YA Novel - NOT in the same league as The Hunger Games or DaVinci Code

The hype of “The DaVinci Code, meets The Hunger Games, meets Left Behind”, had me really intrigued by this book (especially as I had read and enjoyed all 3 titles - along with the series of the relevant books).

Only ‘The Hunger Games’ was a YA series but, notwithstanding that it was pitched at a young audience, it was very maturely written.

Not so this book. There is nothing about it that would make you consider it in the same league as the others. It’s written from the viewpoint of a 17 year old boy (he’s definitely no older than 18), about to start college and is supposedly among the best of the best. But he’s still a kid. Can’t seem to follow instructions (orders) and is easily sidetracked by a pretty girl. In this case, Naomi, but most females really. He objectifies all women - so that’s off putting, but hey, he’s only 17 years old!

It took a tediously long time for anything (The ISA, the Order), to make any sense and then, when the action started, Elijah was mentally MIA!

I couldn’t warm to this book! I think that there’s a danger in classing a book with such hard hitters as The Left Behind series, which it’s trying to echo, but failing.

I’m not even remotely interested in progressing to book 2. (I see from a quick perusal, that I’m not alone)!

The narration by Joshua Bangle was really good.

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Good story, a little spoiled by bland delivery

When this trilogy first came out on Kindle I read it and enjoyed it very much. Sadly this audio version mostly lacks the building tension and excitement I experienced when reading it myself.

The performance is quite flat, lacking much in the way of emotion, and when it does build to a climax, the voice goes straight on to the next chapter without giving you time to let the climax be felt. This latter may be a fault of the producer rather than the reader.

Perhaps a larger flaw is the reader’s lack of flexibility in voices. He varies the older male characters quite well, but the younger characters can blur into each other, and the main female character is too little differentiated from the leading male character - and as these two are the prime drivers of the plot this can be a little confusing at times.

Despite this I am going to listen to the other two volumes in the trilogy, but I do wish there was a different reader.

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