THE TRANSALL SAGA

Time-travel, science fiction, survival and adventure: the plot prescription for a winning audiobook? Perhaps. While veteran narrator Johnny Heller ably recounts the story of 13-year-old Mark Harrison, time-traveler to a post-apocalyptic earth, he must endeavor to wring every fragment of feeling from a text mostly lacking in emotion. Paulsen's novel, with its tight, limited focus on plot at the expense of character, offers Heller little meat in its cast of stock characters. As a result, secondary characters are sometimes indistinguishable. Only Sarbo, a warrior and champion, is clearly drawn. While this recording isn't poorly executed, given the limitations of the text, it's simply lackluster. T.B. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 00]