Empire State 
 Written by Adam Christopher 
 Read by Phil Gigante 
 Empire State is a novel that sounds really great in concept but comes off a bit confusing in execution. This novel has it all - superheroes, detective noir, gangsters, prohibition, robots, alternate dimensions, you name it. If any or all of that sounds cool to you, this may be a book for you. 
 The story generally takes the form of a detective noir once you get into it except that the story's perspective does not only stick with the detective all the time. As with detective noir stories, you don't know who is on which side all the time and things are slowly revealed as the story unfolds. Unfortunately, the story became confusing as things developed and the loyalties and motivations of characters seemed constantly in flux. The characters didn't have a whole lot of depth past being exactly what you'd expect from their role in the story (detective, gangster, old-timey adventurer, reporter, etc). 
 Despite the confusion, I really liked the ideas and world that Christopher created in this novel. The world of the Empire State is a dark, foggy equivalent of New York that had me picturing scenes from Dick Tracy. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Christopher does in this world. 
 Phil Gigante did a great job narrating Empire State. Voices for different characters were distinct and gave a great vocal aspect to the nature of the character being done. 
 That said, I don't know if I would actually recommend this as an audio book. There were quite a few times I wanted to rewind a bit because I had no idea what just happened (I actually did rewind a few times which is rare for me). I think the ability to easily look back a page or two in a book would probably have helped with the confusion.