The Gates: A Novel
Series: Samuel Johnson vs. The Devil, Book 1
By: John Connolly / Narrated By: Jonathan Cake
Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
Jolly good fun! FANTASTIC!!!
Gosh, I was instantly smitten with The Gates by John Connolly. EsPECially as narrated by Jonathan Cake.
How could I NOT be? Young Samuel Johnson is out Trick-or-Treating with his Dachshund Boswell (Who looks like he’s too smart to suffer fools gladly) a full three days before Halloween. He’s getting a jump on the other kids, and he tells Mr. Abernathy, who is decidedly NOT amused, that he’s showing Initiative. After being turned away, Samuel and Boswell do a bit of moping and are thus in the vicinity when the Abernathys kinda sorta accidentally, or kinda sorta NOT, summon forth Satan and expose The Gates of Hell.
…Oopsie… But they were bored…
Meanwhile, over yonder where a Super Collider is doing its work and the guys who monitor it are NOT doing their own (It’s all tooo ho-hum observing; they’ve GOTTA just play Battleship), the multiverse is kinda sorta opened.
…Oopsie… But they were bored…
OTHER Meanwhile, in a vaaast stretch of Hell, a kinda sorta demon named Nurd (Tho’ he’s quite proud of being The Scourge of the Five Deities) feels tingly and is jolted outta Hell time and time again. He’s a crotchety kinda demon who gets even more peeved when run over by a Mack truck, but on one excursion out, a demonic haunting of that boy named Samuel leaves him feeling warm and fuzzy when Samuel shares conversation… and jellybeans. Even a super duper crotchety demon can smile over a jellybean.
Gotta tell ya, The Gates is so very enjoyable, from the first Footnote wherein Quantum Mechanics is explained so that an 11-year old can understand, onto Science history, and onto demonic creatures spilling out with waves of evil blue light, this is just a bang-up little gem of a novel. I hear-tell author Connolly is noted for his Grown-Up novels where the evil in men is sliced and diced and given plenty of airtime. But here? Oh good cow, what a wondrous jaunt of an Evil-Trolling Ride!
Samuel and his mum (His dad left them high and dry) and his two besties and even Boswell get their turns to be heroic. Nurd joins the fray after stealing a Porsche and driving without a license. And Connolly TOTALLY plumbs his imaginative depths to create all sorts of twisted creatures who miiiiiight ooze, fly, zoom, creep outta Hell. My brain hurt from having to visualize each and every wicked critter that assaulted the little town of Biddlecombe even as they fell to pieces when the townsfolk stood up and fought back. Who knew Earth was gonna be so hard to take over?
I’m soooo sad (And even a might bit ticked off!) that Jonathan Cake is NOT the narrator for the following two audiobooks in the series. Yeh okay, the magNIFicent Tim Gerard Reynolds was given the next two, but Booooo! Why on Earth, or in Hell for that matter, would they change up what was done so gloriously in the Series Kickoff? One should NOT mess with perfection, and perfect is what Jonathan Cake delivered. From the demonic beastie (Tho’ stunningly gorgeous) Mrs. Abernathy, to Nurd’s whinging, to Samuel being precocious yet not obnoxious, Cake had me listening with my grin stretching from ear-to-ear pretty much immediately. Bring him back! Bring him back!
7-hours were far too few but were doable for a day of completely enjoyable Listening. Still, it was not enough to fill up the entire day.
Alas!
Spent the rest of the day wishing Halloween of 2022 would get here, like, sooooner than October 31st.
Maybe it’ll come in, say, April?
Dunno but I’m feeling m’ ol’ Cannot Delay Gratification Impulse starting to prod at me… This was faaaar to chock full o’ fun stuff for this Grown Up Kid to delight in withOUT looking for the next!
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