JOURNEY INTO SPACE: THE WORLD IN PERIL

The corny aspects of this audiobook can be forgiven when one realizes that the full-cast recording was made for the BBC in 1954. Then the listener recognizes the strength of the writing. The rugged British cast, led by Andrew Faulds as the steely Captain “Jet” Morgan, builds a credible universe in which an intrepid crew of astronauts must thwart an invasion from Mars. Okay, the alien machines sound suspiciously like carpentry tools, but it's still easy to get lost in a story from a simpler time. One easily rectified problem is the frequent musical interludes that burst in and, like modern television commercials, are MUCH LOUDER than what came before. They’re actually painful, but that's what volume controls are for. M.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]