Podiobook Review – The Gearheart
Title: The Gearheart
Author: Alex White
Twitter: @thegearheart
Author Website: http://www.thegearheart.com/
Podiobook Link: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-gearheart/
Soundtrack available: http://www.thegearheart.com/?cat=122
“Jonathan Andrews, Initiate in the Seekers of the Arcane Unknown, joined the society two years ago with the hopes of protecting the secrets of magic from the greedy world beyond. However, a ravening shadow appears with a hunger for Seekers and Jonathan finds himself out of his depth. When Jonathan’s friend is attacked and the young initiate is assailed with apocalyptic visions of the future, he must find a way to uncover the past and stop the beast before it tears his group, and the world, asunder. It’s a ripping tale of magic, adventure and gunfights!”
I just have to say first thing that “The Gearheart” ranks as one of my favorite Podiobooks I have heard to date and perhaps the Podiobook I enjoyed listening to the most. This production pretty much has everything I love in an audio production as well as everything I love in a really good story. And a really good story is just what you are going to get in the steampunk/fantasy/adventure with 1930’s radio serial cliffhangers and old timey radio commercials thrown it.
“The Gearheart” is a wonderfully written adventure that comes to you in the form of an old time radio serial complete with weekly cliffhangers. As I would be listening to the story and just starting to get into the episode I would hear the ending music start to crank up and want to scream NOOOOOO! as the announcer would begin with “What will Jonathan do now that he knows the truth, and what menace is held in the shadowy figures. Tune in next week to “The Gearheart“. The only saving grace was that I didn’t have to wait until next week. (I was never any good at that) The Podiobook is complete.
Complete, however is a relative term, since I feel I should warn all of you that the production of “The Gearheart” comes loaded with an impressive amount of back story. Enough back story that at first I thought it was the second in a series, yeah that kind of back story. I kept expecting to find out that there was another podiobook I somehow missed that would clear things up. So if you begin to listen and feel a little like you came in halfway through the story, relax, don’t worry and just go with it enough of the back story gets explained that you won’t feel left out for long.
What will happen, just about the time you begin to feel comfortable with the cliff hangers and you figure out who everyone is and You know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, well the book ends. Again in the style of 30’s radio serials we are left wondering “What now” (actually we are left thinking “Oh no you didn’t just end it like that you no good…) I have heard from good sources that more adventures are planned and we will just have to wait.
One of the things that impressed me the most was the soundtrack to the story, I was even more impressed when I found out that you can download the soundtrack at and it is something I would highly suggest you do, it will be something you want on your mp3 player.
Overall I really enjoyed “The Gearheart” and I would (and have) recommended this story to everyone I know who I think might remotely enjoy the story. So I am giving this story a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars and I encourage you to get the book and listen for yourself.
Podcast (webonly): Play in new window | Download
