Chicago 1871

A Science Fiction Thriller

By: James E. Merl

Narrated by: Anthony LeRoy Lovato

While present-day firefighters John Kirk and his partner are inside a burning house trying to locate the fire, something goes terribly wrong.

The next morning, John awakes in a hospital surrounded by a group of men claiming to be the crew of Engine Company 8 and that they had rescued him from the porch of a burning house, the night before.

But their story goes much deeper than that. They insist that they are in Chicago, and the date is September 25, 1871.

©2018 James E. Merl (P)2020 James E. Merl

Recommended!

Great narration, easy to get lost in the story which is always the sign of a good audio book! Also learned a lot about firefighting!

Great story ruined by laugh track

I am a total sucker for alternate history/time travel novels, and this one's story did not disappoint. The audio, on the other hand, was bad. Really bad. I don't mean the narrator; he was excellent! He did a very good job differentiating the characters and conveying the meaning of the text. For example: Joe, a native Texan, says that for fuel they use "co". (There's not really a better way to describe the sound.) My native Texas ear immediately recognized this as "coal", and the narrator did a lovely job of bringing this exchange to life.

I mean that the "sound effects"—95% of which was a bad, bad laugh track—were truly the worst things I've ever heard throughout my 650+ audiobook library. To be honest, I've never encountered *anything* like this in any other audiobook.

An example: The narrator says "They all laughed." This is IMMEDIATELY followed, and sometimes interrupted, by the world's worst laugh track: a strange mashup of fake laughs all done in the author's various voices. As in, five different sounds of the same fake laugh played simultaneously. This happened dozens—if not hundreds—of times, and it completely threw me out of the otherwise tremendous story. I know what laughing sounds like; I do not need such a jarring reminder. I don't know who came up with this idea but, please, do not ever do it again.

Otherwise, the story is really, really interesting, and 1871 Chicago is a unique choice of time. It grapples with all of the paradoxes, effects, and implications of time travel far better than most books. The characters were well-crafted, though it was an odd choice for the author to focus so much on the height of the main character. The main character is a short man. The main character is 5'7". The main character is the shortest person in both squads. This has absolutely no relevance to the narrative, so it was bizarre to hear it mentioned so many times.

Note to the author: In Illinois in 1871, interracial marriage was illegal. It was a felony for all parties involved. (I also felt that the other race issues were forced into far too quick and tidy resolutions—there was hardly any overt hostility from any of the white characters—that don't truly reflect the extreme racial segregation and resentment of the time. But this is a side plot that doesn't have anything to do with the main story.)

My recommendation? Read the story. Don't listen to it.

Surprise twist near the end.

Loved it! Listening for a second time. The action started right away and got better and better. It has a beautifully romantic under plot.

Enjoyable story and great narration

I am not a Firefighter, nor a Chicagoan, but the author's description of both modern and historical Firefighting equipment & the city of Chicago made me feel like an expert. I was a little hesitant starting this book, based on genre, but I truly enjoyed it. It is not just a SciFi or a Historical book, it's a love story, a personal relationship story, A Human story. The voice actor did a great job creating accents for the characters that helped you know who was speaking and made following along easy.

Dynamic Reader, Fun Story

This is a fun story: sci-fi meets historical fiction. The cast of characters is well played by the narrator, who does a great job portraying their personalities. This in turn helped me to keep the characters straight so I could enjoy the story, which has been a miss on other audiobooks I have given up on in the past. This was a fun listen that went by quickly and offered a welcome diversion. I’ll be watching for the next.

Awesome book.

This book was excellent all the way around. i Highly recommend this to all you time travel buffs.

Riveting—I couldn’t stop listening!

Holy Cow what a great listen. The writing is fantastic—jamesE.Merl series a seriously good book: well written, historically accurate and with great storyline, character arcs and subtext. Chicago 1871 was compelling and I found myself making more time to work on my motorcycle just to hear the next acts of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed listening and found it interesting that, instead of chapters, this book was broken into scenes and acts—and this really added to the imagery and flow. The storyteller, Anthony LeRoy Lovato, delivered character voices which were so consistent I knew exactly who was talking. I don’t know how he’s able to make so many distinct voices and still be believable. Each voice was realistic and moved the story along with each character interaction, mood and emotion creating an irresistible listen. Most of all, it is his pacing that really glues everything together. Anthony an exceptional storyteller—I’m excited and anxious hear more from Mr. Merl and to listen to Mr. Lovato’s other current and future readings. Thank you, gentlemen, for this fabulous listening experience—one that is often missing in audio books.

Reader's Theater at it's Finest!

I'm going to begin by talking about this narrator. I've listened to a lot of audiobooks. Whether or not I will complete the book often has less to do with the story and more to do with the narrator. This narrator is so adept at creating different voices for the characters, that I knew immediately which character was talking. I was drawn into the story so completely that I felt it viscerally when it seemed as if John Kirk was lost in the fire. Mr. Lovato is gifted at bringing the cast of characters to life. There were a few sound effects that were so seamlessly added that I almost didn't notice except that it added dimension to the story. A previous reviewer mentioned a laugh track. I certainly didn't hear that. Maybe it was edited out.

The fantasy aspect wasn't so fantastical that the story was almost believable, which made it especially enjoyable. The history of the Great Fire of 1871and that entire week of increasing conflagration was riveting!

Great story! Fantastic narrator! Please more by both! Congratulations Mr Merl and Mr. Lovato!