The novelette “Faces” was first published in Dark Harvest’s Night Visions VI in 1988 and is one of F. Paul Wilson’s most republished stories having appeared in no fewer than 11 publications. It was also optioned for film in July 1992. Most recently, an audio adaptation was created by StarShip Sofa for their Aural Delights audio magazine and was released in October 2008.
As of this writing I have yet to read “Faces“, so I can’t compare the audio adaptation to the story itself. But having listened to the (roughly) hour long tale I don’t imagine it’s trimmed much. What really gives me that impression is the fact that this is far more a reading than a performance of the story.
It opens with a murderer just finishing up their latest grisly attack, including gnawing off the face of their victim. This voice is wonderfully done but, unfortunately the production quickly declines. Having a single male voice throughout, with little difference in inflection for different characters and abysmal attempts at female voices, truly hurts this production. Other than “The Carly”, all of the other voices (the majority of the tale) are rather lifeless.
In addition to Paul Caggie’s rendition of “Faces“, this edition of Aural Delights includes a rather dull reading of the poem “King’s Men” by Samantha Henderson which seems overly obsessed with a single white breast; the humorous Flash Fiction piece “Captain Ordinary” by Terry Bisson about some rather intriguing superheroes facing a dilemmna; an extensive review of T.M. Camp’s audio novel Assam and Darjeeling; as well as audio blurbs about new titles and even som ‘science fact’.
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