The Hatching

A Novel

By: Ezekiel Boone

Narrated by: George Newbern

An astonishingly inventive and terrifying debut novel about the emergence of an ancient species, dormant for over 1,000 years and now on the march.

Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India, earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government "accidentally" drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents begin to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, DC, laboratory. Something wants out.

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake.

©2016 Ezekiel Boone (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

great fun and not terribly traumatizing.

If you've read the blurb for the The Hatching you'll know that this an apocalyptic disaster story about carnivorous spiders invading the world. I'm terrified of spiders, but I really enjoyed this book. There are some pretty yucky scenes that made my flesh crawl, but overall this was just great fun and not terribly traumatizing.

There is a large cast of characters in various settings around the globe from China, India, South America to Scotland and the US. I thought it was great that Ezekiel Boone stayed away from the usual stereotypes. Instead, there are female scientists and soldiers, gay survivalists, and the president of the US is a woman. If I had read other reviews before starting this, I would have realized this is the first book in a series. As it was, I was a bit shocked by the ending. It just ended. Very abruptly. As this was pretty entertaining, though, I'm quite happy to wait for the next installment to discover the fate of the remaining characters. The Hatching reminded me a lot of classic horror/sci-fi stories. This would be awesome on the big screen. As the focus is firmly on the action, there is little in the way of character development or profound prose. But I think it delivers what it sets out to do. It's an entertaining action story that doesn't require any deep thoughts.

The narration was pretty good. Considering the sheer amount of characters and the varied nationalities George Newbern had to portray, he did a fine job. His Scottish accents weren't very convincing, but he was excellent portraying all the different female voices. Not one of them ended up sounding squeaky. There were no issues with the quality of the production.

I would recommend this to anybody who enjoys end-of-the-world disaster stories with a good range of likable characters.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Good Read

It can get a little slow at times. I found this book by chance. I am a big fan of apocalyptic end of the world books. I was getting really burned out of the same old zombie story. This book was a nice change of pace. The narrator is good, and I enjoyed the plot. As I said it can be a bit slow at times but overall a solid book and worth the credit.

So Much Worse Than Zombies…

What other book might you compare The Hatching to and why?

Invisible Spiders by Jason R. Davis.

Any additional comments?

What breeds in hours, has way too many legs, the social structure of an ant colony and the ferocity of a school of piranha? Something a lot scarier than zombies. This is an apocalyptic thriller that hits the right spots. There’s not a lot of gun play but the characters are three dimensional enough to keep you in the story mostly because they are so atypical— a female president that swears like a dock worker and is having an affair with her aide, a gay prepper couple, a female etymologist and her really emotional boyfriend… This is clearly the first in a series and it’s a great start.

B flick movie

Sounded exactly like a dumb Sci fy movie. But this one was split into two books. Would not read the second one.

Good performance, mediocre story

Interesting characters, good performance. Science seemingly not thought through.
I liked how the story jumped between several arcs, some more or less important. The short, one-paragraph arcs made the story believable and enjoyable, but the horror movieish pseudoscience annoyed me.

Great Characters, iffy science and poor ending

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

For the most part it was well-spent. I found myself liking the characters and their stories The ecology of the creatures may be plausible but I found it a little hard to swallow. And the ending was disappointing for me.

What was most disappointing about Ezekiel Boone’s story?

The end if you can call it that. It just stopped and left it open for sequel.

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

I have not listened to any of his other performances. I will say he did a fine job with this novel.

Could you see The Hatching being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes for Scyfy and with the cast of Sharknado.

Pretty standard monster movie/potboiler fare.

Overall I feel like this is one third of a better novel. Making this a series is a mistake. Ironically enough, I'm not that excited for a trilogy of "man vs the giant spider" novels. The idea...well, it doesn't have legs.
A fun couple hours that suffered from a lack of imagination and an over-abundance of self-importance. This story could be done better.

Scariest Book Ever

Don't fall asleep listening to this audio book. This story is new and imaginative. Very scary. Narrator is great.

Awesome

I really enjoyed this book enough to write 20 word about it for review purposes. You should pick this one.

So-so on the Scary Chart

I was in the mood for something scary. As if life, today, isn't scary enough!

The Hatching started off with great promise but I should have believed all the lookwarm reviews because the promise didn't last. Too many location changes, too many characters and not enough explanation about the spiders.

Oh yes, the spiders! Think of the little hairy aracnapods with all the personality and feeding habits of piranhas and you get the picture!

The story had potential but never lived up to it and the ending gave me the impression that the author didn't really know how to end it...or maybe he's planning a sequel? If so, I'll pass!