Ryan

This was my first listen to a JD Robb book, and it was an OK listen.

I didn't know going in (I didn't read any summaries) that it was a futuristic book, and the action seemed to ebb and flow a bit more than other audio books that I have listened to.

I enjoyed the characters, and they have left me curious enough to listen to the 2nd book in the series.

Middle average.

Meeting with the North Korean who had the memorabilia.

His presentation of characters.

At points - yes. There were portions of the book where I thought that the story would progress, and was interested to hear if they moved in the same direction.

The escape.

Probably not. My answer might have changed if 5 hours had been shaved off the story.

The characters were all a bit too "breathy". There was too much emotion in even the most mundane of conversations.

No.

The characters were unique and well defined. I was able to follow them all, and made connections to each.


The story was great, too.

The intro of the squales.

Veek.

My next audio book that I purchase will be from Peter Clines. Ray Porter did a great job, too.

I buy the new entry in this series the first day it comes out because I'm such a big fan, so I'm admittedly a bit biased.

However, this book was rock solid. The scenery, the plot twists and the ending all left me not wanting to turn off my MP3 player upon the end of my commute.
Also, the ending sequence is absolutely fantastic. There were points where I saw my knuckles going white from gripping the steering wheel so hard because of the suspense, action and uncertainty.
My only regret: I now need to wait another year or so for the next installment!

This was the first audiobook that I bought from Audible where I was tempted to drop it half way through the book. As you will see, I rated it 2 stars, and if there had been half stars I probably would have rated it as 1.5.
My review was founded on 2 facets of the book - the overall plot and the writing & reading style, and my rating is the composite of these 2 facets:
Plot - I really enjoyed the plot of the book. If anything, that is what kept me listening to it at points where I just wanted to move onto a new book. I found it interesting, relevant (I kept thinking of Google) and as a techie I could relate to much of what was being said. So, my review on the plot was 4-4.5 stars.
Actual writing, reading style, ending (no spoilers) - I really struggled with these 3 aspects. I found the writing to be a bit sensational & stereotypical - phrases such as "He made Darth Vader look like a Walmart greeter", "It was twice as bright as the sun" and "All the soccer moms driving their Escalades" were overly sensational or overly stereotypical. Plus, although there was a lot of tech in the book, I felt like there was tech discussed simply for the purpose of tech being discussed. I know my technology pretty well, and it pained me to listen to some of the word-dropping that the book did.
It was the reading of the book that really turned me off. I felt like I was initially listening to a commercial on debt relief (his voice sounded like someone here in Chicago who delivers commercial on the topic), and again, the voices seemed too stereotypical- the cop as gruff, the techie as kinda nerdy sounding. And again, the delivery at time sounded overly-sensational or overly-emotional.
The ending was way to abrupt. I looked at the time remaining at around 90 minutes, and couldn't figure out how they were going to wrap up the book in such time, and the ending just felt like it left too many strings untied.

As the final book in the John Corey series, I was pretty excited to listen to this book.

However, I found this to be the weakest of the three in the series - the dialogue was predictable, the exchanges between the characters was like something out of a bad action flick (i.e. the bad guy talks long enough to give the good guy time to ruin the bad guy's plan) and the story just a wee-bit far fetched.

But, that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it....I just didn't enjoy it as much as the others.

What a disappointment.

It was the Pendergast novels that got me into audiobooks (and Audible.com) in the first place, and this one was as good as the others (if not better than some).

It had me guessing the entire time, and I struggled to figure out the answer to the mystery. I found the Wheel of Darkness to be a bit of a stretch as to what could legitimately happen, but I think the evil behind this novel has a degree of legitimacy to it.

However, and it was a subtle mention by Pendergast later in the novel that tipped me, the rationale and reason behind what was happening came togther in my head.

This novel has left me (as all the others have) waiting for the next installment (nice cliffhanger on this one), and wait patiently I will.