Dead Six

By: Larry Correia, Mike Kupari

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Michael Valentine, veteran and former member of an elite private military company, has been recruited by the government to conduct a secret counter-terror operation in the Persian Gulf nation of Zubara. The unit is called Dead Six. Their mission is to take the fight to the enemy and not get caught. Lorenzo, assassin and thief extraordinaire, is being blackmailed by the world's most vicious crime lord. His team has to infiltrate the Zubaran terrorist network and pull off an impossible heist or his family will die. When Dead Six compromises his objective, Lorenzo has a new job: Find and kill Valentine. As allegiances are betrayed and the nation descends into a bloody civil war, Lorenzo and Valentine must face off. Two men. Two missions. Only one will win.

©2011 Larry Correia, Mike Kupari (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Fast and furious trashy action novel - with guns

Excellent action packed and violent pseudo-military novel. Lots of violence, lots of guns, lots of bad guys getting their just desserts. Actually, it is one of the best, non-moralizing, trashy action books I've read in a long while. There is no deep dark plot, not much nuance, and not much cheesy romance...

The story is told from 2 different points of view (Lorenzo and Valentine) and, surprisingly, they are different enough that they really do feel like different characters (perhaps each author wrote one of the main characters?) ... neither are quite bad enough that you dislike them, but they are not the typical "good guys" either.

The romantic components are relatively well done (i.e. not cheesy or over done). The bad guys (one set of them anyway) are pretty extreme, but hey, it isn't meant to be true-to-life. For its genre, it is not as sexist or gun-porny as some, and there is not much "judgement" regarding who is a bad guy and who is not, though there is a steady theme of anti-terrorist and American military "black ops" secrecy throughout the novel.

The narrator is okay, but it seems that at some points - in particular when he is describing gun and body/armour interactions - he slows right down to emphasize... almost like the action is occurring in slow-mo. The segments are all subtitled (i.e "Valentine, Morocco, April 14th") so you always know which point of view we are seeing, even though I don't think you would know the difference between the two main characters by the narration.

There is lots of non-gory violence, lots of swearing and no detailed sex. As soon as I finished this book, I bought the next one on Audible at full price...

Loved the book loved the narration

Where does Dead Six rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I'm a huge fan of the MHI series and so I was very happy to see another book out by Larry Correia the narrator really drew me in and make the story shine. All the characters have distinct voices, such that I could picture what the various characters would look like and the rhythem he sets for the story is just brilliant. I don't usually follow narrators, but I'm totally checking out all the books he's read because I'm sure that while they might not have been my first choice as authors or subject matter just the fact that he's read them is going to have me doing a sample listen.

What does Bronson Pinchot bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Bronson Pinchot nailed the narration. Completely made the characters come alive thru the application of his voice the expression he fed into the reading.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

#thecalm, #manheisshort

Awesome performance!

I really liked the book. The narration, however made it phenomenal. I will be downloading the next in the series as soon as I'm done with this review!

Great Story...read masterfully.

Dead Six is a must. Not wasting any time and starting second book asap.

Two authors. two characters. Complete Awesomeness

What did you love best about Dead Six?

The action in this book is intense! It was well written and with two gun experts and one author with years of military experience you can bet it was accurate. To ramp up the intensity is the fact that some of the action is between the two characters that we are cheering for. When you are hoping that they both win without killing each other. Also, the story was compelling and while I saw some things coming, I certainly didn't guess it all. Valentine and Lorenzo were very compelling characters, unsympathetic in their occupations (stealing stuff and killing people) but very likable in their own right. I also loved the narration. The way that Valentine's Calm was done made for a very unique style of seeing the action.

What did you like best about this story?

I am a big Larry Correia fan. I own all of the Monster Hunter books and the Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy. I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Dead Six and was hoping to find it on Audible when when I first signed up, but they didn't have it. Then came February 4th. In one day Audible released Dead Six, it's sequel Swords of Exodus, and two other of Larry's books not previously available on Audible. I knew right where my next credit was going! Co-written with Mike Kupari, who has a ton of military experiences and was in Explosive Ordinance Disposal training for part of the writing the story is well thought out, exciting, and very tense. I can't say that I've read too many collaborations, but I do know that different authors do them different ways. Correia and Kupari did this by each writing a different character's view point. This made the two characters distinct from each other and allowed the authors to have fun with their characters. Dead Six takes place in an alternate or near future world where the political landscape is just a little different and the world is a lot more messed up then now. Hard to believe, I know, but they did it.

What about Bronson Pinchot’s performance did you like?

Bronson's performance was spot on. The accents were great, the voices of the characters were well represented, and their moods were conveyed wonderfully. He earned every one of the stars that I give him here.

Any additional comments?

I must give a STRONG language content on this. There is A LOT of profanity in this book. But language was used right. There was weight to it. Certain characters would use it more than others. It didn't pull me out of the story. It felt natural. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of swearing and unpleasant terms. I would say the level of gore is less than Monster Hunter and not gratuitous. There is a very unpleasant scene involving a sadistic murderer, but again, the actual description, does not dwell on the details. There are also three scenes that a movie review might describe as "sex is implied." Nothing sexual takes place on the page, but there are some brief references.

Got maybe 3 hours in...

Personally, I just couldn’t stand the narrator. Sing-songy lisping action narration — it simply made my brain itch.

Really wish he would of just taken it down a notch. His character voices were decent enough to keep me moving for the first three hours, but alas. Not for me.

The book is probably a very fun ride and I just might go get a paperback copy.

Narrator ruined this. Buy the book.

Buy the book, avoid this. Narrator absolutely horrible. He somehow managed to make shoot outs with terrorists boring.

not sure

has some good action..yet slow,, diverging stories.. might try book to at $ special but not at $$$

A glimpse into a world that shouldn't have to Be!

I'm grateful to have found this read! Makes PTSD more understandable!! Hope is helps Y'all!

Gets better as it goes - great find

George Guidall followed one of his books with dialogue on narration. I had never thought about it but he said a good narrator was a good actor. It changed the way I listened and as we all know, a bad narrator burns the book.

I've never listened to a Bronson Pinchot book but I'm totally hooked. I love his range and at times it sounds like he must have someone else step in. Good connect with each character. I stumbled upon this in one of the sales, just giving it a try. Now I have the rest of the series in my library.

There's a little of everything in this book, all focused around either US military or mercenaries. The back and forth threw me at first but once I got into the swing I loved it. No book report here, not sure I could do a decent one. And my opinion of the book is nothing more than my opinion but if you enjoy shoot 'em up strategy with a little (very little) romance and lots of crafty escapes and such, I'd say it's definitely worth the read.

Oh, guess I should give credit to the authors since they concocted the story and selected Pinchot. Great job.