The Harbinger

By: Bryan Patrick Wolfe

Narrated by: Michael Ahr

Length: 29 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

It starts as a whisper, barely audible.

Rumors. Paranoia. Conspiracy theories. Subterfuge.

Like lightning, the plague moves across the globe, spreading out in all directions and leaving few alive. But the end is only the beginning.

Discovered in the Alaskan permafrost, the ancient virus was reanimated and genetically altered. The new strain showed great promise in curing many of mankind's afflictions. When the specimen fell into the hands of the Russian theocracy, their inept scientists attempted to create a biological weapon - a weapon that outsmarted them. Now, the androvirus is a deadly airborne plague, conquering the world in a matter of days. With a communicability of 100% and a mortality rate of over 90%, there is no immunity. For the survivors, who can suppress the virus, there is only change. A few adapt, but most become walking, talking gray horrors with an appetite for flesh.

Primarily set in the American city of Memphis, four loosely-connected strangers, caught up in their lives, find their worlds annihilated by the swiftly-moving plague. Alex Connelly is a wealthy young executive, living an idyllic life with his pregnant wife, Madison. Kirk Foster is a self-absorbed aging gay man, desperate to hang onto his youth and sex appeal. Meredith Brinkley's ongoing war with breast cancer takes a turn for the worse, and she faces an impending double mastectomy. Logan King is a closeted baseball jock, playing for a minor league team while coming to terms with his true identity. And only together will they survive....

Includes Book 1: Pathogen, Book 2: The Curtain Falls, Book 3: Creepers, and Book 4: Numbers.

Please note: There are straight and gay characters and a few that exist somewhere in between. There are characters of different races and religious backgrounds. There are opinionated characters. There is profanity. There is intimacy and clipped love scenes, some being of the male-for-male variety. There are also guns and graphic violence.

©2016 Keegan Kennedy (P)2017 Keegan Kennedy

A DIVERSE EPIC... Not for prudes, but not erotica.

Where does The Harbinger rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

First, I felt the need to defend the author against the lies and misinformation being spread by 'basic' people. Scanning the reviews on this new title, I was shocked by the misleading review by a listener named 'Ebony.' She called this gay porn, but that's untrue. Interestingly and perhaps very telling, the listener had zero problems with the heterosexual intimate scenes. Sure, people start 'getting busy', but the love/sex scenes fade out before anything hardcore happens. I've read more explicit scenes in Jackie Collins books. So don't believe the blatant lies!

This isn't a quick-fix book. It is an epic novel that actually has character development. Mr. Kennedy builds an incredibly descriptive world within a nightmarish scenario. But at the core of this book is the humanity of the characters. Instead of stale archetypes, these are realistic, flawed characters. I've read some hideous apocalyptic books, written by authors who sound like right-wing gun nuts or ghoulish teenage boys, but this, by far, is superior. I would put this up there with Stephen King's The Stand and Sarah Lyons Fleming's Until the End of the World.

I commend Mr. Kennedy for including two major gay characters and having the testicular fortitude to stick to his guns. Keep railing against the haters!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Kirk! As one of the lead characters, not only is he tough, he's also realistic. I would almost call him an anti-hero. Instead, you have a tough, short gay man who is a one-man killing machine. I love characters who speak their minds and he has no time for any BS. I also loved Lauren, Empress, Alex, Ammon, Beulah, and Nina.

What does Michael Ahr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Michael Ahr did an amazing job!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The end is only the beginning.

Any additional comments?

This is a more intelligent offering than the normal shake-and-bake apocalyptic books.

A good story that could have been great.

Being a fan of post apocalyptic literature I saw this story and was very anxious to experience the story.

The core idea of a virus causing a pandemic was well executed but was interlaced with vivid sexuality of both heterosexual and homosexual that distracted from the story.

And while I am sure Mr Kennedy was attempting to use this as a plot device for character development I found it rather distracting from the survival aspect of the characters.

I very much enjoyed the survival story and Mr Kennedy did a great job of moving the plot along in terms of planning and moving the characters in the destroyed town of Memphis and the surrounding areas.

Beautifully Written

This book is incredible :). This is NOT GAY EROTIC! I WILL REPEAT..... THIS IS NOT GAY EROTICA. I promise :) This is a well rounded novel with a diverse group of characters. Intimate moments are both homo and heterosexual but as another Person stated, the scenes fade out before sex actual occurs. To be honest, there are very few moments where characters have time for sex lol... they are too busy surviving!
Personally, I feel the author does a great job pulling the reader into the story. Great character development. After 29 hours, I want more.
This book is Real and Raw. I laughed, I cried, I was mad, etc. I felt like this was happening in the Real world.
Give it a try... It is well worth the price and/or credit :)

Great new zombie twist!

great new zombie twist, narration could be better. by the 3rd & 4th book i got tired of the full. explanations regarding the same/every person when a new scene started. but overall its a great book and I will continue reading the series.

Well ummm...

If you could sum up The Harbinger in three words, what would they be?

I love books with lots of characters and I like how these developed. They seem real, with real struggles and flaws. But here's the thing. While this was a decent book to listen to it was very similar to The Stand and it is heavy on the gay sex thing. All in all its not a bad book. I got through it. But was not as good as I had hoped or as good as it could have been.

Two words. Gay.Erotica.

Wow, not what I expected. Now, if that is what you're into then by all means jump on this. But since that is not something I'm interested in, this was NOT the book for me. The reviews I read beforehand all praised this book, and not one person mention how much of a "porn" read this was. I couldn't finish it. Seriously, how many times can you use the word cock?? I purchased this for the Zombie genre, but was onable to stick around because of the other content. There's a difference in writing about a gay couple, and describing a full guy on guy sex scene. This book is the latter, and unfortunately I was able to finish because of it.

Racist author...smh

I'm 12 chapters in and I've barely heard...maybe twice...anything mentioned about a virus. I have heard plenty of racial slurs against white people. Blacks should marry blacks, why cant you find a nice black girl, name Madison sounds like some upright white girl from Ole Miss, etc AND plenty of gay sex. I had to look back twice to make sure I was reading the right book. I'm done with this author forever.

Great story

A few comments said this was gay porn...its not but is graphic in some sexual situations and that includes all human sexual activities.. the plague event was good, better then other books that are similar and over all a fresh and fun ride

Just Beyond!!!

First let me start off by stating that I loved this book. The character development and the storytelling ability of Keegan Kennedy kept me entranced throughout the book. The cast of characters are representative of today's society, which explains some of the reviews about the book. Yes, there are gay characters, principle protagonists within the story; Yes, there is gay sex but no more than heterosex and the manner in which Kennedy interlopes the act into the story, one really doesn't focus on the sex, which as mentioned in several reviews, fades away before the nitty gritty occurs. NOT GAY EROTICA...A great story about the real potential of an end of the world scenario involving a manmade viral agent and the possible effects of the spread of such a virus. I think Michael Ahr did a fantastic job distinguishing the characters. I had no problems with his inflection and tone. He did a great job enhancing the story offered by Kennedy. The story was 29 plus hours and it took me a while to get through it...not because I wasn't enraptured with the story but life happens...I so enjoyed the story and I researched to see if the next segment was in audio. I will wait a bit to see if it happens but if it doesn't I will be buying the continuing books in the Harbinger series!

One final note...a spoiler of sorts but not really...let me just say...fried dark meat was fitting justice ;-)

Over sexualized

I have a hard time finishing this book. It is very hypersexual and not well thought out. The author has not done his research in the world of firearms. The characters all seam to be very sexual cardboard cut outs of TV characters.