Directive 51

Daybreak, Book 1

By: John Barnes

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

It is known as National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51. Signed in 2007, it claims specific Federal powers in the event of a “catastrophic emergency”…

Heather O’Grainne is the assistant secretary in the Office of Future Threat Assessment, investigating rumors surrounding something called “Daybreak.” Part philosophic discussion, part international terrorist faction, and part artists’ movement, it’s a group of diverse people with radical ideas who have only one thing in common — their hatred for the Big System and their desire to take it down. Until Heather can determine whether these people are all talk and no action, she wants to keep this information from going public.

But Daybreak is about to become a lot less secret. Seemingly random events in a recycling facility in Wyoming, on an island off the coast of California, and in Jayapura, Indonesia — where the plane carrying the Vice President has suddenly vanished — are in fact connected as part of a plan to destroy modern civilization.

America is at the dawn of a new primitive age — an age that will eliminate the country’s top government personnel, leaving the nation no choice but to implement its emergency contingency program: Directive 51.

©2010 John Barnes (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

needs a different voice (or ten)

this novel has an outlandish plot, 'developed' in a series of vignettes scattered across the globe, each containing multiple 'characters' (largely clichéd). This would be confusing in any audio production; this one, however, suffers additionally from the limited range of the narrator's voice. The reader's voice seemed an odd choice from the opening pages, having an annoying timbre best reserved for women's prison warden, though it softened up a bit after a while and wasn't too bad, though far too fast. What complicates matters, though, is the narrator's limited vocal range, making all the disparate characters sound very much alike, especially as she tends to begin a new bit of dialogue in an imitation of another voice, but rapidly slinks back to her own. Not a very good book to start with, combined with a discordant reading, it's no wonder so many hours cost so little.

Wonderful beginning hope it gets even better

It took me a while to get into this story lots of characters lots of plots but just enough action to keep it moving forward a little muddled with the dates and times of things going on it wasn’t like I was trying to keep notes while reading or listening to this book but in the end I understood who the characters were and where the story was going and I also knew it was a three-part book story so it’ll be nice to understand and know the characters as I move to the next one thanks for reading my review I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Great book!

Very interesting story. You really get to know the characters without them being predictable. Highly recommend!

The Division

I heard that the game the division is loosely based off of this book, which led me to get it. I love it, it is a wonderful book. However, and I am sorry about this, but the narration is absolutely terrible. For me, the story is good enough that I am able to enjoy it regardless, but this narrator keeps me from doing so 100% of the time.

apocalyptic political sci-fi mystery who-done-it

I am frankly more interested on the technological process on how the modern world came to an end than the constitutionality of rebuilding a nation after no line of succession is left, but at least it is an apocalyptic political sci-fi mystery who-done-it.

The end is nigh

Was a really strong start, and an interesting premise, but by the end I was more than ready for it to be over.

Unexpectedly Bad

I have greatly enjoyed past books by John Barnes, notably, "The Mother Of Storms" and "Finity" (both not on audio, sadly). This book was a complete mess and a true struggle to get all of the way through. It follows the standard End of the World/Civilisation is Shattered storyline but slaps you with a wildly implausible cause. The characters are two dimensional, cliche'd and at no point did I begin to identify or care about them. The story spirals into an overly political mish-mash which comes off as a whiney high school slap-fight. The author tries to take a middle of the road approach politically, but caracaturizes both liberal and conservative sides into fringe stereotypes of the worst kind. The narrator amplifies the stilted prose into grueling aural assault. I was excited at first to be able to listen to a book by an author I had liked so much in the past...now I am just sad.

The Narator make all the difference in some books.

What would have made Directive 51 better?

A more engaging narrator.

What could John Barnes have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Found a different narrator.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Susan Ericksen?

George Guidall or Scott Brick

Any additional comments?

I was very disappointed. The narrator actually put me to sleep with monotone dialog and no inflection of note when portraying the various characters.
I would compare her to the teacher from Ferris Buellers Day Off but he was actually engaging in comparison.
I read & listen to a large number of books, subsequently I did not get to this one in time to return it, but would have if I could. I essentially wasted my money in buying this one and will have to make note to not purchase any with this narrator in the future.
I have the hard cover and intent to read that.

Did not finish

I enjoyed both "One for the Morning Glory" and "Kaleidoscope Century" and was very intrigued to see what John Barnes would do with a near-present day end of the world as we know it. I did not find any characters relatable. Everyone seems to be very simple and shallow; an Earth overrun by a Dunning-Kruger pandemic. Perhaps Mr. Barnes is relating his personal observations regarding interactions with people who make up our current American Society, reflecting that the true threat in our future comes from within each of us, rather than technological mechanisms in the hands of bad actors. But given that even the most rabbit-holed red-pilled people I know have greater self-reflection than the characters, the premise breaks down. Barnes created a compelling apocalypse, but one populated by people driven by contempt.

Very disappointing, don't waste your credit.

An increasingly common apocalyptic scenario which is poorly played out in the sappy relationships and even worse philosophical meanderings of the cut-out characters. Stilted, unrealistic dialogue, irrelevant plot lines and incredibly unexplained events abound. Spoiler alert: How do robots on the moon ever build fusion bombs to send to earth with technology just a few years in our future, and nobody in the top echelons of government knew about it? I also found myself irritated with the narrator who either over enunciated or tried to mimic voices she heard on cheap sit-coms.