EDITED: The Green Ring Conspiracy- REVIEW

I got a copy of the Green Ring Conspiracy for my birthday.  I've heard the whole thing, and I love it!  First, I'll say that Jay, is now one of my favorite characters!  He is hilarious!  Buck Oliver was OK, I really liked Mr. Skint (until the end where he be...well, I'll let you hear it for yourself)  Great storyline, awesome characters (ooh, I forgot to mention Monty, yeah, he's cool.)  And I'm glad that they brought back Katrina, Monty, and, *someone else*.  I love hearing from old characters.  It makes it seem more like the old Odyssey or something.  I still don't like Whit as much, but I think I'm getting used to him.

And...I mean someone's back.  I don't know if you'd appreciate me telling you who, so I won't say.  I can't believe who he turned out to be!  Wow, I didn't think of this before, but we had a place crash and a...well...another kind of crash. :)

Seriously though, I loved it.  Five stars for this album.  What are your thoughts?

EDIT: Sorry if I spoiled it for anyone by the spoilers I had before. :(

Review: The Brotherhood

The Brotherhood
Jerry B. Jenkins

Summary:
Boone Drake has it made.  He’s a young cop rising rapidly through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department.  He has a beautiful wife and son, a nice starter house, a great partner, and a career plan that should land him in the Organized Crime division within five years.

Everything is going right…until everything goes horribly wrong.

His personal life destroyed and his career and future in jeopardy, Boone buries himself in guilt and bitterness as his life spirals out of control.  But when he comes face to face with the most vicious gang leader Chicago has seen in decades, he begins to realize that God is a God of second chances and can change the hardest heart…and forgive the worst of crimes.

Review:
Jerry Jenkins is one of my favorite authors, and he’s written some really great books.  If you’re a fan of his books, then The Brotherhood will be a great addition to add to your collection.  On the upside, it teaches us that God is not the author of death, but does allow people to die to bring glory to himself.  Also, there’s some great action scenes if you like those types of books.  On the downside, there are a number of references to mature themes that some parents may not want their younger children to see.  There’s nothing explicit though.  And if you don’t like reading sad things, you may not want to buy it.  (SPOILER: Boone’s son in killed in a tragic fire and his wife dies later from severe burns.  Boone struggles with their death and resorts to wine to help him sleep, but after a while he resolves to stay away from it.)  Out of five stars, I’ll give this book 3½.  You can order it from Tyndale, or you can enter our contest to win a free copy! (See details below)

About the Author:

Jerry B. Jenkins is a #1 New York Times best-selling author.  His books include The Last Operative, Riven, Shadowed, and many more.  He also wrote the Left Behind series (with Tim LaHaye), the Red Rock Mysteries series (with Chris Fabry) and the Wormling series. (with Chris Fabry)  His writing has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Guideposts, Parade, and dozens of other periodicals.  He is the writer of the comic strip, Gil Thorp and his biographies include books with Bill Gaither, Hank Aaron, Billy Graham, and many others.  His books appear regularly on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists.





Contest Details:
Use our contact page or email us directly at: theodysseytimes@yahoo.com and provide us with your name, email, and mailing address.  We will draw a random name, and the winner will receive a certificate that they can redeem at their local Christian book store.  Winner will be contacted as soon as possible after the contest ends.  Contest ends 2/20/11.

I’d like to thank the Tyndale Blog Network for providing me with a free review copy of The Brotherhood, and the certificate for the contest.

Review Coming Soon

I really liked "The Owl-Napper."  I'll try to post my review soon.

Opposite Day

In my opinion, “Opposite Day” was one of the worst episodes in #52 Cause and Effect, for several reasons. For one, Barrett’s voice changed. This was one of the worst things, I think, in the new AIO season. I know that other actors voices have changed, but I didn’t really care, probably because when they did change, I didn’t listen to Odyssey very much. For example, when I heard the episode’s where Jimmy Barclay’s voice changed, there were many other new Odyssey stories out, and I was used to his voice. But now that I listen to Odyssey a lot, and I remember when Barrett first came on the scene, I really dislike the change. When Barrett appeared in “Game For a Mystery,” he was really annoying. But then his voice seemed to get less squeaky, and he seemed to mature (in “When You’re Right, You’re Right” and “Stage Fright”). And when I listened to “Opposite Day,” two things contributed to him sounding foolish again. As I said, his voice changed, but he also was logged onto, or talking about Club KidChat for the entire episode. (This was very similar to his first episode where he was addicted to his video game.) I don’t think I will ever like his voice change, and I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with the two episodes where he really did a pretty good job.

Another thing that I didn’t like about this episode was the characters that played a major role. Besides Barrett, there was Olivia (who I can’t stand), and a new character named Amber - a geeky, obnoxious girl, who likes computers, rocks, and bugs. We’ll start off with Amber. I’ll just say, right now, that if she is going to be a recurring character, I’ll scream. I don’t generally like geeky boy characters (such as Isaac Morton), but having a geeky girl character somehow seemed to make the whole thing worse. And when AIO combined her personality and voice, with Barrett and Olivia’s personality and voice, they just ruined the episode.

I will point out that this episode can be a good reminder to people, since everybody is on Facebook, today, updated their status, and adding and chatting with their “friends.” It is a good reminder to stay focused on our real relationships, with our real friends. Still it was a bit unrealistic, because most people’s Facebook “friends” are their friends in real life. All of my Facebook friends are people I’ve met before. But that doesn’t mean that meeting people on the internet is bad. One of my best friends is one that I met on the internet, by means of our AIO sites and email.

I guess I’ll wrap up this review by saying that this was one of my least favorite AIO episodes, and that I’d give it the lowest rating possible. It was unrealistic, it’s characters were annoying, and I only laughed at one scene. I’ll give this episode a 1 out of 5 star rating. (Assuming that 1 star is the absolute lowest rating possible.)
Please Comment!

#52 Cause and Effect

I’ve finally received # 52 Cause and Effect.  I couldn’t wait to receive this album, and once I received it, I found that it was pretty good.  (Probably better than #51 Take it From the Top.)
      This album brought about some changes to Odyssey.  One major complaint was that Barrett Jone’s voice changed.  I hated this part.  Just when he was sounding more mature, his voice changed, and he acted like a total idiot.
      Another surprise was that the album brought back Priscilla Peterson, who I thought wouldn’t be a permanent character.  It seems that she will be in AIO a lot from now on, which I don‘t really mind.
      It seems that Focus on the Family is trying to return to their roots.  Some of the episodes in this album seemed that AIO was trying to make the series more like it used to be.  (For example “Fast As I Can”  The only new character was Matthew Parker.  And it just had more of that Odyssey feel.)
      I’ll give this episode a 31/2 out of 5 star rating.  My favorite episodes were, “Stage Fright,” “Fast As I Can,” and “The Owl-napper.”  (I haven’t fully listened to “A Thankstaking Story,” but I think it will be pretty dumb.)
      I would like to thank Tyndale for providing me with a free copy of #52 Cause and Effect to review for the blog network.  You can buy the album from cbd.com or amazon.com

"Fast As I Can" Review

My Review for “Fast As I Can”:

Things I Liked:

• This episode was really funny.  I liked the part where Wooton told how he was going to fast junk food.  There was lots of humor in this episode, such as Mrs. Randolph offering Wooton lots of cakes and sweets, and Eugene giving a speech with words containing no more than two syllables.
• I also liked the part where Matthew went into the Imagination Station and Thomas Jefferson had a computer and email and stuff.

Things I Disliked:

• I didn’t have many complaints about this episode.  The only things were that I don’t how everybody yells and hollers when they take a trip in the Imagination Station.  And the other thing was that Connie fasted make-up.  I think she should fast make-up permanently, but I won’t go into that…

Notes:

• This episode certainly had a better spiritual lesson than some.  Fasting is almost never talked about.
• I noticed that we had another bird in this story. (a duck)  We had a bird in Game For a Mystery, For the Birds, Stage Fright, The Owlnapping, The Malted Milkball Falcon, and then in this story, Fast As I Can.

I’ll give this episode 4 out of 5 stars.

I Am Really a Broadway Actor! Mwu-Ha-Ha-Ha!

Here's my review for "Stage Fright."


Things I Liked:

• I LOVED Mr. Stolfitz’s voice.  It was awesome!  (Until the end, when his voice changed and sounded more like Captain Absolutely)
• I’m glad Priscilla is back.  (Her voice sounds familiar, but I can’t think of who it sounds like.  Maybe someone from youth camp.)
• There were a few parts in this episode that were funny, and made me laugh, such as the Ichabod Crane part.
• Jay’s first part in the episode was pretty funny.  He sounded very villain-like.
• Barrett has really matured since his first episode, “Game For a Mystery.”  His voice isn’t as squeaky and whiny.  (His voice sounds kind of like Matthew’s, while Emily’s voice sounds like Priscilla’s.)
• It was dumb that Emily was the only brave person in the episode, however, I didn’t mind her as much in this episode.  She, also in part of the episode, reminded me of a girl I know, named Angela.  Her voice also reminded me of Julie’s voice, during a part of the episode.

Things I Disliked:

• Everyone was scared of the “phantom” except for Emily.  I mean really, like pre-teen boys are going to let a girl do something that they won’t do.  And what about the teacher.  She should be the one calming the kids, and reassuring them that their’s no such thing as ghosts, monsters, and phantoms.

Notes:

• Isn’t it kind of weird for Matthew to be hanging out with Emily all the time?  He really needs to find some friends who are boys.
• Barrett’s song “Twenty-two Trombones” sounded kind of like a VeggieTales song.  There was also a Thomas the Train Engine accent to Barrett’s voice during part of this song.
• I wondered, while listening to this episode, how Emily knew Jay’s number.  It’s just kind of weird for her to have the phone number of one of the school bully’s.
• I noticed that, instead of saying Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jay said Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydelberg.  I thought of the VeggieTales video, the knock-off of Dr. Jekyll, named something like Mr. Jekyll and Dr. Who.
• I also noticed that nobody could say Stolfitz’s name except for Jay.
• It was kind of weird when Matthew said that a certain pet shop was a good place because they sold hamsters.  Hamsters make a good pet shop?  Maybe it was the same place where Connie’s room-mate got her beta fish, kerplunk. J (Best of Enemies)

I’ll give this episode 3 of 5 stars.

My Review for "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show"

Things I Enjoyed:

• This episode was funny.
• Harlow Doyle was back. While I don’t like Harlow Doyle, it’s good to have some old characters back.
• Captain Absolutely was back.
• I liked how Wooton took a break for an advertisement, and then it went directly into a real ad.
• Andre Stojka did a good job as a villain.

Things I Disliked:

 

• Wooton isn’t as funny, in my opinion, as he used to be. He’s always saying dumb stuff, like in this episode.
• It was dumb when Wooton kept playing sound effects and instruments.

Notes:

• The music that played, when Roundhouse beat up Captain Absolutely, was more contemporary than usual Odyssey stories. 
• The part, when Roundhouse beat up Captain Absolutely, sounded violent for an Odyssey episode.

I’ll give this story a 1½ out of 5 star rating.

Here's the link to a new AIO social network, that Kevin from the Odyssey Tattler made.

Mystery of the Clock Tower Part 2 Review

Things I Liked:

• I liked how Matthew tagged along with Eugene during this episode.  It might have made the story better if Matthew had actually helped solve a part of the mystery, and proved to Eugene that he could be useful.
• I enjoyed the part where Whit and Connie’s cell phone rang at the same time, and they talked concurrently.
• I kind of liked Oliver Drevell.  His voice sounded like a bad guy’s voice.  Too bad he actually turned out to be one.

Things I Disliked:

• I was kind of disappointed with the conclusion of this episode.

Notes:

• The part where Whit, Connie, and Oliver went to Michael’s apartment, and finding out about Michael’s “unhealthy crush” seemed mature for AIO’s target age group.

I’ll give both parts of this episode a combined 3½ out of 5 star rating.

(Note: Tell me what you thought about this episode in the comments!)

My review for "Mystery of the Clock Tower"

Here's my review for "Mystery of the Clock Tower:"

Things I Liked:

• I liked the story behind this story.
• How Alicia and Michael both told the story.

Things I Disliked:

• Andre Stojka as the voice of Whit, mostly 
• I have mixed feelings about the mayor, Spencer Hicks.  Margaret Faye made some of the episodes really good, even though she was obnoxious and politically correct.

Notes:

• The end of this episode sound's like something you'd read on the back of a Ted Dekker book. "A wedding veil hanging in a dark, deserted room, with a clock counting down to 11:45 and a lost love."
• This episode is a mystery, hence the Novacom Saga-sounding music.
• I think that Andrew may be involved with the mystery somehow.  His scene would be completely unnecessary, otherwise.

Rating:
I'll give this episode a 31/2 - 4 star rating