The Junkie Quatrain

By: Peter Clines

Narrated by: Christian Rummel, Therese Plummer

Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Original Work, 2013

Six months ago, the world ended. The Baugh Contagion swept across the planet. Its victims were left twitching, adrenalized cannibals that quickly became know as Junkies. Civilization crumbled as people created isolated safe havens to hide from the infected... and the possibly infected. Now, as society nears a tipping point, lives will intersect and intertwine across two days in a desolate city.

The Junkie Quatrain is four tales of survival, and four types of post-apocalypse story, because the end of the world means different things for different people. Loss. Opportunity. Hope. Or maybe just another day on the job.

©2012 Peter Clines (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

quick glimpse

It's just a quick glimpse into the life of the characters. overall typical Peter Clines.

Not exactly a short story...more of a

series of overlapping vignettes. While you get different POVs, the story doesn't advance. Rather, it just hits a dead end. Perhaps this is intentional, to force you to follow the story in serial form. But I found it lacking.

Pretty good!

4 interconnected vignettes that while each rather short and the book itself being short give you a fantastic view into the universe the stories take place in, as well as standing extremely well on their own as well as the ways they interconnect. Some of the terminology and aspects of the book are badly done and could have used a little more research (off the top of my head, I'm pretty damn sure Russia doesn't have 300 million people....)

The narrator does a fantastic job with each character as well as the regular narration voice. Overall, I'd recommend the book maybe not for a full credit (just a little short for that, in my opinion) but if audible is having a sale.

Nice little shorty

The stories all weave together nicely. I like the thought put into the who's and what's for what little time there actually is in this but it still gives enough for a good story to be told.

Narrator did excellent with no qualms with any the voicing or lines.

Great story !!!

Great story.
I just want to point out 1 fact.
How can russia report 300 million dead, while it's population as of 2011 is 141.5 million.
Everything else is great.

A little disappointing

Peter Clines is an excellent story teller, as his other books demonstrate. These short stories are a bit disappointing however. Some are better than others and those better stories do feel terribly abbreviated, as though it is on its way to becoming a novel, then abruptly stops.

The others are rather disappointing being largely action based. Action in a zombie novel can work well in spurts and interwoven as part of a larger plot. In these cases though, being short stories, some of the action is excessive, with just ongoing, non-stop details of battle and run ins with zombies - little or no character development or plot context to establish it as a story... Like watching a really, really long car chase in a film... Personally, I find such things the fluff you have to get through to get back to the story, but I understand why it is used, as it is part of creating the feeling of a real experience of a zombie novel, and when used sparingly and well can make the story seem very exciting. In these cases though, there is no story to support the endless action in some cases, so it seems pointless and really quite dull.

That said, the better stories are entertaining, if a bit frustrating in that they are so brief. The narrators do an excellent job, so that helps too.

Short and Interesting

short and interesting. I liked how he wrote the story. Made me purchase and listen to other books. I read this book mainly because of the book "14" by the same author.

Great book. Don't pass it by.

I truly enjoyed this book. Clines is a master storyteller and this book does exactly what a book should. It grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and held it until the last. It entertained me, surprised me and pulled me in completely. Some parts were scary, some tense, and all gripping. I wish Clines would continue with this storyline because there is still much left to build upon. I would love to find out what happens to the major characters. The narrators are excellent and if there is ever a sequel, I hope they would continue to narrate.

The book is made up of four stories, which are complete yet all connect with one another. About the stories: It is six months after the virus struck. Billions of the world population are dead or infected. The infected are contagious, aggressive and dangerous. They have been reduced to hungry, shaking, gibbering junkies. The four stories tie together with characters from one story fitting into other stories. The main characters are Holly, a bad ass survivor; the Outsiders, who go out into the streets to obtain goods; Bradbury, who runs a secure sanctuary and is overseeing medical experiments looking for a cure; Dr. Sam Clemons, who is hired by Bradbury to help with the medical research; and a professional and extremely skilled assassin who also has a tiny little bit of humanity left.

Wanted more.

A great read. Two or three more hours of this would have made this a better bargain.

Okay and slightly inappropriate at times

In this book has some interesting term but I could've done without some of the gory details in the language plus the fact they kept changing narraters and characters kept me guessing. Overall a good story.