Infection

Days of Extinction, Book 1

By: Justin Bell

Narrated by: Bobby Garrison

A broken father, fighting to see another day. A young girl, stranded and alone. Facing down the worst outbreak ever known, they must do whatever it takes to survive.

They promised a cure for cancer, but they delivered civilization's ultimate end. When the world's largest Pharmaceutical company inadvertently unleashes a deadly virus, it plunges society into darkness. Dan Porter must stare into that darkness and try to find the light. Separated from his family by thousands of miles, he must brave the treacherous landscape, doing whatever he can to live to see another day.

Abby lives on the streets, a teenage girl, consumed by hatred for the company who doomed her father to death. Together, they must overcome the worst humanity has to offer, their lives hanging in the balance.

Written by Justin Bell, one of the most prolific post-apocalyptic authors on Amazon, with nearly a hundred titles to his name. If you love books by Mike Kraus, Kyla Stone, TL Payne, Jack Hunt or Ryan Schow you'll LOVE Justin Bell!

©2024 Justin Bell (P)2024 Justin Bell

Well written

I hope everyone who listens to this audiobook enjoys this book as much as I do.

Narration

The narration is amazing! He keeps you intrigued the entire time. Will be listening to more by this narrator.

Strong Start, But Not What I Expected

~Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook copy of this book.~

This book starts off strong, with an intro that really sets the stakes: a storm threatening to release an infection on an unsuspecting population. What I didn't realize going in is that the first half of the book is more focused on the natural disaster than the outbreak itself. Since this is an introduction to the series, the story only covers up to day one of the outbreak.

The book introduces a bunch of characters with pretty complex backstories. Dan, who works in security, and Abby, a teenager, are the main ones, and they’re really well developed. You get a good sense of who they are, which makes the story more engaging.

The narration is solid—nothing particularly standout, but it does the job. If you’re into natural disaster stories and don’t mind a slower build-up as a series opener, this could be worth checking out. The book ends with a good setup for the sequel, which some might find intriguing. For me, though, it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so I probably won’t continue with the series.

“When a corporation started making the kind of money BioPharm was making, noble intentions or not, intentions often changed.” Pg 72

“The more food we grow, the less groceries we have to buy. The more rainwater we catch, the less other water we have to use and the less power we use to irrigate the gardens. Self-sustainability isn’t all about prepping or whatever, it’s about controlling your own fate. Not relying on the fragile systems to provide for you.” Pg 281

Good story marred by sloppy narration

This would make a good disaster movie, with engaging characters caught up in a terrible man-made catastrophe. I enjoyed the story enough that I will continue on to the next book, but I will get the ebook and read it for myself. The careless narration drove me nuts.

Narrators who take pride in their work will check the pronunciation of unfamiliar words. But time and again in this recording, words were maddeningly mispronounced. Ruptured was misread as "raptured," personnel as "personal," viscous as "vicious," humorless as "humorous" (completely negating the author's intent). Ichor was pronounced like "icker." Almost as distracting as all of the mispronunciations was the monotonous cadence and intonation. Almost every sentence was delivered in the same repetitive vocal pattern, with a downward inflection at the end of each line.

If I hadn't cared about the characters and their fate, I would have abandoned this audiobook before I'd endured an hour of it. But the story and the setting interested me enough that I will read on, to find out what happens. This narrator, however, is on my permanent No list.