Midnight Strikes

By: Tom Reynolds

Narrated by: Mike Carnes

Length: 5 hrs

Publisher's summary

The prequel to Tom Reynolds' hit Meta superhero novel series is finally here.

The world is still reeling from the devastation of the final battle between the world’s strongest metahumans. Empire City has been left in shambles as it struggles to rebuild. Overnight, the world’s metabands, mysterious bracelets that offer their owner’s superhuman powers and abilities, have all ceased working. Guilt ridden over his possible hand in all of this, the masked vigilante Midnight has hung up his cowl.

Instead of fighting crime, he now spends his sleepless nights searching for clues to recover the device that might be responsible for all of it before it can fall into the wrong hands. Along the way he meets Amanda Khan, a teenage girl with a metahuman history in search of her missing friend. Both find the clues to what they’re both searching for lead them to The Receptive, a secretive cult which offers a path to meta humanity to its most loyal followers and may just hold the answers to the missing device.

Don't forget to check out the other audiobooks in the Meta series, including Meta, The Second Wave, and Rise of The Circle.

©2018 Tom Reynolds (P)2018 Tom Reynolds

Very exciting superheroe story

This was a very exciting story. Both the world and characters were well flesh out and the story had just the right amount of action. I really enjoyed listening to it and will definitely continue with the rest of the series.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

Will Listen Again

I have not read or listened to the other books in this series, and went into this one without knowing anything about it. I was very surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Midnight Strikes is a great stand alone story about a hero fixing a problem. The development of the characters was done in a clever way that I really appreciated. With many stories in the Super Hero Universe you are constantly bombarded with stiff dialog to explain what characters think, feel or believe. This is not the case with Midnight Strikes.

Tom Reynolds (Author) has a very unique style that I enjoyed. The world that he created feels full and the characters seem real. I like the main character and am very interested in what is happening in their world. In a world where people have super powers it was very interesting to listen to the struggles of someone that does not.

Mike Carnes (Narrator) did a very good job. There was a wide variety of characters in this story and Mike did a good job varying his voice to distinguish who was talking.

I will be getting the other books in the series.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Awesome Clean Superhero Adventure!

I have been looking for some superhero books for my middle school age son and this one is perfect! The main character is a bit like a Batman vigilante in that he used technology to get his superpowers and also dresses in black yet still is his own unique superhero. The book grabs you pretty quickly even though at first I was a bit confused the author uses that like a mystery to figure it out. It was a really fun read and the narrator does a fantastic job with the voices and overall acting and telling of the story. I'm looking forward to checking out the other books in the series.

There is some violence but not extreme, in terms of language there were only few commonly used cuss words like "damn" but no f-bombs, and no sexual content.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Because I’m Batman

Midnight Strikes is reminiscent of a classic comic book style superhero story. Midnight may not have superpowers but he is a masked vigilantly who wears black, relies on gadgets that he creates, and fights crime. While, this may not be the most original concept for a story it includes several interesting ideas that still makes the story feel unique. Furthermore, it is a clean, quick-paced superhero adventure that is able to convey a world that is both believable and entertaining. Combine all this with streamlined writing and complex world building and you get a quite enjoyable read. If you like superheros his book is worth your time.

I received a free copy this book in exchange for an honest review.

Morality rating- This book is mostly clean but it does contain valance and torture.

Great action/adventure/sci-fi!

Book opens and closes well and demands sequels.
Narration was quite smooth (I.e. good editing)
Storyline keeps listeners “on the edge of their seat”
I recommend the book for ages 15 and older due to violence.
I was given this audiobook for free, and I freely give my opinion and rating.

Really liked it

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I really thought this was a fun and very entertaining superhero story. He is kind of a batman-like character but not so well funded. The narration is done well and kept me engaged in the story the whole time. Anyway, it has lots of action, interesting characters and was a great taste of this "Meta" universe. In fact, I'm thinking of using credits to get another in this universe when I get my next monthly alotment.

Entertaining story

Overall I thought this was a good entertaining story. I would have like more of the back story concerning the battle, what was the cause, why did it happen and who was the battle between. Aside from that, Tom Reynolds writes a good story and Mike Carnes did a good job in narrating.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Reminds me of the watchmen

You have a world where there were no heroes or villains beyond the everyday average ones. Then the meta bands came and heroes and villains took up the bands and populated the world with meta humans both good and bad. Then one day the bands ceased to work. The heroes and villains fell, some quite literally. But good and evil go on. Someone is collecting bands and their wearers are disappearing as well. Who is left to look into it? Who is left to fight evil? Midnight. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Pretty much felt lost.

I love superheroes...movies, comics, books, you name it. When it comes to reading (reading/not listening as I switch up what I am listening to all the time) I tend to read in the same genre for a while before switching up and a while back I'd been on a superhero reading kick and had actually bought all of the books in Tom Reynolds' Meta series. I just ended up switching genres before getting around to those books. So when the opportunity came for me to listen to Midnight Strikes I figured why not. It's a prequel so I shouldn't be lost, right? Well that's what I thought, but I have to tell you that I pretty much felt lost the entire time. Despite this being a prequel, I got the sense that I was supposed to know all about these characters, and the downfall of the superheroes. Downfall of the superheroes? Yeah, there are constant references to the great Meta battle and heroes everywhere losing their powers. I did mention this was a prequel, right? As I said I was left scratching my head about all the info dumps about the downfall of the Metas, heroes being mentioned (again as if we are supposed to know who the heck they are.) Even when it came to the main character (a kind of Batman-like hero), we don't get any real introduction to who he is and why he does what he does, only that he was a hero at one point. Without really given us any reason to do so, we're expected to care about him and what he is doing. Maybe I would feel different if I'd read the series before the prequel came out and had some idea who any of these people were. But as it was I was left somewhat unsatisfied. I'll have to see if my feelings change after I read the Meta series.

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Nothing to write home about

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Also, I have not read any other book in this series.

Synopsis: The story takes place in a world where humans came in possession of metabands that gave them superpowers. However, one year ago the metabands spontaneously stopped working altogether and superpowers were gone. We follow our protagonist Batman - no wait, Midnight, one year later. Midnight, a once masked vigilante, has hung up his cowl and now searches for clues for the reason why the metabands no longer work. He and Amanda, a previous metahuman, cross paths and work together to find her missing friend who has been captured by a cult leader claiming to know the return of the powers brought by the metabands.

Performance: I haven't been so torn by a performance before. The voices for the character were great. He captured the emotions of Midnight, Amanda, Luna, and the cult leader very well. But the narration, the parts that weren't the words or thoughts of any characters, was flat and monotone. It was honestly jarring and slightly distracting from the story.

Pros: It was a light, quick, and at times fun read. There were certain action sequences that I enjoyed and had me excited.

Cons: Characters all seem very flat and predictable. Dialogue between characters was kind of awkward. Specific scenes in the books made it seem that the author did not do his research at all and didn't know what he was talking about. Majority of that were during action/fighting scenes. I won't go over everything but one clear example: One character who was a previous vigilante was in a fight against our protagonist when the pulled a gun and fired. The gun didn't fire and the character didn't understand why until the protagonist showed that he had removed the clip. This isn't remotely realistic, and this is coming from someone who isn't even a gun nut, because a gun without a clip not only has visible differences but you should immediately be able to tell the differences with the weight as well.

Overall: I wasn't able to get into the characters and there were too many scenes that didn't fit right for me to enjoy. Two out of five stars, will not continue with the series.