The End of the World Running Club

By: Adrian J. Walker

Narrated by: Jot Davies

Length: 15 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Edgar Hill is 35 and caught in his own headlock. Overweight slob, underperforming husband, and reluctant father - for Ed, the world may as well have already ended. So when it does end in a catastrophic asteroid strike and Edgar and his family find refuge in an Edinburgh army barracks, it comes as something of a relief.

But nothing's ever that simple. Returning from a salvage run in the city, Edgar finds his family gone, taken to the south coast for evacuation by an international task force. Suddenly he finds himself facing a grueling journey on foot across a devastated United Kingdom. Edgar must race against time and overcome his own shortcomings, not to mention hundred-mile canyons and a heavily flooded west coast, to find the people he loves before he loses them forever.

This is a vivid, gripping story of hope, long-distance running, and how we break the limits of our own endurance.

©2017 Adrian J. Walker (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Hang in there till about hour 4 of the audio book

The main character (Edgar) was so unlikable and ineffectual that I would have stopped listening--except the writing was excellent. Around the fourth hour, Edgar stops being such a hapless jerk. As well, there's now his compatriots and their journey to concentrate on.

The biggest surprise for me was what I enjoyed the most: the writing about running. I hate running, so kudos to Walker for sucking me in!

As for the audio narrator, very good. Unfortunately there's a lot of yelling--or conversely, characters that speak softly--that it was hard to get the volume right. I was constantly turning it up or down, and jumping out of my skin when I didn't expect a voice blaring in my ear.

More like, the end of the world whining club...

But it's still good. I had to knock a star off the performance because the narrator made the little girl so obnoxious.

Best Book I've Listened to in a Long Time

The word that keeps coming to mind is "tight" when describing this book. There's nothing extra, there's nothing that makes you think "what? really?" there's only rare cliches. It's just great writing.
The story line is super creative. After reading the description and then meeting the main character, I couldn't wait to see what happened. The author does a great job of not having you like the main character necessarily, and maybe not even rooting for him, but I hung on every word and couldn't wait to see what happened.
The narrator was superb.
I highly recommend this book.

Production could be better

Great story, great performance, but the audio levels varied wildly. Listening in my car (with windows up), I was often straining to hear, then getting my ears blasted when levels changed again.

Awesome audio!

Great audiobook. Narrator was awesome. Characters were brought to life. Story immediately captures you and keeps you interested throughout book. Really enjoyed listening, was sad it was over!

Needs volume modulation

Way too quiet and way too loud in parts. Pity we headphone wearing runners who can't adjust the volume easily wearing mittens! But good story, well read.

Many Things

Not a book about running, but talks about some things that happen to long distance runners. Overall descent story. Narration forgets often that people listen in different devices and ways. Goes from soft spoken to screaming with very short notice.

Inspiring read

Any additional comments?

What can I say? I love "End of the world" fiction and I love running, so I was intrigued by the title alone. The story, well narrated by Jot Davies was a great read. I actually listen to audio books during my running, especially the long ones, so this was an easy pick.
Don't be put off if you're not a runner. I am one, and Adrian Walker writes poetically about the running experience from time to time, but there are many layers and nuances to the story and the character development is very good. I agree that the audio becomes a bit quiet and difficult to hear at times, but it wasn't a deal breaker. Excellent story - off to look for more works by Adrian Walker...

🏃 Dog Days Are Over 🏃‍♀️ 🏃🏃

I bought this book on the recommendation of one of the reviewers I follow, normally reliable Marci from Portland, who called it one of the best books she’d listened to in a long time. Unfortunately, I can’t make the same claim. For me, it was really only a 3 1/2 star listen—just good enough to finish, not so bad I’m going to return it, but not so good I’d recommend it to friends or family. There were too many out-of-character actions (e.g., I didn’t believe that anyone, much less the meek protagonist, would go crazy and abandon his family to go assault the local grocer in order to acquire supplies a mere two minutes after learning that the world was about to end), too many “Wait—what?” moments (e.g. when it is revealed that it’s been almost a year since the world as we know it ended, despite what seems to be only a few weeks gone by), too many things the author seemed to have forgotten to include (e.g., in one chapter titled Gull Vindaloo, the mystery meat in the Indian food is often referred to as being of mysterious origin, but never actually revealed or discovered to be gull), and too many pseudo religious elements thrown in apparently just for cheap sentimental appeal (e.g., a Jesus figure appearing to the protagonist during the final miles of his journey; the mysterious rescue boats—origin and destination never revealed—that for no apparent reason [except cheap symbolism] are said to be departing on Christmas Day despite having picked up survivors from barracks shelters a month earlier). Also, I HATE loose ends, and the disappearance of a crucial character at the end of the book rang very false to me (that guy NEVER would have disappeared, especially after witnessing his friend fail to achieve his goal), as did that unsatisfying ending lacking any real resolution or even revelation about what ever ultimately happened to our protagonist, his family, and the rest of the world outside of the U.K. Bah, humbug! If I’m going to continue this post apocalyptic streak I’ve been on lately, I’d better go back to the classics in the genre: Earth Abides, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Road, The Stand, and Alas, Babylon. The narrator is EXCELLENT and bumps this up to a 4-star listen. He’s so good at doing accents that I was sorry there were no American characters so I could appreciate the full range of his talent. Grade: C+

Beautifully crafted and well performed!

An excellent book in every way. Great narration and pacing for a story that veers away from the tried (trite) and true SHTF format. The story is unpredictable, gritty, but also poetic and haunting in places. Recommending to all of my apocalypse genre reading friends.