Turn

Humanity's Edge Trilogy, Book 1

By: Paul B Kohler

Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell

Clay Dobbs has an ideal life coupled with a remarkable job: Long-time sheriff of Carterville, and loyal husband of 19 years. Everything changes though when an egomaniacal military man storms in, barking orders for immediate evacuation.

Sheriff Clay is tasked with maintaining order in his utopian town, rounding up reluctant evacuees . . . and for killing the Crazed. His very moral fiber is challenged with every step of the way until they are all gone. In the end, will he make it out the same man he was before, or will he be Turned?

©2017 Paul B. Kohler (P)2018 Paul B. Kohler

New Take on Zombie-like Outbreak

First off, I loved Wayne Michell’s narration. Each voice was unique and rich and made the story come alive. I was captivated by his performance of the varied characters.

The plot: A small town sheriff scrambles to save his constituents when a meteor strikes his community and is followed by a mysterious illness. With a government group initiating a city-wide evacuation, he must try to protect his citizens’ rights while feeling ill himself and still trying to get innocent people out—all the while trying to keep safe from the unknown plague. His family and neighbors look to him for protection, and mostly obey when he sends them to safety, but when the odds are overwhelmingly against him, survival of anyone is far from certain.

I enjoyed the unique twist on the outbreak idea and won’t spoil it.

The dome meet zombies!

Great start to what I hope is a series that continues to be as good as book one!
The residence of a small town are all getting the flu, an asteroid hits the farm that employees much of the town. All is lost on the farm. The local sheriff thinks he has the flu too.... or does he. Everyone is told to evacuate and that the government will put a barrier around the town to ‘fumigate’ it so that all can return in 30 days.
Town flirt may be patient zero....
How will the sheriff and his rag tag group of hold out survivors make it once they escape the ‘dome’ that has kept them from leaving? Is the sheriffs wife and daughter alive? How far have the zombies spread? Is the world already lost? Book two will have some answers! (I hope)

Narration was excellent.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy at no charge by the author, publisher and or narrator.

Different type of zombie outbreak.

This was a very different type of zombie outbreak story. I came to like a few of the characters. And I am curious to see how their story continues in the second book of this series. I am hoping for more zombie action. The narrator did a good job. I received this for free for an honest review.

Enjoyable take on the outbreak.

Clay Dobbs is longtime sheriff of Carterville. He loves his town and his job. But his job is about to get so much worse when people start attacking others. He realises that he can't contain what is happening and decides to ring the bigger town over for help, but he is informed that help was already dispatched. How did they know? As soon as the military arrive they evacuate the town. The sheriff, along with some helpers, stay behind to round up more stragglers. They have 2 days to get everyone out before the military bomb the place. But things are never easy and the sheriff will have his work cut out for him!

The blurb doesn't give too much away about this so I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started it. But I'm glad to say that I actually thoroughly enjoyed it!! The plot isn't really focused on the Crazed, but more on the town and the people left behind. We do see some zombie action, but it's not a lot, and usually I want zombie action if it's a zombie book, but I enjoyed this because of the mystery surrounding the virus and how it came to be!!

The characters were all well written and I sorta liked them all, though I did find it hard to connect with some of them and that's why it's a 4 star read. I liked Clay enough but didn't connect with him fully, and I can't pinpoint why! Still though, I can't wait to see what happens next!!

In all, a thoroughly enjoyable outbreak book! I enjoyed the twists the author threw in and how the town was contained. I'm hoping book 2 comes to audio soon because I need it!!

Wayne Mitchell read it well and was clear and easy to listen to. I did find some of his voices were too similar to fully follow who was talking at times, but other than that, a solid performance.

I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

Not everybody can be a writter

Not everyone has a story to tell . This one was riddled with inconsistancies and just didjumbled thinking.

Dr A

A great narrator holds your interest.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes but only if they enjoy this genre............ it is not for everyone.

What other book might you compare Turn to and why?

N/A

What about Wayne Mitchell’s performance did you like?

He is the reason to listen to this book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

N/A

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Did not live up to expectations

The book was good, but not great. The main story is of people turning in to zombie like creatures, but not enough was done on this. Most of the book was about a group that started out with four that was emptying out a town that was being evacuated. The focus was on the Sheriff, his main deputy, a doctor and a military man. They meet a few characters on the way, but not many are likable. There was not enough zombies in this book. The four main characters spent most of the time running around an empty town that is surrounded by a energy field keeping the zombies out. Toward the end of the book, the zombies got in and made it more interesting. The group is in the process of getting out of the energy field when the book is ended, and it will be interesting to see what happens to them.

Interesting premise

I'll keep this as spoiler free as possible. Turn: book 1 in the Humanity's Edge trilogy started off with an interesting and promising premise. I love zombie stories and this book seemed to offered up a new take on the genre. There is a bit of a twist toward the end which kind of negated everything you thought you knew. Some may like this twist, some may not. It's not the twist I had a problem with, rather it was the characters. I can't honestly say I connected or liked any of them all that much. To go hand in hand with that, the character's reactions to the situation unfolding around them were completely unbelievable. Granted this is a word of fiction, but IMO none of the characters reacted in an even remotely believable way. Sure in most horror movies there are always a character or two that you'll find yourself yelling 'what the heck are you thinking??' at, but that was pretty much my reaction to every character in the book. I've read some of Paul Kohler's other work and enjoyed it, but as I stated earlier I just couldn't connect with these characters or their behavior. If I could I'd give the story 2.5 stars, but since I can't I'll round up to 3.

This is the first time I've heard Wayne Mitchell's work and I thought he delivered a fairly solid performance. He used a nice range of voices and his line deliver was clean. I'd definitely check out more of his work.

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an honest review.

Misguided.

The Turn; what to say about this work. The summary states a fresh perspective on the zombie thriller, but I’m leaning more towards a diluted perspective. The Crazed as they’re called do make several appearances, but they are brief and rather abrupt versus exciting or thrilling. The story instead is loosely centered on the mental stability of the sheriff, Clay Dobbs. There is much conversation and fretting among characters on how they will get themselves out of the mess they find themselves in. There are a couple other sub-plots, but to be honest the story is fairly simple. This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

Awful.

This audio book is absolutely awful. I am a HUGE zombie genre fan, and was very excited to listen to this book. To say I was extremely disappointed is an understatement. I stuck it out to the end - but definitely won't be listening to the other two audibles in the series. The plot was thin, dialogue painful to listen to, character development weak, and interactions between the characters bordered on juvenile. It's amazing to me that anyone could give this any more than 2 stars at the most (but for me it was 1 star). Don't waste your time with this.