Dad and Jay sell the Earth to deities running a different business model (pay per sin), only Santa remains to offer resistance.

 

 

Barking

Barking

by Tom Holt; audiobook read by Ray Sawyer (ISIS, 2007)

Holt_Barking

Do werewolves and vampires truly exist? Of course they do, says Tom Holt; they’re working as lawyers. Even though Sawyer’s delivery is spot-on, the audiobook drags a little, undone by an inability to keep pace with Holt’s fast, funny and simile-strewn prose.

 

 

Derelict Space Sheep