Steel Fear: A Thriller

By: Brandon Webb, John David Mann

Narrated by: Aaron Radl

The moment Navy SEAL sniper Finn sets foot on the USS Abraham Lincolnto hitch a ride home from the Persian Gulf, it’s clear something is deeply wrong. Leadership is weak. Morale is low. And when crew members start disappearing one by one, what at first seems like a random string of suicides soon reveals something far more sinister: There’s a serial killer on board. Suspicion falls on Finn, the newcomer to the ship. After all, he’s being sent home in disgrace, recalled from the field under the dark cloud of a mission gone horribly wrong. He’s also a lone wolf, haunted by gaps in his memory and the elusive sense that something he missed may have contributed to civilian deaths on his last assignment. Finding the killer offers a chance at redemption . . . if he can stay alive long enough to prove it isn’t him.

©2021 Brandon Webb & John David Mann (P)2022 Brandon Webb & John David Mann

Terrible narration

Story was mildly entertaining but the narrator seemed out of sync with the text, mispronounced words and had a nasal voice that was hard to listen to.

Great story horrible narration

The narrator absolutely destroyed this book. Would have loved to give this book 5 stars and the story is certainly worth reading but the audio book is horrendous.

Good story not great presentation.

Narrator needs more experience? Too fast and too many mispronunciations. Story was not bad. Maybe too many characters for my taste.

Reader ruins story

Do NOT let this reader near an Audible microphone again! Mispronounced numerous common words; read faster than he could pronounce clearly in a lame attempt to build excitement; does not know dialog inflections. Story was reasonably good.

Needs a new narrator.

I've read this book and liked it. The character of Finn is interesting. However, the narration doesn't do the story justice. Aaron Rahl talks too fast, and is indiscriminate in emphasis. It's like he's reading the book, but has no feel of characters or the importance of events. He can't just read the words, he needs to have appreciation of what is happening, and how it effects the characters.

Narrator detracted from story

I had difficulty keeping up with the story because the narrator detracted. This is the first time I’ve heard a narrator so poorly prepared to read a story. I’m shocked someone didn’t hear all his mispronunciations, mis-timed sentences and too quickly paced reading. He didn’t follow the punctuation of the story, didn’t seem to know the words he was reading. There were too many mispronunciations to remember and recount here. It’s really unfortunate as I read this book in hard copy first and wanted to enjoy the audible version. My advice to the authors/producers of future books is to listen to the narrator reading before the whole book is completed and produced.

PAINFUL! This narration is beyond horrible.

Where was the author’s input on this narration? I’d think if you put your heart and soul in creation of a thriller story, you’d want the listener to enjoy it. And the director? Where was that person? Did the director even listen to one chapter and say STOP, you’re fired. I had to slow down the narration as this adderal driven performance was impossible to understand. The narrator has no idea what a common, period, paragraph, parentheses, exclamation mark or question mark means. Not to mention pronunciation. I had to stop the narration so many times just to count to 10 to get past the anger of this blatant ignorance. There was zero change in character voice for the characters. I’m sure the story would be interesting if it was read, but the point of audible is just that. To listen and enjoy. And I bought the series and notice this train wreck also narrates the 2nd story. Which I’m going to pass on. This series needs to be redone and purchasers should be allowed the new copy for free. What a colossal waste of money.