Return to the Center of the Earth

Center of the Earth, Book 2

By: Greig Beck

Narrated by: Sean Mangan

Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

Mike Monroe and Jane Baxter barely survived their terrifying journey to the centre of the Earth. But a burning curiosity still tormented them about the origins of the pale creatures in the stygian darkness of the caves, and why were their dreams also haunted by something huge and monstrous that seemed as old as time itself? 

Now, news of a Russian military expedition has forced their hands and also meant they must go back to a place they swore they’d never return. But this time they’re going with a team of highly skilled mercenaries and scientists to help them track the Russians and also help unlock the secrets hidden at the centre of the planet. 

But what they find is something that evolution created in an environment vastly different to that of the benign world of the surface. And something that waits eagerly for their return.

©2020 Greig Beck (P)2021 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Felt A Like Spectator In Mystery Science Theatre

The mistakes the characters make are just predictably ridiculous, mindless and unprepared. The characters and the situations they encounter are exactly like in teenage “B” horror movies with poor acting, where the characters always do exactly the wrong thing with predictable outcomes. Cartoonish teenage characters portrayed as adults. I listened to the first book, and it was better except for a lazy ending, which characterizes this author. This sequel could have been 1000 times better. The author seems to get bored near the end of his books and you can tell he just wants to get it over and done. All this author's books are virtually the same cast in different settings with the same adult characters with teenage minds and personalities. B movies brought to digital audiobooks. Conversely, the audiobook reader does a very decent job. The author needs to take some writing courses and level up his writing.

Fun story with a few caveats

I like this story a lot, it was a fun listen, with interesting plot and set pieces. The characters were good for the most part, but the dialogue got clunky at times.

A few problems I have need to delve into spoilers a bit but I’ll keep it under wraps as best as I can.

Spoilers:

The authors seems to be particularly mean to the female characters. There were several incidents and deaths I felt went beyond what was necessary. Sure, it’s a horror novel, but none of the men’s fate were as particularly mean spirited as several of the women, so that made me cringe a little bit. Especially since some of them were almost punishments for some action taken earlier in the book.

As I said, dialogue isn’t always great, and there’s a lot of info dumps along the way.

Lastly, the big creature at the end is repeatedly referred to as Dagon, from Lovecraft lore, but it’s described as looking very much like Cthulhu. So I’m not sure what he was going for there, but if you’re going to describe it as Cthulhu then call it what it is. I feel like he picked Dagon to differentiate himself from other similar stories, but if that’s the case, he should have made its physical appearance different from old tentacle face.

Otherwise it’s a fun, fast listen with some great lore and good action.

Terrible ending

Loved it as much as the first, with one exception. It felt like the end was forced, like he ran out of paper or something. Never found out what happened between the two superpowers, and Ally suffered a fate worse than death. If that was how she ended she should have been made to be a villian. I don't know, the end just seemed to slam shut out of nowhere. Very disappointed.

Not as good as the first book in the series

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series. The concept was great, the action spot-on, and the book felt "adventurous". However, the sequel did not impress me. The story moved along rather slowly, and the constant explanation of evolutionary processes bored me. The book feels like a low budget Hallmark movie - not bad, but not great.

Perhaps the novelty of the first book has worn off, and there is no way the sequel could live up to it. However, it still feels that the sequel lacked gloss. The first book had loads of atmosphere, and I felt that I was there. The sequel felt like a rush job and wasn't as polished. It felt as though scenes were individually written and hastily put together. The editing of the story doesn't match Greig Beck's usual standards. While I don't want to give any spoilers away, the end especially also left me uncomfortable. It was unnecessary and grotesque.

But the book is still an enjoyable read. If I read it first, I would probably have given it 3.5 stars. It has a bit of the last Indiana Jones movie, Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull, feel to it. Yes, it is the same characters in the same world, but somehow, it just doesn't live up to those before. I still enjoyed it but feel just a little cheated – perhaps I was expecting just too much from the sequel.

ENJOYABLE SERIES!

I enjoy this series. I appreciate books in a series that resolve themselves. Both the first and second in this series do this. The storyline holds interest throughout. I do not enjoy this narrator. Perhaps some of his pronunciations are strange to me because of a language difference, but some pronunciations are just weird. 'Ee-volution' and'mee-thane' gas, as well as many other strange pronunciations were distracting.

5-star for sure. Would recommend this highly

Beck has a highly original take on a theme going back to Jules Verne. GREAT STORYTELLING, great dialogue, and all around hard to put down. Hard to put down!

Herb

Great

A nice continuation of the first book. A slightly darker ending. Hopefully there will be another.

Good sequel

I was excited to see that there was a sequel to the first book and really hoped the author would delve more deeply into some of the creatures in the book; definitely did not disappoint I only wish we had more closer to the Dagon character and also disappointed with the ending of female character Alley, if she were a villain then her ending would have been justified in my book, but she wasn’t and how easy could the author have just had her meet her end via suicide grenade in the dog peoples nest instead of her pleading for her life without any closure for the character….probably the worst part of the book which ended being the ending.

As Good as the First One

I found this version to be as good and gruesome as the first Of this two-part series. I’ll be interested to see if there’s another sequel..

it was very entertaining very!

very intriguing and I loved it.good story,not one bit boring kept my mind very alert

Another exciting trip to the centre of the earth!

I love Greig Becks stories and this one was thrilling and interesting. It left you wanting answers to some questions but no major cliff hangers.

The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was the rape inferences. Everyone reading or listening to Greig’s book knows that they are very violent. However for me the rape story lines were very off putting and sickening, too far , if you will. If I wasn’t such a fan I would have switched the book off at the first instance. The second instance was particularly sickening I felt .

Some will argue that they had to explain a certain element of the story but honestly we are suspending our disbelief massively for the entire concept so this minor element for me was upsetting and sickening. I should say that the rapes are not explicit but I would really rather they were not included .

amazing

amazingly written but... spoiler warning

spoiler warning!!!
I don't like listening or reading about rape.

Gripping from start to the end

wow wow wow absolutely amazing from start to finish . I couldn't put it down

Excellent story, all the way to the end

As ever an excellent story from Greig Beck and well read. Twists and turns all the way to the end.