The 5th Wave

By: Rick Yancey

Narrated by: Brandon Espinoza, Phoebe Strole

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the first wave, only darkness remains. After the second, only the lucky escape. And after the third, only the unlucky survive. After the fourth wave, only one rule applies: Trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the fifth wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother - or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

©2013 Rick Yancey (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Gripping!" (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"Nothing short of amazing!" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

"Yancey's heartfelt, violent, paranoid epic, filled with big heroics and bigger surprises, is part War of the Worlds, part Starship Troopers, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and part The Stand ... a sure thing for reviewers and readers alike." (Booklist, starred review)

A little melodramatic, but a good post-apocalyptic

I liked the characters, but the love story doesn't add a whole lot for me. It's a good listen, and I definitely want to hear the rest of the trilogy.

good book teen focused

well narrated, good plot line, works well for younger readers. I will continue the series to find out what happens.

Fantastic Story That left me wanting more!

This is a new story and plays out very smoothly.
Very interesting characters. I am hoping for more, more sequels and prequels. I just do not want this story to end. Loved the narrators, wonderful casting!!

Amazing!

I love this audio book! It's very great. If you like The Hunger Games you'll love this.

Great Audiobook, Poor Editing

I loved everything about this audiobook, that is, everything minus the two parts where it repeats itself. There and two sequences early on where, without warning, the audio goes back about 5-10 minutes and does a part over that was just heard. One instance is where Cassie is talking to Crisco, and he tells her that he doesn't think she is hot. The story continues, and then after it gets maybe a chapter ahead, it does it all over again. It happens twice, that I've noticed. So great job to the author of the book and to the voice actors. The book is very well written, and the actors are very lively and bring the story to life. The editor however really pulls you out of the story by goofing on the editing.
(I haven't read the physical book, only listened to it, so maybe it's written to be done twice for some reason, it wouldn't make sense to do that, but for the sake of me not knowing for sure, I thought I would include that.)

Good in parts, frustrating in others

The book was fairly good overall -- quite good at times, but frustratingly annoying in others. Some things were just REALLY hard to swallow -- alien plans, kid training, drones falling out of the sky, ridiculously unlikely timing coincidences, etc.

There were parts of the book where I was about ready to give up on the book, but some twists made it come out pretty well.

The performance was quite good, with at least a couple of voices.

So, overall, I'd recommend it only if you can stomach juvenile fiction that stretches believability at times.

Slow first half

Very slow in "getting started". The last half was way better than the first half.

AMAZING!

I read this book because of the movie slowly creeping up in theaters in 2016, i came in expecting something similar to hunger games and the walking dead combined what i got was something much more probably one of the best books i have ever read.
My nitpicks were the that the "parts" i thought were very confusing and a little un organized.

Amazing Story

Wow is all I can say! The narrators nailed it...this story was amazing and I highly recommend it!

Not so much science in the fiction

Would you try another book from Rick Yancey and/or Brandon Espinoza and Phoebe Strole ?

Yes

Would you ever listen to anything by Rick Yancey again?

Probably not.

Have you listened to any of Brandon Espinoza and Phoebe Strole ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Do you think The 5th Wave needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not for me. If you liked the book then you'd probably want a sequel. Plot lines were left hanging and the ending was unsatisfying. I think it was clearly intended as a first book in a series.

Any additional comments?

Tired, overused plot, predictable cookie-cutter characters, lacking in imaginative science, or for that matter even believable science. Also, the book seems to be pitched toward the teen romance genre. I rarely ask for my money back but I did this time.