The Culling

The Torch Keeper

By: Steven Dos Santos

Narrated by: Josh Hurley

Recruitment Day is here...if you fail, a loved one will die. For Lucian "Lucky" Spark, Recruitment Day means the Establishment, a totalitarian government, will force him to become one of five Recruits competing to join the ruthless Imposer task force. Each Recruit participates in increasingly difficult and violent military training for a chance to advance to the next level. Those who fail must choose an "Incentive" - a family member - to be brutally killed. If Lucky fails, he'll have to choose death for his only living relative: Cole, his four-year-old brother. Lucky will do everything he can to keep his brother alive, even if it means sacrificing the lives of other Recruits' loved ones. What Lucky isn't prepared for is his undeniable attraction to the handsome, rebellious Digory Tycho. While Lucky and Digory train together, their relationship grows. But daring to care for another Recruit in a world where love is used as the ultimate weapon is extremely dangerous. As Lucky soon learns, the consequences can be deadly...

©2013 Steven Dos Santos (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Excellent

This is a fantastic story. A little known gem. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Chaos. Love. Death. What more could you ask for?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but it completely sucked me into its world. I loved the way it was written and felt the narrator was perfect for this book! It gave me everything I wanted. A dystopian world. Twist and turns. Gay romance. Death. Lots of death. Like, I don’t think I was expecting so much brutal death. And finally, an ending leaving me wanting more. I am so excited that I already have the second book and get to explore this incredibly written and developed world even further!

Great story, Great Narration

This is a great story about the struggle of a young man to overcome the challenges of a brutal dictatorship. This sorry kept me in the edge of my seat as the author kept me guessing about what would come next. The narrator did a fantastic job of using different voices and even making sound effects. The story doesn't end as I expected which is how I like it. Oh, and the MC just happens to be gay but it isn't the focus of the story which is refreshing.

Excellent

Josh Hurley did an amazing job retelling this book for us to hear on Audible. The way he gave personality to every character was spot on. He really delivered on the emotional moments each character went through.

The story itself was rather good, actually better than good, it was great; it had a unique storyline that was fresh and engaging. Every chapter had you wanting more and The Culling gave you the action, love, lost, hope you needed all in one book. Highly recommend this and I just bought the sequel to it The Sowing, I’m excited to see what happens next.

Great buildup.

Story keeps you engaged. Once the climax approaches, the writing starts to get a tad annoying, but overall a good book.

love the narrator

love Josh Hurley as a narrator but the book was crap, not even a little bit believable and the main character is an weak moron everything he does is geared to make you hate him, he's so pitiful and useless towards the end I WANTED him to get killed he was so USELESS. for supposedly being an elite trained unit hes absolutely useless, and has the common sense of a turd, the cruelty of the government isn't even remotely believable everything they do is guaranteed to incite a rebellion...…...over all the story was unbelievable and annoying and horrible.

Unnecessarily violent and depressing

I am not sure what the author was trying to accomplish but this book is unnecessarily violent and gory. The underlying gay story line is lost in the horrid violence, gore, and psychological terror inflicted on the characters. I listened to about 30% of the book hoping the story would have some redeeming value beyond that violence but ended up giving up.