14

By: Peter Clines

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Audie Award Nominee, Science Fiction, 2013

Padlocked doors. Strange light fixtures. Mutant cockroaches.

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s. Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends. Or the end of everything....

©2012 Peter Clines and Permuted Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"A riveting apocalyptic mystery in the style of LOST." (Craig DiLouie, author of The Infection and The Killing Floor)

"A wholly original story that weaves together mystery and the apocalypse like a finely tuned band." (Evan Roy, Bricks of the Dead)

Overrated

I purchased this audiobook based on the glowing reviews. I seem to be in the minority, but I did not really enjoy the novel. The core premise of the book is intriguing: A man moves into an apartment complex and soon starts noticing something strange is going on. While investigating, he builds relationships with his neighbors and together they work to solve the mysteries of their building. I was hooked by the central mystery, and stuck with the book entirely because I wanted answers. The book delivers those, and went in unexpected directions, but the author's writing style kept me from enjoying the book. The pacing throughout the first half was incredibly slow, which would have been fine if the characters were interesting, but I never cared for any of them. As such even though the stakes were raised and crazy things were happening throughout the big, I was never invested in any of it.

I had tried to read Peter Clines' previous book 'Ex-Heroes' and quit after the first hour because I really didn't care for the dialogue or the characters. If you liked that book, or if the other reviews posted here make the book sound great, by all means give it a shot. It definitely wasn't for me though.

35 of 36 people found this review helpful

Meh

Any additional comments?

The best way I can describe the writing in this book, is that someone socially awkward wrote what he thought was "cool" dialogue amongst his characters. His idea of "flirty" banter with characters uttering phrases like "don't knock it 'till you try it" and all sorts of lame sexual innuendo got old. How quickly everyone in the building became friends was a stretch, so coupled with the dialogue, there's a lot of suspension of disbelief needed of the listener. It wasn't a terrible listen (thankfully one of my favorite narrators is the voice of this book), but the story could have been better - in the blink of an eye, the action starts, but at 3/4 of the way through the book, so felt like the author either took too much time at the beginning or was rushing to get to his conclusion. Honestly, I'm shocked by how many people gave this book rave reviews.

33 of 34 people found this review helpful

Couldn’t make it through half the book

Maybe the story would’ve gotten better but I wasn’t going to wait. The characters had no depth and what sounded like an interesting story premise just played out like a tired, old sitcom that wasn’t funny.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Hated the second half SO much

I really liked the first half, when the mystery of the building was still a mystery. Once the absolutely ridiculous Sci-fi element kicked in, however, it was dreadful.

25 of 26 people found this review helpful

I swear they switched authors halfway thru...

This book was exciting, mysterious, and fresh. Til it wasn't. It had so much promise then suddenly gave up on half the plot to give a predictable, made-for-tv movie ending.

25 of 26 people found this review helpful

Too much build-up

The build-up took more than half the book. Some authors can make this very entertaining, this wasn't one of them. And what came after was pretty meh. This would be ok as a short story, I really struggled to finish. There were a number of small implausible situations, even leaving aside the main story - a black hat hacker who works in data entry. A character complains about the script - chicken scratches that might be Thai or Muslim - the character is not ignorant and is college educated, so this was ignorant statement was uncharacteristic. The narrator was great, but the story was a waste of time and money.

25 of 26 people found this review helpful

Sluggish start to an improbable finish

Slow burn, repetitious and dull detail about apartment life. Mildly interesting characters. Might improve in sequels now that we've been overstuffed with minutiae .

25 of 26 people found this review helpful

Nope

Would you try another book from Peter Clines and/or Ray Porter?

Narrator was fine, story not so much.

Would you ever listen to anything by Peter Clines again?

I would be hesitant. Some of the other reviews say this is his best work, so...

25 of 26 people found this review helpful

Meh.

No regrets about finishing it, but I won’t recommend it to anyone. Interesting concept. Respectable performance.

24 of 25 people found this review helpful

Mystery? Not really

This was a recommendation from a friend, so I thought I'd give it a go. Based off the description, I went in preparing for a mystery/thriller...what I ended up with was an episode of Fringe. Overall, it was ok- maybe if I went in expecting more sci-fi aspects I would have liked it more.

24 of 25 people found this review helpful

A good one!

The blurb on this one didn't really appeal, so it was with hesitation that I bought it. So glad I took the plunge.

I can see why another reviewer may not have liked the last quarter of the story.....but on balance, it didn't detract sufficiently from the rest of the story to warrant a lower rating. This was a great listen. The quiet dread starts to build from the opening scene, and keeps building (intentional excessive use of "building"), despite the light-hearted tone of the characters. On balance, this is book is good entertainment.

It's not possible to say anything else about the plot without giving too much away. I knew it was sci-fi, but I had no inkling of what was coming for at least 3/4 of the book. It kept me listening into the small hours more than once.....so much for getting a good night's sleep courtesy of the building (not a spoiler of consequence!). Now I know why the editor's intro says what it does....but it doesn't really give much of a clue.

Narration was excellent.

Not surprising that Audible.com selected this as its best sci-fi novel of 2012 - just sorry I took so long to listen to it.

24 of 25 people found this review helpful

Un-expected pleasure.

I didn't know what to expect with this one, I got it because I really enjoyed clines other creations.



But I quickly fell in love with the whole story, you get to know each and every character and the twists are great.



It is hard to review without giving anything away, alls I can say is very enjoyable and really well narrated to the point where you can easily pick out each character by the narration.

26 of 28 people found this review helpful

Brilliant

This was brilliant - characterisation was wonderful, plot was brilliantly woven together with lots of nice pop culture references (loved the totally throwaway "bowties are cool"), and pace was such that I stayed up much too late to find out how it would end. Ray Porter's narration was also excellent, with clear delineation of the various voices and a great line in comic timing amid all the impending horror. Off to look for more things by Peter Clines/more narration by Ray Porter...

20 of 22 people found this review helpful

It's locked for a reason!!!!

It's been a while since I got totally immersed in an audiobook. This didn't really stand out to me, I only got it as it was in the sale, but I'm glad I did!

Nate works as a temp, going nowhere with no cash, so when cheap digs are offered he grabs them. Once he moves in, he starts to meet his neighbours and they soon realise that not one room in the whole building is structurally the same. Not only that, the building doesn't appear to be attached to the power grid and nobody's heard of the landlord.

I can't go into too much without spoiling it, but needless to say the atmosphere when they go past the basement and into room 14 is so tense you'll need to put the light on!

25 of 28 people found this review helpful

REVIEW FOR 14, by Peter Clines, read by Ray Porter

This book is one of my favourite books from Audible since I first got my iPad Mini 2 years ago. I am not sure why, it leans a little too much on the fantasy side of Sci-Fi. I  am not really into Lovecraft horror/monster type normally but 14 is written with such gritty, ordinary, day to day characters, so well developed that it is very believable. And extremely intriguing and very thrilling. 

It has a "Lost" kind of feeling. However, I don't mean that literally;  Lost became so drawn out and complicated that I got totally bored and lost interest in any of the increasingly unbelievable characters after the first season. This book kept my interest as the puzzles unfolded and the characters developed. 

Ray Porter, The guy who reads it, is wonderful, not too much accent or gender changes, and helps to give credence to the characters. 

So, when it started to go off into the horror side I was too hooked to let it really bother me. It all fits together well in the end and I have listened to it over and over. It is weird, I bought one of his other books immediately because I enjoyed 14 so much but, sadly I did not like it at all. 

But for me 14 remains up there with Solaris, which is a much deeper, more psychological story, (equally well read) and The Martian; which I don't think is as well written but also a really exciting, well read book.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Just, wow.

If you could sum up 14 in three words, what would they be?

Hilarious, entertaining madness.

What did you like best about this story?

It's impossible to put into words without giving massive spoilers, but the characters in this book have much more depth and realism about them than pretty much any other book I have ever read. I found myself sharing all their emotions, and rather than guessing the ending, was anxious to find out what they were leading to. This book is so well written, it's truly edge of your seat stuff.

What does Ray Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Ray Porter's performance is fantastic. A couple of the accents may have been a little ropey, but he still managed to make them believable, even his women had the correct balance of strength and fragility that so many actors tend to get so wrong. His pace is perfect, and his acting highlights all the humor and / or tension that each scene requires. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of his narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could've lost a whole weekend to this book. I was due to take a coach journey when I was about a third of the way through it, and decided to listen to more of it rather than my music. On the way home again I was pretty tired, and thought I would continue with the book, maybe have a doze on my way home...no chance. By the time my journey ended I was LITERALLY on the edge of my seat. The girl next to me must have thought I was crazy with all the fidgeting I was doing as events unfolded in my ears. By the time I actually got home, the story had become so intense that I was glad my other half was back from work so I didn't have to sit in the house on my own while I listened to the end.

Any additional comments?

I've been chewing all my friends ears off (figuratively) to try and get them to listen to or read this book. If you give it a chance, I promise you will too. Pretty much jumped straight into my top five favourite books and gives Neil Gaiman a damn good run for his money.

15 of 17 people found this review helpful

Thoroughly enjoyable!

One of my favourite science fiction writers. A brilliant tale. Imaginative and engaging! The images come to life and the characters suspend all of my disbelief.

Excellent narration despite my aversion against American accented narration.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Finally - A fantastic narrator!

I've had some hit and miss luck with narrators and was about to give up on audiobooks altogether...... Luckily I tried this book! This guy was spot on!

Every character had a unique accent and didn't distract from the story... even the female voices! I hope all future audible books have top narrators like this one.

Story - great story & not too long winded - snappy story telling. Fans of 'Fringe' would like this.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Oh I loved this book!

What did you like most about 14?

Fresh believable characters, incidental love interests that didn't detract from the story in any way! Unpredictable twists and turns, appealed to me (at 60) and my daughter (at 24) test of a good story. Different to my usual read but I'm really glad I took a chance and listened. Easy to follow without being boring, unusual concept but believable, even the weird bits!

What other book might you compare 14 to, and why?

Can't compare it to anything really, all new and very enjoyable!

Which character – as performed by Ray Porter – was your favourite?

Veek is very cool (not sure if that's how to spell it) she has a wicked sense of humour, Zeela is also pretty cool.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both - I found my jaw clenching in parts, shouted out loud in the car a few times, couldn't wait to get out of work to start listening again!

Any additional comments?

Buy it if you like a good story, fantasy, suspense and laughing!

15 of 18 people found this review helpful

Mixed bag...

This was an odd one for me, I really enjoyed the first 8 hours of the story a lot but the last 4 hours not so much. That's not to say the last 4 hours are terrible or anything - its fine, but its almost like a different storyline somehow. Hard to explain without spoilers really, but for me the writer had the first part of the story done really well, and the latter part not so well - but it was an interesting story well told, just seemed to go a bit odd towards the end.

22 of 27 people found this review helpful