Sunset

Pact Arcanum, Book 1

By: Arshad Ahsanuddin

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Book one of the sci-fi vampire saga Pact Arcanum. Warning: contains strong language and non-explicit depictions of gay sexuality.

An unlikely savior emerges to prevent the advent of mass destruction and genocide descending on the world....

By day

Los Angeles, 2040. When the terrorist known as Medusa threatens to kill millions with a stolen nuclear bomb, Nick Jameson makes a fateful decision. He reveals himself on global television as a Daywalker - a vampire with a soul. To save Los Angeles, Nick exposes not only his own gifts but three separate cultures based on millennia-old magic.

By night

The three metahuman races exist in careful balance, working to maintain a fragile peace. Nick and his fellow Daywalkers successfully master their natural bloodlust. The Sentinels, armed with both magic and steel, repress their warlike instincts. And even some Nightwalkers, normally their natural enemies, have deserted the Court of Shadows to join the triple alliance. Nick Jameson is deeply involved with two such Nightwalkers - handsome Lorcan and powerful Rory. Both men love Nick. But neither can protect the new Ambassador to Humanity from the events he has set in motion.

By the sword

Jeremy Harkness was lured into Medusa's service under false pretenses. A loner with no one and nothing to cling to, he was willing to die for his cause. But the night Medusa tried to obliterate Los Angeles, Jeremy met Nick Jameson, triggering the onset of his own psychic gifts. For Jeremy is the third race of metahuman, a Sentinel, born to kill the Nightwalkers with no quarter asked or offered. And neither Medusa nor the Court of Shadows will settle for peace when they can make war.

Betrayal and treachery lurk around every corner on the road to coexistence, and at every turn, Nick must question who to trust among his metahuman allies, friends, and lovers - before their civilization is plunged into the depths of darkness and bloodshed. With millennia-old magic, emerging romance, and ever-shifting allegiances, this inventive series unveils a scintillating, homoerotic world of Nightwalkers, Daywalkers, Sentinels, and humans, who battle for world dominance in the not-too-distant future.

©2011 Arshad Ahsanuddin (P)2017 Arshad Ahsanuddin

Great narration

First off, narration was great. Really helped pull this story off. Like so many recent reads, this started off so well. I had great hopes. Buuuut... somewhere along the way, I got lost, or rather, I lost interest in the main character (and his love interest). The story overall was good, but the romance between Nick and Jeremy felt forced. I actually disliked Jeremy quite a lot, and didn't really think he contributed much to the story (at least not for me, started fast forwarding his scenes).
As I mentioned, narration was fab, and the story overall had good potential. Don't think I'll be continuing this series.

loved it.

This was an amazing story. I really enjoyed the story and can't wait to start book 2. I am just hooked.

Read the second book first!

So the first time I listened to this there were parts that werent really explained with a lot of hints that sometime in the past stuff happened, and all the flash-backs didnt really clear up much of what happened in the past, which for the record are a lot of events.
To truely understand events and charachter behaviour in this book I recommend to read the second book: Sunrise, BEFORE you read this book. In it are the story from where it basically all began for all the MC of Sunset and there are so much mentioned about stuff from Sunrise in Sunset that arnt even attempted to get explained to the reader/listener. After I finiched this book I got Sunrise on kindle and it made me finaly understand ever weird thing in the audiobook when I re-listened and it made me actually like it so much more.
It is ofcourse possible to just listen to it, but be ready to get confused and get left with a lot if unanswered questions.
Gred Tremblay did a awesome job keeping track of all the voices and acents and made this book even more entertaining.

Amazing

This book was written for Greg Tremblay to narrate. Fantastically performed and written. Right up my alley of sci-fi and I’m so glad that it was a long book! Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Amazing start to a new series

Loved this book! Normally I don't comment on world building but damn it was awesome. I also like my sex more graphic but it worked out okay. Loved the idea that the nightwalkers could turn into daywalkers - so very cool. Loved all the major characters.

Don't give up, it gets better

Slow and vague to start. It seemed a quarter into the story before I understood the story's world and even further before the relationships solidified. But the story is worth it. Enjoyed the fact that the violent parts didn't go into gory details but enough to visualize.

Greg Trembley did a great job again narrating. easy to tell difference in characters.

Bought thinking it was SciFi, got vampire erotica

If you are looking for a vampire romance base homo-erotica with nearly no SciFi then this your book. If you are looking for SciFi opera or SciFi this not your book. There is a fair story line but the romance side story takes half of every chapter. Frankly the whole thing at 6 hours in is starting to bore me. Not sure I can finish the first book let alone the series.

Not going to say save your money, but the sure is not Science fiction and other than vampires barely counts as fantasy. Should have been log as Romance.

Nice try. Bad execution

This story had tons of possibility. Unfortunately it tanked almost instantly.

First off, we have a ton of head hopping going on. Next, there is a lot of telling via dialogue rather than taking time to show what the hell sentinels are and why Jeremy would suddenly unlock all his knowledge and be a total jerk because of it.

After the long, looong, looooooong scene involving the bomb and bomb aftermath, time jumps that made NO SENSE happened. First there was a 2 hour jump forward. A itty-bitty scene with a bunch of people we don't know being upset. Then a 3 hour jump into the past to go back over the exact same scene that started the book from the points of view of the upset people.

I don't know if the author was trying to write a movie or what. It did NOT translate to a book. The book was going nowhere except circles. Don't waste your money or credits. There are far better audiobooks out there.

As for narration, Tremblay's voice was moderated, showing little emotion or value. It sounded like an automaton was narrating instead of a person.