Heavy Duty Listening: How Truckers Keep on Truckin'

The weather is always perfect for truckers in Impact Winter, a hit Audible Original saga that drives listeners into an otherworldly universe of apocalypse, horror, and adventure. Narrated by an outstanding British cast and created by The Walking Dead’s Travis Beacham, this episodic listen begins after a comet has hit earth and blotted out the sun. The world is frozen and creatures take over. Vampires? A band of survivors take refuge in a medieval castle. One of the leaders, Darcy, a battle-tested vampire hunter, is determined to save humanity, while her sister wants to return above and live again.

Sci-fi writer John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society is an ideal listen for seekers of out-of-this-world experiences while on the road in this world. Though he's not a long hauler, Jamie Gray is a driver for a food delivery app when he encounters a friend, Tom, who says he works for an “animal rights society.” Thinking abandoned dogs and cats, Jamie signs on to help as anything beats his delivery gig—but Tom left out the detail that these animals in need of saving are living in an alternate dimension. The Kaiju are dinosaur, Godzilla-like creatures living in a warm, human-free world. Others have found their way to their habitat and the animals are in trouble and millions back on Earth could die.

Voted Audible’s Best Science Fiction listen of 2016, the first installment of Dennis E. Taylor’s best-selling series known as the Bobiverse has proven to be a favorite alternate universe hangout for truckers with its twists and turns. Bob Johannsson has just made a ton of money selling his software company. He wants to live a life of leisure, so he has his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street and wakes up 117 years later. He discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. Bob and his clones are on a mission to find new homes for humanity and boldly go where no Bob has gone before. It’s hilarious and brilliantly narrated by Ray Porter. The thrills continue in For We Are Many, All These Worlds, and Heaven's River.

Andy Weir’s The Martian was and still is the king of the road blockbuster for truckers. Mark Watney was one of the first people to walk on Mars. Six days later, he believes he’ll be the first person to die there. He’s completely alone after a dust storm nearly kills him and his crew evacuates thinking he is dead. He has no way to signal Earth to let anyone know that he’s alive. Not one to give up, he gives his all to stay alive. Do truckers see themselves in Watney’s character? No matter how tough the road, you just keep on going. In Weir's Project Hail Mary, sole survivor Ryland Grace isn't alone; he has company: two corpses.

Recommended by truckers and not to be missed by anyone are game changers The Sandman and The Sandman Act II, Neil Gaiman's masterworks, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “the greatest epic in the history of comic books,” performed by a stellar cast. The Sandman, Lord Morpheus, is pulled from his realm of dreams, stories, and the imagination and imprisoned on Earth by a cult for decades. His journey brings him face to face with a cast of characters from the DC universe.

Jack Reacher is a trucker’s natural born road dog in this Lee Child series. Reacher, a former military guy, can’t seem to avoid conflict no matter where he is, taking the listener on hours of edge-of-the seat adventures. In the Killing Floor, Reacher, who’s usually the one rooting out the bad guys and their crimes, finds himself accused of murder in the small town of Margrave, Georgia. Only thing is, he didn’t kill anyone. Reacher finds himself in another small town that turns into something dark, powerful, and dangerous in The Midnight Line. He gets kidnapped along with a woman, the ransom is huge, and so is the challenge of getting out alive in Die Trying.

Jack Ryan Jr. first became a long hauler’s best bud in Tom Clancy’s Teeth of the Tiger, where we’re introduced to the young hero and the Caruso brothers, a rookie FBI agent and a Marine captain. The capable threesome catches the attention of a clandestine intelligence group known as The Campus, and their worlds change unpredictably. Though he's on forced leave from The Campus in Duty and Honor, Jack Jr. still finds himself caught in the crosshairs. And in the series latest entry, Zero Hour, Jack Ryan Jr. is the one man who can prevent a second Korean War. Hall of Fame narrator Scott Brick captures the daring adventures of the son of original Jack Ryan, the brilliant CIA analyst who made his global debut in The Hunt for Red October.

Radio shows, new and vintage, are becoming fast favorites among the long hauler set—their story lines, no doubt, have the traction they like.

Fan of Westerns? Powder River is a radio dramatization featuring two lawmen, Britt and Chad, father and son turned ranchers who move their lives to Clearmont, Wyoming. Nothing odd there, until Britt’s past returns to haunt him. More into sci-fi? In We're Alive, the players in the drama aren’t even human—they’re zombies, vicious lawbreakers without mercy or decency. Rich in soundscape, suspense, and mayhem, this is a fast-paced adventure where survival seems out of reach. Or check out the remastered and digitally restored X Minus One: Archives Collection. This wildly popular radio series was originally broadcasted in the 1950s and written by some of the top sci-fi writers of the day, such as Ray Bradbury.

In Hoodlum, Shai Clark was known as “the good kid” with hoop dreams, even though his father was at the helm of a brutally notorious crime family. When Poppa is murdered, Shai is forced to enter the nightmarish world of his father’s empire. No one, not even Shai, knows where his smarts will take him on the mean streets he now rules. The drama of this listen for a long-distance hauler is captivating as the story unfurls for miles of surprises and turns.

It’s no surprise that truckers are great storytellers with all the territory they cover and characters they encounter on their journeys. In the listens below, they regale us with stories from the road, putting us in their truckers’ seats without the worry of "white line fever."

In The Long Haul, it's been more than 30 years since Finn Murphy began hauling memories (including remains), treasures, and furniture all around the country. Interesting, fun, and sometimes challenging, he keeps listeners engaged with humor and humanity. Ed Miller's A Trucker’s Tale proves how he has seen it all from one highway to the next during his 60 years on the road. Having grown up in a family of truckers, he has lots of tales that run the gamut from heartwarming to cringeworthy.

Alex Debogorski is King of the Road. His long hauls take him over the most treacherous roads that exist—the roads he travels are paved with ice as he delivers goods to Alaska and Canada’s frozen north, and every now and then, there’s a bear to contend with. A happily married couple decide to literally shift gears and go to truck driving school. And off they go to their three-year adventure in Mother Trucker: An Urban Couple Downshifts to Life on the Road. Hold on!