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Before Jack Palms ever shook 'em down, Junius Ponds came up on tough streets outside Boston way back in the day. In the middle of drugs, gang violence, and the toughest set of tower-projects you ever knew, Young Junius fights to escape the consequences of a murder he had to commit and tries to live long enough to avenge the death of his brother.

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Audio Quality: Out of 20 ratings

Narration Quality: Out of 20 ratings

Writing Quality: Out of 20 ratings

Overall Rating: Out of 20 ratings

By: Jim
Another story that had me enthused such that despite the numerous chapters I was though whole works in just under a week. There is no questioning Seth Harwood's ability to spin a good tale. He has done a good job of taking a relatively straight forward plot with very short time line and infused it with realistic and engaging dialogue, a well planned sequence of escalating events, and some fairly violent action. The result is an intense account of (for the most part) black urban ghetto life. There is a depth of realism that drags you into the territorial and tribal disputes of gang warfare, the dark shadows of drug dealing, and the unpleasant consequences it has not only for those involved but to others unfortunate enough to dwell within the bounds of the deprived demographic. This is a savvier piece of writing than some of Seth Harwood's other work and it is good to see that he is still improving, but I think there is a way for this author to go before he reaches his full potential, as in my opinion his writing does have a few short comings. Conversely this is quite encouraging as he does have an undeniable flair that allows him to produce gripping pieces such as this. There are some issues I had with the story but nothing too significant. A far as I can determine the story appears to take place in the early to mid 80's when crack first emerged, but the colourful street language is definitely closer to the more contemporary style of slang that perpetrates the streets today. Having said that, the dialogue is good, but I think there could be a little more variation in style of speech from the characters, particularly between that of the different generations. No mention of pagers which, with my limited knowledge of drug dealing, is supposedly as essential to the trade as a spanner to a mechanic. There is a degree of repetition which could be cleaned up with some tight editing, and later chapters in particular could definitely benefit from some tightening up in general. I'm 'nit picking' a bit here, but I think this story could certainly benefit from some pre-release scrutiny, both from the writing and recording perspective. Just a few minor improvements would really raise the bar of this piece and remove flaws which really shouldn?t be present in work of this calibre. The audio for me was the most disappointing aspect of this production. Although the actual recording quality is quite good more work is required to bring it up to acceptable 'Podiobook' quality. There is repetition of sentences, some unacceptable gaps in passages, especially when sections are terminated with short inserts of audio. I don't know what the small music inserts that bridge sections of a story are called, but firstly they are not neatly cropped, and secondly are poorly cued into the story which causes an unpleasant disruption in the tempo. Seth Harwood does have an appealing sounding voice which plays in favour as a narrator. Here again he has improved vastly as this is a far better reading than 'Jack Wakes Up', but he still needs to do some work on his inflection and the consistency of his delivery. Still, this one gets a firm thumbs up from me.

By: Tony Webster
superb- I fell asleep with the dialogue flowing through my head and woke up with it still there- led to some vivid dreams- as good as anything that Seth has written and I'd go so far as to say his most complete and well rounded book. urban terror

By: Dariclone
A great story and wonderful prequal ro Jack Wakes Up.

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