The Collective Protocol

By: Brian Parker

Narrated by: Madeline Starr

Length: 7 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Paige Watkins is a telepath who can control the minds of those around her. When a cabal of devious Canadian politicians learns of her abilities, The Collective Protocol is born. Its mission is to destabilize their troublesome southern neighbor and erstwhile partner while increasing international Canadian influence and expanding their national borders.

Her gifts are magnified using cutting-edge technology, allowing her to inflict heavy damage upon the country of her birth as she orchestrates widespread wildlife attacks, uprisings among the homeless, and succeeds in turning Americans against the police, who seem possessed by demons as they strike out against law-abiding citizens.

Several of the incidents seem to swirl around Washington, DC, native Reagan Lockhart, causing the lead investigator from the FBI's Unorthodox Crimes department to conclude that she is somehow involved. The girl is thrust into the middle of an international scheme to systematically destroy the US, where she must ultimately face Paige in a battle of ferocious energies.

©2014 Brian Lee Parker (P)2016 Brian Lee Parker

Good farfetch story

I liked the story even though it was sometimes a bit farfetch. It's not easy to write a story about a person that has unlimited power to control others... So this story comes together to be quite good and original.
The writing style is good too as is the narration.

Excellent story!

I knew the Canadians weren't peaceful! It's all an act lol. I've already been teasing my Canadian wife about this! Excellent story by Brian Parker. Thank you for your military service! As for the narrator, she has a lovely voice and was very easy to listen to. The reason for my 4 star rating was because of the mispronunciation of some words. That may be a bit harsh but to me it's irritating. The English language is complicated, but Google will show you the correct pronunciation of any word you're not familiar with. It will even say the word for you. Other than that, i really did enjoy the book!

Absolutely Awesome!!

Brian Parker is able to capture the essence of a teenage girl way too accurately. It's almost creepy, but it's what makes the story so great. This is a fantastic almost-apocalyptic scenario that's fresh, fascinating, and definitely disturbing.

Pretty good, with some flaws.

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This is an interesting book with a new concept that treads into familiar waters, but in a new way.

There is a weird mix of character Pov's that range from characters who are/will be important to the story and 1 time characters who we are permanently finished in the narrative. Other than the few main characters who are with the story from the beginning, it's hard to tell who will stick around and who will be never heard from again.

The main characters that we are given are fairly well rounded and complex. Not this authors best characters, but still complex enough to not feel flat. Even the one time characters are introduced with hopes and dreams, back story and emotions. It's rare for throw away characters to be given this much effort.

The settings are nothing special, various parts of Washington DC, a single building in Calgary Alberta, New York, Las Vegas, and a few small towns. None of the individual places bring anything special to the table, which in the end is fine. The places are real and depicted realistically.

The plot was well developed and entertaining. I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and I enjoyed the book. However, I felt the facts of the story were technically sound. I also felt the story telling could have been done in a more impactful way. The ending is also too Hollywood cliche and is less realistic than a lot of other parts of the story.

The narration by Madeline Starr was also very good. Her range isn't huge, and her male voices are unconvincing, however the story is good enough (and most of the characters female) so this doesn't become a serious problem.

All in all a good book. Similar but not the same as other books out there. Good characters and realistic settings help bring life to an interesting story that could have been a bit better. Voice work is really good but not great. But the story is not quite as well written as the authors other work.

I recommend checking out the Easy Town novels, by this author. They are his best work so far, in my opinion, of what I've read of him.

***. Spoilers***

My first issue with the story is that the American author was clearly thinking US president when writing Canadian PM. The Prime Minister position is not an independent power role where one can make unilateral decisions and see them carried out without the rest of the government knowing. It is simply the leader of the group of people who are making the decisions. In this book, however, it seems that the PM is the dictator of Canada and no one knows his plans, not even the ministers who's departments would be involved.

The next issue is the assault on the Canadian office of the Collective Protocol. I mean of course a small group of Americans can defeat any enemy, no matter how out numbered or insurmountable the odds. It's how it always boils out, Americans are kicked around until they decide to do something about it, then they are unbeatable. It's all too cliche. Also, the building they broke into was in the middle of starting a war in Asia and slaughtering millions of people that share the border with them. Not only is there basically no security, but at one point it is explained that this super secret, super secure, super important building doesn't have glass break sensors, or basically any automated way of alerting the inhabitants that someone has broken in. Most people houses have better security.

Lastly, I felt that it was a mistake to introduce the villain at the beginning of the story and spend so much time from her pov. I understand the idea was for her to explain how and why things were happening. But not knowing early on, and then having a big reveal halfway through, I feel, would have been much more impactful. We would have had bloody riots, animal attacks, homeless uprising and a high death count, and no idea why. Then introduce the CP, the antagonists and motives and let the story unfold from there. I really feel it was a missed opportunity.

so-so

This is not Brian Parker at his best. The plot was kind of hard to engage with.

Flawed but entertaining thriller

Reagan a college student looking to the future is pulled into a conflict because her long missing twin sister is the weapon that Canada is using to go to war with America. Canadian baddies, a super powered telepath, crazy destruction and a villain that is pretty awesome. All of that sounds like a pretty awesome blueprint for a great read, and at times it is. It also at times stumbles in a few aspects, some of which might be intentional and some maybe not.

The book is entertaining and throughout most of it's running time I enjoyed the ride. Some of my personal issues with the book were some pacing issues, and the fact that Paige is just a much more realized and captivating character than Reagan. At times connecting with Reagan was harder than connecting with the antagonist, but maybe that was part of the plan. I thought Madeline Starr did a great job narrating the book and I liked her voices and pacing. Overall it was a cool idea with a good villain that had some gaps in its flow or character development.

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

Great Paranormal Novel

Nice change of pace from the normal villains, Canada is the villain in this story instead of the usual suspects over in Asia.

Narration was great, distinct voices for characters with accents.

I do feel the ending was a little anti-climatic though.

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."