This is a review of the audio book.
Author: Dr. Cuthbert Soup
Reader: Dick Hill
Producer: Brilliance Audio
Production Year: 2010
Most of the listeners will be: 3rd through 9th grade boys and girls.
Listener's Advisory: For another narrator with personality, listen to Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman.
Summary:
Mr. Cheeseman and his three children are running from the "Coats," various government and private agents who are after Mr. Cheeseman's time machine. The LVR was built by Ethan Cheeseman and his wife Olivia, who created a code for the computer that would prevent the Coats from using it. Olivia has died and Ethan only has half the code. He and the children expect to use the LVR to reunite them with Olivia, but will they be able to outrun the Coats long enough to get the time machine up and running?
My favorite passage:
The narrator runs the National Center for Unsolicited Advice and occasionally breaks up the narrative with advice on one thing or another. During one of these digressions he talks about patents. He advises that if you invent something you ought to get a patent so that no one else can steal your idea. He says that back when the wheel was invented there were no patents yet because there were no lawyers, so the idea was promptly stolen. But there were lawyers soon after that when the first person was run over by a wheel.
What I really think:
The story is hilarious, weird, and exciting. There were a few things I worried about - for example, I can be picky about time travel, but that ended up not being an issue. (They don't actually use the LVR during the book. Or at least, we don't see where or when they end up.)
I also wondered about the children changing their names during every move. But what about documentation supporting these name changes? Why doesn't Ethan Cheeseman change his name? I was able to let go of these issues and just enjoy the story.
My favorite bad guy is Pavel. He is kind of loveably bad with his monkey and the monkey's goldfish and his, "very good and also not bad."
The Cheesemans meet many interesting people in their travels, but all of them seem to have a purpose, or at least the story loops back around to them. The cowboy who writes poetry later wins a contest (because of their coaching). Captain Jibby and his crew make a second appearance. Even the ghost at the bed and breakfast turns out to be prophetic. This isn't one of those books where a bunch of weird things just happen. Those books can be fun, but I like a plot arc. And as an added bonus, most people seem to be better off after meeting the Cheesemans!
The reading is excellent. I enjoyed the variety of voices for the characters. My only criticism would be that Captain Jibby sounds like he is supposed to be Scottish, but the accent goes in and out. Then we find out that Jibby, is of Viking descent. He still could be Scottish, but why do Scottish when it is a challenge? Maybe he was just supposed to sound like a pirate...
I highly recommend the book and am delighted to see that it is the first in a series!
