I think I was expecting more from this than I got. The reading was excellent but I expected more actual music so stick to the original album for the real experience. ( )

Longer, Not Deeper

This Audible audiobook takes the very enjoyable "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds" (JWMVotWotW), removes the songs (except for a bit of background music and some musical cues) and adds more story. Unfortunately, the additions seem to slow the action considerably. We get to spend longer with the unpleasant parson, but his wife gets relegated to an off-screen death (her "Spirit of Man" is a highlight of JWMVotWotW but here we only get a taste of it as a cue when she's mentioned).
The use of musical cues is clumsy and jarring at times. For instance, JWMVotWotW begins with Richard Burton's understated narration of the first paragraph of the book, and the line "...and slowly, but surely, they drew their plans against us." is followed by a blast of music. Here, the introduction pauses after each mention of the aliens for a blast of the "Ooooh-Laaah" effect. It's jarring, it interrupts the introduction, and it's way before we hear the Martians gloat.
The use of some instrumental portions of songs from JWMVotWotW doesn't quite work either. Each time Carrie is mentioned we hear her "theme" ("Forever Autumn", a lovely wistful song where the narrator wonders if he'll ever see her again) in the background, even when they're happily together and the menace hasn't happened yet.
This whole audiobook seems as though a radio dramatization got the rights to the music (but not any vocals) from JWMVotWotW and shoehorned it in wherever and whenever possible. It does not add to the experience.
Half an hour into this, I was wishing I'd brought along the original JWMVotWotW instead, which covers nearly all of the same ground but with a better pace.
On the plus side, the voice actors do a great job.

Gaming the book:
I've played several board and video games based on the book, movies and even the musical (!) and haven't found any that really do it for me. I'm still looking. ( )