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Amok  By  cover art

Amok

By: Sebastian Fitzek
Narrated by: Natascha McElhone,Adrian Lester,Rafe Spall,Peter Firth,Brendan Coyle,Hugh Skinner
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Publisher's summary

FINALIST: The Audie Awards 2016

This was to be her last day alive. The renowned criminal psychologist Ira Samin prepared her suicide thoroughly. The death of her eldest daughter had weighed too heavily on her conscience for her to carry on and she yearned for one last drink to raise a toast to oblivion. Her morbid plans are interrupted and she is called in to negotiate a gruesome hostage situation at a radio station where a psychopath is playing a morbid game.

While the show is on air, he calls people from the phonebook at random. If they pick up the phone with a certain slogan, a hostage is set free. If they don't, then the hostage is unceremoniously shot. The man threatens to continue playing this game until his fiancée arrives at the studio. The only problem is that his fiancée died several months ago....

AMOK is a gripping audiodrama and tense psychological hostage thriller set in a Berlin Radio Station, from the internationally renowned author of the best-selling Audible Original Drama The Child.

©2007 Sebastian Fitzek (P)2015 Audible Ltd.

What listeners say about Amok

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    868
  • 4 Stars
    603
  • 3 Stars
    251
  • 2 Stars
    87
  • 1 Stars
    51
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,097
  • 4 Stars
    384
  • 3 Stars
    141
  • 2 Stars
    42
  • 1 Stars
    42
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    745
  • 4 Stars
    557
  • 3 Stars
    258
  • 2 Stars
    86
  • 1 Stars
    54

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

What is up with all the background noise?

The story was okay. Not great. Not awful. Just okay. What really drags it down is the atrocious background sounds and the overly dramatized readings, complete with snotty sounds, coughing (what gives? was this even part of the script? Give the reader a lozenge!), the breathing, jeez the breathing, and finally to cap it off, the craptastic synthesized music at the end of every chapter that just won't stop.

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79 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping to the extreme!

If you could sum up Amok in three words, what would they be?

Gripping
Involving
Exciting

What other book might you compare Amok to and why?

Nothing I have heard compares to this.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first time.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of it.

Any additional comments?

Warning! Do not start listening to this audio book unless you have 8 hours to spend ignoring all work, family and other commitments. This is the best thing I have heard from Audible in the 4 years or so I have been a customer hands down. The play structure and sound effects add to what is already a brilliant story. MORE English Sebastian Fitzek PLEASE!!! (or I may just have to learn German)

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • RD
  • 05-12-15

Well Done!

I enjoyed the story, but mostly the format! The acting and actor voice transition editing was very well done! I'm sure this was no small task, considering the large cast involved.

I gave the "Overall" and "Performance" ratings 5 stars, but the story only four, because, while the plot was good, I just did not "feel" for the characters... This may have been an editing issue. This audible was only 8 hours, so felt very abridged... There was not a lot of time for full character development, which was needed for this plot to make a solid impact on the listener. Unlike a visual movie where you can see the character's emotions, as well as hear them, with audio only you have to have more substance to make a connection.

Definitely worth the credit and I look forward to more Audible Original Productions.

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible writing

I love full production audio plays and was excited to see this. Even more so as I live in Berlin right now and it's always fun to hear stories from places you know. But OMG was this story horrible. The number of clichès, utterly unrealistic developments, factual nonsense and continuity errors in this book is mind boggling. Absolutely terrible.

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44 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The production is brilliant!

This book is performed like a movie, complete with background sound effects. It was brilliantly acted and so well done, it was as if you were watching a movie. The story was well-written and suspenseful, kept my attention throughout. I can't wait to see what other original releases Audible has planned!

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Suspenseful!

My husband & I listened together on a road trip. Made the time go by very fast as it kept us entertained the whole way! Lots of twists & surprises - interesting characters - most of the narration was well done.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

OVER DRAMATIZED

Disappointed as this is the first book I've listened to that was just way too over dramatized and too many added sound effects and music. The story seemed good, but was overshadowed by the excess directing or producing. The narrators would all be good had it been read like most other books are on here... at some points they were whispering so that I couldn't even hear without adjusting the volume, again over dramatized sums it up.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An absolute fantastic listen.

I loved this book. Great action ,wonderful pace splindid narration enjoyed the music infusion,"brilliant. "AWESOME"

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Keep trying...you're not there yet

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

As this is a new format....reading a claylike narrative with sound effects etc. and different characters narrating...I'm not sure who the ideal audience is.

What other book might you compare Amok to and why?

the story by itself is similar to a classic mystery and thriller genre. It's the production that gets in the way.

How could the performance have been better?

OK here's the rub. For me, the production was not as enjoyable as a traditionally narrated book. The introduction of, at times very "scratchy" delivered readings plus the introduction of music, perhaps composed for this production, but as the story evolves seemed more interruptive than setting the stage for the next reading. Really, the momentary sound blackouts and the interruption of the dialog was more challenging than enjoyable. Picture a stage with 6 narraters, scripts on music stands, FX (sound effects) tech on one side and segmented recored music DJ on the other. You are the audience. The story starts. after the first dramatic event takes place...music is queued..narration starts back up and the adventure continues appropriately until it stops...music is inserted...and the story continues. while the central characters are well narrated eventually the music cannot carry it's ongoing addition to the story. Your sitting in the audience and hoping the story can simple continue...un broken. And the FX team needs sound board help on occasion. I see Audible is offering the first three chapters free and i would definitely take advantage of that offer before purchasing the "book".

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I thought the story was really good. I felt everyone was breaking new ground and doing their best but not quite the finished production it could have been.

Any additional comments?

Keep working the media. This is really a reprise of what the radio suspense and mystery programs so successfully brought to the country before TV in the 40's and early 50's. Audible's production team could learn a lot from time spent studying their very successful programs.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story where you feel the emotion of the chara

The story was well done and the actors did great. I enjoyed the story and really cared about the characters. The action seemed to get a little confusing at times but overall I really liked it. Good engaging story.

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22 people found this helpful