(Welcome to Audio Books in Review, a new feature here at ReadersRoom.com. In
this feature we will be reviewing the latest releases in the Audio Book world.
At this point, I would like to thank Audible.com for providing the audio books
for these reviews. You can find a link to their fine site at the top of this
page, and if you are a fan of audio books, you will want to check them out. Not
only is their service and selection the best on the Internet, but their pricing
system is the most competitive going.)
Buzz Cut (unabridged - 13.5
hours)
By James W. Hall
Recorded Books Inc.
1996
Read by Frank Muller
Reviewed by Rob
Holden
Normally in both our book and audio reviews here at ReadersRoom.com, we try and concentrate on recently or just about to be released books. Every now and then however -- and this is particularly true in the world of audio books, where you have a marriage of the written and the spoken word -- a work stands out that is so much better than most of its competition that it warrants a revisit every now and then by reviewers. Once such work is James W. Hall’s 1996 novel Buzz Cut from Recorded Books, Inc., read by the legendary Frank Muller.
While Buzz Cut features Hall’s signature character Thorn -- the enigmatic loaner who Hall himself described as “... being sort of Henry David Thoreau with a .357 magnum.”, in the chat we did with him this month here at ReadersRoom.com -- the real star of this novel is the villain, a brilliant homicidal maniac named Butler Jack. Jack is a man who firmly believes that he is smarter than everybody else, and his criminal activities of the past have seemed to bare this assumption out. Added to his immense intellect is the fact that he is almost the textbook definition of a sociopath -- at least when it comes to killing people. Jack’s latest criminal enterprise -- and the focal point of this novel -- is his plan to hijack a 400 million dollar luxury cruise ship, and hold its 2000 passengers for ransom. Thorn -- and his old friend Sugarman -- manage to find themselves in the middle of the hijacking and rapidly become the passengers only chance of getting out alive.
However – as with any novel by James W. Hall -- this is not a simple, cut and dried adventure/thriller story. Buzz Cut tackles issues as diverse as the distribution of wealth, worldwide ecological disaster and the almost amazing fragility of the human heart. Hall’s astute observations and (we must assume) personal opinions are intricately and seamlessly woven into a narrative that is both tight and lyrical. The characters that Hall creates in this novel -- and most particularly the character of Butler Jack -- will stay with the reader long after the novel has been listened to. Some of that credit, of course, goes to a brilliant writer. The rest of the credit goes to, in my (and many others) opinion, the best narrator ever to lend his voice to the written word.
Frank Muller is a legend in the recorded book world – having read everything from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, to the first four volumes of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series (so impressed with Muller’s abilities was King that he dedicated the 5th volume of the series to the narrator) and literally hundreds of books in between. Muller suffered a tragic motorcycle accident which has thus far left him unable to continue his narrating career, but thankfully he has also left an amazing body of work behind him in just about every category and genre you can think of. A simple rule of thumb is this: if Frank Muller reads it, it is worth listening to.
In Buzz Cut, Muller is at the absolute top of his game, bringing to life as diverse and complicated a set of characters as he has ever tackled before. His performance of Butler Jack is one of the finest characterizations you are likely to hear anywhere: understated and often times even warm, Muller nonetheless manages to keep the basic malevolence of this complicated, multi-faceted character always at the forefront of his performance. Muller’s handling of the very intense action sequences in the novel allows the listener to understand what the overused phrase “pulse pounding action” really means. The only negative this reviewer can come up with about this book and performance is that, at just under 14 hours, it is too short – I could have listened happily to this story and this performance for hours and hours more.
If you are looking for a recorded book that mixes top quality writing with some of the best reading you are ever going to hear, make sure to put Buzz Cut on your list.
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