Commune

Commune, Book 1

De: Joshua Gayou

Narrado por: R.C. Bray

For dinosaurs, it was a big rock. For humans: Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).

When the Earth is hit by the greatest CME in recorded history (several times larger than the Carrington Event of 1859), the combined societies of the planet's most developed nations struggle to adapt to a life thrust back into the Dark Ages.

In the United States, the military scrambles to speed the nation's recovery on multiple fronts including putting down riots, establishing relief camps, delivering medical aid, and bringing communication and travel back on line.

Just as a real foothold is established in retaking the skies (utilizing existing commercial aircraft supplemented by military resources and ground control systems), a mysterious virus takes hold of the population, spreading globally over the very flight routes that the survivors fought so hard to rebuild. The communicability and mortality rates are devastating, leaving only small pockets of survivors scattered throughout the countryside.

Commune: Book One is the story of one small group of survivors who must adapt to a primitive, hostile world or die. As they learn the rules of this new era, they must decide how far they're willing to go to continue living, continually asking themselves the same question daily: is survival worth the loss of humanity?

©2017 Joshua Gayou (P)2017 Joshua Gayou

Just wondering why RC Bray is not in the #1 spot

If you would look at all of books I have purchased and the books I returned, you would see that I have purchased more books read by RC Bray then any other narrator and the least number of returns by far and he did not even make your list this year. Most weeks, I read at the very least 3 or more books and usually more. I've always said a good narrator can change a bad store book into a a great one and a bad narrator can take a classic and turn it into trash. And RC Bray is not on your list, wow

Breath of Apocalyptic Fresh Air

I have been bouncing around series looking for something to dig my teeth into and this series was recommended by a Facebook group for another series R.C. Bray narrates.

I’ll start off by saying that I regret not getting to this sooner and letting it lounge around in the “eventually” category of my Audible library.

The author writes from two character perspectives (three including the epilogue) that are distinct enough to be believable and Bray brings them to life superbly. This definitely has a feel of longer series with the first book really just setting the background or stage for the future novels and does so without having to slog through it. I found myself literally laughing out loud in several places of the book. It has a base-building vibe to it with the scavenging and mentions of a future settlement that I hope continues into the next book. I enjoyed this one enough that I purchased the second before finishing the first. 5/5!

A slightly different vibe

The story is well thought out and the characters well developed. It was a little more of a touchy feely vibe that others of this genre but not bad and occasionally the description of the effects of certain rounds departs from reality. It is also amusing that apparently the author is from the Los Angeles area as he has all characters regardless of location or origin refer to all highways and freeways with the leading "the" that is common in LA but nowhere else.

BRAVO!!! A modern classic of post-apocalyptica.

I'm a huge of post-apocalyptic literature, treasuring the classics like "On the Beach," "Alas Babylon," "Day of the Triffids," "Farnham's Freehold," "The Last Ship," etc. But nothing published in the last 20 years has stirred me with similar fervor until I listened to the audio book version of Joshua Gayou's "Commune." Amazingly, this incredibly-talented new writer artfully dodges the horrific pitfalls that plague most end of the world yarns, refusing to allow his story to degenerate into boring predictability. Gayou's writing is amazing. His storytelling is fresh and dynamic, leading us down paths whose eventual outcomes are difficult to foresee. I heard the author say in an interview that he writes the types of stories he himself would want to read. He is obviously passionate about post-apocalyptic literature, to which this is a fabulous contribution. Regarding the narration, R. C. Bray is beyond superb, bringing extra vitality to an already amazing tale. Bravo to Gayou and Bray for bringing us a modern classic!

Why

Why can’t I just post stars when I don’t have anything to say? Blah blah