Hello listeners!
This is a short update to let you know what’s up with me and the podcast, as well as to let you know some of the other stuff I’m up to. Thanks for your patience and support!
Click HERE to listen!
You can read The City on Wattpad!
You can find my Patreon HERE!
and you can now listen to The Dark Wife on Audible!
Thanks again, and stay tuned!
Podcast: Update
February 15, 2017
Podcast Audible, hugh, Patreon, status update, The Dark Wife, Wattpad Leave a comment
The Dark Wife on Audible!
February 12, 2017
In Case You Missed It, Self-Promotion Audible, audiobook, Hatching Phoenix Productions, Sarah Diemer, Self-Promotion, The Dark Wife, Veronica Giguere, YA Lesbian fiction, Young Adult Leave a comment
Fantastic news, Friends!
After a lot of work these past few months, I’m ecstatic to announce that The Dark Wife is now available on Audible and other Amazon-related audiobook services!
This version of the audiobook is read by Veronica Giguere and is music and sound-effect free! So if you are the type of listener who prefers to hear the narration without any extra embellishments, this one’s for you.
The podcast version of The Dark Wife remain up at The Way of the Buffalo podcast site, and will always be available for those who can’t afford or do not have access to the Audible version. A central part of this project has always been to make this novel available for anyone who might need it regardless of their circumstances, and that hasn’t changed.
So if you haven’t listened to The Dark Wife yet, go ahead an give it a listen. And if you have, please review and spread the word so we can share this amazing story with as many people as possible!
Hugh Likes Fiction: Heartless
January 13, 2017
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized Audible, audiobook, Gail Carriger, Heartless, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, review Leave a comment
Heartless: The Parasol Protectorate, Book Four
Written by Gail Carriger
Narrated by Emily Gray
Audible.com
Although I am not big on Romance, I’ve had a soft spot for Gail Carriger’s “Parasol Protectorate” series for a long time. It might have to do with her delightful sense of humor, or the richly detailed world of her supernatural Victorian London. Whatever the case, I’ve been savoring the series, and I recently devoured the fourth entry, for the first time in audio.
Alexia Maccon, Soulless, Lady of Woolsey, and Mujah to Queen Victoria, is never one to let little details interfere when she sets on a course of action. So when a ghost gives her a cryptic warning of a plot against the Queen, she isn’t going to let a little thing like being eight months pregnant stand in her way. Scheming scientists, maladjusted werewolves, and zombie porcupines aren’t going to have much of a chance, either.
Carriger does it again with her fast paced comic misadventures in Victorian supernatural society. Her grasp of character and timing is once again on display as she navigates Alexia through mystery, society expectations and steampunk hi-jinx.
Emily Gray’s performance is spot on, and deftly juggles the wide-ranging accents and character foibles of the large cast. Her narration is a perfect balance of high society wit and action-comedy timing.
While this isn’t the best place to jump on to the Parasol Protectorate series, Heartless is a worthy entry. I heartily recommend readers pick up this one, or work their way up to it. You can find it on Audible, in a variety of formats on Amazon, or of course at your local bookstore.
Hugh Likes Fiction: Star Wars: Lost Stars
March 17, 2016
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized Audible, audiobook, Claudia Gray, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Lost Stars, Pierce Cravens, Star Wars Leave a comment
Lost Stars
Claudia Gray
Penguin/Random House Audio
Narrated by Pierce Cravens
Lost Stars is one of the new Star Wars novels that does what I like best about the new Expanded Universe. Following two aspiring young pilots from the backwater mountain world of Jelucan, it updates the events of the original Star Wars movies with delightful new characters and fresh perspectives.
Marketed as a YA Romance, it follows the relationship of of Ciena Ree, a peasant girl from Jelucan’s valley settlement, and Thane Kyrell, the son of an urbane, upperclass ‘Second Wave’ family from childhood friendship to budding war-time lovers, and finally to conflicted enemies as they find themselves caught on opposite sides of the Rebellion. Thane, awakened to the Empire’s cruelty, defects to the rebels, but Ciena, bound by a strong sense of honor, stays at her post.
Much like Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath, Gray infuses a sense of darkness and nuance into the new Star Wars cannon that is both welcome and refreshing. She spends a significant portion of the book following Ree and her fellow Imperial officers throughout the events of the film trilogy. She does a great job giving these characters a human face and exploring the hard choices that living under a military dictatorship necessitates. Furthermore, she manages to thread the needle of doing so without excusing the atrocities and loss of life that result from those choices.
I experienced this book as an audio book via audible.com Narrator Pierce Cravenss does an excellent job with the text, bringing characters to life without slipping into exaggerated voices. He is supported by a mix that incorporates moments of the films’ iconic scores and sound effects.
Star Wars has always worked with romance at its heart. Ciena and Thane’s story is a worthy addition to the canon for new and old fans alike. This is one flight I heartily recommend.
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Hugh J. O'Donnell 