Sawfish

By: Rick Chesler

Narrated by: Jeffrey S. Fellin

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Marine biologist Dr. Mason Rayman is experimenting with gigantism in sea creatures when he accidentally creates a monstrously large sawfish. When it grows so big he can no longer keep it in his Miami lab, he is preparing to have it destroyed when he learns he is being terminated from his position. By way of revenge, he dumps the oversized shark relative into the ocean, where it soon roams out of control, slaughtering bathers at nearby trendy South Beach. Dr. Rayman doesn't let on that it's his fish responsible for the killings, but someone knows what he did, and she's blackmailing him. He plays along for a while, but then decides she needs to be eliminated. Breaking into a lab at his former workplace, he deliberately creates more monster sawfish and releases them into the local waters. Rayman then attempts to get his job back by stepping forward as the expert on how to stop the scourge of gigantic predators now ravaging swimmers and water sports enthusiasts on South Florida beaches. But his blackmailer will not let up, leading to an ultimate confrontation between woman and beast, and finally, woman and man.

©2016 Rick Chesler (P)2016 Rick Chesler

Killer Sawfish!

When Dr Mason Raymans funding was cut, he had only just, accidentally, created a gigantic Sawfish. He was bitter so decided to unleash the Sawfish into the sea, but the Sawfish was unnaturally vicious and has been killing people. Raymon still wanted revenge and he decided to unleash more of the deadly fish into the ocean. What follows was a rip roaring creature feature!!

So I'm a big fan of creature features, especially sea dwelling ones, and Bigfoot ones. so I eagerly started this when I bought the audio. While it had it's faults, it was still a fast paced and entertaining read.

The author did a great job with the Sawfish scenes and I so wanted more of them. I loved the science behind the creation and how the author made those scenes believable. I also loved that the author focused on a weirder fish, rather than a shark or Megladon. It made it a little more interesting!!

The characters in this were hard to like, but I also kind of liked that fact. Rayman is a psycho!! He releases one Sawfish and even though he knows it's killing people, he decides to release more because there is a reward for the capture of the monster. In his mind, he thinks that people will cheer him and his reputation will soar, if he catches them. He was really well written, but very unlikable!!

I didn't like Elise at all. She sees Rayman releasing the Sawfish and videos it. A spur of the moment decision, sees her blackmailing Rayman. She will release the video unless he pays her. That didn't bother me, what bothered me was the fact that even though people were being killed, she never showed, or told the police! I wanted to shake her and tell her to go to the police and try to stop the killings!!

In all though, this was a fun, entertaining and exciting read. I love me some creature feature books, and this author always delivers a great read.

The narrator read this really well. He had distinctive tones and voices for the different characters, and he brought the atmosphere to life!! It's my first by this narrator and I'm looking forward to listening to more by him.

4 people found this helpful

Good story

This is a good story for a lazy day. It will not break your world. However this is a pleasant read. Some parts are predictable yet the author does manage to throw in a few surprises.

I would recommend this. If you like animal attack stories like Steve Alten Meg this 100% beats book 2.

3 people found this helpful

Better than your average Syfy Tale

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes especially if the friend was in to science fiction. But this should have a broader appeal because of the tight plot, interesting characters and lots of action.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Sawfish?

The slam bam ending.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Glad I listened. Good stuff.

7 people found this helpful

If you're a fan of creature features and fun gore

I was already biased to like this story as such stellar titles as 'Sharktopus' and 'Frankenfish' top the list of my favourite ever films. I don't know what it is about pseudo-science giant animal monster flicks, but I freaking love them.

This book didn't disappoint, it begins with a mean and nasty scientist having the funding cut on his make-giant-sea-creatures project and finding himself out of a job. What the funding body doesn't know is that he's just discovered away to cause gigantism in sawfish, and cos he's mean an' all - he dumps them in the public waterway.

The beasties grow exponentially and become uncharacteristically aggressive because.... science. I have an undergrad degree in Zoology, so I really enjoyed the fact that the author had put some real science in among the fantastic and the fun.

Rayman (pun intended? The fact that sawfish are closely related to ray is a fact which is repeated a few times in the course of the book), the mad scientist, isn't the most developed of characters but that isn't what this story is about. He's deliciously hateful, pompous and amoral. He's careful to pose himself as the hero in this situation, with absolutely no consideration for the fatalities he's ultimately responsible for.

The course of the story follows the sawfish and the havoc they cause, hacking and slashing as a giant sawfish will. Ending in a great hint that there may be more books where this one came from!

Jeffrey S. Fellin is a great narrator and well suited to this book, I'm not sure this book would have brought me quite so much joy in print form. The audio quality was flawless, as well as Fellin's execution of character voices and accents.

If you're a fan of creature features and fun gore, I would absolutely recommend this book for you. It kept me entertained right to the very end!

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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5 people found this helpful

Great Jaws alternative!

Who knew a sawfish could be so dangerous? Now I must research! If you like Jaws, you will like this book!

Excellent

I don't know why such low ratings. It was excellent. It kept me on the edge of my seat. The narrator was superb.

Nice audiobook translation

The audible of Sawfish is exactly what I wanted. Good narration and the narrator has a pretty decent voice for the task.

Great Idea, Good Narrator Choice

I knew there was a chance that I would be disappointed when I decided to purchase Sawfish, given what I've read from the author in the past. However, I really like his ideas, and this sounded like the perfect sort of relaxing monster novel to listen to. It's been a while since I had one of those, so I decided to give Mr. Chesler another chance.

I wish I hadn't.

Sawfish has a great concept. It sets up perfectly to be this rip-roaring, monster-of-the-deep sort of novel. It had the potential to be so-bad-it's-good. Instead it was just bad. The sawfish was cool, don't get me wrong. The problem is that the author spends way too much time on the two main characters. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, except in this case both of the main characters are unlikable idiots!

For fans of The Walking Dead, Raymond is an evil Eugene. At least that's how I pictured him in my head. It didn't help that the narrator had that sort of nasal tone which built the ticked-off nerd image in your head. (The narrator was a perfect choice for this book, actually. I think it made it feel a bit more believable being told in that particular tone.) He wants revenge and then he wants to get back the attention he feels he rightly deserves. He's a toe rag.

But I will give Rick Chesler this: Even though Raymond is a douche, I still found myself rooting for him. When he's going up against the sawfish, I was hoping he'd win. He's not a likable character by any means, but you do find yourself cheering for him occasionally.


Elise is worse than Raymond is, and that's saying something. It's been a while since I disliked a female character as intensely as I disliked her. At least he had intelligence going for him, even if his personality and ego often overruled it I spent too much of the book actively hoping something gruesome happened to her.

My favorite chapters were the sawfish attacks. The characters in them were often throwaways, but I didn't care. Those were the sections of the novel that I wanted to read more of. Anything so that I wouldn't have to listen to Raymond whine, boast, and plan.

Most of the ending was pretty good. The location and how things got rigged up was unique. The author did a great job of painting the scene in my mind. But the last few pages ruined it for me. My opinion already wasn't high on the book, and then we have something completely unbelievable happen from one of the characters. The twist wasn't believable. Not even a little bit.

Overall, it was a great concept and was voiced by a good narrator. I just didn't care for the actual execution or the characters. Can't recommend it.

Sawfish

Sawfish is a B movie fans type of book.A scientist is let go due to his grant not being renewed.He dumps one of his sawfish into a water way and horrific killings occur.Our unlikable main character after seeing this lets loose his other enhanced fish and the terror spreads.He then gets hired to hunt them down.One woman stands in his way,yet she blackmails him instead. Jeffery S. Fellin is great at narration.
I was given this book free for an honest review.