A.S. Hill

Good concept, poor execution

Revisado: 02-23-25

First thing to be aware of: this a YA series and definitely reads like it. Not to say all YA works are poorly written, but this was definitely targeted towards your 12-16 year old age demographic. Descriptive language is very simple and blunt. The characters are pretty cliched and there is very little backstory, other than to inform their predictable motivations and conflicts.

A lot of people compared the author to Stephen King. Claussen is to King what a Ferrari is to a Camry. They are both cars that can take you from A to B, but the ride (experience) is completely different. King builds character through backstory and gets the reader to invest emotionally in them before throwing them into crisis; Claussen just presents them in broad strokes and tosses them in the deep end.

The narrator is also strictly 'meh'. His pacing and intonation are good and he has the kind of delivery you would expect from a media professional. However, the media he should be doing is commercials and PSAs, not audio books. His acting is over the top much of the time; more drama queen that dramatic thespian.

Finally, there is the length. I don't mind long stories if they capture my attention and actually go somewhere. But the plot just never really changed as the books went a long; it was always the protagonists in some from of constant peril with a changing cast of antagonists, but no significant evolution in the characters or the plot. Part of what made "The Stand" so good was that it showed how changed America was as the characters passed through it, putting them in constant conflict with variations of Flagg, until they got to Boulder. Then there was a period of relative ease and reflection before pushing them back into the core conflict. There is no rest for Claussen's characters or readers.

My bottom line is this ...if you are not too discerning about your storytelling and want A LOT of listening time for your money, this is for you. But if you are looking for something like a King novel, or World War Z (the book or the movie), look elsewhere.

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Can not get past that voice.

Revisado: 11-15-23

This is an interesting topic and one I wanted to learn more about, Unfortunately the author decided to read this herself, rather than hiring a professional. It does not matter how many advanced degrees you have earned, when you speak with the cadence, intonation and inflection of a sorority girl, you still come across as immature and DUMB! I wanted to hang in there, but after the first chapter I was just done.

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Fascinating, if a little wonky

Revisado: 10-12-22

Meticulously research and very detailed. Really explains how dangerous and insidious the drug family is. The author does get into the weeds in places - more fitting for an NEMJ article than mainstream book - but still a good listen.

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Ego Driven Biography

Revisado: 10-12-22

I confess, I did not finish this. Boring, meandering, and no punch to it. The author clearly loves his subject (himself) but somehow makes a life in the CIA as tedious as a career in the GSA.

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Boring

Revisado: 05-25-22

As much as the author tries to distance himself from conspiracy nuts, he is still a conspiracy nut. Also, quite the navel-gazing egotist.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 04-28-22

Listened to this driving my daughter home from college after the shutdown in March 2020. The contrast between the characters who were left unmoored by the Rapture and a nation in free fall after COVID basically changed everything was timely and intense. The ending seemed a little weak, but otherwise it was top notch.

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Trite

Revisado: 04-28-22

The dialogue sounds like is was drafted by a team of ad men trying to appeal to Gen Z. Story is contrived and character development is a joke. Glad I did not pay for this

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Stephen King meets Clarice Starling

Revisado: 04-15-21

There's a lot to like here. The characters are interesting, the pacing is solid, the narrators are great, and Beukes offers some interesting commentary on modern artists, urban "ruin porn", and obsession with social media. Her initial takes on the story's villain are engaging and spooky. However, the introduction of the supernatural events near the end weakens the story and reads like a cheap way out. It's almost as if Beukes got to a place where she couldn't figure out where to go with the story, so she invented a ham handed conclusion to get the draft into her publisher before deadline.

Please, Ms. Beukes, don't make your serial killers human or relatable; we want them alien, remote, and scary. Thomas Harris wrote the perfect killer in Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs" and should have stopped there. "Hannibal" and "Hannibal Rising" both failed as sequels because he tried to explain Lecter to the reader.

King falls victim this all the time. "The Body" (known as "Stand By Me" in the movie world) worked so well because he stayed with the characters and did not introduce the supernatural. Consider how much better "The Stand" might have been if Randall Flag had been more of sociopath and less of a demon.

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Good start, but drags later

Revisado: 04-15-21

I wanted to like this; the premise looked really interesting. I was hoping for a fun ride like "Catch Me If You Can". Unfortunately, Craig Glazer is no Frank Abegnale. His writing is stale, he repeats himself a lot, and seems to be more focused on telling the listener how clever and effective he was than actually telling an interesting story. I hung on until the 5 hour mark and then gave up out of sheer boredom.

Robin Bloodworth's narration is also fairly one dimensional; his regular voice, his 'tough guy' voice, and every other voice/ character sounds exactly alike.

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Benjamin is great reader, a passable writer

Revisado: 04-14-21

Some great comic moments in here and a decent story. I could listen to the voice of "Archer" read phone books and never get bored. But the constant self-deprecation gag wears thin after a while. Sorry to break it to you, H. Jon, but you are a success, especially by Worcester standards.

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