A change of direction but a gripping story.

Despite being in my 60s, I am a great Artemis Fowl (AF) fan and, since Eoin Colfer was not going to write any more stories in that series, I was very interested to see how this new book developed. WARP is a very different type of story from AF (no elves, goblins etc), yet still has the flights of fancy, and attention to detail, that made those books so enjoyable.

A time wormhole enables the FBI, through the use of a key set to a particular historical date, to provide the ultimate safe house for witnesses who might otherwise be assassinated before they could give evidence. A young FBI cadet is forced, by circumstances, to pass through the wormhole to the Victorian period, where she meets a young lad who is an orphan being trained up by a stage magician who also happens to be a thoroughly unpleasant, ruthless, professional assassin. The two form an unlikely partnership as they go on the run from the assassin, who is determined to get the time key and travel to the future and back, enabling him to take advantage of future developements centuries before they should occur. An FBI witness who has been marooned in the past and who has been exploiting his own knowledge to attain wealth and status in the Victorian era, also threatens the young pair.

I listened to the whole book over a weekend, whilst gardening, and throughly enjoyed it. The good news is that the ending was constructed in such a way that there could be more stories.Maxwell Caulfied did a superb job of bringing the characters to life and added enormously to my enjoyment of the book. I hope he will be kept as the reader for future books. I thoroughly recommend WARP as an entertaining read.

10 people found this helpful

A fun packed, fast pace read.

My first read of the Artemis Fowl genre and what fun it was. It might be primarily aimed at a younger generation, I'm a 50 year old sci-fi / mystery reader at heart, but listening to the book on my daily commute seemed to halve the journey. A simple plot once you understand the flipping between the 19th and 21st Century's, and well read by Mr Caulfield. That was an understatement, splendidly narrated by Mr Caulfield.

Bring on Book 2 please.

5 people found this helpful

That was a surprise ...

Any additional comments?

I bought this really by mistake not realising that it was aimed at teens ... I nearly returned it but thought I'd give it a go. Blood guts and gore, what a surprise, if they made this into a film I would have thought it would have be an 18 certificate. From start to finish it had me hooked, great story, characters and narrated brilliantly.
So this big 54 year old kid has just bought book 2 !!
Put your headphones on, turn off the lights and give it a go.

2 people found this helpful

A title you can't hide from.

A good story, well read. The supervillian in this is such a great character and strangely believable. You know Eoin writes well but what I would like to add is that this is a totally original story with original characters. The sequel I so look forward to can't make the same boast, but I don't care, I'm hooked now.

The reader is like a vocal contortionist. The ranges and differences for each character are startling - to go from one to another so fluidly- just amazing. I'm going to start looking for other books read by this guy, and I've never searched for a book in that way before! He must have learned the book to perform it so well.

2 people found this helpful

Good story. Shame about narrator

I tried to see it through as it’s a good idea for a story. Although the narrator is ok on most of the dialogue - sometimes the accents get confused. Is he spoke Scottish when it should have been American or talked as a player when it should have been his story telling voice. The main narration telling the story is too irritating And his ‘cockney’ drops in and out. It is a good story though.

1 person found this helpful

Would listen again

What was one of the most memorable moments of W. A. R. P. The Reluctant Assassin?

The discription of the of Riley's master was brilliant and had me disliking him from the start. The foulness of Victorian London was projected well.

What does Maxwell Caulfield bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Maxwell Caufield made Riley's master completely horrid and evil

1 person found this helpful

Colfer does it again!

Having read most of Mr colfers offerings I was not disappointed with this amazing adventure!
I like the way he has tied in characters from his other swashbuckling title The airman of which I also strongly recommend.

1 person found this helpful

great book but not the reader.

narrator very intermittent leaving unfinished sentences with pauses too long.Book story line much better though.

Great story and good story telling

Love Colfer's Artemis Fowl and this is just as gripping. I was super happy to find out that there are two more books in the series! Read well with lots of fun voices.

Great story

I found this book when searching for Artemis fowl and decided to give it a try - very glad I did, and am now about to start the 3rd in the series. An interesting slow paced narration style - works quite well as you don’t miss any of the plot. Only issue is Chevie’s accent reminds me of Donald Trump!