First Contact

Eclipsed Evolution: Phase 1

By: Kim Harrison

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

In the wake of the solar eclipse, a portal between our world and a paranormal realm opens—and a scientist’s life will never be the same, in this thrilling serialized adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollows.

Dr. Renee Caisson knows there are worse things than an attractive man in uniform drafting her into a secret government project—especially when Major Jackson makes it clear that he isn’t bothered by her questionable past. But when her labs come back with decidedly odd results, the Major is forced to come clean over who the government is actually studying. Renee is shocked to learn her subjects are demonic-looking beings who call themselves “Neighbors”—refugees from a dying world, who arrived during the nation-wide solar eclipse.

The Neighbors’ technology is unlike anything Renee’s ever encountered. At first, she dismisses an injury that inexplicably heals as “just one of those things”. And surely August, the most gregarious Neighbor, begins to speak English overnight because of the team linguist’s skills?

Not until August begins evolving in real time to withstand Earth’s brighter, dryer atmosphere does she admit that the Neighbors’ “tech” feels less like science and more like magic—the same magic that brought them here in the first place, and the same they’re trying to rekindle with a mysterious labyrinth in order to return home and save their world.

At least, that’s what August claims they came for…

©2024 Kim Harrison (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Great new story!

Narrator was a miss for me. She whisper talks and I had to have my volume up ridiculously high in order to understand what was being said most of the time. On top of that, most the characters sounded like they were 80 years old, I'm sure partly due to the whisper talking. Sometimes it got to the point of distracting enough that it took me out of the story. That said, I enjoyed this new concept from KH, it was interesting and I was hooked so it got frustrating when the narration took me out of the story. I'm looking forward to more from this series, though I may get the books if the audiobook is read by the same narrator.

Very inventive, hoping for a series

love the characters & can't wait for the next installment. I really hope this becomes a series.

sound quality meh

The sound quality is terrible. Story and narrator outstanding. As usual Kim and Xe delivered.

I loved this.

so great. best new story I've listened to in a while! can't wait for the next one. Kim Harrison is the best.

Loved it

I hope that this is the start of a great new series. Initially I read some reviews that really didn’t like it, I guess if you’re not a science geek, it may not be yourcup of tea but for me personally, it was fantastic, it’s a mix of Alien , science, and the introduction of where all of our fairy tales came from.
I can’t wait for the next book!

Addicting?

This is the first installment of the serial story and definitely worth listening to. I was initially a sceptic of what seemed to be a common first contact plot however the characters drew me in quickly. This concept is going to cost me some money. Can't wait for Part 2.

Interesting World Building

Enjoyed what was a first contact story. Lots of reviewers didn't like the narrator. I thought the narrator did an excellent job, especially when voicing August. It takes at least 5 to 10 minutes to adjust to a reader/narrator you have never listened to before. Looking forward to the next book.

Hard to listen to narration

Full disclosure, I'm not through the whole book yet, but I'm so aggravated by the narration I don't know if I'll finish it. The narrator's intense vocal fry for some characters and soft voice for others makes this very difficult to listen to in any but a quiet room. The soft speaking and vocal fry are both really, really distracting and ruining the story rather that buoying it. The change in volume from normal speaking voice to soft, quiet voice has me "rewinding" to re-listen occasionally.

I've read or listened to most of Kim Harrisons books. I'm a huge fan. So far, this story tracks with the quality of content she puts out.

story line was new.

at times the voice didn't seem to match the character or the dialog. still it was a good story.

great first contact story

Characters, plot, setting are all very interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, the audio quality isn't great, sometimes it was hard to understand or hear what was being said.