Venom Spear

Blades of Grass, Book 1

By: Austin Chambers

Narrated by: Sunny Patel

A massive natural disaster was all it took to drop America to her knees. Will she be ready for the coming wars?

Air Force Colonel Lou Caldwell was already in his own private hell. Living in the bottle since his son’s suicide, Lou is pressed into assignment by the nation’s leading general. His mission? Act as the joint chief’s quiet eyes and ears on the ground, assess the military’s true readiness, and find the pulse of America.

China and Russia square up for war, intent on claiming their role as the world’s foremost superpower. Mexican cartels align, emboldened by an evil and cunning horde that has claimed Seattle as its own. They begin making powerplays throughout the West. An attack in Denver kills dozens.

As if things aren’t bad enough, American infrastructure begins to fail. Rolling blackouts morph into days-long nightmares. The loss of Seattle’s tech-giants has had devastating effects on the internet. The world’s economies begin to tank. Governments become desperate. What will Lou find? Will America truly have a gun behind every blade of grass when she needs it most?

Find out in the action-packed opener to this Cascadia Fallen spin-off series!

©2022 Austin Chambers (P)2022 Austin Chambers

Wanted to love it...

Okay, I am not a critic at all, but the narrator made this a real struggle to listen to. The pronunciation and accent made me have to go back multiple times and re-listen to parts to try and grasp what was being said. It was frustrating to say the least. Not to mention going from saying Tucson correctly to then saying it like it is spelled. This is just one of many issues.

The story is great, solid even. But I will not be listening to anything else with this narrator. Nothing against him personally, just not my cup of tea.

Your mileage may vary.

Great story

Great book, but the narration was so freaking bad. Whoever thought a Indian-Brit would be a good choice to voice an almost entirely American cast. Not only that, I felt like he was speed reading it with no emotion. I could hardly keep up with what he was saying. Let alone allow my mind to set the scenes. If you can power through the terrible narration the book is worth it. And, the next will have way better readers.

Exciting and Intense

What an intense and exciting story. I was drawn in immediately by the characters and the drama surrounding them. The overall story and concept is excellent. If you have listened to or read Cascadia Fallen, you get a bigger picture of the total anarchy the U.S. falls into after the disaster, and the outside threats that she tries to protect herself from. The author does an excellent job paining a picture that you can follow and be immersed in. The narrator does a great job bring the characters to life. I really liked this story and would highly recommend it to others.

narrator

Great book but the narrator made me want to stop listening. I'm still debating on listening further.

I think im nit picking, I like the story. my issue is the narrator doesn't pronounced the names I of the cities correctly.

I think im nit picking, I like the story. my issue is the narrator doesn't pronounced the names I of the cities correctly.

Good story, tough narrator

I really liked the story & the characters that are being developed for this series.

New narrator is coming in book 2👍

The awful narration.

So... you write a book about the fall of the US and much of the story is first person interaction between American military personnel, then you hire a British guy to narrate that has a terrible American accent and is unable to Everly pronounce words in an American way. Why? Is there no American narrators that could have done this read? Just seems like someone in the process was completely tone deaf about the content or how to deliver it.

As a Navy man myself, I found much of the military jargon and talk was accurate, but this narrator destroyed pronunciations of literally everything. it was very distracting and hard to immerse myself in to the story with that. Very disappointing delivery on what is a good hypothetical story. Wish I could get my credit back...

Relatable to current world events

I enjoyed the humanity and visceral touches of this story. The demonstrations of loyalty and second chances is admirable.
I was frustrated by the narrator's mispronouncing so many words and city names. it is obvious there was a lack of prior coordination to ensure fluid narration. Great story, will recommend!

Great technical accuracy but terrible AI narrator.

Possibly the best story I have read regarding technical accuracy and detail regarding the military.

However, the narrator doesn't have the pronunciation or the speaking rhythm of the English language down right at all. Lots of lines end up sounding like questions

Worth the money, definitely.

Enjoyed story but hated narration

The narrator’s accent really distracted from the story. I couldn’t understand what word he was saying constantly.