This is a set of two audio-exclusive adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor. Each story is read by a single narrator doing all the voices, and some sound effects are provided for added drama.

Blackout is set in New York City in November 1965 and is a convoluted tale involving a blackout (obviously), an alien spacecraft, and an alien disease. The story starts off very well, with the sort of cold open that I like — a situation that is pretty weird and then suddenly TA-DAH the Doctor is there, cue the theme music. But that’s about all I liked about it. I found Stuart Milligan’s voice repertoire somewhat limited, and his Amy was particularly wrong. Amy is especially difficult to get right if you’re not Karen Gillan, but here she just sounded…American? I have no idea. The vocal soup was so distracting that I ended up tuning out completely and just had the audio on in the background while I read other things. 1/5

The Art of Death is set on another planet where the Horizon Gallery features the strangely hypnotic work of art known as the Paradox. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are caught up in a crack in time, and they pass through the life of the gallery’s director, Penelope, as she tries to figure out the mystery of the Paradox. Raquel Cassidy was much easier to listen to — her Amy, while not Karen Gillan obviously, was much closer to being Scottish than Milligan’s. Rory, in contrast, didn’t sound right. The story was more interesting than Blackout, but it was a wee bit repetitive, so I’m giving it 2.5/5

Overall this collection falls under my informal rating of “Although there was promise in pockets, I can’t say I liked this book”. ( )

Blackout - 3/5

In terms of story and writing, Blackout just didn't come up to par for me. I felt that the characters (especially Amy and Rory) and the humor was off a bit. While listening to it, there were quite a few times that I would think, "Amy wouldn't say that," or "Rory wouldn't do that." Also, there wasn't much mystery. The situation is explained near the beginning, and from then on there isn't much suspense or intrigue. It's just a matter of seeing how the situation plays out before the Doctor's plan works to save everyone. To be fair, there is a lot suspense as to just how the Doctor is going to save everyone, and a fair bit of action on Amy and Rory's behalf. So, there was still quite a bit of excitement in the story.

I did like the sound effects. It was more like having a TV episode on in the background instead of listening to an audiobook. It's obviously specifically made for audio -- Smith doesn't describe the heavy New York traffic, instead you can hear car horns in the background and people walking on the pavement. I'm not a person that usually likes a lot of music or sound effects in audiobooks, but it worked for Blackout.

Stuart Milligan was good, but I did have one complaint. He did a New York accent for the New Yorker, an English accent for the Doctor, but Amy didn't have her Scottish accent. It's a minor, petty thing, but it did bother me.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to Blackout. It's not as good as I expected a Doctor Who story to be, but it's decent and I thought it was time well spent.

Art of Death - 5/5

This was my absolute favorite. The story was exactly what I expect from a Doctor Who story. A weird paradox, a normal human getting wrapped up in supernatural events, mystery, action, suspense, humor, etc. Basically, everything that Doctor Who represents and all that makes it great was put together in this story. I felt like this story grasped the feeling of the show better than Blackout did. The characters act more like themselves and it fits in more with the general themes that Doctor Who usually sticks with.

It's told from the point of view of Penelope, which was great. For one, we get to meet the Doctor through the eyes of someone who has never met him -- always a fantastic experience. For another, I really liked her character. I feel like she could have been a companion if the timing would have been right.

Raquel Cassidy is brilliant. I do think there is a bit of a bias for me between the two stories, because I tend to enjoy first-person audiobooks more, and this one was told in first-person. It took a bit to get used to her variation of the Doctor, but how she portrays him works for Matt Smith's character. Her voice for Amy was spot-on. In terms of performance, this had less than Blackout. Not as many sound effects, but I don't think it needed it. The story carried itself extremely well.

The story is intense and is really no problem to listen all the way through. Running at about an hour and fifteen minutes, it sustains its suspense all the way through, but is long enough to have a satisfying resolution. If you haven't noticed yet, I thought that Art of Death was simply perfect.

*In exchange for my honest review, I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher through Audiobook Jukebox's Solid Gold Reviewer program.* ( )