An Autist Reviews: The Library In The Body (The New Adventures Bernice Summerfield Volume 3: The Unbound Universe 1)

*This is an older review, it is not as detailed as my more modern reviews*

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

- Reissued Review (Which I still don't like XD) -

In the middle of a lesson, Professor Bernice Summerfield is kidnapped by a mysterious Doctor from another universe. A dying universe. In this universe, the only thing left of value is knowledge, which makes a floating library, drifting through space and sending out an invitation to all an irresistible destination. But along with those seeking knowledge, comes a group of radicals looking to destroy knowledge. Trapped inside of the library, with allies dying left and right, Benny and the new Doctor are forced to put their differences aside and find a way to save all those inside.

Okay, the first time I listened to this, I didn’t like it. And many of my criticisms still stand. This story needed another 5 minutes at the beginning, and the singing nuns sing WAY too much! Aside from that, I love this story. It’s original, the characters are all interesting and fun, and the mystery keeps you going the entire time. The relationship between Benny and the unbound Doctor is extremely different than usual and seeing how different the unbound Doctor is from the regular universe Doctor. The holographic librarian is interesting, and so is the idea of the Kareem are really cool and their philosophy gives them some really unique behaviors. Also, the twists in this are great, and some interesting story elements foreshadow future events very well. All in all, a good story, but it suffers from some bad writing at about the 40-50 minute mark. Also, seriously… the nuns didn’t need to sing that much!!!

The acting in this is really good. Even the singing nuns are well-acted… and they sing well too if that matters to you. There are a few annoyingly bad deaths and some less than great extras, but everyone does a great job, nonetheless. The Kareem all are interesting and have distinct voices, all the main side characters are charismatic and make you sympathize or hate them depending on who they are.

The effects are solid gold. The music is lovely, as I've said before, and every area has a great and unique score. I will say this though, while I don’t hate the Unbound Doctor Who Theme, it is really annoying for the first few seconds and goes a little haywire. The voice effects all are perfect, nothing more to say about it. The action effects are all great, but I can’t forgive the collection of poor effects that are scattered about this. When people are dying, you get no idea what is happening until the end, and even then it’s weird. There are also some times where effects aren’t there and they need to be, but the majority of the effects are solid gold and there are a lot that audios that would just leave out, which I love.

This got better with a second listening, but that could just be because I was fueled by distaste the first time I listened to it. At the same time, knowing the twist allows you to catch a lot of things you otherwise wouldn’t have, and I found myself still loving the story, as much of it comes from character interactions with the mystery just dragging you along. Everything in this was still great, and some of it even improved with another listening.

All in all, a great story. It begins spectacularly quickly, which I despise, but once you get over that, the main story is awesome. There is a great central mystery, but it gets ignored at points, and the ending of the main plot is sudden and over the top. Most of the best parts of this story come from the character interactions, stellar effects, and pretty darn great acting. The side characters are all interesting and have their times to shine despite there being so many of them. Some of the acting is rather bland and flat, but that’s rare. The music suite is lovely, the effects are perfect… aside from a few parts that annoy me. The attacks are terrible acting and effects-wise, and some effects need to be added at certain points. All this being said, I would listen to this beauty again, and I would love it! But… maybe I’d skip the first 5 minutes...

Total - 9

Plot - 8
---
Story - 8
Writing - 8
Enjoyment - 9
Twists - 8

Acting - 9
---
MCs - 9
SCs - 8
BGs - 9

Effects - 9
---
Music - 9
Voices - 10
Actions - 8

Replay - 8
---
Re-Enjoyment - 8
New Details - 8

-=- If you want to see more of my reviews, some of my craziness, my thoughts on stories I've experienced but not reviewed, and the important libtard things I share around because I'm a filthy liberal snowflake, check out my Instagram page @deadmainmanmax -=-