The End of the World Running Club

De: Adrian J. Walker

Narrado por: Jot Davies

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.

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.

It's never the end.

I enjoyed the story. There was a lot of action and it was full of interesting characters. As I read more, I grew to enjoy the story.

Bad sound editing

The story and narration provided an interesting adventure. However, the audio fades and gets louder throughout this book. It’s as if the narrator keeps running ahead of you and you catch up only to fall behind again and struggle to catch what he is saying.

So much deeper than expected!

Turns the post apocalypse into a deep spiritual journey, not what I expected but I loved it. Spot on performance!

Good story

It took me a little while to get into it and like the main character but that is part of the point. It ended up being a really good story about personal growth, love and so much more. I wanted more in the end but don’t want to give anything away by saying more.

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.

Nice Nugget of an Idea...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I loved the idea of a group of post-apocalyptic survivors needing to run from Scotland to the south coast! As an ultramarathoner, though, I was quite surprised at the lack of attention given in the text to what a run of 30+ miles per day, for days on end, would actually be like, especially for these characters who are untrained and basically starting from zero. The main character gets a single blister, and "hurts" and hallucinates a lot, but the author's descriptions of the discomfort due to the running are vague at best. Where is the intense chafing, the toenails bruising and falling off, the intense soreness in the hamstrings and back, the bonking after not eating anything for hours upon end and using up your glycogen stores? It seemed like a lot more could have been done with the text to make it more true-to-life about what these characters would really be experiencing physically during their ordeal.

What about Jot Davies’s performance did you like?

The performance is simply epic - his range of Scots, English, Welsh, and Irish accents is masterful, and a pure joy to listen to.

Any additional comments?

The premise of the story is probably the strongest aspect of this effort. Drawbacks include the unlikability of most of the main characters (Harvey being the notable exception) and the stock character villains that the group encounters as they progress south. Overall grade: C-.

A Great Reader for an interesting book!

fantastic narrating! various voices and tension made this a thrilling audio book. thank you!

wow, just wow

I was a little skeptical through the first 2 chapters. After that I found the main character extremely relatable and the story wholly believeable. What a great book!

What a story

This is the 3rd book by Mr. Walker I’ve listened to...in 2 weeks! What a storyteller he is. He also has a great ear for the perfect narrator. I must say, twice I almost stopped in this book because of the intensity of the story, only I just couldn’t because the writing and narration were just so very good. Be sure to set some time aside when listening to any of his books because you might not do anything else.