Reviewed by Stephen K.

TITLE: Brothersong

SERIES: (Green Creek #4)

AUTHOR: T.J. Klune

NARRATOR: Kirt Graves

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

LENGTH: 19 hours and 33 minutes

RELEASE DATE: October 27^th ,2020

BLURB:

In the ruins of Caswell, Maine, Carter Bennett learned the truth of what had been right in front of him the entire time. And then it—he—was gone.

Desperate for answers, Carter takes to the road, leaving family and the safety of his pack behind, all in the name of a man he only knows as a feral wolf. But therein lies the danger: wolves are pack animals, and the longer Carter is on his own, the more his mind slips toward the endless void of Omega insanity.

But he pushes on, following the trail left by Gavin.

Gavin, the son of Robert Livingstone. The half-brother of Gordo Livingstone.

What Carter finds will change the course of the wolves forever. Because Gavin’s history with the Bennett pack goes back further than anyone knows, a secret kept hidden by Carter’s father, Thomas Bennett.

And with this knowledge comes a price: the sins of the fathers now rest upon the shoulders of their sons.

REVIEW:

This review is probably pointless. This title completes an epic saga that has spread over four books. If you’re new to the saga you really need to start with book 1. If you’ve already read the first three, you already know how amazing this story is.

That said, this saga is a tale of pack, and belonging, and the strength of having a cadre of folks who all care for one another. It’s strengths are those of pack, and unity, and acceptance, and working together for the good of all. The joy of it is addictive.

And yet this is an imperfect world filled with imperfect beings. This book in particular fills in some of the darker moments in the story. It’s also the first time we have an extended period where the main character is NOT supported by pack. As such is much grimmer than the tales that have come before. Listening to this I kept having to set it aside and immerse myself in something less harrowing.

It may be that I’m a sufferer of PTSD. Almost 20 years ago today I lived through the trauma of 9/11 and lost dozens of friends and co-workers in that tragedy. While my offices were on the 94^th floor of Tower 1, my apartment was just across the street and I’d yet to head in to work when the first plane impacted the tower. So I was spared, at least from death. However one of the things that I lost that day was a large part of my capacity for tolerating the cruelty of others; whether in real life, or in fiction. So this book, and the darker parts of the earlier books in the series, were tough for me to get through. And yet, the lighter moments, the joys of pack and family, the rewards of friendships and romance are too addictive to completely ignore when they’re as well expressed as they are here.

Ostensibly this is Carter’s tale and his POV does dominate, but by this point in the saga so many of the characters are old friends that one can lose sight of that.

Kirt Graves does the narration in this series and it’s a masterful job. This is a dialogue heavy tale. This tale has a cast of about 20 characters in significant roles, male and female. Many of them appear at several different ages and over several years. Kirt manages to give each of them a differentiable voice with distinctive qualities that distinguish their characters while further defining them. And these characterizations remain remarkably consistent from book to book and are easily recognizable.

Given that they all originate from a single voice actor, there are certainly some similarities. Yet almost all of the voices are instantly recognizable for who they are. Several have distinctive accents, others have distinctive vocal cadences. They range from quick quipping Rico’s salacious, clearly Latino voice, to slow speaking Ox’s considered utterances. There’s the slow (sedated?) cadences of Tanner’s retorts. Robbie’s clearly East Coast otherness is clearly the product of a racing mind. Regal Elizabeth’s motherly pronouncements clearly portray all that she’s lived through. Each is unique and clearly on character. Though the author clearly deserves full marks for creating such vivid characters, when one actually thinks about it, this is truly a virtuoso voice-acting performance. At one point there’s a conference call with about 8 of the major characters, all speaking one after the other, and each has the distinctive voice that we associate with them by that point.  It’s a bravura performance.

In getting to this fourth book in the series I read the first as an e-book and listened to books 2 & 3 as audio-books via HOOPLA. Now into the fourth and final book, I found that I wanted to re-read parts of book one again to remind myself of some of the plot’s more intricate details. I found myself reading large segments (again) just for enjoyment.

Revisiting book one sold me once again on this series and made me realize that this is one series that I’ll need to add to my permanent collection. I can’t imagine NOT returning to listen to some of the sweeter laugh out loud funny parts of this tale again and again.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Audible

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