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The Silence

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The Silence

By: Tim Lebbon
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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About this listen

In the darkness of an underground cave, blind creatures hunt by sound. Then there is light, voices, and they feed.... Swarming from their prison, the creatures thrive; to whisper is to summon death.

As the hordes lay waste to Europe, a girl watches to see if they will cross the sea. Deaf for years, she knows how to live in silence; now it is her family's only chance of survival. To leave their home, to shun others. But what kind of world will be left?

©2015 Tim Lebbon (P)2015 Isis Publishing Ltd Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Paranormal Scary

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Humans open up a sealed cave system and release an previously unencountered species that are completely blind but hunt by sound. Living in a world what even the smallest sound is almost certain death we follow Ally and her family. Ally lost her hearing in a car accident so Ally and her family are at an advantage in this new silent world as they have sign language so they can still communicate. We joined Ally and her family as they struggle to survive and find safety as humanity tries to fight back against the Vesps.

I'd already seen the film which I quite enjoyed and then I got to meet Tim and get a signed copy. As much as I loved the film, I really enjoyed reading this. It gave so much more detail and a lot of nuance in the book was lost. I also enjoyed the book more as it is set in the UK and there are familiar places that I knew about, especially the Lake District so I felt like I could picture these places a lot easier and had a connection.

better than the film

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Really really enjoyed this, I'm a big fan of true escapist horror stories/post apocalyptic stories, and I spend a lot of time searching for good ones on audible, and this very much hit what I was looking for. As someone has already noted, it has similarities to "the rats" by James Herbert, but updated to a modern setting, and I thought the protagonist of the teenage girl being deaf worked really well. If you liked Stephen Kings "the mist" or any of James Herbert's work you should really like this

Great apocalyptic story

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The Silence is an intelligent and genuinely entertaining book. Of course it has similarities with many of the post-apocalyptic genre including hints of Wyndham books but its mechanism for getting there is somewhat different to your average zombie / deadly disease story. It also quite bravely uses the joint point of view of a young deaf girl and her protective father to deliver the story which, as it turns out, works incredibly well. Mark Meadows is a well-established narrator and delivers both the young girl’s point of you and her father’s convincingly with deft changes of tone, intonation and pace.

In all the characters are engaging, the scenario believable enough for a story of this type and the tension that builds as the problem spreads across Europe is palpable. The isolation imposed by the developing world of silence and what it means to the surviving human population as reflected both by the characters and global social media is interwoven well into the story. So, although there are many themes common with the rest of the genre there are enough inventive twists to whisper about originality with this one.

The story cries out for a sequel, I do hope the author is thinking about one . . . but in the meantime this book is well worth a try.

The Silence Speaks Volumes

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Give it time, it’s quite entertaining.
Although I’m not sure how to get about without making noise.
Even if I was cleverly enough to Sign fluently, I wouldn’t be able to walk any distance with a bag of medicines without broadcasting this widely.
If you suspend your disbelief this is a chilling tale, well worth listening to with some touching moments.
The reader was a pleasure but did shout the Chapter headings rather alarmingly given the nerve tangling nature of the tale.

Grows on you.

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Very good and gripping story. It felt very real, and genuinely tense and scary. Told pretty much from the view point of one family trying to survive, it held the attention right to the very end. The narrator did well with switching between the teenage daughter and the father, though it was a little confusing at times. Thoroughly recommend this audiobook. More like this please!

How good sci-fi horror should be written!

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Tim Lebbon is a new author for me and what made me give this book a try was the other reviews that mentioned Herbert's The Rats. Not as fast paced as Herbert's books (a little slow to begin in fact) but well worth a listen.Just be ready to want another book to finish the story as the end leaves you wanting more! I will be trying another of this author's books in the hope it is as good.

Give this a go

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Apocalypse and horror books aren't really my bag and I bought this book on a whim but was surprised to find I loved it, it is one of most engaging and gripping books I have listened to in a long while. I am now desperately waiting for a sequel. Only 4 stars for the performance because it really needed a male and female narrator, the books starts from the perspective of a 14 year old girl, but I thought it was a boy for quite some time just because of the male narrator. Other than that, Meadows made an excellent job of the narration and combined with an excellent story with plenty of nail-biting moments, I have no qualms about recommending this book, even if you think you don't like horror.

Gripping

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I was expecting a lot more from this novel, hoping that it wouldn't be as lukewarm as I found the Netflix film adaptation, which everyone knows, paled when compared to A Quiet Place (not a novel, but an original screenplay). But unfortunately, the old saying about the book being better than the film did not apply here. I kept waiting for a real peak, but it never appeared. Then not only did the ending let me down, I found the narration totally grating, if not downright distracting. Who had the big idea to have a man narrating the part of a teenage girl? It sounded weird and the narrator performing the part of the mother almost sounded like mimicry, it was so off. Overall, this wasn't a bad story, but it felt underdeveloped, and the narration was just a bad idea for this audiobook. If there is a sequel (and it feels like the author owes readers one), I sure hope the narration of the audiobook will be better thought out.

Something left to be desired

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A normal Family with a deaf teenage daughter has to adapt after the world is pushed into an apocalyptic event.

While the writing and the narration is solld, Lebon fails to come up with anything original apart from the starting premise. While the case of breakdown of society is interesting, the tale soon bogs down into a Standard post-apocalyptic survival story. The Vesps could easily have been replaced by Zombies and then you end up with a worse, british version of the walking dead. There seems to have been a good idea at the start but from there not much is done with it. The book also just stops at some point without delivering any satisfactory explanation or solution for the Vesps. Disappointing over all.

Interesting Premise boring tale and no pay-off

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Interesting, and fresh reawakening of john Wyndham style eco horror, satisfying and occasionally surprising. Recommended.

Genuinely different

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