The Harbinger

By: Bryan Patrick Wolfe

Narrated by: Michael Ahr

It starts as a whisper, barely audible.

Rumors. Paranoia. Conspiracy theories. Subterfuge.

Like lightning, the plague moves across the globe, spreading out in all directions and leaving few alive. But the end is only the beginning.

Discovered in the Alaskan permafrost, the ancient virus was reanimated and genetically altered. The new strain showed great promise in curing many of mankind's afflictions. When the specimen fell into the hands of the Russian theocracy, their inept scientists attempted to create a biological weapon - a weapon that outsmarted them. Now, the androvirus is a deadly airborne plague, conquering the world in a matter of days. With a communicability of 100% and a mortality rate of over 90%, there is no immunity. For the survivors, who can suppress the virus, there is only change. A few adapt, but most become walking, talking gray horrors with an appetite for flesh.

Primarily set in the American city of Memphis, four loosely-connected strangers, caught up in their lives, find their worlds annihilated by the swiftly-moving plague. Alex Connelly is a wealthy young executive, living an idyllic life with his pregnant wife, Madison. Kirk Foster is a self-absorbed aging gay man, desperate to hang onto his youth and sex appeal. Meredith Brinkley's ongoing war with breast cancer takes a turn for the worse, and she faces an impending double mastectomy. Logan King is a closeted baseball jock, playing for a minor league team while coming to terms with his true identity. And only together will they survive....

Includes Book 1: Pathogen, Book 2: The Curtain Falls, Book 3: Creepers, and Book 4: Numbers.

Please note: There are straight and gay characters and a few that exist somewhere in between. There are characters of different races and religious backgrounds. There are opinionated characters. There is profanity. There is intimacy and clipped love scenes, some being of the male-for-male variety. There are also guns and graphic violence.

©2016 Keegan Kennedy (P)2017 Keegan Kennedy

Enjoyable EOTWAWKI tale featuring LGBT characters

What made the experience of listening to The Harbinger the most enjoyable?

It was a very well written post apocalyptic story featuring a large ensemble cast including many LGBT main characters. The premise of a lab generated super-flu was realistically told, and the group of people that made up the prominent roles was very diverse and all of them were interesting. I liked the slow build up and the way each main figures personality was gradually fleshed out and revealed.The various side effects of the drugs was engrossing with the future potential for all kinds of good and bad super powers to be revealed. I am truly hoping that future installments will soon be available on audio.

What did you like best about this story?

That the "zombies"; weren't really zombies, the people were still alive, thinking, functioning base beings that somehow were even creepier than zombies. Also I really liked the any of the storylines with Kirk, Lauren and Aries, or Alex, Beulah and Amon the best.

What about Michael Ahr’s performance did you like?

I thought his performance was great, very nice distinction between each character and there were a lot!!!Being able to tell and distinguish between each person is a deal breaker for me. I will generally not finish a book were I am just being read to. Michael Ahr did a great job.

If you could take any character from The Harbinger out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Umm, no. I love an author who spins a tale that is vivid, descriptive and allows me to fall into the story and lose track of time. This book did that. I don't care about taking them to dinner. That is a dumb question.

Any additional comments?

I am very very hopeful that future installments will be available in audio soon.

Was ineresting,until

The "Brad Shapiro" part took me right out of the story. Unnecessary and petty. Had enjoyed it prior.

Caught Off Guard

Ok, I am a zombie book fan, I loved the zombie part of of the story, but I think that some of the sex part caught me off guard. and the way that black women are viewed in this book is not the complete black women. I hope that in future stories like this, the authors will not write as much negative things about black women.. In most zombie books that I have listen too there was not so much focus on sexuality. Yes, people had sex but that was not presented as equal part to the zombie story like this this one.
With that being said I did like the series.

Boooooooore

The dialog was written by a 4yo. I just couldn't get over it and quit a few hours in..

a lot of unnecessary sex , both straight and gay

the sex was unnecessary to the story and the characters development. the story was great and the building of the characters was fantastic but WHY SO MUCH SEX. The author literally makes it seem like all gay ppl do is think about sex , even in the apocalypse.