{"id":2571,"date":"2004-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2016-12-16T14:04:02","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T14:04:02","slug":"until-death-do-impart-by-william-p-robertson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/audio-book\/until-death-do-impart-by-william-p-robertson\/","title":{"rendered":"Until Death Do Impart, by William P. Robertson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Until<\/a>Genre: Audio Book<\/strong>
\n Publisher: Robyl Press<\/strong>
\n Published: 2003<\/strong>
\n Reviewer Rating:\u00a0\"three<\/strong>
\n Book Review by Paul Goat Allen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you read this book?
\nWhy not rate it! \"1\"2\"3\"4\"5
<\/span><\/span>Loading...<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s talk about audio books. Almost every single book on tape (or CD) that I have ever listened to has been ultimately disappointing. Stephen King ‘s Gunslinger saga, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time — and the subject of this review, William P. Robertson’s Until Death Do Impart<\/b> — all have been somehow inadequate. The problem, I’ve concluded, has nothing to do with the content: it’s the format. When I read a Stephen King novel, for example, I don’t hear the author’s voice in my head; my own imagination takes the printed words on the page and constructs its own pure interpretation of the story. When I listen to that same novel as an audio book, my personal interpretation is always tainted by the narrator’s voice; the tone, pacing and inflection of the author may not correspond with my interpretation and irrevocably alter my experience.<\/p>\n

That unadulterated experience of seeing — and visualizing — the printed word is even more important when reading poetry. Every single word is significant. In the case of Until Death Do Impart<\/b>, an audio collection of dark poetry by William P. Robertson, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the verse but the narrator’s voice — once again — negatively impacted my experience. I would’ ve loved to read these poems in book form; would’ve loved to see the poem’s construction, meter, etc. So much is lost when literary works are transferred to audio. For example, two poems — “I Fell to Rise” and “For Story Rights” — were masterfully constructed with brilliant rhyming schemes that were almost completely lost on audio. Frustrated, I needed to have the written words in front of me and had to go online to find them. Here’s an excerpt from “I Fell to Rise,” a poem that would make Edgar Allan Poe proud: Fleshless warriors shattered mail With potent fists of bone That pulverized my armored men Until I fought alone. Corpses stood with vacant stares To join the ones long dead, While I dismembered clacking skull And grizzled zombie head. With shredded cloak awash with gore My fate creaked to a close. I fell to rise with demon eyes In death without repose!<\/p>\n

Also included on this CD are four of Robertson’s poems that were put to music and performed by the band ShadowFox. These songs — because of the audio fo rmat — really (no pun intended) overshadowed all the other verse. “Devil on MTV” was a kick-ass tune reminiscent of 80s and 90s heavy metal bar bands that not only had great lyrics but even better guitar riffs. “Shelly” had a Grateful Dead feel with clever and poignant lyrics. And while listening to “Shadows Part Slowly,” I could vividly picture the band playing in some dimly lit roadhouse packed with rowdy rednecks and hot townie babes. I could almost smell the stale beer and leather jackets…<\/p>\n

So, in conclusion, I liked the poetry but hated the arrangement. And because of the audio format, the four musical tracks just left Robertson’s spoken word in the dust. No disrespect to the poetry — some of which were exceptional — but when you have 28 tracks of spoken word sprinkled with four killer, down-and-dirty, rock n’ roll songs, the poetry is obviously going to take a backseat. It’s like trying to read a collection of classic pastoral poetry in a strip joint — it doesn’t matter how transcendent the poetry is, there’s no getting past the flashing neon lights and gyrating naked flesh.<\/p>\n

After I had finished listening to Until Death Do Impart<\/b>, I wholeheartedly wished that if I could’ve experienced it again, I would’ve liked to read an entire book of Robertson’s dark poetry then listen to a ShadowFox CD. Robertson is obviously a committed wordsmith and ShadowFox is clearly a kick-ass band but this audio book really doesn’t do either justice.<\/p>\n

Paul Goat Allen is the editor of Barnes & Noble’s Explorations science fiction\/fantasy book review and is the author of Burning Sticks, Old Winding Way and Warlock Dreams.<\/p>\n

Click here to buy Until Death Do Impart, by William P. Robertson on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genre: Audio Book Publisher: Robyl Press Published: 2003 Reviewer Rating:\u00a0 Book Review by Paul Goat Allen Have you read this book? Let’s talk about audio books. Almost every single book on tape (or CD) that I have ever listened to has been ultimately disappointing. Stephen King ‘s Gunslinger saga, Robert …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[812],"tags":[74,533,206,815,814],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}