Amazon, through its Kindle Direct Publishing service, just upgraded the AI voices it uses to create audio versions of its Kindle books. This is through a beta program for which only some authors are eligible, but I’ve been fortunate to have several of my books included. The first set of AI voices that were offered were impressive, but they’ve recently upgraded their AI, and the new versions of the voices are mind-boggling similar to a real human voice. Honestly, if I hadn’t known that it was an AI, I would have been thought I was listening to a professional, human reader read the books.
In this post, I’m going to focus on my favorite book of all of them that I’ve written. You’re all probably familiar with my usual types of novels—mysteries, thrillers and sci-fi—since I’ve published 14 of them, and I’m working on my 15th. Finding Martin Bloom, first published in 2016, is a more literary novel. It’s heroine, Dillon Bloom, is a 19 year old first-year college student, whose mother died the day she graduated from high school. With her tattoos, piercings, and spiked hair, Dillon is a rebel, but one who is captivated by literature and has a burning desire to become a writer. At the end of her first year in college, she discovers that the father she thought had died soon after she was born, may not only be alive, but be a famous, reclusive writer, whose current whereabouts are unknown.
Dillon follows the elusive trail of what may be her father, through teaching positions at various elite universities, such as Harvard and Stanford, learning that his drinking and womanizing got him fired each time. Finally, she learns that he may be in Vietnam, and, with a young male friend, who also idolizes her father’s writing, she sets of for Southeast Asia to track down Martin Bloom.
The novel, alternates between focusing on Dillon and her quest, and Martin, living his dissolute life, living on a boat on the Saigon River and drinking himself to death. Dillon arrives in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and searches for her father but runs into difficulty with local criminals and police. Martin, learning that his daughter is close by, tries to deal with his guilt at having abandoned her. She has to deal with her anger at being abandoned.
Finding Martin Bloom is a complex novel, with two unforgettably distinctive characters. Dillon’s rebellious and cynical sense of humor keeps the reader entertained, while Martin’s somber and philosophical justification for his life of selfishness and irresponsibility shows us the depths to which depression can fall and the extent of rationalization a brilliant mind can create to avoid responsibility.
Both Dillon and Martin are two of my favorite characters. The novel’s scenes at Harvard, Stanford, and in Ho Chi Minh City are enlivened by my own lived experiences in those settings. I wrote most of the Vietnam portions of the book while sitting in various coffee shops or bars in Saigon’s Backpacker district.
The AI voice I chose for Finding Martin Bloom is a female one, young, but with just the right edge to adequately capture Dillon’s jaded view of the world. I was amazed when I heard it. Dillons’ voice speaks from first person in the novel, and the same voice describes Martin’s innermost musings from a third person perspective. It’s truly remarkable what an amazing job Amazon has done creating this AI voice.
The book is priced at a bargain $4.99, and if you purchase the Kindle version for $2.99 or happen to already have it, then the audio novel is half price. Either way it’s a great deal and well below the price of most audio books. You can listen to it via the Audible app, or on your laptop using Apple Books or Google Play.
Here’s the link to purchase Finding Martin Bloom on Amazon. Click Here
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