Audio Book Review: Alive

Alive

By:  Scott Sigler

Publish Date:  July 14, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 9 hrs 44 mins (Podcasted by Narrator at Author's site)
Narrated By:  Emma Galvin

Genre:  YA Fantasy/Sci Fi

Series:  1st in The Generations Trilogy series

Impression:  Children waking and making their own way in a strange world.

Synopsis:
A young woman awakes trapped in an enclosed space. She has no idea who she is or how she got there. With only her instincts to guide her, she escapes her own confinement—and finds she’s not alone. She frees the others in the room and leads them into a corridor filled with the remains of a war long past. The farther these survivors travel, the worse are the horrors they confront. And as they slowly come to understand what this prison is, they realize that the worst and strangest possibilities they could have imagined don’t even come close to the truth.

First Sentence:
A stabbing pain jolts me awake.

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles  /  Book Depository

Audible

Listen At:
Authors site (for free)


My Thoughts and Summary:
*I listened to this podcasted book for my own enjoyment.

They wake in clothes that are to small for them. They don't know their names, other than the name on their 'coffins'. They don't remember their parents or much of anything else from their past. Lost inside a building they don't know, full of death and secrets. They need to find food and water and to get out of here. What they learn far surpasses what they could have imagined and they will have to fight for their freedom.

I listened to this story in podcasted story form on the authors site. Scott shared, in episode form, the audiobook with us week by week. Emma Galvin is the voice of Em Savage. The panic in Em's voice at the beginning is vocalized wonderfully, rising and falling in volume and speed with Em's growing anxiety. There is a special voice that Emma does and she has a different sound to it, as it should. She makes different sounds to her voice for a few occasions, important pieces. Emma also has the personality of the characters as they become dominate in them through the book, growing from the time they wake unsure to the time they are who they are. I like this variation, and it fits with when we learn the truth of that voice. Well played by the narrator along with the story.

This story caught my attention for the moment it started with the coffin and how the kids are bound to it inside. The strange all around the place and holes in the kids memories. I looked forward to answers while anxious for the characters waking and breaking free. Something terrible happened here with what the characters find, yet they were lucky to be spared. But what happened?

Imagine, young children around the age of ten in a twenty year old body. Physically stronger with a child's thinking and naive views. This is trouble in the making with the hormones and easy tempers rising. They don't remember much, but believe today is their 12th birthday. Yet they are in bodies of 19-20 year old. They do have their instincts and personalities that peek through with each reaction and circumstance that they cross.

The kids express from the moment they escape their 'coffins' different beliefs in the way things should be done or handled. Yet they don't know much either. They are scared, hungry, thirsty, and lost. All they want are their parents or grown-ups to help them. But they aren't around. I feel bad for these young minds, having to go through all they are and alone to figure it out.

Em Savage. Em is our MC. She's not the strongest physically and doesn't know everything, but the way she is makes her a leader. She is determined from the moment she wakes. I do like her realizations. She knows a leader shouldn't hit people and it's okay to challenge the leader in a way that's talking. Her thinking is right.

Strange thing for me with this book. It's not high action but I'm still drawn to the story. It's about survival. These children work to survive either by finding a way out or finding what they need, food and water. Each holding a different skill set and knowledge. If I read the book, I might have been a bit bored at the beginning of the book, but then things start twisting, turning, and showing up. All the sudden there is a heavy episode, or few chapters, that hits you as you didn't expect all that. More and more mysteries to this place. I'm dying to know where they are, why, and what happened. Suspenseful in that token.

The things these youngsters go through, 'born' at age 12, ages them by years. They no longer feel as the young naive children they started as. And are seeing things in their own ways and growing to their own ways of doing things.

Such an adventure here. Now I'm curious what comes with where they are heading next in life.