13 Echoes

By: Thomas A. Bradley

Narrated by: Stephen Bungay

Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Thirteen short stories of the strange that will take you into a world where only the echoes of reality exist. These are Twilight Zone type stories. Journey with a young boy suffering with downes syndrome as he is confronted by bullies. Lost and alone, he finds a protector he never knew existed.

Meet a lonely man who is the butt of everyone's jokes, a man who finally finds love, comfort, and acceptance in a way he could never have imagined.

They say the waiting is the hardest part. It's not!

Winning isn't always what it's cracked up to be, especially when relatives are involved.

A long overdue vacation takes a man to a place that few people ever see. A band learns that some gigs are just never ending. An abusive husband learns that the secret he keeps within the walls of his house has a life of its own.

And six other tales of the weird.

©2019 Thomas A. Bradley (P)2019 Thomas A. Bradley

13 echoes

There are some very good,thought provoking stories in this lot.Stephen Bungay was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good Collection of Strange Stories

These were fun short stories and are definitely fit for a show like the Twilight Zone. They were not really that scary, more weird and supernatural and often involved death. There weren’t any stories that I didn’t like, although there were only a few that stood out among the rest. The twists that each story had became a bit predictable after you listen to a few of them. Didn’t take away from the story, but made them seem a bit formulaic.

Stephen Bungay did a good job. I liked his narrating voice even though I found it a bit flat. I thought he did a good job with the character voices. I think he had a good cadence with his character voices and thought that is where his efforts shined. The production did have a few glitches with some pauses that didn’t get cut out.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Excellent

Comparisons to the twilight zone fit this perfectly
Some stories that stuck with me are
The boy beneath the bridge about a special needs boy who gets lost on his way to school
Waiting for a table a group complaining about the long wait for a table
The community a out of work doctor gets the job of a lifetime
The wall a battered wife gets revenge on her husband
Great storytelling and well narrated highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

13 Echoes

This collection of short stories is an interesting look at ghosts and hauntings. They are quick and give the listener full stories. Although many are predictable and seem to have the same idea to the plots just different characters the stories are entertaining, and none are truly scary or gory. I did enjoy a few stories more than others. I like the authors writing style, but it seems that more plot ideas are needed in this collection. The narration also seemed a little lacking for me. Narrator Stephen Bungay seems to be just reading the stories and not giving the characters any personalities and there were long pauses that should have been edited out in the final version.
I received this audiobook at my request and I voluntarily wrote a review.

Would do better as a TV series

So, this book is a collection of strange and sometimes spooky stories. Think The Twilight Zone. Really, I think that's what the author wanted. A TV show. The stories weren't bad but I think many of them would have been better suited to television. In a couple of the longer stories, there was a habit of quickly jumping from POV to POV which doesn't work very well in this format.

The thing is, I did enjoy some of the stories. Not all of them were great. I would suggest if the first story doesn't click with you, maybe skip ahead to another story and see if that one works better. I know I found the first story especially clunky and grating.

The narrator wasn't great. Everything was delivered in the exact same way. He wasn't bad. He just wasn't great and the stories could have used a stronger narrator who brought more personality to these works.

Still, give it a try if you want some Twilight Zoneesque stories to keep you company this Halloween season.

I was given this book in exchange for a fair review.

13 tales to listen to. 13 chances to be terrified.

13 tales of ghosts and hauntings. Each tale unique in its own right. From traditional hauntings, malevolent spirits, this with unfinished business and more. These tales will leave you wanting for more while readily fulfilling the Halloween seasons desire to be thrilled chilled and terrified. Enjoy this well written and well narrated collection. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Entertaining short stories

Well written short stories with spot on narration!

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Solid collection with some hiccups

Collections of stories can often be hit or miss. I found this collection to be mostly hit, though with some oddities.

Two sayings come to mind: "Show me, don't tell me" and "if you have to explain the joke, it isn't funny". Even the "hits" in this collection tended to basically monologue explain everything away at the end. I felt the writing was good enough to imply and let the reader infer, but each story seemed to have an epilogue of explanation that seemed completely unnecessary. Other stories had little "twists" that just didn't vibe with the rest of the narrative and added nothing to the overall tale (the "eating" bit of the story about the house for sale comes to mind).

The narrator had a fine voice, that is to say there was nothing distracting about it, however he did read in a bit of a bland, emotion-less tone. I think a bit of emotion and energy would have added much more to the stories. There was also some weird production issues in chapter 11. A lot of weird pauses as if the narrator was stopping to try a section again, but it was never edited out.

I was provided this audiobook free of charge in exchange for my review. I found the stories mostly likable with the caveats mentioned above. Ignore the odd explainative endings and just go for the ride.

Great Ghost Stories

13 Echoes

Author: Thomas A. Bradley
Narrator: Stephen Bungay
Listening Time 4 hrs 51 mins.


I like to preface my reviews with the fact that I am a 68 year old female who reads mainly for pleasure although I love to do research in areas of personal interest which includes a wide range of topics from Ancient History to UFO's, and more.


Review of 13 Echoes audiobook:

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review."


I found this to be an interesting and unusual collection of short stories. These are stories that have a moral to them, in one way or another.

I don't really like horror stories that are gross, disgusting and explicitly violent.
So my enjoyment of these more subtle forms of horror and ghost stories was really great.

I listened to this group twice, except for the very first story,
"The Boy Under the Bridge". I found this one story very hard to get through and finish as in my family we suffered the sudden death of a 14 month old little angel. My suggestion is that if you have suffered this kind of a loss you might want to skip this story.

Most of these stories were very cool to listen to with a couple of unexpected twists; like "House for Sale" and "The Community".

I especially loved " The Glasses" and "The Gateway Diner".

All in all these were very enjoyable short stories.

Author: Thomas A. Bradley is an author whose work I had never read or listened to before, but I really enjoyed his style of writing and would enjoy more of his work, I am sure.


Narrator: Stephen Bungay is a voice actor I had not listened to previously but found his voice to be pleasurable to listen to, although he narrated this audiobook in what I would consider to be a low key, or neutral voice; I would listen to him again.

This book/audiobook could be enjoyed by people of any age.

3.5* - mixed bag of eerie/horror stories

As with any collection of short stories, it's not unusual for a reader (listener) to find some tales to be more compelling than others. That's the case with this book of short stories. My personal favourites were 'The Last Transaction', 'Waiting for a Table', 'The Glasses', and 'The Wall'. I would have given this book a higher rating if the twist at the ends of many stories weren't so similar. The second and third and fourth time the same general twist appeared at the end of the stories, the endings became less satisfying (this is my opinion, and others may feel differently). The other minor thing that kind of caught in my mind as I was listening to the stories was how the author conveyed more than once (incorporated into the story context) that people who commit suicide go to hell. That isn't consistent with my religious upbringing, and so it seemed like an out-of-place assumption because he didn't briefly clarify the religious sub-text. I don't know, it just seemed like a weird explanation/justification for a character's situation, from my perspective. It's a minor thing, but for some reason it jarred at the back of my mind when listening to some of the stories. Having said that, the four stories that I listed as my favourites were, I thought, very well done!

The narration was very good - Stephen Bungay hit just the right tone for this genre of audiobook. I increased the playback speed to suit my preferences.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.