The X-Files Origins: Devil's Advocate

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

How did Fox Mulder become a believer? How did Dana Scully become a skeptic? The X-Files Origins has the answers in this young adult origin story.

The X-Files Origins: Devil's Advocate explores the teen years of Dana Scully, the beloved character depicted in the cult-favorite TV show The X-Files. Her story is set in the spring of 1979, when serial murder, the occult, and government conspiracy were highlighted in the news. The book follows Scully as she experiences life-changing events that set her on the path to becoming an FBI agent.

©2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

love this book, the narration is putting me to zzz

Seriously what a bad narration to a good book. I was losing my patience with the narration.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

interesting story, bad voice

it was a great story to listen, however the voice was too weird. almost made me drop the book several times. she reads ALL sentences in a rising a falling curve. regardless of the meaning or story. dialogues are a bit better, but general descriptions are very painful. hope the narrator will grow for the next book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good story, tiresome narration

The narrator has an annoying repeating cadence and rythm, as if she only has one ways of delivering sentences, after a few pages you can predict how shes going to weigh each word and i dont get immersed as much as i did in the first book in this series.

Other than that, good stuff.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fun listen

I found it very entertaining and it was narrated very well! However, I did think the storyline was rather predictable.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Probably for X-Files fans only

As an X-Files fan I had high hopes for this book....however this was honestly a struggle to get through. First,the narrator has this sing song rhythmic way of saying each sentence that drove me to drop the book for a couple of weeks three separate times. Second, the book got bogged down in internal dialog a few times that really brought the pace to a halt - especially when Scully is experiencing her “vision” with Sunlight. There a LONG stretch of description of colors and shapes etc. I stopped halfway through and didn’t pick it up til the next day.
The story did pick up in the last third and was MUCH better from then on.

This may be the worst narration I've experienced.

I enjoyed the companion story Agent of Chaos so much, but I cannot even make it through this one due to the narration. I don't know what it is, but every single sentence feels like the wrong vocal inflection. It is so distracting that I keep losing track of what is happening to the story. I have given it two chances, and I have to give up. Too bad.

Dense & Dark Story

I feel like there's a lot going on in this novel with some very heavy and intense subjects, and I'm not sure I was fully satisfied with the payoff. As an X-phile, I definitely enjoyed all the passing references to the show, but it seems this book wants to be a lot of different things without ultimately settling on a fully-fleshed out identity. While a big point of the story is that we're seeing Scully as a teenager here, I felt there wasn't really enough of who she ultimately becomes. This didn't really feel like Scully. As far as the narration, it felt like she was trying to convince me of what she was saying, rather than just telling me the story, although I did enjoy certain characterizations. She did mispronounce some things ("lie-berry" for "library," for instance), which tended to pull me out. Overall, I preferred "Agent of Chaos," the young Mulder story of this series, but I'd be curious to see what Mr. Maberry's does with another Scully story, if it ends up happening, although this was pretty extreme; I'm not sure where they could go with this after the events of this book.

The Backstory Dana Scully Deserves (Spoilerish)

As a fan of the X-Files, I was always dissatisfied with the fact that Scully often had visions/conversations with the dead, angels, and demons, but they were merely brushed off as something that happened due to emotional stress or a case she was investigating. For me this was frustrating, particularly because these events involves conflicts of faith, family, and her own mortality. On top of that, I always felt like there was more to the choice of Scully for the X-Files than her being a skeptic and doctor.

Thankfully, Mayberry must have also felt these frustrations and finally dropped some of the walls on Dana Scully. Suddenly the often tense relationships between her and her family (and eventually Mulder); her skeptical fevor; and unwavering intensity teamed with a deep sadness and vulnerability have greater context and make perfect sense by the end of the story. These characteristics only further come to life with Glavin' always perfect narration. I was also pleased with how well Maberry was able to so perfectly capture the insecurities and emotional roller coaster of being a teenager and the relationship between two sisters.

If you are a fan of Scully and have felt like many of the Scully-centric, religious or "vision" episodes needed to be further explored, I think you will enjoy this book. It has also been deemed as canon for her character by Chris Carter himself, which is interesting. Be prepared for a sobering ending. It seems that even more than Mulder, Scully has been a pawn in a game controlled by nefarious forces.

LOVED IT!

loved it! Hard to stop listening to it! Can't wait to listen to the next one!

Scully

Overall, I didn't really enjoy the book. It seemed far fetched for Scully and didn't flow real well. I didn't really enjoy the narrator either.