The Angel of Meridian

By: Justin Hyde

Narrated by: Gary Bennett

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

What could be more powerful than weapons crafted by the hand of God for his own army of angels?

Bastian Santé is a man driven by greed and the desire to possess that power. Unfortunately for him, only an angel can touch angelic steel. That is, until recent breakthroughs in human genome editing have given him the hope of changing that.

Meanwhile, with an increase in archeological discoveries across the globe, the demand for trained personnel with the daringness and expertise to search and recover these precious antiquities has greatly risen in past years. From this need, a new school has emerged.

Born from a small group of former private military operatives known as Nightcorp International, Alpha-Meridian’s focus is on Hazardous Relic Recovery, and trains students for the exciting, and often dangerous work of tracking down and collecting the world’s lost treasures.

Professor Cameron Skull is one of A-M’s top field instructors. But when he finds himself alone and dangling from a cliff high up in the Alps on a recovery mission for the Swiss government, he is unprepared for the sight when a man suddenly falls from above him. He soon learns however, that that is only the beginning of his problems.

With the help of his girlfriend Iris, and his best friend Francesco Ferrari, can Professor Skull and the team from Meridian put together enough information to stop Santé before his plan succeeds and he becomes the most powerful villain in the world?

Following ancient trails isn’t easy. And when an army of the dead stand in your way, it may just be impossible. But as they will all soon learn, playing God does not make you God.

©2019 Justin Hyde (P)2020 Justin Hyde

religion, history and zombies...what else you want

a very interesting story intertwined with history and religion. Throw in zombies and you got a great story.

Good Book

I really liked the story line. Very creative, imaginative. I liked the plot twists and suspense a lot, kept you on your toes! This is the first book by Justin Hyde that I have listened to, and am definitely looking forward to listening/reading more from him. I wasn't impressed by the narrator though. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if I had just read it myself.
I recommend this book!

Amazing

An unbelievable story and piece of writing. The details are exceptional with this book and it’s a must read. This is truly worth the read or the listen (this was my first time trying an audiobook!) - Highly recommended

You'll keep asking yourself "Is this really true?"

The Angel of Meridian is a very engaging book. It gets your attention right from the very beginning and doesn’t let go. There are very few points in the book where something isn’t going on. It is very well written and researched. So much so, that many times throughout the book I found myself wondering if this is really true. That is pretty cool for a book that is classified as fiction. And I really liked the ending.

It's definitely a wild ride...

Loved this book from the opening moments till the final scene. The author does a great job building his characters and creating a well written story. You can tell that there was an abundant amount of research that went into crafting this tale. Highly recommend and look forward to more books in this series.

great read

I very much enjoyed the book. The story was great, i didn't want to put it down. the story keeps you wondering. very well written and research. look forward to reading more books from Justin Hyde

Great story!

Loved the story, great characters and easy to follow. Can't wait for another from Hyde!

Solid Adventure with a theologic twist

“The Angel of Meridian” is the second audiobook released on Audible by author Justin Hyde. It is an action adventure and science fiction merged story packed with suspense, intrigue and even some elements of horror wrapped up inside. The audiobook edition is masterfully narrated by one of my current favorite narrators of the “Dragon Mage” series; Gary Bennett. It is the second book in the Cameron Skull series, and it appears there may be more on the way. If you enjoy listening to audiobooks from the likes of Dan Brown mixed in with parts of an Indiana Jones’ adventure, I think you will find this book one that is worth listening too. The audiobook also has a few surprises along the way making it quite entertaining. Even though I had not listened to the first book in the series, I found this one to be enjoyable as a stand-alone story.

The tale is about who can be the first to find a lost angelic relic whose power is unmatched to anything forged by mankind. Will it end up in the hands of a narcissistic collector or safely in the hands of the government? You soon learn that people will do almost anything to get their hands on this powerful weapon. Such an armament would provide the bearer with nearly limitless power over humans here on earth. The only issue is that such a weapon can only be wielded by those from the angelic realm. In comes a special agency dispatched to locate and recover such a weapon before it gets into the wrong hands. There is plenty of nefarious activity being done, in secret, to modify the human genome so it is capable of wielding the power of this sword. For our collector, this means collecting many unwilling subjects to test his experiments upon. The main issue is that the CRISPR technology, genetic splicing, used by this villain blending one’s genetic material seems to have a by-product of creating zombie-like creatures with little regard for human life. Can they keep them contained? You will have to listen to find out

The author did a good job of keeping the listener engaged with unique locations, detailed scenes, and decently complex characters. The use of flashbacks helped to fill in some of the gaps along the way. The action was believable and not over-the-top unrealistic. The inclusion of World War II weapons and secret bunkers kept me wondering what would happen next. I understand it was a part of the story, but I was not as comfortable with some of the torture inflected upon those who were kidnapped and even more with some of the children. I understand the author was leveraging the emotions of listener by including this type of content.

I felt the research used in this book was well-done and felt solid within the story. The scenes, technology, and characters all felt like they belonged and were important to the overall story. The World War II equipment and weapons appeared realistic. Where I felt the research may have been a bit exaggerated was when it came to the author’s understanding of Biblical Christian theology. Again, if you take this work as a piece of fiction, and not truth, one can pass over the claims of a new location for specific places in the Bible. The author included ideas from many other world religions and munged them into what appears to be Biblical truth. He also included a chapter at the end of the book on his reasoning and research into some of the things he added to the audiobook.

The narration was well performed by Gary Bennett and I quite enjoy listening his voice and pace of reading. He ability to voice and bring life to the book’s characters is something that requires talent. All of his recordings I have listened to have been professionally done, yet this book seemed it was a bit rushed or incomplete when recording started. That does not mean that the narration was not good. However, there were a few audio patches observed while listening which I had not noticed with some of his other narrations. Again, nothing that would make the book unmanageable to listen too, just different from some of his other works. Even with these slight issues, the narration is solid and worth the listen.

For parents and younger listeners, the book contains vulgar language long with some rather graphic scenes of violence. Some of the book would not be considered to be appropriate for younger listeners as it has aspects of horror and torture. There are aspects of religion which diverge from more traditional Biblical beliefs. Based on the above, I would not recommend the book for younger listeners.

In summary, even though the book was the second in a series, this one felt like it could easily stand alone as an entertaining piece. There was suspense, action, and some adventure. I would have liked to have had some more complex and deep characters, yet this may have been developed in the previous book in the series. Although it could have turned into more of a horror genre, the author did not focus upon these aspects alone. For me, it was just the right balance of adventure and horror along with uniqueness that kept me listening to the end.

Disclaimer, this book was provided by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias review.

A Story I Didn’t See Coming

A little different than the first book in this series – The Angel of Meridian still has that comfortable feeling as well. This time Hyde takes us to a lot more locations and I felt like we were almost circumnavigating the globe throughout. If you’re familiar with James Rollins or any other relic-hunting type book this one will feel similar to you, but it also takes a turn that even I wasn’t expecting. Much like the first book – where the cover made it look like a horror book instead of an adventure tale. This time I’m expecting an adventure tale… not the… (okay, no spoilers here, but other reviewers do talk about it).

The start of this book (and if I remember correctly The Devil’s Bible) had a lot of religion in it. Almost too much for me, but it ended up, like before, being just part of the set up and the overall “vibe” of the book. Hyde uses religion to set the stage (and also, religion is the home of thousands of relics and stories over the years so it makes sense to base it there). What I will say is that you can tell that Hyde puts a lot of time and energy into researching the topics, history, and the religious aspects that he does put in his novels. You feel like you’re learning something without feeling like you’re being preached to. He’s able to bring these topics and this history to life without doing it in a boring way.

The Angel of Meridan was one of those book that if I’d judged it in the first 20 pages I wouldn’t have liked it, but once you really get into the book it’s really enjoyable. The character building was good, but where Hyde’s novels really shine is in the pacing and the overall “feeling” they have. They leave you on the edge of your seat while also still feeling a little comfortable. You don’t ever at any point feel completely lost, but you do feel like something could change at any moment.

Back to what I said earlier (the one where I won’t spoil the book). Hyde does mention “…an army of the dead…”, so there’s your hint. I didn’t realize just how much that one line was going to affect the book, but man did it take a turn I wasn’t expecting.

Another good book and another great combination of Hyde and Bennett. Gary Bennett’s narration really brings this story to life. He took the slower scenes slow to draw them out and made the action and scary scenes that much more thrilling.