Episode 1288 Talkback: TV Talk on Arrow and The Walking Dead
Pants
Posts: 567
Time for a change of pace from comic talk to TV talk. Shane and Pants discuss the series premiere of 'Arrow' and the third season premiere of 'The Walking Dead'. Spoilers! (1:00:35)
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Comments
I don't have cable. The costs are not worth it. Not watching Arrow, and as for the Walking Dead, zombies freak me out.
This front end is owned by Audible (when you check out, you actually check out via Audible), but the books are supa-cheap. Cheaper than with an Audible subscription.
I listen to about a dozen podcasts - and all are sponsored by audible.
I was in the same position as you when I first discovered Audible.
But if you look at the prices to buy the books at regular price, that's pretty cheap. And if you sign up for the Platinum plan you get two books for $22, so it lowers your per-book cost.
It's not super cheap, but the quality is amazing.
You can sign up for a free month, try a book and then cancel. You get to keep the book.
There's no risk. I can't decide for you if $15 is too much for a book. I'm usually pretty picky about the books I get. I try to find long ones so I get my money's worth.
Bry
I win :D
And if there's a cable channel show that doesn't stream that we wanna see... we just get it through Amazon. When you're not paying for hundreds of channels you never watch, ponying up a couple bucks an episode for Doctor Who or The Walking Dead or whatever ends up not being a big deal.
Jamie D f'd up not watching Arrow. While not my Oliver Queen I still found it to be a very enjoyable show. Are the exterior shots of their mansion the same as Lex's mansion in Smallville. It looked exactly the same.
There has been a lot of audiobook discussion, and a lot of great recommendations, on this thread.
If you are going for the free trial, some on-topic ones I would recommend:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. For the longest time they had an abridged version. And abridged is rubbish. But just a month or two ago an unabridged went live. I am halfway through it. It is well-narrated, and (no surprise) a brilliant book. Pulizter Prize winning fiction that is a family epic and WW2 story intertwined with the history of American comics. This is also a good bang for your buck choice, as your free credit gets you 26 hours worth of book.
The Ten Cent Plague by David Hajdu. A fantastic book on the history of comics and, especially, the best thing I have ever read on the history surrounding the Senate hearings and Dr. Wertham. I can't speak for the narrator, as I did this in print years ago. But I am glad to see Audible has it unabridged.
SuperGods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God From Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison. Part meditation on the history of superheroes and part memoir. I thought it was great, but fair warning, if you hate Morrison, you won't like it, as the memoir parts do get a little trippy (it is not for Bryan). But if you are game for Morrison getting a little trippy, it is a passionate and insightful book about superheroes, like a stellar lecture, mixed with a showbusiness memoir. And John Lee, who narrates, is one of my favorite readers.
And a couple just right for Halloween--
The Shining by Stephen King, narrated by Campbell Scott. To me, it is one of King's greatest works, if not his greatest, and the Scott narration is perfect. I remember doing this one in an October a few years back, and then we watched the Kubrick film for Halloween (my wife had never seen it).
Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber narrated by Sean Kenin Zombie Storm Troopers. Come on! A Star Wars horror book. Very fun. And excellently narrated by a buddy of mine, who is a very talented reader, and lifelong Star Wars fan (a dream gig, especially with a particular character that shows up in that book).
Another bang for your buck recommendation-- the Song of Ice and Fire Books by George R.R. Martin. I will be honest, I don't love the narrator for most of them (though many disagree with me on that) but it was a great way to do these books, as this is a time of my life when I don't have as many opportunities to sit still and read, and each one is, like, a thousand hours long or something. I have spent more time in a month listening to Roy Dotrice than my own wife.
I love Roy Dotrice's narration of the Song of Ice and Fire books - and yes those things are loooooooong. I take much longer runs, walks and trips now.
If you are a fan of the Thrawn trilogy you owe it to yourself to download the unabridged versions of these books from Audible. The narrator's name escapes me but his voice changes for each part, they use distortions for unique voices like C3PO, and lots and lots of sound effects. It's like listening to a movie.