Book of the Dead

By: Greig Beck

Narrated by: Sean Mangan

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Massive sinkholes are opening across the country - each larger and deeper than the previous one. First the family pets go missing, and anyone living near one of the pits, is reporting strange phenomena - the vibrations, sulphurous odours and strange sounds rising up from the stygian depths. Then come the reports of horrifying ‘things’ rising from the darkness.

When the people start disappearing the government is forced to act. A team is sent in to explore one of the holes – and all hell breaks loose - the Old Ones are rising up again.

From the war zones of the Syrian Desert, to the fabled Library of Alexandria, and then to Hades itself, join Professor Matt Kearns, as he searches for the fabled Al Azif, known as the Book of the Dead. He must unravel an age-old prophecy, and stop Beings from a time even before the primordial ooze, which seek once again to claim the planet as their own. Time is running out, for Matt, and all life on Earth.

©2014 Greig Beck (P)2015 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

The Cthulhu book I always wanted... almost.

I liked this book, I really did. There are just some things about it I wished were different. For one, I wish books had ratings on them like movies. If they did, this one would be a solid R with around 30 "F-words" and one mildly graphic sex scene. It didn't need that. The Indiana Jones movies proved you can have a fun, supernatural, action-packed archaeological adventure without resorting to crudeness. I can overlook a lot of swearing, but it almost put me off of this book.
That said, the book itself was a ton of fun! I am a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan and have always wanted a good "modern" treatment of the Cthulhu mythos and this book was a good start, if a little cliched. I wish the author had contributed a few more Lovecraftian themes and characters into the story. Where are the fish-people? The Dunwich Horror? Oh well. A lot of Lovecraft scholars and superfans will write this book off as a mockery of Lovecraft's masterworks, and maybe it is a little, but take it for what it's worth and just have fun with it.
The performance by Sean Mangan was pretty good. It makes me wonder if he went to school in England because though he had an "American" accent, he would pronounce some words in a more British fashion. For example, "skeletal" was pronounced "skel-EE-tle". He would also say numbers in kind of a weird way. Instead of saying 120 "one-hundred twenty," he would say "one twenty." Ex.) The car was easily going one twenty miles per hour. Kind of obnoxious.
Final verdict: This was a very fun, exciting, relatively mindless adventure with some good world history thrown in and a fun take on the Cthulhu mythos. Don't take it seriously and you'll enjoy it. If you like Dirk Pitt, Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon, this one fits in there. Just beware of the swearing and sex scene, if such things bother you.

Narrator just about ruined it for me.

Would you consider the audio edition of Book of the Dead to be better than the print version?

Sean Mangan made me return this book because he would pronounce words like been, Megan, Tanya, Iodine and a few others. He would pronounce them as Been, he says bean. Megan, he says it as Meegan, Tanya as Tan-ya; like as in "Tan ya hide!", and Iodine as Io-deen. If that doesn't bug you, it was a great story. I just couldn't take it so I'm buying the paperback version.

awesome adventure

i really hope this gets made into a movie as to be able to see the city below ground. the shogothand other crestures. great story. loved it. ant scifi lovers food. thanks audible

good book

loved it. capitiving to the very end. audio well done and brought the story to life

Book of the Dead

This was a good book, for the most part.Some of it dragged but the action parts made up for it.Sink holes start popping up along Lay Lines across the world.Out of these odd 'animals' attack people and absorb them.There is an ancient books Mosul operative and U.S. military that won't listen to reason..the usual.Sean Mangan is a fine narrator.I was provided this book by the author,narrator or publisher.

long but very nice. want more like this.

it has a bit more action than horror but is still good. I liked it

Book of the Dead

Very good. I always enjoy this author’s works. Always wish his books were a little longer as I enjoy them so much.

Another Lovecraft??

Loved it as with all of his books I have read or listened to. I look forward to reading/listening to the rest of his books.

could be a movie

this novel could became a movie. the novel is very well written, and I enjoyed the characters and the action.

loved it.

loved it. the plot got me looking into the background story. makes you think it may be true.