Just finished up listening to the sequel to Jack Wakes Up, and it's a worthy successor. Jack Palms II: This is Life picks up a few months after JWU leaves off. Like the original, it's a series of roughly thirty-minute episodes with Seth reading his book, but this time there are a few guest voices playing some of the main characters (although Jack continues to sound exactly like Seth). There's also a few choice sound effects added into the mix, really ramping up the quality of the audio. I did notice a few more gaffs than in JWU, but I chalked it up to Seth trying to push the boundries on this new book, and they didn't bother me much at all.

The story not only feels like a natural extension of JWU, but it also puts Jack in even more shit than the first book. While I kind of picked out the "twist" ending pretty early on, some of the character changes and events either I didn't see coming, or I hoped wouldn't come because I was empathizing with Jack so much. One thing that I really like about this series is that Jack isn't really the kind of character that just casually pulls out a gun and blows someone away -- he makes mistakes, he freezes up and he sometimes lets his reluctance for bloodshed get him into worse trouble. He's very human, and overall it makes for a very compelling crime story.

The only real complaint I have is similar to the one I had for the first book, only moreso -- there's a lot left dangling, and while JWU kind of resolves most of it to a reasonably satisfactory ending, JP2 was clearly written with a Jack Palms 3 in mind. Expect to have your questions about some major plot elements postponed for the final book of the trilogy. I'd be pissed if it weren't for the fact that JP3 is already done and in my iPod.

Whatever I said about listening to JWU (or buying it when the print book goes on sale in May next year), double that. Unless something goes crazy with JP3, I can only assume it'll be an awesome conclusion to the series.