Earthworm Gods

By: Brian Keene

Narrated by: Scott Weinberg

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Cult Classic Returns!

One day, it starts raining-and never stops. Global super-storms decimate the planet, eradicating most of mankind. Pockets of survivors gather on mountaintops, watching as the waters climb higher and higher. But as the tides rise, something else is rising, too. 

Now, in the midst of an ecological nightmare, the remnants of humanity face a new menace, in a battle that stretches from the rooftops of submerged cities to the mountaintop islands jutting from the sea. What hope does an already-devastated mankind have against this new supernatural adversary. 

The old gods are dead. Now is the time of the Earthworm Gods....

Deadite Press is proud to present this Author's Preferred Edition of Earthworm Gods, including an all-new, lengthy afterword by the author recounting the novel's inspiration, creation, and history. 

©2005 Brian Keene (P)2020 David N. Wilson

Highly recommended!

Earthworm Gods
by Brian Keene

This is a scary Lovecraftian premise told from a unique POV (point of view). A deceptively brilliant ‘average-man’ narration done with refreshing literary skill.

Finally, we get a hero who is not a teenager just starting to understand what the peach fuzz on his testies means, or a 25 to 30 year old ex-navy-seal who’s a secret black-op super-solider gone rogue from the government, or a spiritual martial artist traveling through the nine spirit realms, or a science professor who’s hobby is reading all the forbidden texts ever written.
He’s none of those.
He’s just an old guy… who could really do with a smoke about now.

Someone I can relate to.

Remember the first time you saw the movie “Tremors”? The original one with Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward? You were surprised by how it was done? Just average people with no explanations why things were happening, or what the monsters were, where they were coming from or why. This has that kind of insane / fun feel.

I highly recommend this book!

Editing?

Whoever Keene's editor was did him a grave disservice. The Narrator has an audible lisp. The recording is also unedited. Feels like the whole thing, writing, narration, and recording, all in one night.

Worst Narration I've Heard In A Loooooooooong Time

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR CREDIT. Whoever gave this book a 5 out of 5 for narration obviously lied and never listened to it. I've been waiting for this book to come to Audible for years and I was so excited to finally have it on Audible until I heard the first 5 minutes of this book. The annoying lisp ruined the book right off the bat and the atrocious editing definitely wasn't helping. Not to mention the royal screw up on pronouncing pretty common words. For example; Mariana Trench. He pronounced it as Marinara Trench. Apparently there's another deep trench in the ocean off the coast of Pizza The Hut. This audiobook was probably the biggest punch in the nads I've ever received. Who gave the green light on publishing this? I couldn't even make it a hour into this book because of the terrible narration by Mike Tython's brother with the reading skill of a 8 year old. If audible reads this review, I think I speak for all fans of Brian Keene please for the love of all that is holy and the heavenly Buddha, re-narrate this book with someone better.

Enjoyable book, but...

Whistling tooth. And I don't mean a soft whistle either. I listened to this in bed and the whistling actually startled my wife out of sleep.

not original

The last scene in this story is very similar to the story called The worm that was written back in the twenties.

My favorite Keene novel.

This is a great story but needs an editor to cut narrator mistakes out earthworm gods is a great end of the world tale

Bad Edit

The story was good. The narrator was tolerable. The editing was terrible. Several parts repeat and other should've been left on the editing room floor. Or the blooper reel.

the Earthworm God's is a great read.

I really like the works of Brian Keene. He is a master of his craft and it all starts in the book. Get a copy and enjoy.

Amazing

This story is phenomenal and the narrator is exactly what this book needed. 6 stars out of 5.

Entertaining!

Sometimes you just need to be entertained! If you're a fan of creature-features and character driven stories, when that time comes, choose Earthworm Gods!

This is a tale told mostly from the protagonist's point of view. His name is Teddy Garnett and he's a man over 80 years old and he's suffering from nicotine withdrawal. It has been raining in Teddy's neighborhood for what seems like forever. When Teddy ventures out to see what he can see, he realizes that almost everything is under water, including the nearest towns. There are no cigarettes or dips for poor Teddy. Soon after, a neighbor shows up at his door and together they face the end of the world.

There's much more to the tale than what I've mentioned so far. Leviathans, behemoths, sirens, and krakens. There are cults, yes, more than one!, Ob makes an appearance {kind of}, (readers of Keene's work will recognize that name), and Teddy does get a few more visitors eventually. Will they survive the flood? You'll have to read this to find out!

Things in my life are pretty stressful right now and this audio provided the perfect distraction. The narrator did a marvelous job and the characters seemed very real to me and I liked them. The writing here is vivid-it's very easy to picture everything that happens.

The author added some notes to the end of this edition about why this book was once called The Conqueror Worms and why that edition had a terrible cover. He also speaks about Teddy and Carl, (Teddy's best friend), and how they were loosely based on real men. He also talks about his on and off addiction to nicotine. I just KNEW the author was talking about himself when he talked about how badly Teddy wanted a dip. I guess one ex-smoker can recognize the symptoms and cravings of another. I think that all of these things contributed to the real-ness of the story.

Lastly, yes-I do deem this a creature feature, but just like in most zombie stories, it's not about the zombies or the worms, it's about the characters. This is a character driven story as far as I'm concerned and I enjoyed the hell out of it!

*I bought this audio with my hard earned cash and I'm glad I did.*

A 5 star novel devastated by poor narration

Nobody can write an apocalyptic novel quite like Keene and Earthworm Gods is amongst his best works. It is saddening to not be able to leave a 5 star review for the audiobook edition. Scott Weinberg's narration is abysmal and features multiple repetitions from poor editing (he also literally blows a raspberry at one point after making a mistake). His attempts at characterisation are rudimentary at best and actively destroy any emotional connection you should have with the various individuals. This is a great book and deserves a professional narrator and I hope a new version will be released one day.

Interesting Horror with Great Characters

Brian Keene is one of the top horror writers working today. While I enjoyed Earthworm Gods, I don't think it's one of his best books. It's well paced and has great characters, but for some reason I didn't find it as engaging as The Rising or Ghoul.
Scott Weinberg's narration was okay, but I think it would've worked better if they got someone older to do it. The main character is supposed to be in his 80s, and Weinberg certainly doesn't sound that old.
Definitely worth checking out if you like Keene, but it's not one of his best.

Eldritch Horror Vibes

Very good story. Very relatable characters with good back stories. The monsters are great and some even unexpected. If you like cults, apocalypses and have a fear of the ocean this novel is for you.