The Distance

De: Jeremy Robinson, Hilaree Robinson

Narrado por: Jeffrey Kafer, Heather Costa

Their journey begins....

The human race has turned to dust. August Morrison faces it after rising from the depths of a dark matter research facility in Arizona. His co-workers. His daughter. All of them: dust. Friends and colleagues around the world don’t answer their phones. The city of Phoenix burns. He is alone. As a world without mankind starts to crumble, August fights not just for survival, but for his very sanity.

On the other side of the country, Poe McDowell watches her parents crumble into dust just moments after being shoved inside a coffin-like device that spares her from the same fate. She emerges to find not just her mother and father, but also her neighbors - her entire town’s human population - reduced to grit. Unlike August, she’s not entirely alone, but the life growing in her belly isn’t much company.

Then, hope. A drunken and desperate August broadcasts over the ham radio network and connects with his fellow survivor, Poe, alone and pregnant in a snow blanketed New Hampshire. Determined to reach her, August sets out on a cross-country trek. But the world is not as empty as it seems. Lights in the sky reveal that they are not alone. The human race’s demise was not natural - and the architects are searching for survivors.

...at the end.

Jeremy Robinson, whose stories have been compared to Michael Crichton, James Rollins, and Stephen King, is the international best-selling master of stories featuring mind-bending imagination, terrifying monsters and high-octane action. With The Distance, he is joined by his wife, Hilaree Robinson, whose passionate writing and characters make this novel a truly unique and exciting experience that will leave readers both enthralled and moved.

©2016 Jeremy Robinson (P)2018 Jeremy Robinson

out of 90 books, this is my first review

I NEVER review books. From the first line I was hooked. Heather Costa is a female James Earl Jones! I could listen to her read anything. The story is incredible and I don't think I've read or heard one like this ever. I couldn't stop listening...on the way to the gym at 5 a.m., in the shower, in the pool, you name it. Fantastic! Don't miss this one.

Perfect

Finally a book with an ending, everything explained at the end. I'm tired of books that leave you without an explanation, this is not one of those.

Utterly compelling post apocalyptic vision

Story narrated in two voices contains all the elements and some twists and interesting ideas

Fantastic!

Great narration coupled with a great story.

This story was not what I expected and I am so glad for it. We are presented with two very different journeys through the appocalypse and so many unexpected occurences. This is a must read!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Pleasantly unexpected

I really liked this book. I don’t usually read alien invasion books but made an exception for this one after reading reviews. I was not disappointed. The story is very well written and there is never a dull moment. The author did a great job developing characters so that I felt love for them. Both narrators are very good. I only disliked that this story ended.

All is explained in the final scenes...

I can see why many other reviewers gave this audiobook high ratings. The writing styles of these co-authors is great for this type of story. I’m ambivalent about the use of present first-person tense – I think I absorb and enjoy stories more when they’re written from a third-person omniscient perspective. Because it’s written in a first-person style that alternates between a male point of view (POV) and a female POV, it’s necessary that we have a male and a female narrator. I’m glad the authors made this decision! Having one narrator voice both the male and female POV would probably have been less effective (especially when narrators exaggerate the other-gender voice, usually to ridiculous extremes), so two thumbs up for using two narrators.

The narrator for the female voice was very effective and authentic, in my opinion. She sounded youngish and a wee bit naïve, good-hearted, and stubborn -- just like my mental picture of Poe. The narrator for the male voice grew on me after a while, but at the beginning I was distracted by the drawl of his voice (reminded me of the actor Patrick Warburton, which was not the mental image that I had of August). I increased the playback speed a bit, and things were fine after that. No major complaints.

Regarding the story itself, the main reason why I gave this story four stars instead of five was because of the pacing and placement of the ‘big reveal’. It’s like, for 95% of the story, as we’re narrowing the distance between August and Poe, we learn about their strange experiences (which I won’t describe, to be spoiler-free) as time passes. However, near the very end of the story, we’re suddenly given the entire explanation, which is kind of complicated and hard (for me, anyway) to absorb. I think it would have been easier for me to process if the authors had dropped more breadcrumbs along the way. As it is, don’t be surprised if you have to rewind a few times and re-listen to the explanation of what the story was about. It kind of felt like the authors were telling a joke, and they told the punchline… but then felt like they had to explain what the joke was because the audience got confused looks on their faces. So, don’t be surprised if you get through most of the story without understanding what’s happening – all will be revealed at the end!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A journey of challenges both physical and mental

August is an astrophysics working in a lab a buried a mile and half under the garound outside of Pheniox when most of humanity is turned into a pile of dust. Playing with a citizen band ham radio he discovers a fellow survivor Poe on the other side of the country alone and pregnant, snowbound who needs his help. Thinking it will be a short trip in empty world, our hero discovers he not alone with dangers in his way. This both August and Poe make discoveries about themselves and adversaries. This saga would be worthy of being told on the big screen.

Interesting premise but not fully believeable

The main characters survival and reactions to the totally unknown cause of the event starts the book well, but it seems the characters are bent on suicide by ideological stupidity and only manage to somehow escape their fate. It takes a while to come to the conclusion as to why the aliens are there and why they killed most of humanity which keeps your reading, but some how it seems to lack believably at the end. However, there is enough, what next, with some very good narrations in the book to keep you reading and wanting to finishing it

Way too many adjectives

The flood of adjectives is a sure sign that the writer has no skills telling the story and it takes away from the overall story experience.

Perfect symmetry between story and storytellers

One of the most enjoyable books of the hundreds of sci-di books I have listened to. A really great ride.