I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.
I am going to try and review this book, as spoiler free as I can, but it will be hard as the synopsis gives little a way from the plot.
This book starts out slow, but there is definitely a tipping point where it becomes hard to put down.
The book begins and runs for about the first 6 chapters being odd. The situation hinted at, in the synopsis, is happening and while it quickly became apparent to me what was happening, I’m going to avoid mentioning it directly. Suffice to say, it is confusing, a little disturbing, and a little underwhelming. There is no context for whats happening, it’s literally just a series of events, with no threads to bind them together into a cohesive package.
At chapter 6 (I think) the blinds are opened and the world is revealed to us. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I would have preferred the beginning to have been extended longer, push the reveal back further in the book, but to put some more threads to pull at, so I could unravel the thing on my own. It would have made for a more satisfying reveal. Instead it was a mystery, in that while I knew what was happening, I didn’t know why. But the why was shoved in my face, rather than let me see it naturally. It’s not a huge deal, but I did feel robbed.
After the reveal, we go back to the mystery, but as it’s been revealed, the mystery is gone, so the book changes tone, from a horror/thriller to a action/adventure. The characters still have to figure out the problem, and solution, but as we know, it looses something.
Having said that, it’s not story breaking. The plot is still very interesting. A little too much time with the bad guys, but it serves as exposition to the world so it does kind of work.
The characters are complex enough for the story. None are fully rounded people, but they have enough depth to work their way out of the mess they’re in with out it looking like the author is helping too much.
The premise is very interesting, however, I was disappointed that this was book 1 of a series. This shares a lot of good elements from. Books like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, and with 1 tweak (the death of someone), this would have made a great stand alone. As it is, and someone survives that shouldn’t have been allowed to, there will clearly bee a book 2, and said character will be back.
The setting were varied, and well done. Streets of America to the streets of Afghanistan. Everything felt right. Even when it was drab warehouses, it still felt the way those places should feel.
Voice narration by Shawn Compton was well done, despite his short comings. He didn’t have a wide range of voice and his female voices weren’t strong. However, he narrated with emotion and that really came through in his work. Even through it wasn’t done with the skill of some others, I enjoyed listening to his voice.
All in all, an enjoyable book. Slow to start, but hard to put down when it did. I like this book as a stand alone, I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the sequels or not (when published), voice narration was really good, despite the lack of voice differentiation. I definitely recommend this book.
***spoilers***
I couldn’t finish the review without stating I was disappointed that the doctor lived. It’s such an obvious ploy for the future books that it is frustrating.
Also, the charm of this book is largely rooted in the dreams and the experiments. Without that mystery, I imagine sequels will basically be the A-Team with powers.
I still enjoyed the book, though. I just wish they had hunted down the doc and killed him and leave it as a stand alonem