Julia Oberhardt

More like Dirk Pitt book than Crime, But Fun

Revisado: 12-29-21

An enjoyable series, but has become an international adventure series.

Although the dual narration is overall great, I just have to take half a star off for the incessant pronunciation of Kitsune as Kitsoon. It would like being a fan of Japan and naming yourself after Mount Fuji, but telling everyone your name was pronouned "Fudgee"...

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A Fight for the Future

Revisado: 01-30-20

State of Chaos is the start of a new series by a favorite indie author of mine, JK Franks. I was given the opportunity to get the audiobook as a free review copy, and given I'd loved the prior books of his I'd purchased and gotten, I was glad for the opportunity.

State of Chaos is once again a series founded in a non fantastic sci fi universe (eg no walking dead). But in this scenario, we are dealing with warring AI's and humans in a world bordering on an apocalypse. A group of humans along with a good AI, battle with a rogue AI and the humans aligning themselves with it. The plot was rich and full of action, schemes, events, and people, but oddly it never became too confusing. The book starts with some historic back stories and origins, and then moves several years later to a series of triggering events leading up to a pending apocalypse.

I did find myself intrigued by the book being listed as a Cade Rearden thriller. Cade Rearden was a significant character in it, but it felt more like is was a multi lead character, and I wouldn't have called Rearden the lead character. So much was going on with so many characters it would be hard to label it as one character's book, being a true ensemble thriller. I am intrigued though in wondering what the future books will take on - as in concentrating more on Rearden, so all the other great characters would be more sidelined or not included. But the book was highly enjoyable, so I am pretty interested in seeing what the next book will bring. State of Chaos was a fantastic contained story though, so don't worry that you will be left with a cliffhanger...
The narrator was great, and easy to listen to, and no clarity or pacing issues. I would definitely listen to a further books by this narrator.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Pretty Enjoyable and Good Take

Revisado: 12-30-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

The 12 Mile Course was a pretty cool story "in the vein of" The Hunger Games. I thought initially we'd be getting a Hunger Games type clone, but the ideas in it, particularly the format of the competition were pretty unique. For starters the whole contest was fostering more contestants working together, vs the environment/powers, rather than a someone more common concept of a fight to the death, as well as the staging and contestant randomness stage to stage, to the breaks between.

Initially I found the narration a bit out of place, until I realized that the narrator was performing for characters who were primarily very young. Once that was established I was able to get into the narration and tale and really enjoyed it.

Overall, definitely worth a peek if after something new but familiar.
I'd rate it 4.5 stars overall but can't do that here unfortunately.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A Bunch of Good People in a Bad Situation

Revisado: 12-17-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I don't know what it is about Alaska, but the idea of it always appealed to me. All the books I've read and movies I've seen convey an underlying sense of an last bastion of tough people, patriotic, but just want to live their own lives without being interfered with. And when someone tries messing with them, be they foreign or domestic, the push back. And this I guess is epitomized in Basil Sands Alaskan novels. Loosely set in the same universe (a Pastor Mike from Faithful Warrior reference seems to make it in I think all of them), they all deal with these type of people, trying to live their lives, and rising to the occasion. It has been quite a few years since I listened to Karl's Last Flight, so I can't recall if this has a link.
65 Below is a standalone Alaskan novel, and features multi country terrorist plot is in play and discovered by some hard Alaskan citizens. One by one people, both officials and civilians, rise to the occasion and fight back - including on occasion a young child fighting back at a critical time.
I always enjoy listening to audiobooks narrated by the author, and once again Basil Sands doesn't let down. I was lucky enough to get this book as a free review copy from the author, and feel privileged to do so.
Highly enjoyable easy listening, as are all of his books, for people looking for an exciting uplifting tale which won't leave you feeling low!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good Folks, Wins, Losses, and a High Note

Revisado: 10-29-19

After the Outbreak was a great, long runtime audiobook on a non-zombie plague apocalypse centering on a group of (mostly) unrelated good people who come together to form a new family in the post plague world. The book to me falls into a rarer category of global plague apocalypse novels with no zombies, no conspiracies. In this tale, the plague globally kills 96% of the world population, decimating all infrastructure, law and order, in a matter of days.
The story begins with the individual character's stories, from all different walks of life, covering the fall, and their actions around the collapse, and their journeys to eventually coming together as a group some much later in the story than others). Once the main characters are together, the book mainly deals with getting set up for survival long term, and dealing with threats and danger as they arise.
The story never gets too dark or depressing, and is overall to me a feel good Apocalypse tale where you see good people surviving, behaving honorably, and overcoming bad people when they faced them. The story ends on a positive note, and feels complete, although I would be interested in reading more.
I received this audiobook as a review copy in exchange for an honest review, and am glad for the opportunity. The plague genre is a favorite of mine, going back to The Stand. It unfortunately is a subgenre not covered and covered well as much as other apocalyptic tales, so it is always a pleasure to find a good one like this.
The narration is very easy to listen to, fitting to the material, a good pace, and does an admiral job at distinguishing different characters. I do have a few other audiobooks with this narrator, and would definitely add more to my. I'd definitely get more from the author, but I'll need to wait for them to be published!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 22 personas

A Tragic Tale

Revisado: 08-27-19

The Gordon Place was a solid first novel length audiobook from Isaac Thorne, and was an interesting story of a ghostly possession. I found the story quite emotionally effective, where I was feeling so bad for the main characters and their situation, all from the fallout both immediate and long term of an evil man who didn't stop at death. How it wasn't bad enough what he'd done to these people when he was alive, that NOW they ended up being even further damaged by him. It was just so tragic. I was hoping for a happy end.

As much as I liked the story, I personally found it a bit too strong in a social justice bent, which for escapist horror fiction, it was a bit too much. If I had taken a shot of whiskey each time I heard "toxic masculinity", I would have passed out long before the end of the novel... I did get this book as a review copy for an unbiased review, so to be honest, I'd have to say that this personally detracted from my enjoyment of the tale.

Narration was very smooth and easy listening, high clarity, and I was easily able to immerse myself in the story without the need to rewind when I missed bits or drifted off.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

A Series I Wish Had More Books...

Revisado: 08-16-19

I got this as a free review copy, for an unbiased review. But what a gift! I have a few thousand books in my library, and have listened to most, and there was one book I remembered reading that I was struggling to find to re-listen, as I loved it that much. I remembered the plot, but I couldn't remember the name and author. And I went through all my books but just couldn't find it. Then I saw the opportunity to get a review copy of this, and I checked my library, and I realized that I had purchased myself most of the books this author has released, and this was a new one. And then when I started to listen to it, I realized it was that in the series of that elusive book I was trying to find to re-listen to! So now I've downloaded the other book, and will re-listen to that next. Anyhow, the publisher description of the first book is too scant, so even reading it now it doesn't ring any bells of the story I was trying to find.

The story is contained, and with a new lead, a side character from the first book. It covers a journey of that character, both geographically, and personally in terms of growth and finding his place in the world. This is a post nuclear world, 12xyears later, and involved a community representative going to make contact with a group claiming to represent a rebuild of the US government.

Narration was top notch, and so easy to listen to immersively.

I just wish there were more books in this series!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Fantastic Journey

Revisado: 07-17-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Enduring Armageddon is a fantastic journey through a post nuclear Armageddon America, centering around a regular "desk job" couple, Chuck and Rebecca, who find themselves having to adapt to a harsh world. The book tells a great tale and has several distinct story phases, and it carries out a nice story arc at each stage, rather than meandering and dragging on and just escalating the one scenario, as many series do. Each phase could have in itself been told as a separate novel, but the story covers so much ground. It was also great that although the author was a veteran, he was writing this story from the perspective of a civilian couple, with no experience or affinity to violence or weapons. And the whole personal journey, of Chuck in particular, was just fantastic.

The scenario itself is also great - there are not that many nuclear war stories, compared to other apocalypse genres, and I like how the author also had the idea of a virus type crazies in the mix - although as vulnerable as a regular human.

I did get this book as a free review copy for an unbiased review, but I now have the author on my wish list for his other titles. I have no issue recommending this book to anyone.

This book also appears to (surprisingly) be the debut narration of James Amherst. I am actually surprised of that, as it was so smooth, professional, and easy to listen to, I thought he must have been a veteran narrator.

Well recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Global Apocalypse on a Cellular Level

Revisado: 07-02-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

An intriguing story of two concurrently told converging story lines, one starting "now", the other 6 months earlier. The way this was executed over the duration of the novel was actually quite unique and skilled.

The "Brad" story began 6 months prior, on the local discovery of a crazy vine, and the subsequent half-hearted secret government involvement in investigating the issue, during which Brad is sequestered by them in his home, and the sudden bewildering end of that involvement.

Robbie, a youth who with his family finds themselves in this new bio catastrophe, and very soon he finds himself alone.

In both cases, the leads are in the dark, alone, and with no idea what has gone on in the world, the extent of the issue, or the causes, or in fact what happened to everyone, and why not them.

On top of the situation, harsh weather is also in effect, making the journeys for answers even more difficult.

When Brad and Robbie meet up, there is a brief respite, where we discover other survivors, and Robbie has established himself and is revealed to be somewhat of a savant and has been speculating and planning on the cause and solution to the apocalypse. The story then progresses to action.

The story was a welcome relief in apocalyptic tales. As the survivors were survivors by accident or circumstance, they were all more or less who they were, rather than hardened survivors of a hard struck survival, so weren't just hard. morally grey. The story wasn't devoid of bad people, but they weren't, as in so many apocalyptic tales, the primary focus. The book was a one and done, nice and contained, and ends on a high note.

Narration was easy listening, and clear and did well on the character voices.

Note that I did get this audiobook free in exchange for an unbiased review. Note also that I did already own the kindle edition of this, and was wanting the audio of it so it was an easy choice.

Definitely a recommended book!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

An Area of History Not Widely Known

Revisado: 05-27-19

Forgotten Places is a historical based novel set in colonial Tasmania. Although I'm Australian, the amount of Australian fiction I've read voluntarily, for enjoyment (excluding those forced at school) is probably only in a couple of dozen, and as their entry in to my reading list is pretty rare I do tend to remember them. One historical novel I did read when I was a youth was Marcus Clarke's "For the Term of His Natural Life", which I thoroughly enjoyed, and wish was on Audible as well. A lot of the setting, circumstances and feel of Forgotten Places reminded me of For the Term of His Natural Life. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
The novel follows a straightforward plot initially, but then makes some unexpected changes, leading you to then need to go back and reconsider everything you believed to have occurred and understood earlier. The end result is a satisfying conclusion, and leading you to want to listen to it again with your new level of understanding.
The narration was with English accents, fitting the period and characters, and was easy to listen to and understand.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable, thought provoking, historic novel based on an area of history not widely known.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña