It Devours

Listeners of Welcome to Night Vale will enjoy the familiarity of actor Baldwin, who provides the voice of the podcast, in the audio edition of Fink and Cranor’s second standalone novel based on the podcast. The book opens as scientist Nilanjana Sikdar starts to investigate the source of a rumbling in the desert town of Night Vale. Nilanjana suspects that the creepy Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God has something to do with the bizarre noise even as she starts to develop an attraction to Darryl Ramirez, a member of the church. As the rumbling gets louder, buildings are destroyed and people start disappearing. Baldwin continues to be a clean, crisp narrator for the Night Vale universe, but he doesn’t differentiate much between many of the main characters, who in the podcast are voiced by other actors. Furthermore, the production misses an opportunity—the rumbling that is so central to the plot is only spoken of, rather than heard on the audio track. Nevertheless, the quirky story of Night Vale as told in Baldwin’s friendly voice is enough to carry the audiobook for new listeners or fans of the podcast. [em]A Harper Perennial hardcover. (Oct.) [/em]