Brookhaven National Laboratory sprawls in the serene natural surroundings of Eastern Long Island, New York. Deep within a heavily guarded compound on the grounds of the Laboratory, a forbidding compound houses the nation’s most protected secret: An active alien Artifact. Estimated at several millions of years of age, impervious to all efforts of modern science to penetrate its secrets, the Artifact taunts researchers with bursts of mysterious radiation that may be efforts at communication. Now the two top researchers have conducted unauthorized experiments using new technology, and something has awakened inside, something as old as time, wielding incalculable power and an agenda that would spell doom for humanity. As horrifying mutations and destruction descends on Long Island, it is only a mere portend of the true horror yet to come. While America’s military struggles against an impossible power, only a 12-year-old crippled computer hacker and an aging police detective hold the key to the Artifact. But first they must overcome disbelieving authorities in a desperate race against time, with the very survival of humanity in the balance. — from Goodreads
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Audiobooks serve a single purpose for me and that is to make the commute to work go by a little easier. Normally when I’m browsing for an audiobook I look at the description and if it catches my eye, I will download it. My library has a small collection of audiobooks on hand, but I’ve come across some really good books. The Artifact by Patrick Astre was not one of these books.
For starters, Patrick Cullen, the narrator, was wrong for this audiobook. Not only was he too formal for the slew of cursing and obscenities that passed through the character’s mouths, but his tone of voice wasn’t right for this novel either. It’s hard to explain. The only way I can describe it is if Mr. Rogers decided to narrate Catcher in the Rye or any other book with a fervent use of curse words. Weird, right? The setting for the novel is mostly urban or rural. Listening to the narrator try to sound ethic was very distracting. It was very annoying to listen to.
Speaking of characters, this novel is void of any sort of character development. Normally with books like this there is a single character that the book focuses on. The Artifact didn’t follow along that line of thinking and I was confused be all over the place because there were too many characters introduced. Even then the writing wasn’t anything to go crazy over either, though I did enjoy Mr. Astre’s descriptions of the alien. The ending was probably one of the worst endings I’ve ever read. It made no sense whatsoever.
All in all I would recommend this novel only if you need something to fill time or if you enjoy science fiction novels. This book simply wasn’t my cup of tea!
Have you recently listened to an audiobook that you didn’t like? Tell me about it in th comments below.
Happy Reading,
Jayla
The narrator is such an important part of the audiobook experience. I’m listening to one right now where the narrator’s voice is driving me crazy. The only thing keeping me listening is the fact that I really really want to know what happens. It’s such a confusing thing to my mind. Stop…keep going… If I had time to read the book, I would stop and switch to the book, but then I’d probably still hear the voice in the head. All of this is to say that I understand what you went through.
I am glad that you understand where I am coming from! It makes me feel better, haha.