What a srange journey!

I got this audio book free of charge from the narrator in exchange for a totally unbiased review here on audible.
I am honestly not sure what to make of this novel. On the one hand it is nothing special but on the other it could have been very special indeed.
I feel the author could have done a lot better, with the aim being a second book about those now stuck or living in coventry, but we will never know. the book is far too fast paced. I wish the author would have done more voice overs for the main characters but he did not. This is one of those stories which would immensely benefit voice overs for the entre ensemble.

The narrator has a calm mellow voice.

In a nutshell its about a rift in space that looks similar to our own world but isnt. also those that go through the rift cannot come back its a one way street. Sam follows his older brother through the rift, but his brother has drastically changed, when one steps through the portal, years can pass in mere minutes it seems. This is a story about a brother trying to rescue his other brother from a nightmare, but the other brother has been heavily brainwashed. When sam catches up with this brother, the other brother tortures him and well lets just say that sam escapes and then begins a madcap chase after him by timmy the torturer or his other brother.
This chasing around ends up becoming very weary on the brain for the listener.. For half the story for me, its one big bore fest, but i held for the last part of the story, which seemed to improve dramatically. The story telling improved, the way the characters interacted with his other improved. Its just a shame it ended the way it did because there was some potential to create a series of books not so much about the rift but life after the rift, for example what happened to those who where left in coventry, diane and cassie. Even diane became a somewhat likeable character at the end.
I have never heard this author before, at least I think I have not. A narrator can either make or break a book. At times i thought he was reading a monologue, because there where very little changes to his voice as the story progressed. The one thing that really let this book down for me was his lack of making up voices for each of the characters, I think if he had done this it would really have brought the story to life. I am not a fan of any narrator that speaks in almost one single monotone voice right through a complete reading. I think between the start and middle of the story, it could have been a lot better, because i did feel like i wanted to stop listening on several occasions, because it really exhausts the brain with so much going on and on. The author could have explained things a lot more than he did do. One last thing, its pretty obvious he named the dragon after himself which is a bit cringe worthy if he did (author name David F Gray).
Great premise, poorly executed is all i can say about this novel / story.

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