The 12 Mile Course

The 12 Mile Series, Book 1

By: Wisteria D. Jones

Narrated by: Wayne Keller III

It’s a worldwide test that everyone’s agreed upon. Its main purpose? Thinning out the human herd. The population was growing too fast. Death by starvation was more common than murder or accident. Changes had to be made. An initial strategy to decrease the population was used, but the outcry against it was too massive to dismiss.

Thus, the 12-mile course was created. In present day society, children between the ages of 12 to 16 are chosen randomly and thrown into an environment designed to kill all but the strongest. Those that live through the 12 separate challenges get to rejoin society. Those that don’t...don’t.

The course boasts a 36 percent success rate of a child finishing it alive. Chris, a boy on the cusp of turning 16, has finally been chosen to enter the deadly test. He must make his way through the 12 unique zones of the course without perishing, in order to be released and become a productive member of society. Yet, if he passes, will Chris even want to go back to the society that throws their young into a viable death pit? Would you?

©2019 Wisteria D. Jones (P)2019 Wisteria D. Jones

Pretty Enjoyable and Good Take

The 12 Mile Course was a pretty cool story "in the vein of" The Hunger Games. I thought initially we'd be getting a Hunger Games type clone, but the ideas in it, particularly the format of the competition were pretty unique. For starters the whole contest was fostering more contestants working together, vs the environment/powers, rather than a someone more common concept of a fight to the death, as well as the staging and contestant randomness stage to stage, to the breaks between.

Initially I found the narration a bit out of place, until I realized that the narrator was performing for characters who were primarily very young. Once that was established I was able to get into the narration and tale and really enjoyed it.

Overall, definitely worth a peek if after something new but familiar.
I'd rate it 4.5 stars overall but can't do that here unfortunately.

GREAT story and great narrator

This is one of the kinds of stories I love to listen to!

A lot of action, great plot and complex characters (even for just brief moments).

Over all great story.

The only thing I’d say is that the narrator would sometimes make girls/ladies sound like men with stuffy noses.

Other than that, I’d definitely recommend this book to others to listen to!

YA Dystopian Sci-fi with a bit of LitRPG tossed in

When I first started listening I was reminded of The Long Walk by Stephen King. Then it morphed into something akin to The Hunger Games. Then it fell into its own pace and voice with a non video game LitRPG vibe. It was a pleasant surprise as I went into the listen with very little information about the book or the author.

The narrator wasn't doing it for me. I found something about the character voices to fall flat. Some narrators I could listen to reading a grocery list and sit at the edge of my seat wondering what the next thing I need to pick up is. This wasn't one of those narrators. This narrator distraction did disappear after a while during my 12 hour marathon listen day.

Conclusion:
Great story, lots of action and fast pacing. I am outside the genre demographic by about 2 decades but I still found the story interesting and intriguing. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in YA Dystopian / SciFI and look forward to checking out the authors other works.

I requested a free copy of the book for an honest review.

Different but good

I loved the story, the narrator came off a bit odd in beginning but quickly got used to his voice. There is a big plot twist that I did not expect at all. overall very enjoyable