Master of the Forest

By: Artyom Dereschuk

Narrated by: Bruce Mann

At the edge of the world, unknown and unseen, he endures and survives even in our digital era....

A young man leaves his backdoor Russian town and heads to Moscow, never to be poor again. With each day, he grows more and more desperate, until he meets an old geologist with an intriguing and surprisingly profitable offer: to join him on his trip to the depths of Siberia, the largest forest on the planet, and become a "black digger" - one of those who find and excavate mammoth tusks with the purpose of selling them as ivory to the highest bidder.

With nothing much to lose, our hero agrees, venturing to the edge of the Earth, beyond the borders of civilization and into the untouched wilderness. There, thousands of miles from home, in a race against the clock before the cold seals the ground, he has to face nature, other diggers, his inner demons, and, most importantly, the enigmatic "Master of the Forest" - a prehistoric creature and the origin of all local legends, who ferociously protects his domain.

©2018 Artyom Dereschuk (P)2019 Tantor

Fresh. Loved it.

Spoilers, sort of! MOTF is the freshest thriller/horror I’ve listened to in a long time. This is a great story for people who really appreciate character development. It’s a ragtag bunch of men seeking their fortunes in Siberia. The characters are real - definitely flawed, but not evil in a good guy/bad guy way. Loved the dialogue. Completely believable and, at least to me, hilarious. Much of that is due to the amazing narrator. There are no heros in this story. No Bkack Ops, elite teams of this that and the other thing. No one has military weaponry and nothing blows up. I’m sure it’s something I will listen to again in the future.

Tenable

Was a different and entertaining story. Definitely gory and creepy at times but could have been more scary. Narration was good. I'd recommend it and will, myself, see what other books Dress him has aritten.

Szarabajka

A story set in Russia with Russian character narrated by a guy with a British accent? The story was good, but where was Keith Szarabajka???

He would have been a perfect voice.

Great Story!

Very believable characterisations and scary! I love the woods setting and the writing was easy to follow because of how the main character was portrayed and his inner dialogue. Hope to find more by this author in the future.

It’s good but, it’s nothing new.

First off, it’s a good story and the presentation is not bad. However, this type of story is so familiar you can predict every occurrence in the story. I did like how the “Master” was not so typical for a Sasquatch like figure. All in all, I do not regret the listen as I have with other horror novels included with my membership.