CODE TO ZERO

[Editor’s Note: The following is a combined review with the unabridged CODE TO ZERO.]--Ken Follett spins a story centering on the U.S.-Russian Space Race of the ’50s. The novel starts with an intriguing phenomenon--autobiographical amnesia--and listeners are thrust into the uncertainty that rocket scientist Luc Lucas must unravel. Both versions are handled by narrative masters. It’s intriguing to savor the differences between Frank Muller’s intense approach in the abridgment and George Guidall’s slower, yet no less compelling, reading of the unabridged. The styles are different--Muller gives a hard-driving edge to Luc and Anthony, the CIA’s dirty-tricks master. Guidall has the whole text to develop the characters and makes use of the duplicity and deception involving the race to launch America’s first satellite. Great spy thriller material in either format. R.F.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]