Return of the Phoenix

Monster Squad, Book 1

By: Heath Stallcup

Narrated by: Jack Voorhies

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Humanity has spent its time enjoying the peace that can only be had through blissful ignorance. For centuries, stories of things that go "bump" in the night have been passed down and shared. When creatures of the night proved to be real, the best of America 's military came together to form an elite band of rapid-response teams. Their mission: To face the challenge and keep the civilian populace safe from those threats and hide all evidence of their existence. But during a routine mission, when things go horribly wrong, the Monster Squad finds themselves having to rebuild from the ashes of what they once were.

This time, they face not only the monsters that threaten the peaceful lives of the citizens they are sworn to protect, but their own government, as a dark storm brews on the horizon. A storm that will threaten not just the squad and their existence, but the lives of every human on Earth.…

©2012 May December Publications LLC (P)2014 Heath Stallcup

I really like the premise of the story.

The book is good. The narrator needs to differentiate the voices a bit more though.

Awesome

excellent read , hard to put down , outstanding story line , Jack Voorhies's narration is the best

Fresh Approach

What made the experience of listening to Return of the Phoenix the most enjoyable?

Enjoyable Story-telling with an Excellent Delivery, Next stop, Big Screen!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Return of the Phoenix?

The Wit and Humor

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

No, great delivery, command of the tempo.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You won't stare in the Dark the same again!

Decent story

Would you try another book from Heath Stallcup and/or Jack Voorhies?

Yea I believe these books could have been better , it's hard to place a finger on it exactly.. Might have been the reader as I didn't exactly dislike his reading style but maybe it was his attempts at doing voices that bugged me?!? I can't exactly say but for the most part the story is interesting enough to keep you reading & waiting for the "big something" to happen.

Book1

It took about an hour to get into the story line but once it clicked I literally could not turn it off I recommend this series

Epic!

I've only just listened to the first book and I am enthralled can't wait to listen to them all!

SOG true romance tales

Yup, I really wanted to get into this story line and maybe the next book in the series would get me there, but right now I am going to pass. Stallcup is using this book to build the world of Monster Squad, person by person and all the background and barely laid the keel of the story line. I feel, too much of the book was dealing with romantic relationships. Nice fluff, but by the half way point in the book, I really felt that the book cover should have had a shirtless Fabio Lanzoni.

I just struggled to get through the book, hoping the opening action scenario's details would be revealed. I expected more on the coordinated world wide attack, but it was overshadowed by personalities and personal relationships. If you like heavy romance with your world domination monster stories, this would be the series I would point you to.

Good story

I did enjoy this story & I will download the next once it's available. It reminds me of the Monster Hunters series, which I really enjoy, also. I have one complaint which is about the sound effects in between each section. I felt it was distracting and disrupted the flow of the story & narration. I'm really hoping the next book will leave that out. Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes :)

An honest review.

I was asked to give an honest review of the book, so here goes. I loved it! As a former soldier, I understand the difficulty of translating the military to any kind of fantasy setting without resorting to clichés and stereotypes, but I think the author really hit it on the head. He either was in the military, or researched like crazy, because it was spot on. The story is about the government's military monster hunting teams, made up of different Special Operations operators. After a teams is wiped out to almost the last man in an ambush, New recruits are brought in, "augmented" and trained to replace them. No spoilers here, but everything is not what it seems. There is a Senator that wants the teams shut down, a civil war fomenting in the supernatural world, and revelations to be made about the teams themselves. Well written and engaging, with strong world building and character development. The only aspect I was kind of leery of was a inter-team romance, that I thought would damage unit cohesion, but the author resolved the issue later in the book in a realistic way. There is not a lot of back story in the book, but the second book fleshes out the back story nicely. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who likes urban fantasy, and actually, I have recommended it to my friends and family. As far as the narration goes, Jack Voorhies is a good narrator. He does a range of voices and accents, and you can distinguish the different characters, and he keeps the story engaging, which all you can really ask from a narrator.

Almost A Three Star Book

I liked the storyline, an elite military team formed to fight monsters. These soldiers are unknowingly turned into werewolves and are given "supplements" to help them to become faster and stronger. There's even an internal villain who is trying to have the Monster Squad shut down for personal reasons but I felt like something was missing. Maybe it's because it reminded me of a comic book.

However, I will try the next book in the series as I bought the Kindle version a while back for $3.99 and will be able to buy second book in audio for $1.99. Otherwise I probably wound not be reading the second book in the series. I do hope the second book is better.