The Ark

Survival Adventure in Post-Apocalyptic Earth

By: Christopher Coates

Narrated by: Nicholas T Frey

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Earth as we know it is about to end.

Technology has developed to the point where a person can be placed in a sleep state: a cross between suspended animation and a drug-induced coma.

Just as the trial of the new technology is being completed, an unusual comet is discovered approaching Earth, bringing with it radiation that will wipe out all life on the planet. Soon after, the government builds a sleeper facility to save humankind from extinction, taking drastic steps to maintain secrecy of the project.

But when the sleepers awaken, they discover that something has gone terribly wrong and that the strange world around them is not the one they fell asleep in.

©2018 Christopher Coates (P)2019 Christopher Coates

Get a new narrator for the next book(s)!

I could not tell you honestly how good the story is because the narrator is SO bad...I guess the story is a little predictable, but I feel like it had so far to go, if it wasn't narrated by a person that (I assume) only does the voiceover for children's stories or perhaps dubbing really horrible anime? I swear I picture the narrator closing his nose with his fingers or putting silverware in his mouth to convey different characters...So bad.

The narrator does not even know how to read military time (e.g. 0730 NOT 07 hundred and thirty), embarrassing incompetence.

The Narrator's Voice

The Narrator's voice is something to be desired. I've listened to this book twice now and i look forward to more books narrated by this voice. I just cannot get enough. Highly recommend!

Great new concept for an apocalyptic adventure!

The Ark is a new take on a global apocalyptic survival story. The author does a great job of setting the stage and bringing the tale from preparation for the disaster to the clean up and rebuilding afterwards. However, it is the narrator who really brings this piece to life. With the variety of voices he is able to create, you are dropped right into the action and can forget that it's only one person reading!! I'm sad to see that Nick Frey hasn't narrated any other books on Audible, and I hope that changes very soon!

You won't sleep until you're done!

Brilliant story! It started off with a countdown of events before the main destination of the story... The earth is in deep trouble with a comet heading its way! There has been scant research done into a long term sleep programme, which has not been funded very well causing slow development, with some fatal consequences. But, when the government discovers the long term effect the approaching comet will have upon the earth and its inhabitants there is a sudden escalation of finding and high profile interest in the near redundant, long term sleep programme. It's a mystery to most involved and the cover-up has protection services working overtime to keep it that way.
The story develops well and will keep you highly engaged, trying to work out exactly where it is heading and what's going to happen next.
The final destination and result of the buildup left me wanting to read more from Coates, as his style of creativity is highly developed, his descriptions of everything happening is deep and wide and a joy to follow along with.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator is a master as well! I loved the scale of characters he consistently performed and his interpretation of the text was spot on! I look forward to hearing more from this narrator, Nicholas T. Frey. Thoroughly enjoyable.
A copy of this audiobook was given to me at my request, in exchange for an honest, non-bias review.

great narrator!

Intriguing outlook on the end of the world them. What would we do if we had a few years to prepare for the apocalypse? the science is interesting and the balance of men to women in power is refreshing. the narrator was so amazing that it added a whole additional layer to the story. every voice/character unique and perfect diction on every word. I really enjoyed this experience.

Weak Tea Science Fiction at best

What can I say, I felt like I was listening to a heavily padded story written for a Boys Catholic Junior High School. The storyline was predictable, the characters were slightly less than 2 dimensional, and the narration would have been perfect for a Hand Sanitation Instructional Video.
I couldn't take much more of it after chapter 15.

Meh

Well the story is great and I love the idea but the performance was horrible. The narrarators attempt at differentiating voices and accents was laughable at first then it became overly annoying. The Chapter "transitions" I'd you could even call them that was also laughable.

The Ark

A great novel of an effort to save humanity from a deadly comet using an imaginary situation of cooperation between the military, the political, and the scientific communities to select those skilled to continue life on Earth.

Gripping, edge of seat, suspense is using advanced technology, and many dramatic individual story-lines of normal human relationships.

The Ark portrays humanity at its’ best while making preparation for a long sleep and to awaken to reboot civilized life on earth again.

Narration was at first difficult for me, with narrator changing voices and accents to match characters.
I personally would have preferred to have the story read to me without portrayal of individual voices; however, halfway into the story I realized the narrator had grown on me and began immensely enjoying his acting skills, fleshing out the characters made it easier to know who was talking.

I highly recommend The Ark.

Good story but horrid narration.

The story is exactly what you’d expect and is fairly entertaining. The problem is the nasely voice of the narrator and his insistence to do terrible accents. I eventually got past his voice and enjoyed the book, but it took awhile and you may not be able to do the same thing.

Well written and entertaining

The Ark is a very well written and entertaining science fiction novel. I found the premise intriguing and the story well thought out and believable. I thought the voices of some of the early characters grating, but Nicholas Frey had a lot of characters to voice with the narration becoming better as the book progressed. Overall, I thought The Ark to be one of the better sci-fi novels I have listened to.

Not really as advertised

I found the narrative quite interesting and engaging but the book’s blurb clearly sold it as focusing both on the sleep programme and in the after effects of the disaster and rebuilding efforts. As another review points out (that I’ve only just seen) out of the book only the last hour was based after they “wake up” so the vast majority of the book is about the programme being set up and implemented. If you’re looking for POST apocalyptic fiction this isn’t it. But maybe prepper / pre apocalyptic fans would enjoy it. The voice artist was interesting although his female voice impressions were a bit weird. The story overall was good but I just felt like it was misadvertised in the blurb and the ending was rushed / cut short.

Not what I was expecting

I thought this was the story of after the Ark mission, but it was a highly detailed and imaginative telli g of getting ready for the humanity changing event that was coming.
A few chapters do deal with the aftermath but really just a postscript.
I enjoyed it.