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Impact  By  cover art

Impact

By: Douglas Preston
Narrated by: Scott Sowers
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Publisher's summary

In Douglas Preston's Impact, Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world.

A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast... and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater.

A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source of gamma rays in the outer Solar System. He is found decapitated, the data missing.

High resolution NASA images reveal an unnatural feature hidden in the depths of a crater on Mars... and it appears to have been activated.

Sixty hours and counting.

©2009 Splendide Mendax, Inc. (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Scott Sowers's fully voiced reading is perfect...Sowers's accomplished, finely tuned pacing will keep listeners hooked. Great family listening for a long journey.” —SoundCommentary.com



“Be warned, once you start listening to this you'll will not want to switch it off... Definitely recommended!” —SFCrowsnest.com

“I highly recommended Impact on all levels. It is one of the best books I have ‘read' in a long time.” —SF Revu

What listeners say about Impact

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

***Explicit Language Warning***

I am a huge fan of Douglas Preston's work. If you like his unique mix of Fiction and Philosophy, you will love this Novel.

Unfortunately, in a marked deviation from previous work, the use of foul language, especially the "F" word, is pervasive from almost every character.

I was quite disappointed and will not be recommending this book as I have so widely in the past. Sorry Mr. Preston, but I think you are a better writer than this.

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69 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not good

I've really enjoyed many of Douglas Preston's works but I have to say that this one left me wanting. The character development is poor and frankly the story line is weak to the point of being laughable and it gets progressively worse at the book progresses. As other reviwers mentioned it seems as if the author tried to wrap-up the story quickly without a clear idea as to how to finish it.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Offensive in so many ways

If this book had a movie rating it would be "R 3/4". There is much more fiction than science, starting off with, the Andromeda Galaxy is not in Orion, it's in Andromeda! Not only that, both of these constellations would be out of sight and behind you when facing the ocean on the Maine coast late at night at that time of year. I thought maybe she pointed the telescope at Orion just to orient it but no, later she was still pointed at Orion, looking at the galaxy. Argghh! Do your homework! There is too much profanity for my taste, drug use, lewdness and references to our heroine as a "jungle bunny". I don't care how corse the character is that said it, it's not acceptable. For that this is off of my player and deleted from my drive, after only a few chapters. I couldn't take anymore.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Vulgar? yes, but overal, it's good

A real interesting thriller set around a sci-fi scene. I really like these kind of books...everyday people discover something that would be unlikely, or impossible to us. Then we see how they deal with it.

OK, these characters are a bit over the top, but it still works.

OK, it's vulgar at times, but it still works.

I really liked how this book evolved..slowly revealing different truths.

If some raw cursing doesn't offend you, you won't be disappointed.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Didn't do it for me

Preston is often compared to Michael Crichton and there is indeed a strong resemblance, but Impact does not strike me as a Crichton novel. It has all the elements but it is missing something.

First of all, much of the novel is unnecessary. Preston's attempt to achieve a dense plot made me feel like I was just wading through muck to get to the end. For example, Preston adds complications just so they can be overcome. Randall Worth's character is completely unnecessary. The same goes for Wyman Ford's romp in Cambodia. The setting is beautifully rendered, but what was it all for? To find the crater? Crichton would have flown us in on a helicopter to find the crater, skipping the unnecessary melodrama involving the Khmer Rouge. Ford's ultimate decision while at the site, and his escape from the Khmer Rouge, are both stupid and absurd. No CIA agent would make such a dumb decision and neither would he have escaped with his life.

While the science in Impact was interesting, there wasn't enough of it. It only barely held my interest as we ran from an assassin, trapsed around in Cambodia, and spent chapter after chapter on choppy seas reading descriptions of every damn wave. I wanted to hear about the machine, aliens, and the implications of such things. And when we did hear about these things, it was hurried and unsatisfying. And the final unveiling of the villain was so absurd it almost had me laughing: "Really? All of this trouble caused by this guy? for this reason?"

Overall, Impact just didn't do it for me. It was too much spy fiction and too little creativity or intellect.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

not for me

I have enjoyed a number of his books but this had too much vulgarity and crude language for me to enjoy. I stopped listening after an hour or two.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!!

I love the Preston/Child books. I am especially a big fan of the Agent Pendergast series(Relic, Cemetery Dance, Dance of the Dead, etc.); so getting this was not a great leap of faith. I knew it would be well worth the credit. I was not disappointed. It took off at light speed and never let up. If you are a fan of thrillers with a supernatural/paranormal twist, any of Mr. Preston's (or Lincoln Child's) books are great reads.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun, faced-paced thriller

I'm right in line with other reviews: it's a moderately silly story that causes numerous rolling of the eyes, but it's a fast paced read that was very entertaining (sort of like the submarine action film Crimson Tide). It killed my commute with ease and didn't ask too much attention to keep track of events. Scott Sowers does a *fantastic* job as a narrator.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Meh...

To sum up this book in one word... Meh. The book was fast pasted but did not move me. The language did not bother me. What 18 year old witnissing the event of her lifetime does not drop the F bomb. There was a lot of time spent building up to this final show down and it never happened. It was like he wrote the ending in one afternoon. Be sure to listen to the epilog it adds some much needed answers to the ending and should have been part of the ending. OK book, but not the block buster I had anticipated. Save for a rainy day, or if you have an extra credit you need to use up.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible

Terribly written and terribly read. This is the first book I purchased that I COULDN'T finish. Aweful plot line with unnecessary foul language and teenage girls that don't exsist in any civilization anywhere. Simply stupid.

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7 people found this helpful