Audio Al Presents: “Robert Ludlum’s The Arctic Event” -- Audio Book Review

Title: Robert Ludlum’s The Arctic Event

Author: James H. Cobb

Narrator: Jeff Woodman

Unabridged:
Number of CDs: 12
Number of Hours: 13
List Price: $39.98
Downloadable: www.audible.com

Abridged: N/A

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Publication Date: September 26, 2007

Hardback/Paperback: Format: Paperback, 400pp, Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, Copyright 2007

Synopsis: Lt. Col. Jon Smith, an army research doctor and secret agent attached to Covert-One, is tapped to lead a team to Wednesday Island, an icy patch of land between the northern coast of Canada and the Earth's magnetic Pole. There, the remains of a mysterious plane were discovered during a routine educational expedition. The plane seems to be a Russian spy plane, and the Russian government secretly revealed to the U.S. president that a lot of very dangerous anthrax may be on board. But Jon and his team aren't the only ones making their way to the plane. And when the members of the educational expedition slowly start disappearing and a team of Russian pirates take over the island, Jon's team will be lucky to get out alive.

Other Background: There’s something that confuses me. It seems that if you are a successful novelist like Robert Ludlum, you can still come out with new books even after you are dead. I guess it is sort of a life after death kind of thing…I hope he’s enjoying it even if I don’t understand it.

Here’s the thing…Robert Ludlum was reported dead in Naples, Florida of a heart attack on March 12, 2001. Yet his novels…Robert Ludlum’s “ta da”…continue to be published…written by someone else, of course. So Bobby boy may be gone but Jason Bourne continues alive and well, as does Ludlum’s “Covert One Series” which includes this one “…The Arctic Event”.

“The Bourne Legacy” and “The Bourne Betrayal” were written by Eric Van Lustbader. Authors of the “Covert One Series” include James H. Cobb, Gayle Lynds, and Patrick Larkin. Perhaps Robert Ludlum exercises editorial control over the material from some perch on high or simply relies on employing some kind of divine inspiration to influence the writers that are continuing his works.

If I can convince you of any of this, perhaps I can also interest you in the purchase of some rare new first edition novels by me. The covers are excellent. The content is light. I’m titling the first one “Audio Al’s Jason Bourne Meets the Covert One Series” by an as yet unselected writer. Delivery will be made promptly following my demise!

Anyway, I’ve read and listened to the Eric Van Lustbader books in the past and thought they were pretty good. So, I gave this one a shot too and I was not disappointed. The plot is suspenseful and offers some clever twists and turns. The characters are also well drawn and interesting.

Audio Sample: www.HachetteAudio.com , www.audible.com

--

Discussion about this book or others in my journal -- by interested DUers -- is certainly welcomed.

I suppose we should all get used to it

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Signet Classics) (Paperback)
by Mark Twain (Author) "TOM!" No answer..." (more)
Key Phrases: nigger cabins, runaway nigger, kite line, Tom Sawyer, Injun Joe, Mary Jane (more...)
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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Few books capture both the simplicity and complexities of American life quite like these enduring "boyhood" classics by Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Take a lighthearted, nostalgic trip to a simpler time, seen through the eyes of a special boy named Tom Sawyer. It is a summertime world of hooky and adventure, pranks and punishment, villains and young love.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
He has no mother, his father is a drunkard, and he sleeps in a barrel. He's Huck Finn-liar, sometime thief, and rebel against respectability. But when Huck meets a runaway slave named Jim, his life changes forever. And on a raft floating down the Mississippi, the boy nobody wanted matures into a young man of courage and conviction.

Now includes a new introduction.

This is hardly a review. It's a press release.

When Ms. Andrews, author of "Flowers in the Attic" and similar books of treacly horror, shuffled off this mortal, her heirs were deeply saddened that, when their gravy train arrived, it was only half-full of gravy. So they cooked up the little scheme of publishing more "Virginia Andrews" books. The only problem was the distinct lack of a Virginia Andrews to write them. Undaunted, the heirs published a series of books written by other authors.

The genius of the plan was that Ms. Andrews' heirs realized that font settings could preserve the illusion that Ginny was writing from beyond the grave. Her name was rendered in 50 point type on the front cover of the book, while the name of the real author was in a font more typically found in microfiche. Additionally, above "Virginia Andrews" on the cover was the additional line: "from the executors of the estate of..." (also in subatomic type). Seemingly, enough readers were fooled by this subterfuge that the heirs felt it worthwhile to publish about a million more "ghostwritten" books.

Now we see this behavior all the time, with authors like Frank Herbert and, granddaddy of them all, J. R. R. Tolkien. More shameless are the still-living authors who've decided to franchise themselves. Tom Clancy and James Patterson churn out books by the dozen, written by what must surely be a bunch of college freshmen chained up in the basement, while the "Big Name Authors" reap the rewards.

Worst of all must surely be the celebrity "authors" like Naomi Campbell, who have probably never read a single word of the books written in their names.

The whole publishing game has gone like the rest of the mass media: brand is everything, quality is nothing.

I remember "Flowers in the Attic", that was some twisted stuff, lol

I also remember "If there be thorns" and one other one. I grew out of it before the ghostwritten books came about. Interesting topic.

The post-life Andrews stuff was about what you'd expect from books written by hacks doing the bidding of greedy parasites and their lawyers.