storyonlystory's review
4.0
And the award for best book with worst cover art goes to ..!
Recommend to anyone who likes Peter Clines' 14 and The Fold.
Recommend to anyone who likes Peter Clines' 14 and The Fold.
daniy's review
5.0
1) I loved the audiobook, the narration, the tone, the atmosphere, the author does an amazing job with his voice to create ambience, it creeps on you, its so so good.
2)The story is so good, is creepy, its weird, and its just wonderfully done as an audiobook, it really reminds me of night vale horror but without seeing it as something normal, and ofc with a different sense of humor, but still, I enjoyed it so much. Also it has a really nice ending, that's so hard to do, but this book ends just perfectly splendid :).
3)I hate that this is the ONLY book by the author????????? ERIC LUKE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
2)The story is so good, is creepy, its weird, and its just wonderfully done as an audiobook, it really reminds me of night vale horror but without seeing it as something normal, and ofc with a different sense of humor, but still, I enjoyed it so much. Also it has a really nice ending, that's so hard to do, but this book ends just perfectly splendid :).
3)I hate that this is the ONLY book by the author????????? ERIC LUKE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
melaninny's review
4.0
I think I would give this audiobook 3.5 stars if I could, but I bumped it up because I think the quality you get for a self-published work deserves it.
Interference advertises itself as "a meta horror audiobook about an audiobook... that kills!" on Eric Luke's Twitter page. The writing is decent, the characters are decent, and the horror creature/monster was effectively mysterious, impossible, and somehow fallible. The narration is good, I'm a big fan, and the production is VERY good. The story is a bit self-referential in its self-published-audiobook-about-self-published-audiobooks-ness, but I think it's also self-aware enough to pull it off. Hank was the scariest part of the book for me, interesting in how suggestible he was, almost too real inside of his flaws. All of the characters were authentic and reacted in ways that I think real people would in their situations.
The story meanders a bit. I think it could have benefited from some editing down. I was expecting something more immersive going in, and that was a missed opportunity in some ways, but the story was solid enough to keep me invested. I would recommend it for fans of the horror genre for sure.
Interference advertises itself as "a meta horror audiobook about an audiobook... that kills!" on Eric Luke's Twitter page. The writing is decent, the characters are decent, and the horror creature/monster was effectively mysterious, impossible, and somehow fallible. The narration is good, I'm a big fan, and the production is VERY good. The story is a bit self-referential in its self-published-audiobook-about-self-published-audiobooks-ness, but I think it's also self-aware enough to pull it off. Hank was the scariest part of the book for me, interesting in how suggestible he was, almost too real inside of his flaws. All of the characters were authentic and reacted in ways that I think real people would in their situations.
The story meanders a bit. I think it could have benefited from some editing down. I was expecting something more immersive going in, and that was a missed opportunity in some ways, but the story was solid enough to keep me invested. I would recommend it for fans of the horror genre for sure.
mmichellemoore's review
3.0
Good concept, uneven execution and some strange pronunciation choices occasionally took me out of the story, but overall an entertaining book.
slapshottechnology's review
3.0
Ok story. Definitely could feel who he was inspired by at times. Really liked the early part of this novel as the town focused on performing the War of the Worlds.
samferree's review
5.0
Though there are parts of the book I find problematic, I still believe it deserves five stars.
I'm a loser for authors who play to the medium, mangling and throwing it against the wall like a child with clay when the teacher isn't looking. Even though I despise postmodernism, there's something about blurring the line and taking a peak through the crack in the fourth wall that amuses me. As long as it's not pretentious.
Mr. Luke has written a fantastic piece of audio horror fiction. Tangentially, it's a tribute to the great HG Wells' "War of the Worlds," and more so Orson Welles' radio play of the same name. Primarily, Luke plays with the medium of the podcast, and connects it expertly with that thing that all horror fans fall for - the unnameable, mysterious, wholly malevolent Beast.
The book, essentially, follows four characters: Jim, Hank, Vivian, and Ethan. Jim is a boy living in rural California in 1939, consumed by and battling his fear of an unknown dread after listening to the original radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds." Hank is a reclusive sword and sorcery fan, and a giant. Vivian is a single mother and owner of a antique store. Ethan is a heartbroken, freelance sound technician. The latter three become addicted to podcasts, particularly a series by an Anonymous that seems to be tailored specifically to their lives and deepest desires.
The fourth wall breaks pretty early on, and that's where the story really gets going. Listen to it, and be unsettled.
My only major grief with the story is the first half of the 24th episode, but that would be a spoiler and so I won't. Listen to it and decide for yourself if it's problematic. And donate to the guy, because he gave you his novel for free and it's pretty damn good.
I'm a loser for authors who play to the medium, mangling and throwing it against the wall like a child with clay when the teacher isn't looking. Even though I despise postmodernism, there's something about blurring the line and taking a peak through the crack in the fourth wall that amuses me. As long as it's not pretentious.
Mr. Luke has written a fantastic piece of audio horror fiction. Tangentially, it's a tribute to the great HG Wells' "War of the Worlds," and more so Orson Welles' radio play of the same name. Primarily, Luke plays with the medium of the podcast, and connects it expertly with that thing that all horror fans fall for - the unnameable, mysterious, wholly malevolent Beast.
The book, essentially, follows four characters: Jim, Hank, Vivian, and Ethan. Jim is a boy living in rural California in 1939, consumed by and battling his fear of an unknown dread after listening to the original radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds." Hank is a reclusive sword and sorcery fan, and a giant. Vivian is a single mother and owner of a antique store. Ethan is a heartbroken, freelance sound technician. The latter three become addicted to podcasts, particularly a series by an Anonymous that seems to be tailored specifically to their lives and deepest desires.
The fourth wall breaks pretty early on, and that's where the story really gets going. Listen to it, and be unsettled.
My only major grief with the story is the first half of the 24th episode, but that would be a spoiler and so I won't. Listen to it and decide for yourself if it's problematic. And donate to the guy, because he gave you his novel for free and it's pretty damn good.
maleficentknits's review
4.0
What if the audiobook/podcast that you're listening to is about you? Right now. Weird, huh? What if the War of the Worlds wasn't just some great scifi story/radio drama but tied to a REAL alien invasion? Three people trying to escape by listening to podcasted stories that they realize are suddenly not fictional fripperies but are manipulating their lives for something more. The greater evil.
It has a few bumps along the way but overall I found I didn't want to stop listening to the story. Fun ride without the missiles from Mars.
It has a few bumps along the way but overall I found I didn't want to stop listening to the story. Fun ride without the missiles from Mars.
wentworthian's review
3.0
Not bad. Not great, but not bad. I got the podcast/audiobook version of this, read by the author, because I was looking for some good scary stories to listen to over Halloween. I wonder how the experience of it might have differed had I picked up the ebook instead. Just as far as the recording itself (not the story or writing quality) goes: it was okay, erring towards good. More good than bad, really, but suffering under the pitfalls of a, perhaps, too exuberant narrator. The author/narrator does this thing with his voice where it gets needlessly gravelly and gruff to signify something Dramatic or Portentous is happening--and this can carry on for 10, 15, 20 minutes at a time. Entire scenes rendered in a watery approximation of the infamous Bale Batman voice. When he spoke more naturally, without trying to hype up the drama or add in unnecessary dramatic pauses~, the story flowed easily and was much more enjoyable to listen to. I don't mind some drama in a podcast, and it fits sometimes for dialogue or first person narration; but it just was used too liberally here. Maybe that's just the narrator's voice--but I've heard him narrate other stories on other podcasts, without the dramatic reverb, so.
The writing and story itself were--decent. The idea was interesting: multiple disparate characters receive seemingly tailor-made podcasts that then begin giving them instructions, narrating their lives, in order to achieve some unknown goal. The first part of the book interweaves these narratives with flashbacks to the 30s, and a little boy who's life was irrevocably altered after the famous War of the Worlds radio show. Right up until the grand reveal of what happened in Centerville, I was hooked. The story played out like a mystery thriller, laying down clues and wrong turns and potential (and eventually, inevitable) terrible consequences. It had some issues--the beginning was too coy and winking at the reader/listener, there was too much 4th-wall breaking about podcast usage, and it seemed awkwardly self-congratulatory whenever it would talk about how well written or interesting a podcast, i.e. it itself, was--but overall the story was good and progressed, if not quickly, at least with sufficient forward momentum. It was not scary, except for the sudden bursts of audio interference (admittedly, this is #1 on my list of creepy sounds), but did convey a growing sense of dread as the story moved forward. You kept listening because there was something big coming, and the story made you want to know what it was. So that's good.
After the big reveal, that, however, it sort of drifted. I think the real failing of the book, more than anything else, is pacing. Or maybe just a case of mistaken identity--this was a spooky thriller through and through, but seemed to remember it was supposed to be a horror story about 2/3 of the way in and scrambled to fill in the blanks with a lot of violence and mythology and gore. I sort of drifted off the last 2 hours of the podcast, eventually deleting the final chapter, just because I couldn't really keep track of what was going on, who was who or doing what, if people had died, and what even the point of anything happening was anymore. Had the story been shorter, resolved itself in about a third of the time after the big reveal, I think it really would have been stellar. The book doesn't suffer the usual telltale signs of an ebook lacking a proper editor, but it could have used a lot of tightening on the back half. There were honestly too many characters, and what were meant to be meaningful and significant late-in-the-game introductions just became confusing as more perspectives besides the initial five were introduced, only to drop off shortly thereafter. There was just too much happening, particularly in the last third, when everything that ought to have come together harmoniously sounded more like a bunch of forks being thrown at a wall. Again, it's not a bad book; it just could have been better. Maybe it would be different had I read it instead of listened, though I would have then missed out on the audio cues, so who knows.
Either way, I'll probably pick up short stories by this author! He seems more suited to the short form, where he can rein in a tendency to sprawl. Hopefully his next offering is a little more cohesive and quick.
The writing and story itself were--decent. The idea was interesting: multiple disparate characters receive seemingly tailor-made podcasts that then begin giving them instructions, narrating their lives, in order to achieve some unknown goal. The first part of the book interweaves these narratives with flashbacks to the 30s, and a little boy who's life was irrevocably altered after the famous War of the Worlds radio show. Right up until the grand reveal of what happened in Centerville, I was hooked. The story played out like a mystery thriller, laying down clues and wrong turns and potential (and eventually, inevitable) terrible consequences. It had some issues--the beginning was too coy and winking at the reader/listener, there was too much 4th-wall breaking about podcast usage, and it seemed awkwardly self-congratulatory whenever it would talk about how well written or interesting a podcast, i.e. it itself, was--but overall the story was good and progressed, if not quickly, at least with sufficient forward momentum. It was not scary, except for the sudden bursts of audio interference (admittedly, this is #1 on my list of creepy sounds), but did convey a growing sense of dread as the story moved forward. You kept listening because there was something big coming, and the story made you want to know what it was. So that's good.
After the big reveal, that
Spoiler
the evil creature was some kind of demon, using radio/podcasts to cast a spell to summon itselfEither way, I'll probably pick up short stories by this author! He seems more suited to the short form, where he can rein in a tendency to sprawl. Hopefully his next offering is a little more cohesive and quick.
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