• Emergence

  • Dave vs. the Monsters
  • By: John Birmingham
  • Narrated by: Mark Zeisler
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (441 ratings)

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Emergence  By  cover art

Emergence

By: John Birmingham
Narrated by: Mark Zeisler
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Publisher's summary

John Birmingham is the master of alternate history adventure - and now he's mastered a new genre with the volcanically fast-paced and wildly inventive Dave Hooper urban fantasy series. The series is anchored by a thrilling high concept: An oil rig opens a rift deep in the ocean that unleashes terrifying monsters into the world. But perhaps its coolest asset is its hero, Dave Hooper, a tough, bleakly funny, down-on-his luck oil rig worker with an unlikely destiny as a monster-slayer and world savior. With a memorable concept and an unforgettable new hero, the Dave Hooper series will satisfy Birmingham's large fanbase and convert a new legion of devoted fans.

©2015 John Birmingham (P)2015 Recorded Books

What listeners say about Emergence

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A wild thrill ride of urban fantasy.

I wasn't sure what to make of this one when I first got it, but it was great! I like John Birmingham's alternative history books, but Urban Fantasy is a whole other ball of wax. Well, this is a home run! The story centers around Dave Hooper, the Safety Manager of an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. After a booze, drug and hooker filled week off on vacation, he goes back to the rig on the company helicopter hungover and just wishing the day was already over. On the way out to the rig, the call comes in that theres a fire on the rig, a safety guys worst nightmare. When they get to the rig, the workers are scrambling around trying to get off the rig. The reason for this is that the fire isn't really big, but the Demons who are slaughtering people on the rig are. Dave goes looking for the source of the trouble and he finds it: a big demon 7 foot tall demon that kind of looks like an Orc. He grabs one of his coworkers splitting maul, and in a fit of rage, kills the demon, who was drunk on the blood of one of his fellow workers. Dave wakes up in the hospital, on an IV drip. Dave rips out the IV, and long story short, ends up showing he now has super strength, super senses, and an increased healing factor.The Navy Spec ops team that has been tasked with discovering whats going on recruits him on the spot to help them check out the rig. In addition to everything else, Dave has all the knowledge of the Demon he killed, kind of a monsterpedia. They discover that the rig drilled through a dimensional breach, and the demons are escaping to our world, which they were banished from when humans were still wearing animal skins and living in caves. Dave has to help stop the Demon invasion with his trusty splitting maul, which is now charmed sort of like Thor's hammer (can't be picked up by anyone else, unbreakable, has a sort of sentience and energy) Dave faces off with the Demons in New Orleans, and after a heavy duty battle in which Dave finds his limitations, the Demons are stopped, at least for the moment. What happens next? Read book 2, Resistance: Dave vs. The Monsters to find out. Mark Zeisler did a fantastic job of narration. He got all the different voices and accents right, and I felt like I was right there in the middle of the action. I definitely recommend this for fans of Simon R. Green, Jim Butcher and Kevin Hearne.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good story

I was not sure about this one when I first looked at it.
But after I read about some of the reviews on how much the f word was used I had to check for myself.
Great book!!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Won't listen to any more Birmingham novels.

The author turned me off with the excessive and entirely unnecessary use of vulgarity. I found it fu**ing distracting to have the characters endlessly espouse the same fu**ing expletive over and over and over. I tried to get into the story but was defeated by the tiresome and grating incorporation of "fu**" or ""fu**ing" into the production every minute or two. I couldn't finish the book. Shame Mr. Birmingham. You could have done a whole f**ing lot better. You lost me and I hope other listeners won't waste their time with this poor fu**ing excuse for a story.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The F-word is not punctuation

I really wanted to like this book but using the F-word as punctuation and syllable delimiter just shows a lack of creativity.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Turned out pretty good.

There was a point where I almost stopped reading, but I am glad I didn't. Midway thru the book, once it starts focusing on the invasion instead of Dave's past debauchery and Red State angst, The book gets a lot better.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent audio version!

highly recommend. the narrator matched the book perfectly, and the story kicked arse! .

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Try listening at 1.25 x speed, maybe 1.5 speed

Would you try another book from John Birmingham and/or Mark Zeisler?

Yes, I actually like John Birmingham and have read (both as paper books and audio) several of his books. True, the quality of his writing is declining, but one can have hope he will spring back.

What could John Birmingham have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Written a story that was a bit faster paced. The story, the dialogue, everything was too drawn out and stilted. I don't have ADD, but after reading this book I can imagine what those people must feel like. If I saw the whole world like this book was written, I would need to take amphetamines too.

Oh, and Birmingham could have written some more believable characters. I am from Louisiana. I used to work in New Orleans. I have family in the oil field industry, including one that was a rig's safety guy (the occupation of the story's protagonist). I simply can't image one of them flying two prostitutes in from Las Vegas to have a weekend of cocaine fueled fun with them. They don't make that kind of money. It would be much more believable if he flew himself to Las Vegas and picked up two prostitutes there: only have to buy one round trip ticket, only have to pay them for their working time and not travel time too. This is a recurrent plot device in the book and it doesn't make any sense. Even if the guy did get that much as a bonus, he could have used it to get another prostitute or so.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was too slow. OMG, the narrator was too slow. He didn't have much to work with, but he could have picked up the pace some, and maybe dropped the monotone.

I was serious about changing the narration speed. I had never purposely done that before while reading a book and honestly thought it was a stupid feature. We listened to this on a road trip and wanted to find out how the story ended, but if we listened to it anymore we were going to crash into something. Faced with plowing into a van load of nuns, I hit upon the idea of adjusting the narration speed and it worked! At 1.25 or 1.5 x normal speed the story line and narrator both seem to suddenly start going at normal speed. Any faster, and it gets squeaky. The narrator's lack of intonation works to an advantage at these speeds: everything is in monotone and you don't have to worry about missing inflections that would add to the story because they just aren't there.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Emergence?

Not sure I would have cut any scenes. I would like to rewrite them, but the scenes weren't the problem. The details, the dialogue, the characters, the plot....the big and little stuff were the problem.

Any additional comments?

Not sure that I will be finishing this series. Good chance I won't. But please don't judge all of John Birmingham's books from this. His other series are quite good.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Love this series

Dave is awesome. well kind of an ass but funny as hell and plenty of action.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good Stuff

Which character – as performed by Mark Zeisler – was your favorite?

DAVE!!!!

Any additional comments?

This is a pretty funny cool story. Best line in a book ever, "Seriously? Well same as before, Im Dave and these are all the F***s I don't really give about who you are" Dave kind of reminds me of Sandman Slim. If you enjoy those stories, chances are you will like this one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Horrific Enjoyment

Loved it. A mix of Horror / Sci Fi / Fantasy, Monsters, Military and a reluctant hero. Dave who had been a failure of a Man in everything in his life except his job now finds himself stepping up as the Champion of Man. With his Splitting Maul, some Marines and SEALS he steps up to defend New Orleans Like a Super Hero. (more Hancock or Deadpool than Superman or Thor) Hard to put down so just sit back and enjoy the rude.

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