The only problem with unabridged audio-until now-was that you couldn`t get current titles, the books you`d see on the bestseller lists. But with the release of full-length readings of several titles, including Ken Follett`s
”The Pillars of the Earth” and Martin Cruz Smith`s ”Polar Star,”
unabridged audio companies are moving into simultaneous releases.
Part of the problem has been money. Full-length audio companies are smaller than their abridging mega-counterparts such as Simon & Schuster and Random House-with budgets to match.
Though Herman Melville might be considered a better writer than Ken Follett, the rights to Melville`s works cost much less. But as the companies grow, and as authors and their agents become more savvy about audio`s market potential, things are changing.
A ”simultaneous” release, according to the audio companies, is any release that comes out within three months of the hardback. While that`s stretching the definition, it means that listeners can expect more current titles to be released sooner.
With ”The Pillars of the Earth,” for instance, two full-length readings and an abridged version were released within weeks of the hardback. The productions differ in many ways, and the decision on which to buy depends on the reader`s preference-and pocketbook.
”Pillars” is a 12th Century saga of lust, love, religion, politics, war-you name it. The characters include a kindly prior, an evil bishop, a sadistic knight, an imaginative cathedral builder and a few beautiful women, including the earl`s gutsy daughter. Literature, it`s not, but it`s a good story to get lost in.
In the Books on Tape version (40 1/2 hours, $54.50 rental), David Case reads dramatically, assuming different voices for different characters.
Using an engineering technique known as time compression, which speeds up the reader`s voice, Brilliance has squeezed George Ralph`s full-length reading into 30 hours ($39.90 sale). For listeners who like a bland reading, preferring to imagine the characters` voices, this is it. The fast pace requires closer attention.
Simon & Schuster`s abridgment is 6 hours and costs the same as the hardback, $29.95. Tim Pigott-Smith has a beautiful voice, which elevates Follett`s prose. But even though Simon & Schuster has doubled its usual 3-hour commitment, this doorstopper of a book (975 pages) still had to be cut by about 80 percent-too much.
Smith`s ”Polar Star” brings back Arkady Renko, the dogged investigator of his first book, ”Gorky Park.” It`s set years later, and Renko has been losing himself in Siberia, going from bad job to worse: the ”slime line”
fish-gutting operation of a Russian factory ship. When the body of a young woman from the boat is pulled up in the nets, Renko is ordered out of his forced retirement.
In a full-length reading for Books on Tape (15 hours, $18.50 rental), Wolfram Kandinsky reads as Renko probably would-slowly, almost methodically and from a distance, watching the action with a sharp eye for telling detail. Random House has released an abridged version (3 hours, $14.95). Robert O`Keefe is an animated reader.
Where to get tapes: American Audio Prose Library, Box 842, Columbia, Mo. 65205, 1-800-447-2275; Brilliance Corp., 1810-B Industrial Park Dr., Box 114, Grand Haven, Mich. 49417, 1-800-222-3225; Books on Tape, Box 7900, Newport Beach, Calif., 92658, 1-800-626-3333; Random House, 201 E. 50th St., New York, N.Y., 10022, 1-800-733-3000; Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y., 10020, 1-800-678-2677.
