Rise of the Embodied

The Quantum Mechanic Series Book 2

By: Jason Faris

Narrated by: Judy Rounda

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

They're not machines, cyborgs, demons, or monsters, and yet they are all of those things and more. Spawned from a horrifying program of gruesome human experimentation, they walk the earth as living nightmares. For decades they served their masters by secretly manipulating world events, eliminating enemies, terrorizing humanity, and toppling nations. But then they found themselves facing the power of the Quantum Man, and the terrifying fury of his cybernetic daughter.

Broken, humiliated, and suffering the loss of a leader they once thought of as a God, The Embodied disappeared. But now they've slaughtered their former masters, moved beyond the limits of biotechnology, and set their sights on vengeance. Soon they will transcend to a state where their construction, and their rage ... will be beyond human comprehension. All living tissues will obey their commands, and they will unleash upon the earth a terrifying army of twisted abominations formed from the flesh of their victims.

But the Quantum Man still stands in their way, and he is no longer the broken soul that they once knew. More powerful than ever before, he will not allow these monsters go on murdering the innocent. So with the help of his friends from Valley Falls, a squadron of elite soldiers, and a daughter reborn as a living cybernetic weapons platform, the former mechanic intends to put a final stop to the Embodied. For the sake of every soul on earth, he will stand fast.

When the Embodied come, what will you do?

©2015 Jason Faris (P)2017 Jason Faris

Another great installment.

2nd book I've listened to and it was as enjoyable as the first. Great performance by Judy Rounds again.

I was provided this book for free in exchange for an honest review

Just love this series

This was interesting as it showed more of what the main characters (good and bad) can do, but I am still dying to know what happened to Jason that started all of this! I'm also kinda hoping that a particular pair of "bad guys" end up switching sides, but we'll have to see for the third book I guess! This one didn't jump around as much as the beginning of the first book did and was easier to follow. Highly recommend!

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

All the action... none of the issues of book 1

My review of the first book in this series was not very favorable. Basically a good story plagued by lots of issues. That is not the case here. If you made it through the first book (worth the effort in my opinion) then you will truly enjoy this one. I still can’t figure out why this series is named after Jason when it is obviously a story about Jessica but it’s all in the family so it’s all good. This story follows a predictable pattern and fills out the fight between the Embodied and Jessica/Jason and the team from Valley Falls. New abilities are discovered by all and the plot thickens as to the skills of the team and their role in the final battle. The last chapter turns the story in a new direction and as is becoming normal for Jason Faris, the very last line of the story throws you a curve that you don’t see coming and in this case I can’t figure out where it came from.
Book 3… I am waiting…

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audio book by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Couldn't connect to any of the characters

Something happened to the Embodied. They disappeared for some time, but reappeared again in a new and more powerful form and slaughtered their masters. The Quantum Man, Jessica, and a whole team will be trained to fight back.

I was looking forward to this book after having listened to the first one. There is again a lot of technical babble that made sense sometimes, and lots of action, but there was something missing for me. It is clear that this is a transition book in the series and, although it makes the story move forward, there is not a lot of importance happening in it. Both sides try to get ready for battle, they get better, tougher, and with improved systems.

The book seemed a long winded, like the first one. At points there was not much going on, and some of the things were confusing. I think the idea behind is a great one, but for me it somehow fails it its execution.

There is also the matter about Jacob and what happened to him in the Middle East. This is still a mystery, but somehow it is something of importance. I don’t know if this will be revealed at some point or just left as a mystical point that we have to believe. There is a lot of religious stuff, and chapters begin again with biblical quotes. As I have said, I don’t like mixing religion with sci-fi, and I can only see this going two ways: either as something subtle that we must have faith on, or something fanatically crazy that will make me roll my eyes.

Something that bothers me from this series is that I couldn't for the life of me connect to any of the characters. Jessica is still the main character here, but just can’t connect to her. Her actions and way of speaking much of the time don’t really make sense. There is a lot of swearing, which I don’t mind, but it really sounds weird coming from a 12-year old. The rest of characters are one-dimensional, and I don’t care much for them.

Judy Rounda’s narration was good, and her character’s interpretations were powerful. She has a great ability to make her voice sound really different depending on the character, but somehow Jessica and Tammy sounded exactly the same to me, which made the story confusing, and therefore I had to pay extra attention. I have the impression that Rounda used more sound effects than in the first book, and I found it very distracting this time. I am not only talking about background sounds, which I found completely unnecessary, but also distorted voices, which were often confusing to the ear.

It was an okay listen. I am curious about where the story will go from here, but I am not sure the end of the series will be for me or not.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Better than the first one.

I received a free copy of this book from the author / narrator / publisher, in exchange for an unbiased review.

When I had read the first book of the series, I had found it to be very complicated and difficult to grasp. I had to slow down the playback speed and listen to the narration very carefully. In other words, I had to make a conscious effort to get into the story. Once I had finished the book, I was still kinda lost about what had happened.

Thankfully, this second book isn't that hard. This one is, comparatively, easier to follow and digest. The different chapters are well linked and I didn't lose track of events in the book. That said, I did feel that the chapters are way too long. That is, if actual action is happening in 2-3 pages, there are 10 pages surrounding it, with needless descriptions and fillers. The book could've been much shorter if it had gone through better editing. That would've kept the story crisp and fast paced.

Being the second book of the trilogy, it suffers from the typical drawbacks that comes with the territory. There were passages that referenced events in book 1, that I had long forgotten and had to hunt for in book 1. And this book ends in a kinda cliffhanger that will be answered in book 3. So, I have to wait for the next book to fully understand how it comes to an end.

Even Better

They thought the Embodied were defeated. As they train to take on what's left, they discover that the Embodied have become something far worse than anyone ever imagined. The Quantum Man doesn't want to fight or kill. He will, though, to save humanity and possibly the soul of his daughter. Jessica wants vengeance and justice for her family. She didn't become a living weapon for nothing. She. Will. Kill. Every. Last. One.

There is a new depth in this story and the characters and their relationships with each other are more fully developed. Jacob is determined to protect his daughter and give her the revenge she has to have in order to keep her sanity. Jessica is determined to have her day and is struggling with knowing that Jacob is her biological father. Can The Quantum Man and his daughter take down the Embodied?

The narration was excellent and brought this story to life for me in a way few can do. It wouldn't have been the same just reading a book. Judy Rounda does an excellent job with male and female voices as well as accents.

I received this audiobook through the author in exchange for an honest review.

Shorter than the first, but more polished

“Rise of the Embodied” is the second book in “The Quantum Mechanic” trilogy series written by Jason Faris. There is only one remaining book in the series needing to be put on Audible completing it. The audiobook edition was narrated by Judy Rounda, who also narrated the first book in the series. The second book is a bit shorter than the first at nearly nine and a half hours of audio compared to fourteen and a half for the first. This book picks up where the first one left off, and I felt the author did a good job of providing prequel information helping those who might have had some time between reading the first book and a refresher is beneficial. I will say that you will want to listen to this book only after listening to the first one; it is a series which continues the action from the first. Overall, I enjoyed the book as its premise is a bit different from others in the genre. It feels new and unique, yet not overly so. If you enjoyed the first book, this one for me was better and more focused, so I would recommend it.

When I look back at the book, it reminds me of a reverse Iron Man where the AI is a part of the person instead of the person being surrounded by a AI powered suit. I enjoyed learning about the many struggles and biases these characters faced having this technology within them. Even though this story mostly focused on the daughter (Jessica), I would have liked to have had additional backstory on the main characters from the first book. There were a few flashbacks that helped give the characters depth and feeling, but I would have liked to have seen more. I wanted to feel their pain, their love, and their friendships more, and I think this would have been accomplished if I had more details about them. This information may come I the last book of the series, I’m unsure. I will say that story maintained the mystery and intrigue found in the first. At times, you were on the edge of your seat waiting to see what would happen.

We have some of the same enemies along with a few newer ones returning from the first book. We are given a view into what I would describe as Transformers or the machines from Pacific Heights. I enjoyed how these machines were introduced and their function. A new aircraft technology was also introduced in this book. There were continued tensions between the United States and China around the technology and their ability to incorporate it into some of their people. What was even more interesting was the question of how a government controls a teenager who has what would equate to super powers while keeping her on your side? There was always a fine line between the embodied and their powers to that of the quantum powers and how the government wanted to maintain control. As we see in this book, revenge is sweet, however, vengeance comes at a price and is often quite destructive.

Even though this book seemed more polished than the first, there are a few things I would have changed. What would the changes be if I were given the ability? For starters, the book seemed at times to throw in technology or technological terms for no reason but to give a science fiction feel. Some of the added sound effects, I thought, were overly used and at times took away from the narration. I do not mind books where sounds are added, but I do not want them to overpower the text. As with the first book, I do not think the use of Biblical test at the beginning of the chapters is needed as these are often used out of context from their original meaning. Even though he is a quantum man, the use of the terms quantum and artificial intelligence seemed to be overly used. I would have liked to have had more detail and backstory to fill in the holes left open after the two books; again, this could be something for the last book in the series to provide. Often the vulgar language used by the characters, for me, did not fit the characters level of intelligence or what I would expect.

When I think back to the book’s narration, I really did not have anything negative to say. Judy Rounda has over twenty audiobooks narrated on Audible; at the time of this review. Nearly all of them positive. It would have been nice to have more inflection during times of intense action or emotional scenes, but that is more a personal feeling. As stated earlier, I thought the sound effects used were good, but overly saturated the book’s narration at times. There were only slight inconsistencies with volume a couple of times, but nothing that takes away from the story. Other than these things, I thought the book was well narrated and I hope she narrates the last book in the series.

For younger readers or parents of such, you will want to think twice before picking up this book. The book contains a heavy amount of vulgar language, some light romance, sexual topics, and some intense graphic violence. If any of this is offensive to you, I recommend you find another book to listen too.

In summary, the second book seemed more polished and developed from the first even though it is shorter in overall audio content. The listener is given a view into some new and exciting equipment along with some additional backstory on the main characters. I felt the use of vulgar language was unnecessary and could have opened the book up to more audiences had it not been used. Once again, if you liked the first book, I would suggest you pick up the second and complete the series once the third is released in Audiobook format.

Disclaimer: I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.