SERVANT OF THE BONES

This turgid page-turner about the supernatural by the bestselling author of Interview with the Vampire concerns a Babylonian Hebrew who becomes immortal and, thousands of years later, saves the modern world from a mega-homicidal, messianic pretender. Actor Michael Cumpsty fakes his way through an abridgment that eliminates much of the color and none of the clichés. He affects a steady, sombre cadence, and reads as if sight-reading, sometimes discovering a sentence mid-line and careening into an appropriate delivery. His is the sound of one who hasn't done his homework and who has been given too little time behind the mike. Still, he doesn't get in the way of the text, so the casual listener will spend a fast, if not inspired, four hours with this. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT 97]