The Junkie Quatrain

By: Peter Clines

Narrated by: Christian Rummel, Therese Plummer

Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Original Work, 2013

Six months ago, the world ended. The Baugh Contagion swept across the planet. Its victims were left twitching, adrenalized cannibals that quickly became know as Junkies. Civilization crumbled as people created isolated safe havens to hide from the infected... and the possibly infected. Now, as society nears a tipping point, lives will intersect and intertwine across two days in a desolate city.

The Junkie Quatrain is four tales of survival, and four types of post-apocalypse story, because the end of the world means different things for different people. Loss. Opportunity. Hope. Or maybe just another day on the job.

©2012 Peter Clines (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

An awesome set of vignettes

Just finished The Junkie Quatrain - didn't finish the laundry (thanks Peter!) because I was so engaged by these stories - and I am sitting here a bit awe struck. I'm not a huge monster fan especially the zombie type monsters with no individuality. But I picked up The Junkie Quatrain on sale because I enjoyed 14 so much and I am so glad I did. Nothing special about these monsters but there is something pretty special about 4 tightly written monster stories that could each stand alone but each connects to the others in such clever ways. In quick strokes, Peter Clines defines each of the central characters so that you invest in them immediately and each of these shorts then delivers a lot of punch. Mr. Clines can certainly write and Christian Rummel and Therese Plummer each do nice narrator turns with the material. It's not that the stories themselves are too short - each is a perfect length and locks in with the others almost with a "snap". It's just that the "snap" each time is such a "AHA" payoff in the brain you want it to go on and on. It's like watching a great dancer do a few quick amazing moves on the dance floor and then walk away before you can quite grasp what you saw. I totally loved this set of interlocking vignettes!

Dear Peter Clines,

Any additional comments?

Write faster!!! I've listened to all your books so far. This one might be my favorite. So please, WRITE FASTER!!!
Sincerely,
Sara

Great story !!!

Great story.
I just want to point out 1 fact.
How can russia report 300 million dead, while it's population as of 2011 is 141.5 million.
Everything else is great.

a sneeze that never comes

Any additional comments?

wish there was more! the 4 short stories are great. they weave together seamlessly. my disappoint is the clines could've made a full-blown book out of this material. the stories are great, but they just end. there's no resolution. the stories end just as the characters begin to reveal themselves. i was left frustrated, wondering what happens next. it's like clines wrote 1/3 of a book then just quit. i really hope clines publishes more, continuing the stories he started. i kind of feel cheated that it just ended! however, i sure did enjoy the ride while it lasted! it's like a rollercoaster- i was thrilled listening to the audiobook, but when it was over, i wanted to keep riding.

Each story has an interesting character. Each story reveals part of the overall plot- what has happened, how it has affected the world, and how different types of people have survived. Clines builds an interesting world that longs to be explored. We get just enough to start salivating, but he leaves us wanting more. Lots of potential.

so if you've got a few hours to burn, listen to these short stories. they're better than everything in the movie theaters and on the tube right now.

Get down in junkie town

It is four stories about post apocalyptic California. At some point each story intersects.I love the way the story unfolds. You get information from different points of view so you learn more in each story Very entertaining. It was short so I listened to it twice so I could pick up on more things. I enjoy Peter. Clines. The narration was very good too.I bought it on sale I thought it was fabulous.

I'm okay. The rest of the world? Not so much.

I love Clines Ex-Heroes and Ex-Patriot novels (both awesome reads/listens), and decided to give the Junkie Quatrain a listen.

I'm glad I did! This is an apocalypse novel that has all the right elements to keep me listening. Good concept and delivery. Characters in whom I want to invest. Descriptive settings and direction. Good action sequences. Solid writing. And my favorite - engaging. Once you've engaged a listener, and KEEP them engaged, you've won.

Most apocalypse novels far short on all these, but Clines did this in the Quatrain superbly. One of the simple but brilliant concepts was to have these stories connect, so we see difference perspectives on the shared event. That's thinking out of the box as a novelist. Simply put, this is good writing for the genre' and I highly recommend it.

This apocalypse is based on a virus that reduces the infected carrier to a muttering, sometimes screaming, violent and animalistic maniac. Scientifically more believable than reanimated flesh, I'd say. So, it adequately suspends dis-belief. Only the sane survive, but barely, as the world becomes one large sanitarium for the utterly mad and canniballistic. Hey, it could happen!

This is escapism at its purest level. No big lessons here. Just gold old-fashioned adventuring. At times we NEED an adventure, and Clines definitely delivers in the Junkie Quatrain, as well as his other works, to which I've re-listened, catching nuances I missed in earlier listens.

I have only one complaint - Why, oh why, can't this be a full length novel?

Clines, get busy, and give us more!

SOMETIMES YOU GET A BOUNCE

Four stories that are very interconnect and considered stand alone. All four stories are very good in this book. Two of the stories, if I had read as stand alone only, would not have been rated as high.

I like Zombie stories and this a twist on that theme, they are not Zombies. What I liked most about this group of stories was how the whole thing started and continued. This is my third Clines book and all three were very entertaining.

I loved Christian Rummel from the first hello and I am liking him even more with each listen.

Wow, like everyone said its good

Got it for $1.95 during a deal, if its still on, get it. At its regular price I'd still get it, now that I know how good it is.

As others have said, the stories cross paths, and because of that, it felt line a real book. So you feel like its a real book until the end when it, well, just ends when you thought it should go back to one of the other stories. Except they played music so you knew it wasn't coming.

I wish all books had both male and female narrators!

The zombies are more of the infected kind, not completely dumb and at least try to run.

Perked my interest in Peters other books, Ex-Heroes series which I have previously thought completely "no".

Awesome. I only wish this was longer.

Great story,great narration. I only wish this had been developed into a series. Peter CLines has done it again.

I listened to this quatrain in one day,i just couldn't put it down.

fun romp

What a cool short listen ... my only complaint is that I wanted more when it was done.

Not a bad zombie story.

A great set of stories that build up and link together. I would have like the stories to have a little more depth, there is definitely scope for longer stories or a second book.

Great but very short for 1 credit worth of book.

I really enjoyed these short stories, they had everything one might expect from a Peter Clines novela. And it builds a " just" post pandemic world that requires further material. But these short stories are just that... Short... And a 4hr audio book is not worth the single credit purchase considering most audio books are 14 to 18 hrs long.
Fans of 28 Days Later will enjoy this..

Great

Yes it’s short and I wish it were a full book but I really enjoyed it. It’s a different take on zombies… junkies…. And they are nothing like the shambling dead in the Walking Dead or Romero’s dead.

I enjoyed ‘14’ so I know the authors work and this wee gem just adds to his collection I have. Bought in the £3 Black Friday sale and worth every penny.