Second Coming

Having read the publisher's summary I knew that I had to listen to this trilogy. Have to say I wasn't let down. This book isn't standalone by any means so there is only a slight climax and ends at the start of everything. This whole book is pretty much a buildup to the second book.

Not your typical end of the world story and so far it is definitely seeming like a cool story. The premise of the story is quite outrageous, but done quite well and approached the same way I would expect it to be in real life, or at least how Hollywood tells me real life is. Not sure that the science behind any of this is correct but that doesn’t impact the story itself.

I actually don't really care for either of the two main protagonists. The only person who actually seems to make any sense is Kyle. Devante is so far my favorite. I know you shouldn't root for the bad guy but his character is the most intriguing and the most fun. I know Reggie is supposed to be the fun one but she annoys me.

Rick Gregory does a great job narrating and I really enjoyed his Devante voice.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

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5 people found this helpful

2nd Coming of Christ?

As a Christian, I found this depiction of the possible 2nd coming of Christ vs the anti Christ very thought provoking. From the idea of cloning from the Shroud of Turin to the super natural being he becomes...I was hooked. Rick Gregory has a way of 'lilting' his voice that makes it obvious he is reading rather than acting the characters. However, after listening for a few chapters, I was able to get to used to his way of narrating and enjoy the story. I really dislike cliffhanger type books, but, this is a trilogy, so I guess it should be expected.
I recommend this book for the story and I look forward to book 2.

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1 person found this helpful

Last Days

The story is interesting, and could have been quite good. However, the main character, Reggie, is so irritating . She is a grown woman in her thirties, and a mother of a young son, who has the behavior and dialog of a teenager. So many times I wanted to give up on this book, but I pushed through.

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8 people found this helpful

Laughable science

Born in a very religious family, Dr. Marcus was always the one questioning everything and looking at the scientific side of things. He is busy now with the most important project of his career: trying to clone Jesus extracting DNA from the Shroud of Turin.

I am not a religious person but I thought the premises of this book really interesting. This could have gone so many good and maybe quirky ways, but I have to say that I found it disappointing. The science in this book is quite laughable, to say the least, and the reasoning behind just doesn’t make any sense. The fact that the result from cloning an adult you is another adult is completely absurd, and I think Dolly could have said one thing or two. I think I was expecting more science and less paranormal, and this is why I felt somehow cheated about this book.

The characters were interesting though, and I enjoyed their relationships and conversations. I think this is what kept me going.

Rick Gregory’s narration was quite good, with great character interpretations, but I missed some British accent for one of the characters (it was clearly mentioned in the text). Also, some of the voices sounded quite similar, but in general it was a good narration. There were a couple of noticeable audio edits but the rest of the audio production was correct.

This is my second book by Jackeline Druga and I feel a bit disappointed. I am not sure if it her or me, but it seems we are in completely different places.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting Subject Matter

I can honestly say this book was a shock. I love this author and i have most of her books. This book was a total deviation from her other books. She threw a new spin on how the world ends that I honestly didn't see coming until it was in my face. The narrarator did a great job bringing the characters to life and getting the reader vested in the characters and the book. I have a feeling we will be thrown another loop in tge second book. Great addition to your library.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting but slow.

Marcus is a scientist and himself and his team have decided to take some samples from The Shroud of Turin and see can they grow a clone from the DNA on the Shroud. This is, of course, met with a lot of criticism from religious fanatics and others. They think it's sacrilegious. Death threats, attacks and abuse, doesn't deter Marcus and they plow away. The embryo grows amazingly well, but they never realised it would not be a baby, but a fully grown man. This man has powers and the masses think he is the Saviour, but while science can clone a body, they can't clone a soul, and this man doesn't seem right to Marcus. Just what have they created?

This is a hard book to rate because while it was incredibly intriguing, it was very slow to get going and took me a long time to get into. Things don't really get going till near the end of the book and there were times when I wanted to put it aside, which is unusual with this author! But I can tell that now the seeds are set, the rest of the series should be a lot faster to get going.

I did like the whole idea of the plot, even if the science of it was a little out there! The idea of trying to make a clone from the blood of the Shroud of Turin was unique and interesting. I do think the reactions of people was something that would happen, with people equal parts protesting against it, as they were delighted with the idea. I also liked that the author made it so Marcus's family weren't all on board with the idea.

I did love some of the characters. Reggie is a strong lead and I liked her spirit and her friendship with Marcus. She is there for him no matter what! I also liked Kyle, Reggie's dad. He was some much needed levity!! The author did write the characters well and I found myself rooting for them.

In all, this started slow, but did set the scene for, what I hope will become, a memorable series.

Rick Gregory did a really good job with this. This is the third one I've listened to by him, and with each one it seems that he is getting stronger as a narrator. He had a good few tones and voices for the different characters, and even read the females well. I think he still needs to work on his tone of voices, in regards emotion or tension, to really bring a book alive.

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

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4 people found this helpful

very entertaining

the premise is very interesting, but surprisingly possible. I'm very interested in the next books in the series. I can't wait to find out what happens and how the story ends.
I found the narration was very good and held my attention.

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1 person found this helpful

I'm torn on this book...

Would you consider the audio edition of Last Days to be better than the print version?

I have not read the print version of this book. I did listen to the entire audio version though.

What other book might you compare Last Days to and why?

This book is not exactly what I thought it was. I have a wide variety of interests and listen to multiple genres of just about everything. I was expecting a .... zombie book based on the title, but it wasn't exactly what I got, and no, I didn't read the description first.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Ok, to be fair, I didn't hate the narration, but he didn't do any special voices - so the British lab assistant, she didn't have a British accent, lol. Because of this, it was really difficult to follow who was talking and when. Same thing for the television evangelist. In my mind I was hearing the accent of the traditional southern preacher, but there were no special accents used in the performance.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, not really. This book had an interesting slant, but I wasn't super invested in either of the main characters. There was some character development but I wasn't thrilled with where the book was going.

Any additional comments?

I don't mean to sound harsh, it must be hard to write a book. I thought that the premise of the book was interesting, but I just didn't really care for the main characters or the decisions that they made. The narration was also kind of disappointing, but not the worst book that I've ever listened to, since I did make it to the end. I probably will not continue the series though.

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Interesting SF thriller

I had a lot of fun with this book. It’s an interesting set up to what might turn out to be the Biblical Last Days. Marcus is a lead scientist on a team that plans to take samples from the Shroud of Turin and grow a clone of whoever was wrapped in that bit of cloth. Of course, the team meets with a lot of push back from religious groups and some average people. Nevertheless, they continue forward despite mishaps, death threats, and physical attacks. It’s a prickly subject for some and several sides to it were shown in this story.

Reggie was my favorite character. She’s a single mom with a pre-teen son, Seth, and they live with her father, Kyle, who runs a little automotive garage. She and Marcus have been friends for ages and the two have kept up a solid friendship despite them being on opposite sides of the Atlantic. She’s a fiery sort of personality in an average body. Her confidence makes her attractive and likable to nearly everyone. I loved her independence and while I don’t watch wrestling, I can appreciate that she enjoys it. I wanted to be her sidekick! Well, at least until the last quarter of the book where she doesn’t do much and is pretty much relegated to the Romantic Interest role. Sigh…. But she could easily bounce back from that in the next book. My fingers are crossed.

Kyle was quite the character too! At first, I just labeled him as a grumpy old man but he has more than that going on. I loved his teasing and his meddling in Reggie’s life. Herbie! Who wants to date Herbie? Ha! Kyle is well-meaning and that always showed through.

OK, back to the the science-thriller part of this story. So Marcus and his team know that the Shroud of Turin isn’t old enough to have been around in the times of Jesus Christ but they are still very curious to see if they can get viable DNA from t he Shroud and then also grow a living being from that DNA. The science itself is pretty loosey-goosey so just go with it and enjoy the ride. While I would have preferred more science, or at least logic, I managed to not nitpick the plot apart…. yet. OK, how many people have touched that Shroud or rubbed it all over their bodies in attempt to heal themselves of some disease? Honestly, there’s probably a veritable host of DNA on that cloth. A few well placed discussions along those lines would have made the science bits more interesting if not believable.

Marcus gets much more than he was expecting and the whole team is very surprised by how things develop. Other side characters, such as this Reverend of a southern church group and Pope, want to have a say in how things proceed but Marcus and his team do a decent job of repelling them until near the end.

The action really ramps up in the last quarter of the book where Marcus is seriously questioning just what he may have unleashed on the world. There’s drama, action, suicides, attacks, bombs! Yes, it’s quite the marathon of survival for Marcus, and Reggie is there for some of that. The ending wraps up most of the questions for this book and leaves the door open for the next book. 4/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Rick Gregory had a great voice for Reggie, sounding both feminine and confident. He also had a good, distinct voice for Marcus. The two show several emotions throughout the story and Gregory did an awesome job of portraying those. His soft Southern drawl for the Reverend needed work and there were a few places where the sound varied. I loved his gruff teasing voice for Kyle. His pacing was perfect. 4/5 stars.

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1 person found this helpful

Last Days

So you want to clone dna from the Shroud of Turin?Better bone up on your Bible,according to this sci fi story.It was slow going but kind of interesting.Iffy science and religious dogma make a good enough story.I liked the narrator,Rick Gregory.I found it funny where the lady with the British accent goes ahead in a deifinitey American accent. “I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

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