Audiobook review: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

A fast-paced neo-noir journey through present-day alternate reality South Africa. With animal familiars!

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Genre: Modern fantasy mystery
Length: 9h 25m
Audio publisher: Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio, 2011
Read by: Justine Eyre
Awards: 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award,
2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle
From: Purchased from Audible

Story: Zinzi December lives among criminals and ex-criminals in the tough Johannesburg neighborhood of Zoo City with the other Animalled. Zinzi's animal is a sloth, and her talent is finding things. But don't ask her to find missing people.

Thoughts: My dream superpower is the ability to find lost things, so Zinzi December was a kindred spirit from the start. I loved her sloth, her tenacity, and her dress sense of "Grace Kelly meets Sailor Moon." Zoo City starts by following Zinzi as she goes about her piecemeal jobs. The beginning was a little rocky for me. It took a while to get a feel for the unusual setting and characters, but as soon as the main mystery plot came around, I was hooked. I'm a huge Raymond Chandler fan, and a noir detective story with magic is right up my alley.

The story is peppered with newspaper articles, website pages, and other media excerpts that describe the  recent appearance of animal familiars. The articles provide theories on where the animals might come from and why. They provide great back story and explain some of the differences between the Zoo City world and ours. Zoo City is also a travel log, showing Johannesburg from its slums and condemned buildings to multi-million Rand mansions. My one quibble is that the villain wasn't quite as unique and interesting as the rest of the cast. Luckily, Zoo City has more than enough characters to make up for it.

Reading: I'd heard Justine Eyre from her work on A Spy in the House by YS Lee, so I was a little surprised she was reading Zoo City. Zinzi is black African living in the inner city, but she's voiced with a very posh British accent. This choice is better explained as the story goes on and more of Zinzi's former life is reveled. I did enjoy the voices of Zinzi's friends and neighbors, especially Benoît, whose accent took me back to my time in West Africa and my own red and blue woven plastic bags.

Final thoughts: An amazing crime thriller through the backstreets of Joburg with a lot to say about guilt, discrimination, redemption, and fuzzy animals.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This post is part of Devourer of Books' weekly audio roundup, Sound Bytes. Have a look at the other great audiobook reviews from this week.

Audiobook review: Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane

Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane is the first book in the Children of Paranoia trilogy. I picked this one up on the recommendation of The Guilded Earlobe, but I didn't enjoy it as much as he did.

Genre: Dystopian action
Length: 12h 11m
Audio publisher: Penguin Audiobooks, 2011
Read by: Steven Boyer and Emma Galvin
From: Audible

Recap: Joseph is a soldier in a hidden guerrilla war. He lives in society but is separate from it. He doesn't know who his fellow soldiers are. He doesn't know who his enemies are. All that he knows is his enemies are evil and must die.

Review: Children of Paranoia a chilling tale that could be taking place right here and now. The book is non-stop action in a world a little too similar to our own that explores themes of duty, love, fanaticism, and revenge.

The story follows Joseph as he goes about his job as an assassin and keeps a record in his journal. He's good at his work but gets no enjoyment from killing. I enjoyed the meticulous planing and carrying out of his assignments, but the journal framework took away a lot of the suspense since Joseph had to survive in order to write his story.

Joseph isn't the smartest or most fearless of his colleagues, and his boredom and depression really come through. He's in his 20's, and the juxtaposition between his job as a ruthless killer and his complete lack of social skills in normal life led to some funny situations. There are obvious parallels between the war Joseph is fighting and religious wars past and present, but Joseph's cult provides none of the community, philosophy, or history supplied by actual religious organizations to inspire such fervent devotion. Instead, Joseph is paranoid with no delusions he can ever be safe.

Reading: Steven Boyer reads the majority of the book with Emma Galvin covering the prologue and epilogue. This is the first time I've listened to Steven Boyer, and I liked his reading. His voice sounds young and is well suited to express both Joseph's deliberation and his depression. Emma Galvin's direct reading style really moved along her short sections.

Final thoughts: Full of violence and action, this dystopian portrait-of-a-life didn't provide enough information on the whys of the world to keep me engaged.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Additional views on Children of Paranoia from The Guilded Earlobe, Jenn's Bookshelves, and more blogs.

This post is part of RIP VI hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings,
Murder, Monsters and Mayhem at Jenn's Bookshelves, and
Sound Bytes hosted by Jen at Devourer of Books.