Good Story Poor Performance

Dr Bradley wrote a pretty good story about a post apocalyptic America but I have to say Mr Buck needs a lot of work to become a competent reader. His pacing is terrible with no pauses at natural breaks in the flow of the story. Periods seem to have no meaning to him as he keeps speaking right into the next sentence with no pause. The dialog is treated the same way. He speaks like he's speed reading. The characters voices need work as well. Some of the men are overdone and some are indistinguishable from one another. The female voices are terrible. Mr Buck has a good voice but he needs some more training and honing possibly with books that are straight narration instead of character driven. I'm giving the story 4 stars but dropping the overall score to 3 stars because of Mr Bucks amateurish performance. I'll continue with the series but I hope Dr. Bradley will give serious consideration to finding a better reader for the next audio version in his series.

30 people found this helpful

Don't waste your time or $.

What disappointed you about The Survivalist?

This book was horrible. With this genre my expectations aren't very high so a well thought out book with average writing usually makes for an entertaining listen. This, on the other hand, read like it was written by a 1950's teenager who was undersexed and had watched one too many westerns. As far as the performance......Well, the script he was reading must not have had any punctuation.

Has The Survivalist turned you off from other books in this genre?

Absolutely not.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He has never met a comma, period or question mark he cared for.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not that I found. Oh, wait, it finally ended. That was the book's best quality.

30 people found this helpful

First review

Any additional comments?

This is my first review, so dont flame too hard.
Once you get past the fact that the narrator sounds like a 1940s dick tracy radiodrama, there ends up being a good story. The dog is one of my favorite characters. Well worth the listen.

9 people found this helpful

Don't Pass this one up!

I read some of the reviews on this book before I purchased it and almost decided to pass on it because of the bad reviews on the narrator. However, I am a survivalist in training and I am interested in all literature on the subject. I noticed the narrator was changed for the rest of the books in this series, so I decided to endure the first book for consistency sake. I am sure glad I did. The narrator has difficulty at the beginning of the book, but only with the narration, certainly not with the dialogue. He just needs to learn when to pause appropriately , and he does fine further into the book. Jamie Buck, however, is a master at portraying the dialogue between the characters. In this respect, he is SUPERB! I am sorry to see him not being the narrator for the rest of the series. The novel is well written and story is very interesting and holds your attention. I only wish the book was longer, and I think they get longer in the series. I will definitely be reading, I mean listening to, them all.

2 people found this helpful

Goofy with an annoying performance

Would you recommend The Survivalist to your friends? Why or why not?

No...much better audiobooks out there.

How could the performance have been better?

Use a different narrator

Any additional comments?

The story has a good plot and could have been great with the right author and narrator. The guy speaking sounds like the book was narrated by a computer for the first half and the last half he tries harder but was still exceptionally awful in my opinion. The performer's inflection needs a lot of work I had to force myself to listen to it. The author made the characters say a lot of goofy stuff no one would say and a lot of things happen that are just to silly to believe. It's almost like the author read to many Dick Tracy stories or something and watched a lot of B movies. Others seem to like the book and its the reason I purchased it. I can only assume most haven't heard quality books. You can see from my library I've listened to a LOT of post apocalyptic books and this ranks near if not the bottom of my listening list. the first story was so bad I don't think I can risk trying another in the series. Very rare for me....

13 people found this helpful

I almost didn't do it, I'm glad I did!

What made the experience of listening to The Survivalist the most enjoyable?

Learning to not let solo opinions guide my decision to purchase a selection. The story is fantastic; the narration is not bad at all. I have listened to better, but this was not even close to the worst. I have returned several selections due to poor narration/production; this one will stay in my library!

GREAT story, great ideas and outstanding character development. Give it a chance, you will not be disappointed.

12 people found this helpful

Great listen can't wait to get book 2...

First half a bit "dry"....but then, look out!! Great story!! It gives me hope that there could be real people like Mason. The dog is also a great character! Kept making excuses to drive somewhere so I could listen to the story more as I listen to my books whilst driving...Already downloaded book 2!!

9 people found this helpful

Unique premise, great characters, excellent storyline

I love this series! This first book introduces us to a post-apocalyptic world after a super-virus has killed a large percentage of the world’s population. I really like the main character Mason, as well as his father Tanner. I enjoy the banter between Tanner and Sam, and I love the way Bowie, the dog, is incorporated into the story and treated like a main character. Jamie Buck does a good job narrating the story. I think his voice is a great match for both Mason and Tanner. He’s a little over-dramatic for me, but it is something I can easily look past and enjoy the book.

1 person found this helpful

Really Enjoyed this. Heading into next one in series

Really Enjoyed this. Heading into next one in series I felt these were true to life realm. I liked the topics and thought provoking nature

1 person found this helpful

Excellent story line; well developed characters

I really enjoyed the story line and the characters were well developed as each one helped build to the dramatic ending. Will be getting the rest of the series.

1 person found this helpful