Utopia Project: Everyone Must Die

By: Billy Dering

Narrated by: Bill Spadea

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

An apocalyptic event. A simple gift box from a military father. A stunning connection between and possibly the last hope for humanity.

After America’s controversial presidential election in 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, several decades of escalating civil crises have ensued. The governments of many countries have conspired to develop the ultimate solution for controlling the lives of their citizens. The new society, forged in the secret Utopia Project, provides for all of your needs without cost, promotes recreational group sex, raises offspring without parents, and offers a life without stress. When the project’s true purpose is revealed, a nightmare weapon turns the rest of the world into a mass grave of melted corpses. Inexplicably, not everyone died as planned. On the East Coast of America, Sara Hyland and boyfriend Kid Carlson somehow survive. Hunted by the merciless forces of the Utopia Project, a single thread of hope is discovered in a gift box, given to Sara by her military father the night of the destruction. But is it too late to save humanity from extinction?

©2021 Billy Dering (P)2021 Billy Dering

Great storyline

Great storyline! I think the performance was my only issue with this! Keeps you on the edge of your seat and wondering what is going to happen next.

Children's book?

Narrator has same tone of voice for everything. Odd points to pause at in sentences. Places emphasis on the wrong words. This misalignment of intonation ruins any sort of emotional engagement from the listener.

Characters are extremely simplistic. Their interactions are robotic and unrealistic. Antiquated gender roles.

Plot is transparent and extremely convenient for the protagonist. Very strong sense of dramatic irony, whether intentional or simply due to the transparency of the plot, this was the most redeeming feature. Interesting but very underdeveloped science fiction ideas that don't get very much attention.

Perhaps I misunderstood the intended audience as this is meant to be a children's book. In which case the generally out dated values displayed become the main thing holding it back.

an ok listen

It took almost the entire narration of the book for me to start to get used to get used to the narrator not using different voices for different characters it really threw me off

Utopia Project captures your attention and never lets it go!

If you are interested in an action story that is intriguing and captures your attention every step of the way, the Utopia Project is a book for you to listen to!

The narration of the book is superb, you get insight to certain characters and it’s almost as if you can see them on the big screen! They become very real and it helps tell a story even deeper than the words.

What I find very intriguing about this book is that in addition to the action, it affords you the opportunity to dig deep if you want to and impact your perspective on life in a positive way.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in getting lost in a story!

The performance might have killed the book for me.

Had a hard time getting over the pronunciation of certain words, words that it seemed the author used a lot.

for·ward
/ˈfôrwərd/

suc·ces·sion
/səkˈseSHən/
This one was particularly bad because it was pronounced as secession, a very different meaning.

fore·head
/ˈfôrˌhed,ˈfôrəd/

There was some stark contrasts in brightness in recordings from chapter to chapter. One would sound like it was done in a sound dampened studio and the next sounded like it was done in a tile kitchen.

Not sure I can finish

Between the predictable and childish dialogue and the narrators awful delivery of many of the characters voices (especially the female characters) I’m not sure I can finish. The plot could have been an interesting one, but it’s shallow and nauseating. I do not recommend this book.

Narrator was sloooowwww

I just couldn't get interested 8n this book at all. I tried, but one hour of the slow, almost forced narration was all I could stomach.