A review by mattdube
Found Audio by N.J. Campbell

3.0

This is one of those books that contains a document that fell into the hands of the author, who can vouch for its authenticity but who understands your skepticism, etc. This time, what we have are transcripts of three cassette tapes, containing a long conversation with an unnamed adventure journalist who has a story to tell about three weird encounters he had that shook him to his foundation. The frame of the story concerns an audio specialist, brought in to provide context for the tapes, and who occasionally inserts herself in the narrative to address questions about audio imperfections, etc. It's a good enough idea, and I was ready to go along for the ride, but it didn't deliver enough for me-- definitely not enough weirdness with the sound elements, and the weird encounters with the "odd" that the journalist recounts weren't odd enough. Given the sparseness of the odd, then, it's hard to accept the apparatus of the vast global conspiracy that doesn't want us to know this story.

Mostly it's fine, but it under-delivers on its slightly-unusual premise and its main course.