Alexandria Rising (An Action and Adventure Suspense Thriller)

The Alexandria Rising Chronicles, Book 1

By: Mark Wallace Maguire

Narrated by: Thomas Cassidy

Rand O'Neal, an ambition-less reporter, is given a single task upon the death of his grandfather: Destroy a mysterious map. What should be a simple errand thrusts Rand into a journey across three countries where he discovers humanity's biggest secret. The book is labelled an action adventure, but contains elements of science fiction, suspense, and mystery.

©2016 Mark Wallace Maguire (P)2020 Mark Wallace Maguire

Fast paced but plot needs some work

It was fast paced and fun. There’s not much depth to the story, the plot is predictable, and the characters are pretty simple, yet it does have a lot of action so there’s never a dull moment. Rand is an OK protagonist. He starts off pretty simple – an innocent guy tossed into deadly, greater things. His character does morph by the end of the story, and the quickness of the changes to his character were a little unbelievable.

The ladies are few and far between. They are mostly romantic interests. For a modern day thriller, I certainly expected more from the women. Alas, this was not the case and the limited use of the ladies made the story feel a bit dated.

The plot itself seems to toss in a lot. There’s bits and pieces of conspiracy theories pulled in including secret societies, lost knowledge, and some metaphysical lines that grant people and places extraordinary creativity. I would have enjoyed the story more if the plot had whittled some of these out and just focused on one or two inventive things. Over all, the story fell a little flat except for the fast paced action. 3/5 stars.

The Narration: Thomas Cassidy was fun to listen too. He made a great Rand, sounding both ticked off and naive at the same time. I also liked his forceful voice for the villain Kent. Cassidy did a variety of accents, most of which sounded good. His female voices could use a bit more femininity. For the most part, I liked the few special effects sounds. They were easily identifiable and didn’t drown out the narration. There were a few where I wondered why Cassidy decided to put that particular sound in (like this minor, quick reference to a man grunting in a toilet stall). The pacing was a little slow. There were no tech issues with the recording. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Mark Wallace Maguire. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Ok

I found this book to be an easy read.
But it didn't spark my imagination.
Nothing wrong with it ,

Wonderful

A wonderful piece of adventure and escapism in these dark times. Recommended to all. :)

Great beginning

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Mark Wallace Maguire. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

The beginning of Alexandria Rising intrigued me. Rand’s grandfather died and left him with everything including the task of destroying a map. It’s not as easy as it sounds. There are others who want the map, and Rand finds himself on the run. He does pretty well running, especially since he’s new at it and he’s obviously running from professionals.

Once Rand is caught, my interest waned. It was difficult for me to keep my mind on listening to the story. When Rand finally acts, it’s pretty far-fetched. He seems to be a completely different person from the uninspired drunk at the beginning of the story.

The narrator did a great job with timing and pacing and I liked the added sound effects here and there.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars.

Could not finish it...stopped listening with 2 hours to go...that bad

Started with some promise, but the plot flattened out. No suspense, not a thriller, just boring. One of the few books I regret purchasing