Review: ANCIENT RISING

Ancient Rising by JC De La Torre
Narrated by Joe Bevilacqua
Format: audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy

About Ancient Rising:

The JC De La Torre classic is back and better than ever. In 2005, Ancient Rising introduced the world to Dan Ryan, the hunt for Atlantis and the Greek Gods.

Called by reviewers as "breathless, moving at a breakneck speed" and "fast moving adventure that fits into the Clive Cussler/Dan Brown mode," the novel has become a cult phenomenon that endures.

The author is re-releasing this novel as a companion to the 3D audiobook experience that features award winning radio theater personality Joe Bevilacqua and has been listened to around the world on Sirius/XM.

This new version of Ancient Rising offers a tighter, better paced story and a new foreword by the author giving intimate background on the genesis of the Rise of the Ancients saga.

Source: Info in the About Ancient Rising was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10753426-ancient-rising-book-1-of-the-rise-of-the-ancients-saga on 10/01/2012.

Review:

I really, really like the additional sound effects in the background. It's the first time I've encountered an audiobook which utilized this kind of creative license. If I am to make an analogy of this technique to cinematography, I would say that this is 3D technique in audiobook as 3D is to movies. And it brought a richness to the audiobook listening experience which I never had in other plain or "2D" audiobooks I'd listened to thus far. It really is wonderful listening to this audiobook. I have to give the narration a 5 out of 5. The pace per usual is not rated for the simple reason that a listener can only listen so fast as the narrator reads. However, having said that, it took me some time to finish listening to this audiobook because I have to listen to it online. That means I am stuck within hearing distance to my computer to listen to it. It's not portable. I can't download it into my iphone or samsung galaxy note to listen to while not at home. I can't listen to it while driving or going to the groceries. Another thing I didn't really like about the book is that the openning gambit throws the reader right in the middle of the story and it was confusing. I could barely make heads or tails on what the heck is going on with the story. If it wasn't a review copy and I felt an obligation to finish the book, I would have abandoned it right there. But after that confusing intro the book goes back to the beginning and starts explaining what that openning gambit was all about. So you just have to get through that confusing first chapter and things will start to make sense. Also the book ended in a cliffhanger, so I want the second book... but it seems that nobody is producing it.

In the end though I enjoyed the 3D audiobook experience and wish the author and narrator would produce the rest of the books in the series.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3
Ending = 1
World building = 4
Cover art = 4
Pace = N/A
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries


Buy Link:

Thank you to Waterlogg Productions for the review copy received.