Ararat

By: Christopher Golden

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Christopher Golden's Ararat is the heart-pounding tale of an adventure that goes wrong - on a biblical scale. When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a daring, newly engaged couple are determined to be the first ones inside...and what they discover will change everything.

The cave is actually a buried ancient ship that many quickly come to believe is Noah's Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses. Inside the coffin, they find an ugly, misshapen cadaver - not the holy man they expected, but a hideous creature with horns. Shock and fear turn to horror when a massive blizzard blows in, trapping them thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain. All they can do is pray for safety. But something wicked is listening to their prayers...and it wants to answer.

©2017 Christopher Golden (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Pretty good story

I liked the story and the characters, but overall I think it could’ve expanded more. There was not enough exposition and the story felt a little rushed. I’m happy to have heard it and think it is worth others hearing it. Just minor critiques.

Chilling then dragged on too long.....

I really liked this book....I was more than halfway through when the book just started to drag and drag....went on way too long too gory - took the suspense and chill right out and couldn't wait for it to end.....disappointing.....

Icy Creepiness!

The plot isn't particularly original ( A mash up of Ten Little Indians, The Exorcist and The Thing) but Mr. Golden does a great job of creating an atmosphere of dread and menace. I subtracted a star from the narration which overall was pretty good except for the female lead who sounded off to me. Like someone doing a bad Morticia Adams imitation.

Formulaic, predictable, unengaging “thriller”

Discovery of an ancient artifact that could change human history is a potentially good premise. Unfortunately, Ararat doesn’t offer much more. The plot is formulaic, making every twist and turn predictable. Discovery of an ancient, long-buried evil is one of the oldest genres of science fiction. In this case, as if to make the story even more tiring, the evil is a stereotyped demon that can take control of individuals much in the way of typical Judeo-Christian demonic possession. Seriously – nothing interesting, nothing new, nothing inspired here. Several mechanisms are introduced to explain how the possessions occur and how they might be prevented, but in the end these seem arbitrary if not random and have a little or nothing to do with larger plot details other than to create a way for the story to move forward. The characters are weak and under-developed, featuring a “feisty” protagonist, a stock theater John Wayne knock-off who is a paramilitary scientist working for DARPA, a stereotyped Asian woman, and an assortment of two dimensional background characters including the “sage old priest”, the “hot nymph” and the “ever-faithful Sherpa”-type Kurd. Performance was at times painful when the voice actor attempted female and child voices (imagine: the wolf impersonating grandma in Little Red Riding Hood) or foreign accents (imagine: 1970s Chinese Calgon detergent “ancient Chinese secret” guy or a stereotyped Indian cabbie from New York City). The voice actor would’ve been better off if he had not tried to mimic these voices but had rather gently changed tone and cadence. Instead, every time one of these mimicked voices comes up, you can’t help but cringe and perhaps chuckle a bit. I don’t recommend this novel or this audible reading performance.

Very cool horror

Ararat is a great horror story about finding Noah's ark. In this book, the ark contained more than the story in the Bible told. A team of archaeologists, a priest, and a camera crew discover the remains of something that looks like a horned demon! This was like listening to a very dark version of Indiana Jones! I loved it! Great narration by Robert Fass!

Sweet

Mount Ararat good place to get possesed by a ageless demon. Story had me picturing some of the stuff they went through. What a good story to have you glued to your seat.

It's a love/hate thing ... spoiler alert

Great story if you just want to be entertained. The story tells an alternate outcome to the biblical version of Noah and the Ark. Perhaps I missed the explanation, but I couldn't help asking, "ok, so how do you account for the repopulation of the Earth after the great flood?" But it's fiction, so I got over it already and enjoyed the ride. The one thing I couldn't get over was the character of Meryam. I found her totally unlikeable. In fact, I frequently mumbled, "What a bitch." I never felt sympathetic toward her and was sort of bummed that she made it off the mountain alive. I suppose her icky character helped make the story what it was. I can see the possibility of a sequel, perhaps developing the adventures of Walker and Kim. I'd buy it! The narration was superb.

Meh

There just didn't seem to be enough of a storyline to keep me interested. While there was some minor action and a couple of decent "creeps", I still found myself having to rewind and listen again because my mind had wandered.

Couldn’t Finish It.

Although the story could have made for an excellent book I really disliked the characters. To me there was no character development as the book progressed. About halfway through the book I realized I didn’t care if the main characters were killed or not.

Horrible characters

I really tried to like this, but the characters were so obnoxious or just plain weak that I didn't care what they were doing or what happened to them. The story drags on without getting anywhere interesting. I just had to give up about half way through because it just seemed to be a story about unappealing people who just got worse as it went along.