Broken Sea’s ‘Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter’
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007‘Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter’
I just finished the first Jake Sampson serial, ‘The Hyborean Gate’. As I’ve said before, I am not a fan of the radio drama genre, but I did enjoy this one. Jake is a detective and adventurer hired by Robert E. Howard to help solve rather tough problem. Along the way he befriends Texas Holdem, a WWI pilot, and Lucy Carter, a sassy lion tamer. The writing and acting are pure Pulp, but lovingly done, with no sense of a sneer or snide remark.
One reason I tend to dislike the genre is a tendency to overuse lame sfx at varying volume levels. While this serial doesn’t suffer from this I did count twenty-six footsteps from the circus owners tent to the lion cage. Just a few steps all I need to get the point. Generally the sfx are well done, the Artie Shaw score is complimentary to the action, and neither drowns out the dialogue.
The next adventure Jake Sampson and the Tears of RA is scheduled for release May 30. It will be interesting to see if Broken Sea can keep the quality this high.