The Sarah Jane Adventures: Wraith World
by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright; audiobook read by Elisabeth Sladen (AudioGO, 2010)
Elisabeth Sladen does her best, and the premise of ‘fiction writing reality’ is one young adults will enjoy, but it’s difficult to take seriously a worm-horde-wielding villain who considerately puts his attacks on hold whenever the protagonists want to talk things through.
So, Anyway…
by John Cleese (Crown, 2014); audiobook read by the author (Bolinda, 2016)
Cleese sounds very hoarse at first, but builds into his performance and remains the perfect choice to narrate his own half-life story (that prior to Monty Python), bringing rhythms and emphasis that might not otherwise be evident. Amusingly told and intelligently introspective.
Doctor Who: An Apple a Day
by George Mann (Woodlands Books, 2014); audiobook read by David Troughton (Bolinda, 2015)
David Troughton’s reading brings a lot to this gentle Christmas ‘Seeds of Doom’ homage-cum-reprise. The Krynoid remains one of the Classic Series’ more memorable monsters, although again — as with the original serial’s RAF bombardment — the means of its defeat are rather unsatisfying.
Doctor Who: The Nu-Humans
by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright (BBC, 2012); audiobook read by Raquel Cassidy
Another book that captures the whimsical bow-tie flitting of the Eleventh Doctor but none of the underlying substance. Raquel Cassidy is perhaps an odd choice given the prominence of a heavy-voiced male nu-human. [Why the affectation? They’re not ‘nu’, dammit; they’re ‘new’.]
Matilda
by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape, 1988); audiobook read by Kate Winslet (Puffin, 2013)
If Roald Dahl is one of the great middle grade writers, and Matilda one of his greatest books, then Kate Winslet takes us into the greatness stratosphere with her brilliant and definitive reading, making Matilda, Miss Honey and the Trunchbull truly unforgettable.
The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Glittering Storm
by Stephen Cole (BBC, 2007); audiobook read by Elisabeth Sladen
Elisabeth Sladen doesn’t so much read as act, her performance as Sarah Jane elevating this otherwise somewhat middling story of alien imperilment. Whatever the gold is being used for this time, however squidgy and one-dimensional the adversary, Sladen remains the consummate companion-turned-lead.
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle (John Murray, 1927); audiobook read by Derek Jacobi (Bolinda, 2015)
Derek Jacobi proves a narrator par excellence in bringing to life cases from late in the career of Sherlock Holmes; but then, that most enduringly beloved detective has always excelled as much from good delivery as from ingenuity or complexity of mystery.
Doctor Who: The Lost Planet
by George Mann (BBC Audio, 2017); audiobook read by Nicola Bryant
The Doctor, having carelessly created a universe-imperilling problem, defeats it by running away. (If that’s a spoiler, consider yourself saved.) Mann plumbs old depths; with Nicola Bryant reading it almost feels like we’re back in the mid-80s with Pip and Jane Baker.
Galahad at Blandings
by P. G. Wodehouse (Simon & Schuster, 1964); audiobook read by Jeremy Sinden (Chivers, 1993; 2011)
In Galahad Threepwood surely we have the nascent (if more genteel) template for Dirk Gently, and in the comings and goings at Blandings Castle that of Douglas Adams’ much-vaunted fundamental interconnectedness of everything. This is Wodehouse at his fabulous, gab-gifted, exquisite best.
Star Wars – Fate of the Jedi: Ascension
by Christie Golden; audiobook read by Marc Thompson (Books on Tape, 2011)
After a slow start, Ascension builds into the classic Star Wars sweep of political intrigue and Jedi action, undermined by Golden’s obligation to keep the story unfinished and — at least in the audiobook — an often laughably melodramatic delivery, Thompson Force-throttling everyday words.