View from Valhalla

originally published February 7, 2011

Title: The Spiral Tattoo
Author: Michael J Parry
Genre: Fantasy crime drama
Released: 12 September 2010 – 3 October 2010
Located: Podiobooks, iTunes
Formats Available: podcast only at this time
Rating: PG-13 for violence and sexual situations

The Spiral Tattoo is a fairly recent addition to the canon of original fiction at Podiobooks, but I remember when it came out thinking it I should give it a listen. Of course, then I immediately forgot about it until recently when I was reminded about it from two sources.

So, on to the review.

Synopsis: When you’re six inches tall and can fly, life can be tough in a big persons world. What better then than to be partnered with a seven foot troll. She’s the brawn and I’m the brains, and if you believe that I have a castle to sell you. She joined the guard to gain respectability, I joined the guard to escape. I’m Gurt and she’s Elanore Fursk. Don’t forget it.

In the darkened alleys of Delvenport the discovery of a naked corpse sets off a surprising chain of events. Leads will unravel at every turn, although Elanore appears to know what’s going on. I just tag along for the ride. With the rising tide of drugs, magic and ambition that threatens to engulf our city, trouble will lurk in our every shadow. But as long as no-one puts a knife in Elanore, or calls me a girly voiced fairy then the bodies won’t be piled too high.

Otherwise all bets are off!

Production: The Spiral Tattoo is a bit better than most first efforts as far as the production goes. Considering I really do consider a grade  of “C” to be average (although few have hit that, yet), you should consider this production to be quite respectable. I noticed one issue at the end of Episode Two where some or all of the closing information was repeated. As I didn’t go back to verify this, I’m not willing to grade heavily against due to the fact that it might have been a glitch in my hardware. However, throughout the podcast, their seems to be a filter that is a bit heavy on taking the “sparkle” out of the highs. The best example I can give is this: Remember cassette tapes in late 80’s right before CD’s came out? Remember the “Dolby” switch that took out a lot of the noise, but also deadened the sound? That is exactly what I felt had happened here. Still, commendable over all.

Grade: B

Cast: The Spiral Tattoo is a straight read performed by the author’s wife, Kylie Parry. Ms. Parry is a New Zealander. If you have issues with her accent, get a life. I’m sorry, I’m quite tired of hearing complaints about accents. Nobody is forcing anyone to listen to anything and if listening to someone that sounds different than you bothers you, go read a book of poems to yourself in the closet. Having said that, Ms. Parry does an adequate job reading The Spiral Tattoo. Her voice is pleasant and while she doesn’t “act out” each characters lines with her voice, she is far from “dead”. I had no issues here.

Grade: A-

Story: I found The Spiral Tattoo to be a good story. It was one of those books that I could easily listen to at the same time I was listening to other things as well. It didn’t demand my utmost attention and yet it was easy to comeback to when I was ready. I do think a good editor would/could make it even better, but I’m sure this is true of most works.

Grade: B

Verdict: Do you like Law & Order SVU? Do you like trolls and faeries? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then Mr. Parry wrote this book for you. Seriously, it really is about that easy. If you don’t, I’m not going to say you won’t like it, but I suspect that most of the fans of this story are at least fans of one or the other.

Disclosure: I have followed Mr. Parry on Twitter for some time now. He is affable and usually fun to engage in conversation. He dm’d me a while back asking if I had any plans to review his book. I replied I’d check it out, not realizing at the time that he had written The Spiral Tattoo. (Note to authors: it never hurts to ask as long as you don’t mind my honest take IF I choose to review your work.) Mr. Parry was also one of the winners our one year anniversary drawing.