Fiends

By: John Farris

Narrated by: Chet Williamson

In the frozen pit of blackest hell, Death sleeps. Ravishing beyond words, evil beyond our darkest dreams of Satan, Her eyelids flutter.

Rising from Her pit, She wakes her vampire brood - and frees them from their ancient graves.

No, no one is safe, no one - from the unwashed Children of Eve.

©2008 Penny Dreadful, LLC (P)2012 David Wilson

Unique

A 5* performance by the narrator. The consistency and differences in the characters voices made this such an easy listen. The story itself is very unique and keeps you wondering what will happen next.

What Are Fiends For?

Where does Fiends rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In terms of delivering a good horror story with a clear character-drive vibe, it delivers. It just doesn't do much more than advertised, though.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The folklore behind the fiends was really well laid out and used to full effect through the story. The jumping back and forth in the timeline, setting things up for the events in the latter half of the story I could have done without, but that's just personal preference, as I was totally into one storyline as it shifted into another.

What about Chet Williamson’s performance did you like?

Chet did a bang-up job, even with the female characters. Sometimes a male narrator's voice will come up short in a convincing delivery, but in this audiobook Chet kind of disappears into the story and I got swept up in the scenes.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Fiends before family.

Any additional comments?

This is the second time I've listened to a Crossroad Press audiobook, and I gotta say that their work into providing a quality product is commendable.

Icelandic terror comes to Tennessee!

If you could sum up Fiends in three words, what would they be?

Original, Exciting, Suspenseful!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Duane. The flawed quasi hero. The reformed nerd rises to the challenge!

Have you listened to any of Chet Williamson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't, but based on this one I wouldn't hesitate to listen to another.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The denouement in the barn had me holding my breath.

Any additional comments?

Great book, excellent narration.

A fun and well recorded classic

Chet Williamson makes listening to audiobooks an effortless and enjoyable time. He grabs me with his tone and doesn't lose me even in slower parts of a book. Being a writer himself, he knows how to read and narrate a tale. His voices for dialogue do not distract either.

FIENDS is a great classic horror tale (first published around 1990). Thank goodness for Crossroad Press for picking books like this and Ronald Kelly's classic but forgotten tales for their audiobook line.

This tale is perfect for listening on wintery or rainy nights and long drives. It is unique and yet familiar enough to let yourself get lost in it. I listened to a large part of it on my deck just staring at the trees while my mind was led away.

The book is recorded quite well. No distracting noises, perfect pauses. This was obviously engineered and edited with love and respect for the material. Extremely high quality.

Weak and slow pacing

A truly unique premise that had tons of potential left to hang by the author. The narrator has a good voice, but didn’t add anything to the story. I also felt his pacing was too slow for this story. Also, this author has some serious sexual frustration not needed to be let run free in this book. This from a lifelong horror fan and decades fan of gamelit harem fantasies.

Novel story and characters

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the story so it was time well spent. The concept was fresh and new - at least to me.

Would you be willing to try another book from John Farris? Why or why not?

Yes. His writing style is easy to listen to and the plot lines are well fleshed out.

Would you be willing to try another one of Chet Williamson’s performances?

I had some issues with Mr. Williamson's performances. One of the things that bothered me was the presence of gasping breaths. Whether to remove or reduce the breaths is a subject of much debate and I may be overly sensitive but I don't want to hear any loud breaths unless the story demands it, for example if someone is running. Learning better breathing skills or editing down the breaths would make for a much nicer listen. In addition, I would have liked to have heard more emotion in the narrator's voice. More stress, more terror, more joy, etc.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Probably. There was a lot of suspense in the book which would make for exciting viewing and the special effects required would be interesting to see.