The Final Enemy

By: Dan Petrosini

Narrated by: Joseph Kidawski

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

In the face of a death-defying power, what's the "new normal"?

Like all reporters, Jack longs for a breaking story but is stuck writing obituaries for a small-town rag. As his frustration mounts, it hits him that no one has died in over three days. Jack's odd observation becomes something far stranger when he connects a meteorite to the bizarre phenomenon.

Seizing the opportunity, Jack breaks the story and after a struggle to control the meteorite's power is resolved, a swelling population begins to create havoc. With the survival of the human race hanging in the balance, politicians enact increasingly horrific measures and desperate citizens take matters into their own hands.

Jack's in a position to not just report the news, but change it, and his decisions and observations creates an epic thriller that pits the potential of human immortality against a force designed to change - or obliterate - humanity itself.

Only one man might stand in its way...the man buried in the obits department. The Final Enemy is a story of social disintegration as well as a saga of survival. Secret plans, starvation, suicide, and a series of events that spiral the human race into a desperate survival mode evolve from a seemingly singular event and leads to a fast-paced action story that delights with its penchant for the unexpected.

In the tradition of A.G. Riddle and Matthew Mather, The Final Enemy is a gripping blend of thriller and science fiction that will prove hard to put down.

©2017 Dan Petrosini (P)2018 Dan Petrosini

An interesting premise

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I was definitely intrigued by this book and its premise. The book itself is relatively good, however some of the ideas explored in the latter parts of the book get quite dark and made me want to put it down. Some of the paths that the story took made sense; other paths didn’t especially when it seemed like there were more logical paths for the story. II persevered to the end, hoping to find some redemption in the book, but I was disappointed. I love speculative sci-fi and loved parts 1 and 2, but the book just got darker and darker and never really got bright again.

I would be interested to read something else by this author, but I don’t think I’ll reread this book.

The narrator did a good job and I was able to read it at my normal speed of 2.2x.

Different.

What would happen if death was no more,except for violent death. How will it impact the world? Find one idea in this thought provoking story. I received this audio book free and voluntarily reviewed.

Societal Effect of Immortality

I requested and received this book after spotting it on a list of review copy sci-fi audiobooks being offered. The following is my voluntary review.

'The Final Enemy' starts with a meteorite hitting Earth. It soon becomes clear that the meteorite is the cause of the cessation of aging among the people of the planet. The main character, Jack, is the first to report this and uses it to advance his journalistic career. Soon, it becomes apparent that with no one dying, the world is becoming overpopulated and that food sources are dwindling at an alarming rate.

The author brings up some tough questions about what would happen if there were so many people in the world that there was no way to sustain them all. The government officials work feverishly to come up with more resources for food and water. And in the end, ironically, the simplest and most logical solution is finally implemented.

The subject of what it means to be immortal could have been explored more, but overall the book does a good job of pointing out the pitfalls of immortality. This is a enjoyable, thought provoking listen.

Joseph Kidawski does a nice job with narration. The character voices are distinct. One production issue I had: there are a lack of pauses between POV and timeline shifts. It made it a tiny bit confusing at times.

Recommended.

Decent

This story is about a reporter who finds a meteorite that has some unique powers. People stop dying of natural causes which leads to over population. I won't give anymore away.

The story in many ways is frighteningly realistic yet at the same time its not such as animals over populating and humans starving. If there are too many animals why are humans starving and ating each other? That didn't make any sense to me

The story is easy to follow and pretty gory in parts. I liked the main character. He's a pretty normal guy. He thought he had something good and he did but it led to something horrible and at the same time it made his career.

The narrator did a good job. His voice was wasy to follow and easy on my ears.

Overall, a good story and different.

great scifi read

I received this book for free for a honest review.  I loved the characters and storyline.  it flowed very well and held together.  The narrator did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life.  reccomend

An Interesting Concept

3.5 stars

For many, many years, scientists and science fiction writers have contemplated the dire consequences of severe overpopulation and I doubt that there are many people in the industrialized world who haven’t had at least passing thoughts about it. It’s a fascinating topic with few really viable solutions other than those that most would view as draconian and repugnant and I was interested to see how Mr. Petrosini would handle such a scenario.

While the topic and parts of the storyline are compelling, the execution is somewhat clumsy with moments that are too illogical to sustain. Just as an example, there is no way the government wouldn’t have known about this meteorite with all the available space-searching that goes on and they would have been hot on Jack’s heels if not there first. Also, Jack’s rapid rise to “stardom”, pun intended, makes very little sense as do some of the decisions made by the government, especially regarding sharing the meteorite’s effects.

On the other hand, the narrator, Joseph Kidawski, made this a very entertaining story just with his performance. There are many voiceover actors who do characters well but he truly manages to make each and every person sound different, with vivid intonations and accents. There were a few issues with the audiobook production, such as missing the beginnings of some chapters, but Mr. Kidawski turned this into an appealing book.

A solid sci fi / thriller

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

This was actually a pretty decent sci fi / thriller. Some parts of the story requires you to suspend disbelief and just enjoy, but if you can, you'll enjoy it. The narration is decent. Not the best narrator I've heard, but good enough to not detract from the experience.

Enjoyable read

The Final Enemy (Kindle Edition), my first read from author Dan Petrosini, caught my attention in the opening pages & I never put it down until completed. Since I own other books by this author I was surprised to find I'd never read one before and in all truth, I picked up this one thinking it was the first book in The Luca Mystery series (Am I the Killer?). I look forward to reading more from this author. Joseph Kidawski’s narration adds to this unique book's enjoyment. "I received a free Audible review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Solid dystopian endeavor!

Any additional comments?

I listened to The Final Enemy, narrated by Joseph Kidawski on audible. This is a dystopian style story with a twist. Petrosini takes a genre and turns it on its head in this novel. Normally the reader is faced with 2 dystopian style scenarios, 1)post apocalyptic where we encounter a world in which the catastrophe has already occurred, or 2)the books takes you through some time of world change where the catastrophe develops in course of the story and it most frequently is caused by some major terrible event.

In the Final Enemy, Petrosini starts by guiding the reader through an amazing break through. Life is preserved! The final enemy, or death is conquered by the appearance of some healing properties that accompany the arrival of a meteorite hitting North America. The author explores fabulously, what would happen if people no longer died. Wouldn't that be amazing? Well maybe not. There are other implications that come along with that scenario and what may seem great ultimately may not be. Be careful what you wish for.

Petrosini did a very good job at surprising me with a twist on this type of story. Unintentionally, I recently explored another dystopian style novel so my brain was beginning to work along certain guidelines. This book was the better in story and style. His characters were relatable and believable. The only downside was that I felt like there were some jumpy transitions and a couple of updates in the timeline that seemed very similar to previous ones. Other than these elements I enjoyed this book very much.

Kidawski did a good job narrating. His regular reading voice is clear and pleasant and his character voices were smooth enough to not sound forced. The only exception was grandma's and it was cringe worthy. But overall 4/5 for his part.

I received this edition in exchange for an unbiased review.

Great

I really enjoyed this audiobook and the narrator did a good job u got this audiobook
From audiobook from audiobook Boom and
I got a free code from the answer

Thank you