One Word Kill cover art

One Word Kill

Impossible Times, Book 1

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One Word Kill

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Matthew Frow
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About this listen

A Goodreads Choice Award finalist.

“I enjoyed the hell out of One Word Kill. Mark is an excellent writer.” - George R.R. Martin

In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange - yet curiously familiar - man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help - now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

Ready Player One meets Stranger Things in this new novel by bestselling author Mark Lawrence.

©2019 by Mark Lawrence. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Adventure Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Romance Law

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All stars
Most relevant  
I didn't know what to expect going into this. I've read and listened to Mark's fantasy trilogies and loved them, so had to try this out.

Well written and clever as ever, intriguing and surprising, poignant and full of feeling. Tense at times and punchy action sequences that weren't over the top.

Spoiler of sorts:


I'm not a fan of time travel, so struggled with that (main) element, despite how well it was tackled and delivered. D&D sections were great and the characters entertaining. Overall, I'm intrigued to find out what comes next. Narration was good.

Kept me guessing throughout

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But really really good never the less.
I find Mark’s characters truly engaging and there are some intensely emotional moments. This is Mark Lawrence at his best : building flawed characters that you get invested in and a story line that grips you. In this instance I found it difficult to get going but once I was in the flow the story was superb.

Not the Mark Lawrence we’re used to

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Thoroughly enjoyed this story. I'm looking forward to listening to the other books in the series.

Excellent!

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Loved this book. The characterisation of all the kids is very well done - the story took a twist I was not expecting at the beginning. Look forward to the rest of the series. Great narrator. I found 1.35x speed best.

Amazing story and narration

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Decent story. Good enough to want to read the second book.
My only genuine critique is the performer. His voice is clear and pleasant but doesn't really fit the feel to the story.
It sounds too much like he's reading for a young audience. Which I don't think this book is for, since it has a few adult themes included. I'd say it's for 12 and up.

Good story,

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Unusual and interesting story. Perhaps needs a bit more excitement, but worth reading. Well performed.

Completely Different

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I bought this after liking another book of Mark Lawrence's. Thankfully the one word kill series did not dissapointed either. Well written, great use of time travel mechanics and the butterfly effect etc. Lots of twists and turns and not easy to "guess" the plot. Give mark a try.

Well worth the read /listen

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This is a great book, I wasn't sure to start with but then got cought up in the story. There are sad parts and funny parts and parts that really make you think.

A must read

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was ok
not great, not terrible. villan was weak.
three stars seems fair to me.

ok

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80s nostalgia, time travel, nerd meets girl, Dungeons and Dragons - I am Nick Harris, I was Nick Harris, I can't do the time travel, unfortunately. Most importantly as you can guess I am most definitely squarely in the centre of the target market that Mark Lawrence was aiming at with this story!

This took me back to those long sessions of rolling dice, great feats of imagined heroism and most fantastic fellowship with old friends who while definitely not forgotten, long or otherwise, are too distant and far too seldom seen. I even just got out my old dice and rolled them a few times to mark the occasion of finishing this book. Sad I know, but true.

It's a cracking little story, I can see why they have likened it to Ready Player One though this is more an adventure involving a time traveller than a time travel story or quite such a zany adventure as Cline's smash hit. It is, however, a story that delivers on its quite excellent premise and while it's not quite as full of the wider 80s nostalgia it does capture the decade nicely and populates it with a set of characters that are very easy on the ear.

Be prepared though that it's not just a nice cutesy nostalgia trip, 80s big cities weren't the easiest of places to live in and so it proves here with Nick and the gang facing some very tough dilemmas. The overall chemistry is worked brilliantly for me, though it was almost designed for me personally. It will be interesting to see what other reviewers, possibly from slightly different demographics think about it.

My recommendation regardless is to give it a try . . . roll those bones!

Dicing With Death!

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