Soap opera/hail motivational speakers

This began as a really promising hard sci-fi story. Then transitioned very briefly into spy thriller, before devolving into motivational speaker worship.

A character was introduced who "could see what no one else saw" in history and "wanted to set the historical record straight" if "only we had his words" then all would be good. I thought to myself, oh, standard hackneyed bad guy...but no, suddenly characters pop into being who have deep, profound universal truths they want to impart upon the world...and it all sounds like a Tony Robbins blurb on audible.

If you can't write sci-fi, don't masquerade trash lit as sci fi.

As for Ray Porter, Ray, you do a really, really good job...on adult males. When you get to children and women it's cringe inducing to listen to you and I find myself hating every minute of it. You're a damn good reader but you need to buckle down and do something about your child and female voices. This isn't the first book I've had this problem with your narration and I've seen zero progress over the years so if you read this, take this for what it is meant, namely constructive criticism and do something about it.

4 people found this helpful

It was ok

I can't say I enjoyed that much. The idea was interesting but it found it a little predictable and was too drawn out in a few areas. Overall 3 stars from me.

1 person found this helpful

Gave it to chapter 20

Just a ridiculous story, overall story meant this could have been brilliant, but his mum and dad being part of the plot, the lead sounding like a spoiled child.. awful

1 person found this helpful

Didn’t hang together at all

Having recently listened to the author’s Atlantis Plague series, and then the Winter World / Solar War audiobooks, this felt like a mild recycling of concepts from both (and I don’t just mean “The Birthright”.)
Basically a bunch of uninspired ideas, which don’t survive scrutiny.
Narration was fine - not great but not a distraction.

If you feel short-changed by this read / listen, then I recommend you try Blake Crouch’s books. They won’t disappoint…

Not the best

Ive listened to a lot of Riddle’s books and when I see a new one, get it because they’re generally good stories well told by the narrator.
The narrator in this book is great! The story and speed of growth into the story was SLOW and I felt there was a lot of padding and filler between actual story relevant incidents. Nothing particularly groundbreaking happening until 7 hours in. I’ve now got 3 hours left and I’m finding I zone out of the story entirely because there’s so much blah chat between moving the story forward. The narration actor is great .
I’ll finish it, I’m still a Riddle fan, but this isn’t the greatest.

Gripping narrative

Looking forward to reading/listening more about this story line! Quite interesting plot arc, so many possibilities!

Absolutely Brilliant

Absolutely brilliant, multi layered story, with twists and turns all the way. Keeps you guessing all the way. Another stonkingly great book by this great author.

Read by the amazing Ray Porter who can do no wrong when it comes to Audible books.

Fantastic!

I absolutely loved this! I'm sad the next one isn't ready to jump straight into, as I'm now completely hooked! The story itself has everything I grew up loving and being interested in (science, history, singing and psychology); what more could I want?! It was excellent, and the performance was equally as great. This audiobook might not be for everyone, but it was absolutely my kind of book, through and through!

Excellent

Mr Riddle does it again.
Great characters set in a really intriguing storyline! Quite technical..how does he find out about this stuff? (And i do mean the real science) Hurry up with book 2

Pretty good

Not perfect but a pretty good story and well written. Overall quite enjoyable. Hopefully further books will improve.