Ouroboros Cycle (3 Book Series)

By: AK Alliss

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Anneliese Rennie, Curt Bonnem

From Book 1: How far would you go to save someone who was already dead?

Hannah Morgan is a content producer for internet sensation and millionaire playboy, Mathew Albrecht. When she discovers his possible ties to a global terrorist organisation, her investigation becomes more troubling the deeper she goes. Could her client’s involvement also be linked to the death of her husband years earlier or is it something more sinister?

Enlisting two ex-military guns for hire, a young hacker and her dead husband's AI, Hannah must confront the demons of her past to save the future.

Frame is a complex Cyberpunk thriller, set in a world poised on the brink of insanity.

Listen to other titles in the Ouroboros Cycle - Future's Orphans and Gravity's Truth

©2015 AK Alliss (P)2019 Spectrum Audiobooks

Not quite sure how I feel about it

First, let me say that these are incredibly well-crafted books, and I have a lot of respect for the author and their abilities. Each tale is very different in subject matter, subgenre, and cast of characters, yet the author did a great job with each one of them both individually and (slightly paradoxically) as a cohesive set. The narrators were also very well suited for each individual book and handled the material well each time (different narrators for each of the three books).

That being said, they're kind of dark and definitely dystopian; definitely not light reading. I honestly can't say I *enjoyed* them, even as my respect grew for the objective quality of each well-polished story. Overall, I'm glad that I listened to them, but I doubt I'll do so again.

Bottom line: if you enjoy witnessing a skilled writer with great mastery of their craft, and/or dystopian tales that are definitely not 'happily ever after' fluff, give these a try.

Ouroboros

The stories are well-paced and keeps the reader/listeners their complete attention. The authorhas created a world like no other. The narration is very good as well

Three unrelated books

Three independent stories. Personally, I read series because I like longer storylines. I was greatly disappointed with these books and lost interest when I realized that the books do not build on each other.

Interesting story, dry delivery.

I'm not sure whether it is due to the way this trilogy is written, or merely the delivery of the narrator's performance, but I found this collection so hard to listen to that I didn't complete it. I am an avid listener that consumes 3-7 books a week and this is I simply couldn't force myself to power through.

Ouroboros

Wow this is definitely a read that takes you to a different World. I love how the Author brings the story together with all 3 of the books. I could definitely imagine the scenes as I listened to this Audio. I did not want to put this read down. It had me on the edge of my seat. It is so intriquing and had lots of twists and turns. The Narrator done a Fantastic job with the Voices. I definitely recommend this listen. Plus its more than a 5 star listen.
Shauna Joesten

Ouroboros <3

I sorta have mixed feelings about these books. I started out really liking them. I love the concepts of these books. It was so interesting. But the more I listened, the worse it got for me. And I'm not really sure what happened. I know that by the end of the first book, I really didn't want to read anymore. But then I would force myself to get pasted that part and it would get good again for a little. And this happened to me a few times. So now I'm not sure how I feel about these books. But I am glad that I listened to them. I also really did like the author's writing style. She has an excellent vocabulary and such a descriptive style. I wish I could write like that.

This book was given to me at my request. (Thanx Audiobook Unleased). I am providing a voluntary and honest review.

Would be better as individual books.

One of the problems with bundle packages is that there may be a marked change in quality between books. That wasn't so much the case with this collection, but each book did have a different narrator and was a standalone tale. To me, this would make more sense as three individual books instead of a bundle package. That said, I found the stories to be kind of hard to follow. The books definitely need a solid line edit to address issues of word repetition and dangling clauses.

The narrators each did a good job.

I received a complimentary copy of this bundle.

Great listen but very dark.

Three full novels, three different setting... almost. The lime line is different...slightly. The city is sort of the same, but different part of the same area. What ties these stories together is the very bad ""AI" trying to takeover the world or perhaps worst. A war, what follows the war and what comes later. All bad... sort of. Confused don't be once you start listening to the series you will not have time to be confused as it drags you along at such a pace you just don't think. Thank goodness there is a short lull in the first 10 minutes of book two. Take a breath, it's last time the story slows. As I say the stories are dark,very dark not zombie dark more, like "big brother 1984 dark" . Strangely at the end. there is light, maybe...because the story goes on and after 27 hours non-stop I need a break. Let you know about light or if the tunnel ends when I dive in again. Narrators are all great and it does make sense if you sit down for two day and think about these three intriguing integrated tales

Loosely related stories, unsatisfying investment

Disclaimer: I was given a code for this series of books with the expectation that I would leave a review. I approach these reviews with no consideration of monetary investment. Light spoilers exist in this review explaining my reasoning for rating in the following body:

Story:
This "series" (explanation lower as to why I note is as a "series") of books follows the exploits of seemingly random people existing in the same universe as a company referred to as "Ouroboros", introduced in the first book as a seemingly antagonistic company conducting some kind of nefarious activities. The company, entity, or even the idea of what it Ouroboros is doesn't become unshrouded until the last few chapters of book number one, and is only a supporting character for the whole of the series. The actions of this group are vaguely described and their goal seems indeterminate for basically the whole series. The way that book one ends leads you to believe there would be some kind of continuance of the story in book two, but instead the narrative takes a sudden trajectory change, and all of the plot development goes out the window, as a new cast is introduced. After the rigamarole of learning a new cast in book two happens, once again, a sudden trajectory change and a whole new cast is introduced in book three. While I don't necessarily mind that this happens, I do mind that the development of the plot never really coalesced into anything meaningful. After the 18 hours or so of time with this universe, I never felt satisfied with the delivery of the story in that it does not really ever "pay off". There really isn't a satisfying conclusion to the antagonistic relationship with Ouroboros and you, the reader. That being said, there is a pronounced difference in writing style from the start of book one to the end of book three, and while I felt book one was especially challenging to finish, book three was written in a fashion that showed the author had found restraint and really matured in a way that made pacing much, much better.

Performance:
All things considered, the performance of the narrators was a mixed bag. Book one suffered from extremely grating and downright cartoonish character voices, to the point that every character felt like a giant caricature of what they were intended to be with the exception of the "main character". The male military characters all spoke like a bad rendition of some characters ripped out of the over-the-top Call of Duty franchise, the female character introduced in the second half of book one sounded like she would be better appreciated in the movie "Clueless" alongside Sharon Stone. it really detracted from the experience for me, and if I didn't care enough to work through it, I would have quit somewhere in there.

Book two and three really didn't suffer from the narration pitfalls, but I didn't like how each narrator had a different pronunciation of "Ouroboros", if books are being released as an anthology, the producer should maintain a few things between each book, one of those things should be proper expectations of how a major plot point or name should be pronounced.

it was a decent effort, but ultimately if I had never invested the time into it, I don't think I would have missed much.