Cormorant Run

By: Lilith Saintcrow

Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Aliens meets Under the Dome in this new postapocalyptic novel from New York Times best seller Lilith Saintcrow.

It could have been aliens, it could have been a transdimensional rift, nobody knows for sure. What's known is that there was an Event, the Rifts opened up, and everyone caught inside died.

Since the Event certain people have gone into the drift...and come back, bearing priceless technology that's almost magical in its advancement. When Ashe - the best Rifter of her generation - dies, the authorities offer her student, Svinga, a choice: go in and bring out the thing that killed her, or rot in jail.

But Svin, of course, has other plans....

How far would you go, and what would you risk to win the ultimate prize?

©2017 Lilith Saintcrow (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Great post apocalyptic adventure

First- this book is **NOT** part of the Bannon & Clare series. Not even the same time period.

This book is different than anything else that I've read by Saintcrow. It's harsher and grittier. The story takes you on an adventure through a world changed by forces it does not understand. I enjoyed this book.  It's a bit like a good alien suspense movie.

This story works really well as an audio - the strangeness of the world comes to life (for me) best when spoken.  The narrator does an excellent job.

Pitch Black goes Cthulhu and Heart of Darkness

“They had all sorts of stories about why Rifters kept going back, even with the risks … all sorts of reasons why they were different, strange, … why they tapped on door frames and tested each step, even outside the shimmer … it wasn’t something you could put into words anyway, it beat behind your heart and infected your lungs, danced between your nerve endings …the secret was just that, a secret, an excruciating loneliness you couldn’t drink fast enough to escape, a space inside you where the rift lived.”

Well, that was a gritty, creepy acid trip of a ride that ended without answering a darned thing. It starts out feeling like Escape From New York, only without the PG limitations, as prisoner Svin is drafted to join a motley team of scientists, soldiers and mercenaries to enter the largest Rift on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Once through the shimmer, Svin leads the team thru a warped, ever changing, and deadly landscape. This is where the Pitch Black vibes kick in, as each member’s backstories and motivations are spotlighted … often signaling that their number is up. If you were more into the broody black vibe of Snake Pliskin than into clever dialogue or characters to root for, then this book is for you. Svin’s got Pliskin’s silent sneer down, but otherwise isn’t written to be likable. For that matter, there wasn’t anyone likable enough
to root for and that brought the story down a bit for me.

There’s a lot of made up lingo, slang, and salty language, like calling one’s girlfriend or wife their Hole.
It sometimes made the story hard to follow. The crassness and the wonky lingo mostly gives way to creepy horror once they’re inside the Rift. Who can be trusted? What’s at the heart of the Rift?
What’s Svin’s end game? I had more questions than answers at the end, leaving me a little unsatisfied and a lot unsettled. But, bravo for an utterly unique, and skin crawling, journey beyond the shimmer.