Seriously Dropped The Ball

This book has so many good ideas and scenarios to play with and does nothing cool or interesting with it. A serious let down.

You have an entire community and history of mind readers, and you choose to focus on this whiny, self important wimp and how "I always hurt people close to me, why am I like this? Woe is me!" Very minor spoiler, but the first mind reader was found because he stopped an assassination attempt on the president of the united states. That is an incredible setup for something, I'm not sure what but you can run with that. Instead the main character complains how he isn't the alpha in this new society.

Just imagine the possibility for stories with a bar full of mind readers. All the perverted thoughts, all the secrets, tearing apart pickup lines and actually hearing the glass shatter in someones mind..... Well this books doesn't play with any of that.

At the end of the day its a bland, generic rebelling story. Really not worth the credit.

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1 person found this helpful

more of a cerebral sci-fi experience

I was captured by the synopsis of Brightside by Mark Tullius. Sounding like a great and fairly unique science fiction story. I mean could you imagine if there were people that could hear your most intimate and private thoughts? And at all times!

As you can imagine the general public didn't like this very much, they could get all of the nation secrets! The government rounds up all of the thought thieves into, essentially, a large concentration camp. This "camp" was the town called Brightside, were the populous had jobs and apartments, relationships, go out to eat at restaurants. Making it seem as much as possible like nothing was wrong with the "camp". Aside from the enforcers roaming around to keep those that can hear everyones thoughts in line. Until one man can't take it any more.

The story starts off on day one hundred since Joe has been at Brightside. Giving a brief rundown of what has been going on, what thought thieves are and what Brightside is. Then the story jumps around a little bit giving key backstory to Joe. His childhood, how he came to Brightside.

For me, one the most entertaining parts of the story was when Joe interacted with women and when he would try to have a relationship with them. After all Joe, like most men, is a pig. Within a community of telepaths there is no way to hide it. Often times this gets him into trouble. However I found that the story, in parts, just didn't seem to move anywhere or moved along very slowly. And there were times where I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation. I thought there was going to be more action and science involved.

Brightside was a intriguing reimagining of concentration camps or refugee camps but with a science fiction spin on it all. If you want something unique and more of a cerebral sci-fi experience, you should check this out.

This was my first listening of Tee Quillin. He has a quite deep and booming voice that is also, strangely, velvety and soothing. He was able to bring identifiable voices to the different characters. I found that his reading pace was slow for my ears and increasing the playback speed made it worse, so I listened at normal speed. There were two instances of repeating sentences. While this does not really take away from the story. It does however take away from the overall audiobook experience. First on was in Chapter 10 at approx. 3:48, a sentence about a can of Lysol. First sentence was fine, then a longer than usual pause and then the second time instead of "Whoosh" Quillin made spraying sounds. The next was at approx. 7:09 "Because we knew, long pause, All because we knew...". On to something that I liked about the performance was the use of what I can only call a dreamy quality to the actual thoughts of the characters. Giving an immediate queue that it was a thought and not something said out loud, although in the end it didn't matter which the characters did.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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11 people found this helpful

Bright side

This was a really good story.Tee Quillen was the perfect narrator.What can happen in a society where 1/3 of the population can read minds?They get sent away to a town all their own!I beautiful prison where no one escapes.They still try.
I was given this book free for an honest review.

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Unusual, dark and gritty

An unusual and somewhat dark story where society confines any telepath they find to an isolated mountain town called Brightside. Accused of stealing thoughts, they are taken away from all they love, stripped of all they own and sent to live in a controlled society where everyone can read your every thought and breaking the rules can have drastic consequences. The main protagonist, Joe Nolan, is an interesting man who does not always make good choices, but you can not help but feel empathy for him as you follow his story as it seamlessly flips back and forth between the past and the present. It is a well written, dark, gritty novel with scenes that tug at your heart and others that make you shudder. The characters are engaging and the plot is unique and keeps you captivated with its action and twists. The narration fits the characters well, he generally moved the story along at a good pace but did tend to have some pauses that were far too long. I would have liked to have seen an epilogue that told us how things went for everyone, but then maybe there is going to be a sequel that will tell just that. I received this audiobook from the author at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

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5 people found this helpful

Really good and engaging

I really liked this book. When I first started it, I wasn't sure that was going to be case, but it drew me in and I couldn't put it down. I feel like there are lots of stories about telepaths out there, and I feared this would be a run-of-the-mill paranormal fantasy, but I was wrong. There is something different about this book, and that is a good thing. The characters were interesting, though not always very noble, and I found that I really cared about them. Maybe it is because this is an "adult" book, as opposed to "young adult," and it is dark and gritty - whatever it is, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to listen to the Audible version of this book. It sucked me in and wouldn't let go. The narrator was pretty good, but it took me a little bit to get used to his style. He seemed to have a lot of long pauses between sentences, but I got used to it and really thought he was perfect for the main character. This is the first book I have read by Mark Tullius, and I think I'm hooked. I will definitely check out more of his books, and I recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a dark, well-paced story.

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2 people found this helpful

Couldn't pause it..

I started listening to the first chapters on Marks podcast unlocking the cage but couldn't wait so had to get it. The whole plot and writing is amazing !

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2 people found this helpful

Original premises but not all successful execution

Any additional comments?

I have received this book in audio format from the author in exchange for an honest review.

People like Joe Nolan, telepaths, but broadly called thought thieves, are confined to Brighside, a small town placed on a mountain. They are able to read people's minds within close proximity. Thought thieves are considered public enemies, terrorists, and having them isolated from the rest of the world was the solution the government came up with to guarantee everybody's peace of mind. Joe always had difficulties to cope with this 'ability', trying to please others but also judging them for their past. It is not easy for him in Brighside either, since the other people are aware of his judgmental thoughts, isolating him even more.

The concept of this book is very interesting, seeing not only how life would be for a people able to read thoughts, but also in case where there are other people around with such ability. And how this affects the fact that one needs to keep something secret from everybody around. The book alternates between chapters in the present and chapters in the past, where we witness Joe's childhood and how being a telepath affected it. The story is quite dark, and I did not completely understand why Joe was seeming to do worse than other inhabitants of Brightside. He is the main character, but some others are also important, nevertheless they were plain and almost interchangeable. I could not connect to any of them and did not care if they died or stayed alive. I find this strange though that, although Joe was able to read their thoughts, and transmit them to us, those characters stayed plain and far from the reader.

Tee Quillin did well at transmitting the character's emotions and making enough difference in voices. There were a couple of sentences repeated which seems an editing mistake I see on other audiobooks. Something that disturbed me a bit was the lack of upward compression on the final mastering. I had trouble to hear when Quillin was 'whispering' in noisy environments. I had to turn the volume up but then the regular tone was too loud. I usually do not find this issue with other audiobooks, and it is a pity when it happens. Narrators should keep in mind that people usually listen to audiobooks while they do other activities, such us walking on the street, cooking, or cleaning; and delivering a final master adequate for this is a must.

It was a very interesting listen, with an original idea, but some more character development would have made this a greater book.

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1 person found this helpful

Captivating

This was one of the more captivating books I have heard. A suspenseful story paired perfectly with a entertaining narrator. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a unique story to listen to.

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StupidSide

This book is the stupidest book I have ever started to read/listen to. The narrator is mediocre at best. The story line is stupid and boring. I can't even finish it. Waste of time.

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1 person found this helpful