The Informationist

A Thriller

By: Taylor Stevens

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Vanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information - expensive information - working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back.

Until now.

A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.

Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent.

©2011 Taylor Stevens (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Stevens’s blazingly brilliant debut introduces a great new action heroine, Vanessa Michael Munroe, who doesn’t have to kick over a hornet’s nest to get attention, though her feral, take-no-prisoners attitude reflects the fire of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander….Thriller fans will eagerly await the sequel to this high-octane page-turner.” ( Publishers Weekly)

This blew, wish I could get my money back

What disappointed you about The Informationist?

So predictable. So unbelievable. Couldn't stand the protagonist. Should have put a harlen cover on the book.

Would you ever listen to anything by Taylor Stevens again?

Hell no!

How could the performance have been better?

She could have written a better story.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger, because I read the initial reviews that said this was a great book. Who the hell wrote them? I'd like to kick them in the teeth.

kind of dumb

What a bummer.....this book was slow, far too simple, poorly written and horribly narrated. The voices used were ridiculous sounding. I stopped about 2/3 through as I couldnt stand it anymore. First time Ive ever had to do that.

I don't get it

I think maybe this is a book to be read (possbily), and not listened to, but I found it scattered, disjointed, and often incomprehensible. I gave it a good chance but have thrown in the towel 3/4ths of the way through. There's no through-story, no character development, very little (or no) context. I've read all the books this is compared to and Vanessa Michael Munroe. Like others (and I am a writer, admittedly of non-fiction) I found the writing to range from somewhat accomplished (sometimes) to amateurish (other times). The listener had to make so many assumptions and there were quite a few "superheroine" moments when suddenly had weapons to kill her attackers. All in all I think my two and three stars were generous. It's basically dialogue (that's often hard to follow) and action.

I could not even finish the book....

I am not a great literary scholar, but at no point did I care if any of the characters lived or died. Predictable plot and a protagonist with an inconsistent personality. Sorely dissapointed that it is being so promoted by Audible...

Not an audiobook to spend your time with

What disappointed you about The Informationist?

Characters are uninteresting and plasticene. This book manages to be both contrived and predictable.

Would you ever listen to anything by Taylor Stevens again?

I might listen to something by this author again if I felt I had to do penance for a mortal sin and no horsehair shirts were available.

Did Hillary Huber do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Reader has a pleasant voice and did a reasonable job reflecting the different personalities and accents in the dialogues. Dialogue were not well written, but reader did well considering the quality of the material.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

unrelieved disappointment and frustration

This won a "Tournament"? REALLY??!!

I can suspend disbelief well, and I read a lot of stuff that strains believability.

But this was just silly.

I admit that I only listened to half of the novel, because I thought it had to get better . . . but it didn't, and I value my time too much to listen to something that is trying to be believable, but isn't.

Let me give you one small spoiler: the protagonist is supposed to be this very attractive woman . . . but she can easily pass for a guy when she needs to. WHAT???

(And the reader seemed too melodramatic and breathy for my taste, but maybe it was just because what she was reading was so terrible -- I cannot be sure.)

I will end the review here. It hurts my head just to think about this audiobook anymore.

If you want to listen to a good thriller, try something by Alex Berenson, anything by Robert Crais, or one of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" novels (really - there are lots of books that I REALLY like - JUST NOT THIS ONE!)

And knowing that this won a "Tournament of Audiobooks," I will say this: I will never again trust the outcome of the "Tournament" in deciding how to invest a credit. (Really - this book is THAT bad.) I guess I am just not with the pack.

Just didn't care

The book was never able to draw me in. Weak story line and characters. The heroin was a bit to informed.

I Dont't Understand How

I purchased this book thinking that because it got an audible award that it was going to be a decent read, but the comparison to "Jason Bourne" doesn't fit. I constantly found myself drifting away while listening, and because the pace is so dreadfully slow, i got bored on numerous occasions. I never found myself gripping with anxiety, and with the lack of suspense that I was mislead to believe I would be feeling, I don't really understand how this got an award as high as it did. This book has a compelling storyline, but because it takes so painfully long to tell, because in between the storyline, the "memory-lane" and "love" side stories made me drift and at most times forget "what were we trying to do now?" If your expecting "action", and "suspense", and "gripping storytelling"...many other books do a better job at that. At most this is a character-developing novel, preparing for sequels, with a poor mystery storyline hidden in the quagmire of history recounting and "love lost-refound love side stories. I was not happy with this book. Heck, while writing this review the book is playing as noise in the background. It took way too long to complete, and feel like it was a waste of time. Better books do a better job at what this one tried to do, and i would be hard-pressed to start another book under this character.

Waist of a Credit.

Would you try another book from Taylor Stevens and/or Hillary Huber?

No.

Has The Informationist turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Hillary Huber?

Maybe.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really.

Any additional comments?

Just that i am frustrated by marketing tricks, and for some strange reason this book WON the Audiobook Tournament.

Booorrrrring!!

Ridiculous! Unbelievable attempt at espionage. I couldn't even listen past the first hour, and I would like my credit back. Too bad that isn't an option.