YEAR ZERO

As narrator, John Hodgman captures the thin and often wry tone of Nick Carter, an aspiring copyright lawyer tasked with saving the planet. Aliens have come to earth because they love our music, and they’re not quite sure whether they should work through painful negotiations around our complicated and obtuse music copyright laws—or simply induce the planet’s self-destruction and take the music. Apparently, human music is pure bliss to the rest of the universe, but our laws proportionately obnoxious. Hodgman keeps provides a good vocal momentum for the prose, and he shines in the character voices. He adds just the right amount of personality to these intergalactic characters. Without overdoing it, his deadpan exaggeration makes this an amusing production. L.E. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]