Symbiosis

Impact Earth, Book 1

By: Timothy W. Long

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

It was a quiet Seattle morning until the skies filled with fire: without warning, a catastrophic meteor shower caused buildings to crumble and the lights to go out. Out of the rubble, five ordinary people arose to find themselves manifesting undreamed-of abilities.

Will they be enough to do what the military cannot - stop a massive alien invasion before the entire West Coast is destroyed?

©2016 Timothy W. Long (P)2016 Timothy W. Long

Seattle Falling Down!

This audiobook is fantastic! I have to admit though I almost felt like I needed a flow chart in the beginning to keep track of everyone in this book! But don't worry by the end you really feel connected to each and every one of the five main characters in this audiobook. It also took a little getting used to the author jumping between characters, but once I got a feel for each character, I honestly enjoyed how the story was told multiple points of view, it made total sense. What really helped was the narration by Todd Menesses, but we'll talk more about that later. So, in this ensemble cast, you have Brian, the overweight pimply faced 16-year-old kid. Elise, an abused woman just starting to rebuild her life. Sean, the big, kind-hearted divorcé. Martin, a crotchety old veteran dying of cancer and last but not least, Victor, the family man.

While the entire population of Seattle is caught up in an alien invasion, these five characters are fighting not one but two alien invasions. Talk about sensory overload! I'm not one for spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. Timothy W. Long really takes his time building this story, so expect this tale will roll out over several books because I really feel like book one is just the beginning! Speaking of that, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but when I went to Long's website to see when the next book in the series was scheduled for release, I looked high and low and found zilch, so I'm assuming it will be awhile before book two is released... sigh.

OK, so let's talk about narrator Todd Menesses, I dare anyone to tell me that narrators are not actors of the highest caliber and that one person is voicing ALL of the characters major and minor! Genius! Each character has their own distinct voice and not once did I have to question which character was talking and trust me it's quite a feat to keep that many characters straight!

Amazing story, awesome narration, buy or credit this audiobook is worth it!

Fun story with some annoying dialogue

The dialogue felt stunted between the characters and the lack of cohesion of the 5 main characters was frustrating and was never resolved. The narrator sometimes sounded like he was announcing for a monster truck rally commercial and his inflection on the last word in a sentence was jarring and kept removing me from the story. I will read the next novel in the series instead of listening to it.

Independence Day meets the Marvel Universe

Would you listen to Symbiosis again? Why?

Yes, I would listen again. Very good story and narration plus there will need to be a sequel so I would probably listen to it again before getting the next one when it comes out.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Actually, I liked Victor the best, just a regular guy trying to get through a regular day and bam aliens attack and he becomes a superhero still dealing with his family.

Have you listened to any of Todd Menesses’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I have and it's just as good as the others giving each person a different voice so it makes it easy to tell who is speaking when.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I never listen to a book all in one sitting but there were nights where I was listening longer than normal to find out what happened next. I usually listen on my commutes.

Any additional comments?

Pick it up if you like alien invasions or superheroes worth a credit!

Earth invaded & has the most unlikely saviors

We're being invaded and have the most unlikely saviors

An alien invasion strike Seattle, while the attack is happening, five strangers will find themselves now flowing with very unlikely... powers. What can these unlikely heroes do to prevent this alien invasion?

Impact Earth: Symbiosis was narrated by Todd Menesses who does a wonderful job. It's always nice to hear a narration that I would consider a "full cast" ensemble with only one narrator. A lot of the accents were really well done and it really helped move the story along.

Another book that has superhero undertones to it. Looking at the cover of this you would have no idea (but I guess that's why you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover).

While I enjoy superheroes, especially those who basically came from nothing -- this isn't my go-to genre. Menesses narration really kept me interested in this and helped me to continue listening to it.

I saw a lot of reviews that were complaining about the amount of profanity, so I will warn you -- if you are overly sensitive to profanity, just avoid this book. Given some of the circumstances that these characters are put into, I can completely understand the cursing -- I even support it for a book like this. I think that Timothy W Long was trying to make the book as realistic as possible (yeah, yeah, with aliens). But real people talk like that, especially those who are going through extremely stressful and bad situations.

If you look past the cursing there was a lot of really unique detail in this book. Long does a great job trying to make sure that each character is explained, and their backstories are told well enough that you can continue to follow with them as they learn of their new and different powers.

Overall, while a combination of a style that I really like with one that I don't as much -- I found myself enjoying Symbiosis. The combination of Long's writing style and Menesses comic-book-character-esque narration made this for me.

I was given a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

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I can't wait for the next book

Excellent storytelling, good character development. Good balance of believable sci-fi. nice to have a story based in the Pacific Northwest.