4 out of 4 stars
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"Children's rock opera audiobook." Honestly, those four words should be enough to make everyone go buy a copy of Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera. But if you're still with me, buckle up, because this is one heck of a ride.
Co-created by Matthew Sweetapple, Elaine Sweetapple, and Steve Punt, Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera is an audible adventure. The story starts off ordinarily enough with a boy named Moog, his dog Rockford, and his uncle heading to the park to play. Rockford ends up running off on his own, and before he knows it, he's drifting away from everyone he's ever known or loved on a giant leaf with a Cocklebur Ick (a tiny little sticky creature) stuck to his rear. Little does Rockford know that this journey will quickly become more absurd, dangerous, and world-altering than any journey before it.
Rockford ends up on an island called Infinity where one of every extinct creature lives. Rockford's arrival draws the ire of The Registrar, an evil Praying Mantis-like creature whose sole purpose in life is to ensure the rules of Infinity are followed. But Rockford isn't supposed to be there because dogs aren't extinct yet! To solve the problem, The Registrar decides to collect Rockford's paw print like every other animal that arrives at Infinity. This causes dogs to start vanishing from Earth, effectively rendering dogs extinct. Can anything be done to save the dogs, and can Rockford find a way to escape Infinity?
Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera is a grand adventure that spans just over two and a half hours. With a wide cast of characters, numerous voice actors, an epic story, and over two dozen genre-spanning songs, it's a story I'll never forget. There are hints of all sorts of influences: the overall story blends the feel of movies like Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story with the humor of Monty Python and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There's a perfect blend of the absurd and the mundane throughout the book, from the scores of extinct animals forming a queue to Rockford thinking that "what dogs do by trees" is magical because humans always scoop up the poop and put it in black boxes.
The music is phenomenal as well, and I'd happily listen to its soundtrack anytime. Ranging from light accompanying music to big band tunes with a bit of heavy metal, techno, folk, electronica, and bluegrass along the way, the music elevates the story. The Cocklebur Ick's song is sad and a bit silly (I laughed out loud and nodded along with "people are twits"), the Fossil Record Office's theme (where Rockford's print is being sent for storage) is peppy and tense, and the Squid Squad (an assortment of anything that has tentacles and squirts ink led by a ten-legged "Dectopus" named Colonel Utensil) has a whimsical marching theme. These songs and others were woven throughout the story, with instrumental bits of them played at appropriate moments. My fiancée always says that the music in The Princess Bride feels like another character in the movie, and that's how the music in Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera felt to me. Along with the music, the sound effects were so spot-on that I felt like I was right there in the story. Regardless of the insanity that was occurring in my living room while listening to the story, a good pair of headphones whisked me away to Infinity.
However, Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera isn't perfect. More than anything, I really wish there was text with the audio. Sometimes I couldn't quite tell what was being said during songs, and other times it would've been nice to know whether she was a "Cocklebur Ick" or a "Cockleburrick". There's a website that answers these questions (along with how to spell everything!), but I still would've loved a complete script. On the bright side, no written text means there were no grammatical errors! The other complaint is far more minor: there were a few times where there was a slight stutter in the audio as it shifted from music to narration. It was barely even noticeable, but considering that this is a nearly-flawless, highly-polished masterpiece, there isn't really anything else to complain about.
As a metalhead who grew up with The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and other magnificent musicians, I had some really high hopes for Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera. I'm so happy to say that every expectation I had was surpassed. There was no cussing and the music is perfectly suited for all ages, although adults may pick up on some jokes and insights about our world that children won't understand. There are themes of humanity's place in destroying the planet and how much we can do to improve the world no matter how small we feel. The Cocklebur Ick's story especially struck a chord with me; similar to the near-eradication of a particular type of tree in The Lorax, Cocklebur Icks were made extinct due to humanity's application of their stickiness for lower-cost clothing production. My rating of Lost on Infinity: Rockford's Rock Opera is 4 out of 4 stars, and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes light rock, stories with music, children's books, or epic stories with plenty of foreshadowing, twists, and surprises.
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Lost on Infinity
View: on Bookshelves | on Audible.co.uk
