ChronoRadio: Serial Edition: Matted
A Review by Jay Mustered

The Serial Editions of Nathan Butler's ChronoRadio are "enhanced audiobooks" or "audio drama lite." The role of the narrator is greatly expanded, essentially reading the book. However, voice actors do the speaking roles. Unlike the previous edition, Parallels, Matted has some sound effects, but background music only during the introduction and credits.

Matted is written by Michael Galasso, who won the chance via a ChronoRadio contest. It runs almost 14 minutes in length. The story is one of escape, the end coming before the beginning.

From a technical standpoint Matted is done pretty well; the voice actors do a competent job of playing their roles. The addition of sound effects in various places helps to bring a sense of urgency to the story. The story itself hangs together pretty well.

The main frustration with this piece, as is the case with many short stories or audio dramas, is that the listener is left wondering many things. What exactly has our protagonist done to be hunted? What is the secret? What happens next? Hopefully, more serials or a longer audio presentation is planned to fill these details out.