Travis Beacham

Impact Winter

Drew Santiago

C. J. Daley 

I wanted to give this a go because it said it was attached to producers from The Walking Dead (including Robert Kirkman). 

A comet hits earth, clouding the atmosphere and making the sunlight disappear, which leads to the open emergence of vampires? I said yes, I could get behind that. And it has these really cool kinds of vampires too: there are mindless zombie-eating type vampires (kind of reminded me of I am Legend (the movie)), then shades which are like your run-of-the-mill vampires, then there are overlords which have gifted powers, and then there’s of course a vampire queen. Plus there’s a badass female vampire Hunter with a sword? Felt like a post apocalyptic Underworld. 

The problem I personally had with this one is that it is an audio performance, not an audio narration. I’m guessing I could have easily found that out if I did even the simplest research, so that’s on me. However, I have stated several times in the past now that they just aren’t for me. The performances were fantastic, so it’s not that I have anything against it, it’s just to the point where it’s more of a play, or like listening to a movie without seeing it, than reading. 

The production is filled with noises—scuttling feet, fighting, heavy breathing, background noise—sometimes to the literal detriment of the audio levels. And because it’s filled with those noises, there’s next to no description within the story. If you’re not fired up to use your imagination the entire time, this probably isn’t the one for you. It was not easy to listen to while going about my day. 

My biggest gripe though was that in between the chapters there would be music. Some of which was so bad that I actually considered stopping the entire thing, and it’s only 4.5 hours long. I hate music in audiobooks. 

Great concept, iffy execution. I don’t think at this point I’ll continue with the teased sequel.