Hey there Curious One! I have been spending long hours on the road recently and therefore, haven’t been able to read as often as usual. My spare time is filled with driving and gas stops instead of reading, so when I was browsing a thrift shop, I saw some audio books and, on a whim, I grabbed one! I have never been interested in audio books before. I prefer the feel of the paper between my fingers and the ability to voice the characters in my own head. However, spending 6+ hours on the road a couple times a month, I began to miss reading. So, I decided to give audio books a try!
First off, let me say that my car is an older model (1999) so it doesn’t come equipped with an aux cable (just a single disc CD player) which is why I want to specify that when I say audio book, I mean books on CD’s, not an audio file downloaded to my phone or a media player. Gotta go “old-school”! Hahah!
Written by Stephen White, The Siege is described as a pulse-pounding thriller. I may or may not fully agree with that. We will get into that in a moment…
Book Vs. Audiobook
The Siege is read by Dick Hill. On the back of the box, it said that he has been named a Golden Voice and a Voice of the Century by AudioFile magazine and that he has also received three Audie Awards which is apparently the audiobook industry’s top award. He was interesting to listen to. I would like to try out another audio book read by him.
The Siege is definitely a good book. However, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I were able to read the physical book. Maybe my first audio book should have been a bit shorter in length, but The Siege just had so many important characters that played important roles and I couldn’t keep up while navigating the road. I was switching names of characters around and what they did in the novel were getting all sorts of convoluted and merging in so many ways, I was thoroughly confused by the middle of the 7th disc.
I am never one to give up though, so I kept listening and listening and around the end of the 10th disc, I was a bit more connected and able to get some of the names of the important people straightened out. The plot behind The Siege is pretty amazing. This group of assorted law enforcement were banding together to outwit a hostage situation located on Yale’s college campus. It absolutely made you question the reasoning behind the hostage situation and what the motives of the kidnappers or terrorists were.
After all the introductions and the story was beginning to be set, the pace was fast. By disc three I was really into it, even if I was confused as to who was who and what their roles were in the end game. I was super intrigued by the idea that some of the secret societies could have been in play. The characters all seemed pretty focused on Yale’s oldest secret societies having a power play instead of real terrorism. Until closer to the end of the middle of the book – then that notion was totally thrown out the window and one of the people involved started thinking outside of the box and found the right questions to ask.
The Siege as an Audiobook
I didn’t attend the traditional college or university, so the idea of secret societies and libraries full of unique, ancient texts that could be blown to oblivion was extremely interesting to me.
I’ll be completely honest with you, Curious One. I definitely didn’t enjoy the majority of this experience. I was too confused and had to go back a few tracks too often to fully enclose myself into this world. I totally struggled with connecting to almost anything about The Siege and I was frustrated by it. You know how much I love to escape into the world I’m reading, so when I was unable to do that because of my definite confusion, I will admit I had to take a break and shut it off for a couple hours until I was back in the right mind-set to try again.
With all that said, I really do think that The Siege is an amazing book. Like I said, around disc 9 or 10 I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the results to be disclosed on who it was and why they were doing what they were doing and what the true motive was behind all of their actions. I would have liked a bit more about why the parents of the children were so eager to assist the terrorists instead of the law enforcement involved. Aside from the motivation of getting their children back, I feel there was more at play. I may have missed it though. As I’m sure you understand by now, I was confused for more than half the book! I could have easily been trying to figure something else out while that tidbit of information was disclosed, and I totally didn’t hear it.
Like I said, I may look for this book in a hard copy so that I can read it and if I do that, I will be sure to update this post here with a connection link so you can see both sides to what I was thinking while reading The Siege vs. listening to The Siege.
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No Romance, Better Thriller?
I would definitely categorize The Siege as a thriller and maybe even a crime novel. It was wonderful to hear something with almost zero elements of romance and the way this book included multiple branches of law enforcement and perspectives was inclusive and amazing. I might have to listen to this one again and try to keep the characters a bit straighter so I can concentrate on the hints being thrown out in the shadows of what’s happening.
You should definitely check The Siege out, Stephen White did an amazing job! What do you think of audio books, Curious One? Do you listen to them? Have you in the past? Would you give them a try yourself? Let me know what you think about The Siege if you decide to check it out. I think it is worth it and would suggest it to anyone who enjoys differing perspectives, a bit of thrill, some explosions and chasing and even some military grade secrets revealed! It could be a perfect book for some slight conspiracy theorists out there!
I am going to give audio books another shot. You cannot judge an entire process of reading by only one experience. Hopefully my next choice is easier to follow along with!
I hope your week is moving along swiftly and productively, Curious One.
Until next time… right now, it’s time for another book…
Check out Stephen Hill at the following links:
Dick Hill’s website
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If you enjoyed this discussion, check out some other discussions in the Fantasy, Suspense/Thriller, and Other pages! Make sure to check out the Time for a Notebook as well for notes on things book related!
