The Peregrine Omnibus, Volume One

By: Barry Reese

Narrated by: Pete Milan

Length: 31 hrs

Publisher's summary

Adventure has a new name!

Award-winning genre fiction author Barry Reese, known for creating such fantastic characters as Lazarus Gray and Gravedigger, revitalizes one of his greatest creations for fans old and new! Max Davies lives on as The Peregrine!

An adventurer. A man of mystery. A hero. Max Davies, newly moved to Atlanta, Georgia, finds himself unable to avoid danger, intrigue, and death. Donning the mask of The Peregrine, Davies seeks to bring justice to a world dying for it and peace to his own troubled spirit. And the only price he may have to pay is his soul.

The Peregrine Omnibus, Volume One brings the first three book-length volumes of this classic new pulp hero's adventures together into one massive two-fisted collection. Fly again for the first time with Barry Reese's The Peregrine!

©2015 Barry Reese (P)2016 RadioArchives.com

superheroes that are super good

The setting is just before World War II.  Europe is on the brink of war and evil seems have infiltrated the Earth.  Max Davies as The Peregrine is a reluctant superhero, created when he witnessed his father’s brutal murder as a child.  He’s brilliant, an expert fighter and receives premonitions from his dead father, but he’s pretty lonely too.  Enter the beautiful and brave young actress from Atlanta to fill this void.  Together they can take on the world.

The Peregrine Omnibus is a large collection (31 hours) of short story adventures about the Peregrine, his lover, friends and the many incredibly evil men intent on destroying the world.  The stories flow forward, building on the ones before, each a chapter in the Peregrine’s adventures.  The theme of each story/adventure is pretty consistent, an evil man or team of evil men find a magic artifact and want to use it to open up the gates of Hell, raise a monster from the dead, or control the world.  Max uses his fighting skills, guns, magic knife and visions to thwart them.

The Peregrine is comic book action in short story/novel form.  It is fun and entertaining.  The story plots tend to repeat themselves, but there is enough variety to keep the listener going.  The villains are pure evil and the heroes virtuous.  The gadgets are impossibly good (a silent car, a jet in 1937, a knife that kills any demon, a gun that doesn’t run out of bullets), but are necessary to equalize the impossibly strong foes. Some of the names are cringe-worthy (The Black Bat, Satan, the Iron Maiden), but work with the comic book atmosphere.

Pete Milan performs the audiobook.  He has a wonderful voice and is perfect for the stories.  At first he seems to be a little too dramatic, pausing and announcing “The Peregrine” with added importance whenever Max Davies takes on his alter ego, but seems to ease into it later on.  It fits with the comic book reality he is creating.  Mr. Milan has an exceptional voice that is a pleasure to listen to.

If you enjoy comic book novels, villains that are super evil, and superheroes that are super good, you should give this a listen.  It would be a good choice for young adults too.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Pulp Goodness

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If they're into pulp/noir stories, than absolutely. It's 30 + hours of gripping tales from a universe that is both new to many listeners but at the same time familiar.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Very much. Since I listen in the car, I would catch myself staying in the car a bit longer after I've arrived at my destination just to finish the chapter or the entire story.

What about Pete Milan’s performance did you like?

You can tell that Milan enjoys this type of story. Despite the amazing number of characters and accents involved in this omnibus, Pete manages to make every one of them a unique one, and he pulls off the Max/Peregrine voice switch on a level with Kevin Conroy's switch between Bruce Wayne and the Batman.Fantastic work, especially considering just how much material there is!

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

"When good is swallowed by the dark, there the Peregrine shall leave his mark"

Any additional comments?

While the book is mostly PG-13, there are a few sequences that tread perilously close to that R rating. Primarily gore and sexual violence, so be warned. Also, the end of the book contains a timeline of the entire "universe" that contains spoilers for later stories in the series.