The Calypso Directive

A Novel

By: Brian Andrews

Narrated by: Ray Childs

Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

For 155 days, Will Foster has been locked in medical quarantine without his consent. The doctors claim he is infected with a deadly virus, but this is a lie. Encoded in his DNA is a mutation that provides immunity from disease for all who possess it, source code that Vyrogen Pharmaceuticals aims to commercialize as a multi-billion dollar gene therapy.

Against all odds, Foster escapes his laboratory prison and steals a virulent strain of bubonic plague as insurance. To help him unravel the mystery inside him, Foster contacts the only person he can trust - a former lover and microbiologist living Vienna - and the two become fugitives, hunted across the heart of Europe.

Under the guise of averting a plague pandemic, Vryogen hires an elite, underground Think Tank to track down Foster. But when the team sets a trap for Foster, they discover they're not the only ones in the hunt. In a race against two deadly assassins, can the brilliant minds of the Think Tank unravel the truth before time runs out for their quarry?

In a novel where conscience clashes with greed, loyalty with suspicion, and paranoia with reality, The Calypso Directive deftly explores the issues of genetic exploitation and piracy. Captivating, controversial, and courageous, Andrews debut is sure to thrill and leave you wondering what secrets are locked in your DNA.

©2012 Brian Andrews (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Horrendous!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book could never be a 4- or 5-star listening experience. None of the characters are believable, all of the characters are stilted and hackneyed, and the listener has no reason to like anyone in the book. The writing is horrid; for example, during a semi-romantic moment in the book, the author writes, "He ran his fingertips along her trapezius muscle . . . and they danced along her latissimus dorsi." Honestly; who writes like that?

What was most disappointing about Brian Andrews’s story?

His writing style. Mr. Andrews would do well to attend several creative writing programs before subjecting any reader to another novel.

Would you be willing to try another one of Ray Childs’s performances?

Oh, dear, no! Mr. Childs has a fairly decent voice, but he has no talent as an audiobook reader. His vocal range is extremely limited so that all of the characters sound exactly the same and sometimes not even like normal people. He reads with a slow cadence whether the scene is supposed to portray scariness, sadness, or excitement.

What character would you cut from The Calypso Directive?

The two brothers who are supposedly highly talented killers.

Concept & Plot Good, Characters bland & Fanciful

I would have given it four stars. It was fun and easy to read. Unfortunately, the need to suspend disbelief became too heavy a weight for this slight story to bear. The problematic plot developments include an advertising executive and a research scientist facing serious physical threats from professional thugs and security personnel and beating them every time. Also, a dialog technique used that identified the speaker by an abbreviation of their corporate role was annoying. There was also these small pieces of explicit violence that seemed out of place with the rest of the writing.

I didn’t stop listening...

.... but I really wanted to. I’ve listened to more than 200 audiobooks, and only ever stopped listening to one of them. I tried hard not to make this the second. I succeeded, barely.

On the positive side, the plot moves, and there is some action in it, you are minimally interested in what happens next. That’s about it.

On the negative, the voice acting is absolutely terrible. Voices are inconsistent, the emotion expressed rarely matches with the plot line ongoing, and sometimes switch mid sentence to a different accent. Wondering where the director/producer were.

For a book in the techno-thriller genre, the science in the book is appalling simplistic. Most of the explanations provided for the medical, technological, and genetic parts of the book appear to have been lifted straight from the introduction of a Wikipedia page. It got to the point where it really seems like the author just had an idea about a guy taken advantage of because of a genetic quirk, did a quick Google search, and then said, “I got this. No need to have more research.” This shortcoming lead to the overly artificial and unbelievable nature of the book.

Worst of all, though, were the characters - as others have pointed out. Impressively one dimensional in most cases, you often wonder what could possibly motivate them to perform the actions described. Beautiful and impressive American research scientist living (conveniently) in Vienna drops everything when her college boyfriend, with whom she’s had no contact in several years, reaches out to her cryptically over the internet? Drives overnight to the Czech Republic to pick him up? Sounds about right... I can see this happening regularly. Falls in love with him (never stopped) within 12 hours? Check.

Anyway, skip this one.

A lot of filler

Too much crosstalk.
I stopped about 1/4 into and realized what a waste of my time.

Hard to put down

I loved the book, but hated the ending. Maybe it is just a set up for a sequel in a new series. There is plenty of intrigue, twist and turns throughout the book.

A topical modern thriller

Where does The Calypso Directive rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to many audio books and this is one of my favorites, my only quibble is how the performer handled dialog in certain portions of the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Meredith Morley how can you like such a controlling manipulative bad gal?

Which scene was your favorite?

Scene at the cafe and subsequent motorcycle chase.

Any additional comments?

Seems like a solid effort from a new writer, looking forward to his new stuff.

Worst narrator that i have heard yet

It seemed like the story was very good, but it was very hard to get past the way the narrator reads this book. He reads it like he is reading a fairy tale to a 4 year old. Over dramatic. The inflections are WAY overboard. Plus, he makes every female character sound like a bumbling idiot.

Again, the story seemed like a good one but i couldn't get past the incredibly inept narraration.

Couldn’t wait for it to be over!

The story line was just hard for me to follow! Lost track of who was who... also just a little to close to home for me given we’re currently dealing with the COVID19

Great Storyline - but a couple of misses

First huge fame of Andrews and his storylines (when not military) always blow my mind. They don’t immediately associate in my mind with the Andrews & Wilson ones I love - however that just shows how talented the author is.
So no issues with storyline or development. But I did have 2 misses that kept it from being a 5*.
1) The RA stuff. As a listener who multitasks during an audio, it became complicated to know who was speaker. There was a delay because all of their titles were RA something. It would’ve been easier if last names were just used instead.
Second was narrator. He wasn’t bad but he didn’t have a range of contract especially when speaking as a woman. He was a little more monotone than I’d hoped for an 11 hour read.
None of these two kept me from enjoying the book. I’m wondering if this might become a series?? If so maybe the author will consider some of these misses.

WOW! Plan on not putting this Audible down!

This was a new author with a new narrator for me! like opening a gift I did not know I needed.

Turbid narration spoiled an ok story

I don’t normally leave negative feedback but this was so poorly read that I really struggled with this book the story was just ok, but the horrendous narration just killed it dead for me

Many of the characters sounded the same, most sounded morose and the narrative just did not seem to fit with the character or story.

To be honest struggled to get to the end of this one.

amazing story really enjoyed it

the story in itself was good I can't say that the ending was what I was expecting, but considering what the story is about it isn't mal suited just stomach wrenching

The Calypso Directive

Enjoyed this throughout with a realistic ending.
We’ll read by the narrator and moved at a good pace.

good at times, but the majority is bad!

The plot is somewhat interesting and a different take on the one person has the super immunity gene. However the unconventional writing style and to be blunt terrible narrator who for 90 percent of his performance forgets the different character he indicates. I got so fed up of listening to this that i wanted to give up at about the 7 hour mark. But by this point I figure Ive put up with it so may as well suffer to the end.
I have rarely been happy to get to the end of a book but this one Ill make an exception.

Unintelligent narration

The story has potential but the narrator is beyond annoying. He swallows loudly but also manages to make every character sound utterly stupid. He’s not a bright man, reading an intelligent book in a smart way. He detracts from the book with his reading style. He gives the impression he has a low iq and would better placed reading infant books.

much too much detail .

great story line and characters but my god the detailing and name checking just toooo much.