Mastodon

By: Steve Stred

Narrated by: Shep Pryor

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Seventeen years ago, Tyler Barton was born in the Rocky Mountains, while his parents were on a hike.

On that day, his mother disappeared, never to be seen again.

Now, history repeats itself.

On the 17th anniversary of her disappearance, Tyler’s father is flying home when the plane he’s on disappears - in the same area where his mother was last seen.

Undeterred by officials, Tyler decides to hike into the area in search of his father, hoping to find him alive and bring him back to safety.

But there’s a reason that area is prohibited to enter and even though Tyler doesn’t care, he’ll soon find out that the wilderness can hide some of the deepest, darkest fears known to man.

From the author of Incarnate, The Window In the Ground, and Ritual, comes a new novel that’ll make you rethink your Summer hiking trip.

©2022 Steve Stred (P)2023 Steve Stred

Critic reviews

"An old-school creature thriller told with crisp pacing and kick-ass set pieces, Steve Stred's Mastodon is a monster-in-the-woods tale with some choice surprises and plenty of rampaging fun." (Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence, The Damned, and The Demonologist)

“Steve Stred's Mastodon reads like a cross between Gary Paulson's Hatchet and Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy: A big-hearted adventure yarn with a dark and compelling mystery at its core.” (Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters)

“Mysterious. Gripping. High-octane. Mastodon is not the typical creature feature.” (Eddie Generous, author of Rawr and Behemoth Risen)

Instinct and Skills

Thank You Tiffany K for giving me an advanced code on Audible to this Novel.

Lovers of H G Wells will 99.9 percent enjoy this story. The Narrator Shep Pryor voice reminded me of a Matter of Fact Military experience from the very start.

The protagonist is on a quest to find his father and possibly his mother as well or at least learn what has become of his parents. The journey is frightening and painful.


Science Fiction

Canada

Crazy Creepy Fun

It's clear from the cover that this book is going to have some kind of creature in it. I had expected a pretty standard cryptid in a remote wilderness area sort of story. But there is so much more to this book. This was so much creepier than I had expected it to be, and it really sort of begs the question - how do you define what a monster is?

Had a lot of potential

Could have been great but just ended up being average. The monsters were underdeveloped as well as the story plot. It felt like it was going to be great from the start and quickly just turned into an average read.

Fun and exciting creature feature!

Loved the story. I find cryptid stories to be very fascinating and while I expected this to be part of the story, I was thinking more along the lines of Big Foot sightings and Chupacabras, but it was definitely a pleasant and different twist. Narration was great, but a bit fast for me, so I had to slow it down a tad and that alleviated the issue. Great story and performance overall.

Love this Author and Narrator

Can I just say, UNDERRATED AUTHOR?? This book was so interesting and super fun to listen to. I highly reccomend listening to anything by Steve Stred and/or narrated by Shep Pryor. Perfect voice for horror!

Was there a Mastodon?

I didn’t care much for this book at all. I really wanted to love it. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Steve Stred so I was really excited when I found the audio on an Audible discounted sale. I wasn’t that far in when I knew beyond doubt that I wasn’t going to like it. I looked to see if this title could be returned since it was purchased with cash and not with token, but it doesn’t appear that it can be, so I had a choice to make… finish or dnf?

I paid cash for this… DARN RIGHT I’m going to finish!!

Unfortunately for me it did not get better and I think I know why; It’s not the story that I took issue with, but rather the narration. For me it simply wasn’t engaging. It just seemed too lackadaisical. Lacking anything close to emotion. The narrators tone was tired and lazy. Not even trying to kick it up and change it when speaking to multiple characters. I was often confused and bored. Finding myself totally zoned out I was more than once having to go back and re-listen.

Perhaps it would have been a better experience for me if I’d read the physical media myself. But as of this moment in time I have too much on my shelves to consider giving him a second go around. Maybe at some point in the future. 3 ⭐️ for story bc I love a good cryptid and there are some awesome hybrids going on in here. But in this reader’s opinion the story could use some polishing and the audio needs a redo.

Well-written creature feature

Tyler lost both of his parents in the same wilderness- exactly 17 years apart. He embarks on a journey into this dense forest only to find grotesque creatures…mad scientists? Aliens? gov’t coverups? And good god what in the actual f*ck is this ending??

Looking forward to reading more from this author!

Solid creature feature

The first thing I’ll say is this story wasn’t like anything I came in expecting. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but just an observation after seeing the cover. I’ve read some of Stred’s short fiction, and have enjoyed everything I’ve read so far. The final act of this book was action packed, and I love some good old school wilderness horror. Sometimes a narrator just doesn’t click with you, and unfortunately that held back the book for me. That’s not a knock on the narrator, as audiobooks are tricky for me. It doesn’t take much for me to zone out while listening, the voice has to really rope me in and keep me focused. I feel I may have missed a few key scenes as I would lose focus and then force myself to snap back to attention. Overall though, this is a solid creature feature.

Okay but disappointing

This book is okay if you're looking for something relatively quick and down to the point. And if you don't care about any actual character development and you like the generic storytelling of a C- list SyFy channel horror movie that's on during a mid-Saturday afternoon.

All I can really say about it is... it's something to listen to? I recommend it as an "in-between" book from the last good one you listened to and before the next one you think will be good. After listening to this you'll likely appreciate the next book more.

The narration is meh. No real effort is made to convey character emotions or their headspace. The audio quality sounds like someone was paid to record it in a basement and some other guy at a local book store looking to make a quick $100 for reading this in parts, which are very obvious with the audio quality.

I didn't care for it that much. Again, it was to listen to but that's about the only redeeming quality it has. Everything about it is pretty subpar in comparison to what I generally listen to. Maybe I have unreasonable standards, I don't know. Take my review as it is, just my $.02 worth of pulpy horror story opinions.