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Post by glutamodo on Aug 31, 2018 1:33:17 GMT
I was also a non-reader-of-text-Benny so these were also totally new to me. I was kind of afraid that I might get lost with references to things I either didn't know or had forgotten about, but it was fine. A rather cracking set, the kind that when the last track ends, you want there to be more to follow.
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Post by Ela on Aug 31, 2018 3:28:37 GMT
I really enjoyed this! I did not know the stories in print form previously and only just recently have gotten into Bernice Summerfield. These are some quite interesting stories, read Lisa Bowerman who does a great job. Most of the stories are not straightforward, but more of an experimental/ non-linear type of story-telling. This is a big plus for me since I really enjoy experimental stories. So if you like Benny and are open for unusual stories, this is for you. Recommended. Love Benny and Lisa is fantastic!
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Oct 11, 2018 23:05:23 GMT
I listened to the first two stories of the set and while I liked the Ben Aaronovich story, I loved the Rob Shearman one. The kind of love where I got where I was going but sat in the car for another 10 minutes to finish out the reading.
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Post by Ian McArdell on Oct 16, 2018 8:44:17 GMT
My take on this varied collection is up at CultBox - some stories stronger than others; loved the Aaronovitch tales and the brief Terrance Dicks one particularly.
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Post by Ela on Oct 26, 2018 5:32:06 GMT
I enjoyed listening to this set of stories. Will need to do a re-listen.
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Post by Ela on Mar 5, 2019 4:31:08 GMT
I did re-listen to this recently and enjoyed it even more the second time. And reading through this thread, I realized I have the books all these stories are from, but I've yet to get around to reading them.
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Post by 20fridge on Apr 2, 2024 3:58:58 GMT
I picked this up in a sale a while back and just got around to listening to it. All good stories, but the last four (Walking Backwards for Christmas, The Least Important Man, Bernice Summerfield and the Library of Books, and A Mutual Friend) were my favorites. The last three were the most straightforward of the set. Walking Backwards for Christmas was a fun timey-wimey look at Benny's upbringing. Despite being quite seeped in continuity, I felt that the style of narration allowed the story to be just disorienting enough but still provided enough context for me to follow it. Also, it was fun to listen to an early Steven Moffat story. The Least Important Man had more edge than his run on Doctor Who. Having Andrew Cartmel read his own story was an interesting choice. It took me a moment to adjust after having listened to Lisa Bowerman narrate everything up to that point (and after). He did a fine job, it just seems out of place since it's the only one with a different narrator.
As someone who has listened to everything after Epoch but has only listened to a handful of the older Benny audios, read a Seventh Doctor VNA or two, and listened to her Doctor Who main range releases, I found several of the earlier stories (The Evacuation of Bernice Summerfield, And Then Again, Misplaced Spring) to be a bit disorienting. I liked them, but it took me a moment to adjust. However, the only one I didn't like was Solar Max and the Seven-Handed Snake-Mother. I thought it was well-written, but the story just wasn't to my taste. I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what I found off putting about it.
Overall, this was a fun short story collection. I'll defer to more long-term listeners/readers as to whether it is a good 20th anniversary celebration. But I will say that it's not as accessible an anniversary release for the casual listener as the contemporaneous The Story So Far boxsets.
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