The Cost of Being Special

Survival of the Fittest, Book 1

By: Shawn Keys

Narrated by: Erin Bateman

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A dystopic action-adventure novel!

Kyle is directionless, languishing in a local community college trying to figure out what to do with his life. All around him, the world is getting stranger. A virus has rendered most of the male population in the world infertile. The fabric of society is stretching thin. People are scared of what might come next.

Then, in a lightning strike of unexpected fortune, Kyle finds out he is one of the few. He isn't at all ready for what comes next. It no longer matters if he ever had hopes and dreams. What other people want suddenly is now far more important.

Some want to claim him. Some want to hate him. Then, there are those who don't think he should ever have received that gift. They will do anything to make sure he never gets the chance to enjoy it.

The fact that he is special crashes into his life and changes the way everyone looks at Kyle. But that is both a gift and a curse. There is a cost to finding out that he is special, and the cost might end up being his life.

Warning: This book is the first steps taken by the characters in a dystopic future just beginning to fall apart. There will be violence, emotional turmoil, dark subject matter, and some intense, highly erotic scenes which include harem elements, light BDSM play, and lots of sexy fun. It is for the entertainment of adults only!

©2019 Shawn Keys (P)2019 Shawn Keys

One of the greats!

Honestly love the story quite poetic to current times and how our history can be repeated or look scary similar. I think what I love the most is the relationships and the emotional bonds each have. A fun story and am inspired to push myself towards physical and mental betterment.

The audio was probably one of the best with its great focus on variety for each of the characters. I truly do notice because these audio books are sometimes all I have to keep me sane. I have no issues and would even place this auditor as one of the best of the best!

I actually like this book....in 2020...

Yes the MC has a mega Harem with almost all the women calling him cute and falling for him.

The world is setup where women who choose to enter motherhood have very few fertile men.
The system is setup where everyone has a chip embedded into there body to monitor who is available for procreation. The women have this chip embedded in there system so they can engage a man knowing he has the ability to get her pregnant. The men all get tested and are notified at age 20 when there 1st official test is done.

I assume that before the men turn 20 there ability to give birth is disabled. This chip monitors the body and is tracked at all times basically like a police state. Everyone seems to be ok with the system and trust those in charge of monitoring.

This who system came about after a world wide virus almost eliminated the ability for repopulation kinda similar to how covid-19 has affected the whole world by 2020. Currently nobody knows what the lasting issues may be with covid-19 infections and survival. This book turns a bleek issue into a fight against those who the world has turned there trust to. The system of humanities recovery of fertility is being manipulated from the inside by Hitler esk rogue shadow organization. Turning people's trust against themselves.

Let's not forget this book is a Harem book but this senario seems plausible if we find out 5-10 years from now that those infected by covid-19 and recovered have shorter lifespan and limited if not sterile ability to give birth worldwide with future partners gaining the same sterilization even if they never got infected with covid-19 or took a vaccine.

Anyways I enjoyed this book and it's crazy how a innocent virus story wrapped in a Harem novel can suddenly be part of the real world's possible future. Look forward to seeing where the author will take this story. 2020 will be special for everyone still alive.

An awesome start!

I was a bit worried this was gonna be more of a erotica than a deep story and was super surprised how fast I got pulled into the word and how much I enjoyed the thrill of this book the start of the relationships and seeing how the Mc started to grow and learn to fight the agents

truely hard to put down

This was my first listen from this author and I really liked it. this is not my typical genre, no magic ,swords mythical creatures or vengeful gods.
I couldn't stop listening. who doesn't like conspiracy theories ,corrupt governments and fake news. I had to laugh ..... corrupt violent group taking advantage of a global pandemic and willing news reporters to further thier narrative.
In most stories the harem aspects don't make sense....here with 1 in maybe a 1000 men are fertile....
Don't pass this one it is not political it is all just fun with great writing great story and a great narrator. where is number 2.

Good overall, but not my favorite narration

I enjoyed the story enough, listen all kinds of audiobooks but the narrator just isn't who I want to listen to for the entire book. I had about 3 hours left and felt done. will continue to read the series though.
She did fine with men's voices as well, just something with it didn't click in my head to enjoy it as much as I wanted.

Unexpectedly great

I'll admit I didn't go into this thinking it wouldn't be good. That it would just be smut with little to no story. I'm really glad I was wrong. While it has a lot of smutty goodness in it. It does have plot that was fun to follow all the was through.

The book focuses around the idea that a virus has sterilized almost all males around the world. A government agency is formed to locate males that are still fertile. Over the years a nazi like mentality forms in some of the new agencies members. Our MC by happen stance slips by the agents and it's off to the races.

The narration was good. The voices used really help to distinguish between characters.

This was a fantastic start to a new series. I'm very excited for book two (no pun intended.)

Could have been great, but.......

This book was ok, but it felt a little rushed which left it feeling flat.

good story

The only thing that the bad guys need is saying hail hydra to each other.

great book

so glad i took a chance on this book. Can't wait for the next book

Fun book - sexy with a real plot line

I really enjoyed this book. I have finished book two and plan to read the rest of the series. Sexy without too much of the harem overriding the plot line. So far it is one of the better books of this genre that I have read.