V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (2006, Unabridged, MP3 CD)

Moore’s adaptation of a Wachowski Brother’s screenplay, in turn an adaptation of a graphic novel published by DC Comics, is part mystery, part thriller, and part parable but all politically relevant. Opening on Guy Fawkes Day in Britain in the not-too-distant future after the nation’s fears about global terrorism and its enactment of crippling legislation to locate and control it has turned England into a paranoid, fascist State, a caped and masked vigilante who calls himself “V” creates a Gunpowder Plot of his own, getting the government’s full attention. He also interests Evey, a young woman whose life he saved earlier that same evening. Is he just a terrorist himself, a physically and psychologically scarred victim of the State’s former experiments with biological warfare, hell-bent on revenge? Or is he the ultimate patriot? And how fine is that line which separates one from another? Simon Vance, his voice naturally suited to dark novels, does a fine job here, differentiating his characters, keeping the pace moving, and heightening the tension and the terror as Evey and the readers work out the answers. Engrossing and instructive.