Title: ELECTRIC BLUES
Author: Shaun O. McCoy
Type of Book: Audiobook – Unabridged
Narrator: Gabrielle Olexa
Length: 1 hour and 13 minutes
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: November 2013
Publisher: Sisyphean Publications
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~ I received a free copy of this audiobook through AudioBookBlast dot com in exchange for an honest review.
PA3025 is an obsolete robot who was created to be a PA (Personal Assistant). Yes, he’s a robot … and he’s depressed.
His “therapist” – a man named Knickers tells him that he needs to volunteer his services to someone who could never afford an actual personal assistant.
This is how he meets Madelaine, a partly-senile, half blind, old-school technophobe with two arthritic cats.
Madelaine nicknames PA3025 “Arty” and the name sticks.
Arty helps Madelaine and Madelaine helps Arty and together they try to find meaning in their lives.
This audiobook was very different from other robot/android stories that I have read and/or listened to. Yes, it is technically a Science Fiction story, but it is more a story of what it means to be “alive” and the importance of purpose rather than the action/thriller type of story that is typical of the Science Fiction genre.
Narrator Gabrielle Olexa does a ‘spot-on’ job as the voice of Madelaine. She is very believable as an elderly woman and her performance of Madelaine perfectly captured the nuances of an aging woman. The only small issue I had with the narration was that using a female narrator as the voice of Arty was a bit confusing. Until Arty’s “gender” was revealed I believed that PA3025 was a female robot model. Gabrielle Olexa was excellent as the voice of a robot who operated on logic and lacked emotion. She was convincing in her lack of emotional inflections.
I feel that a rating of 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is well deserved for ELECTRIC BLUES.
I do want to comment on the audiobook cover. Cover art is the first thing a potential reader sees when deciding whether or not to pick up a book or audiobook to read the back cover. If the artwork is not relevant to the story or does not somehow reflect the audiobook’s genre, it is possible that potential readers are lost simply because they never bothered to read the book’s description. I think this could easily happen with ELECTRIC BLUES. The saxophone on the cover leads potential readers to think this book is about music.
However, on the author’s Facebook page I found an alternate cover for this book which is terrific. Here is what I found:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shaun O. McCoy is the author of the popular HELLSONG series. More info about that series can be found at http://www.hellsongseries.com
Shaun started out as a writer at an early age. He wrote (well, probably printed) his first full length novel in middle school.
In his sophomore year of high school, Shaun traveled with his father and grandfather aboard the research vessel World Discoverer to the far off continent of Antarctica.
At age 20, Shaun was struck with CSD, which put him in a coma and hospitalized him for two weeks. Upon recovery, he traveled to Florida to live on his aunt and uncle’s horse ranch in the hopes of regaining his constitution.
It was there that he was introduced to ideas like discipline and cage fighting. Shaun has since competed in two cage style Mixed Martial Arts competitions, and he is the proud victor of both events. He is an avid chess fan and active tournament player. At one time he was ranked as the 79th chess player in the state of South Carolina.
In 2010, Shaun began to pursue his life-long goal of becoming a professional writer. Even Hell Has Knights was his debut novel.
Check out Shaun’s Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/shaunomccoy
ABOUT THE NARRATOR:
Gabrielle Olexa received a Bachelor’s degree in English/Secondary Education from the University of South Carolina in 2004.
She says it was during an English class that the first seeds of interest in a career as an audiobook narrator were planted. When asked to read out loud in class, someone complimented her on her mellifluous voice.
Gabrielle taught English in China before settling down with her husband, Phil in Charlotte. They now have one child.
To learn more about narrator Gabrielle Olexa visit:
http://www.sc.edu/uofsc/stories/2015/08_first_person_narrator.php#.VicOPlWs_CQ
On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/gabrielleolexa
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