Gravity Pulls Through Audiobook Review
written by James Hitchins, music by Alvine Spetz, narrated by Keith Allen
I love short fiction and especially short sci-fi stories! When done right they’re so powerful and engaging and just make you think! Gravity Pulls Through is such a story for me. It’s very well written with some witty dialogue and complemented by some (a little weird) music by Alvin Spetz which makes it so much more unique. I don’t think I’ve encountered another audiobook that has short song breaks throughout the story. I found it a little strange at first but the more I think of it, the more I like the idea. I don’t know if I’d prefer my novels that way, but for the short story format it certainly works well.
I liked the premise of the story quite a bit – a rich and extravagant entrepreneur prepares to execute the final stages of a journey to a planet outside our Solar system. He’s all but alone on his spaceship with the exception of his AI assistant. Newmeyer is on a mission that will allow him to claim a portion of the planet and it’s resources as his own and bring back a treasure trove of data that will make him even richer. Everything goes as planed until it doesn’t. The plot twist comes unexpectedly and sends the story into a completely different direction than what one would expect.
The narrator Keith Allen is a joy to listen to and delivers the story in an interesting monotone which adds to the drama. All in all, a very enjoyable one-hour long sci-fi novelette with some old-school feel but with a more modern twist added to it.
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Here’s the official press release:
BIG PILOT – KEITH ALLEN READS ‘GRAVITY PULLS THROUGH’
Big Pilot are a duo who are about to give the humble audio book a kick up the arse. Combining the talents of writer James Hitchins and musician Alvine Spetz, the duo create original novelettes with illustrations by way of short songs, narrated by the finest British Actors. In a parallel life, Hitchins is a double bassist with an MA in Philosophy and a Great Uncle who worked for the European Space Agency and the Apollo Program whilst Spetz fronts Full English Breakfast whose satirical indie musings have been gathering plaudits since 2009: the Guardian described their eponymous debut album as “genuinely esoteric and obscure,” the Sunday Times suggested it was “seriously good” and pulled together “the sound of the Fall, Edwyn Collins, Devo and Wire” and Uncut claimed it was “a highly eccentric but thoroughly engaging electronic/art-pop debut that aligns him with The Fall, Denim and Frank Zappa.”
BIG PILOT’s first release is Gravity Pulls Through, a nihilistic sci fi short story penned by Hitchins and narrated by the legendary actor Keith Allen. The piece was commissioned by Spetz with the unreasonable demand that the story should contain references (in no particular order) to a tub of Pluko (hair grease), the stock exchange, Stafford Beer (cybernetics expert), Henry Kissinger, Roy Hattersley and an old carpet, these being the lyrical content of the songs already in the bag for a half-finished album. The results are exemplary and Allen’s monotone delivery complements them perfectly.
BIG PILOT’s very existence is an answer to the question: Haven’t all of us found ourselves in the middle of reading a gripping novel but fancied a song break? Naturally, having now removed the need to press pause and play, the duo have taken their philosophy to its natural conclusion and now subtly encode some of the story’s content into the music itself – and this is a philosophy due to extend to all future audio/music books read by the greatest British actors.
Gravity Pulls Through was written by James Hitchins, narrated by Keith Allen and engineered by Paul Cheese and the music was provided by Alvine Spetz. It is due to be made available via iTunes in August 2013 and for more specific information please go to http://www.bigpilot.co.uk.