GREAT original plot - nonstop thriller

I loved this book!!!!! Great read, from beginning to end. The story takes A LOT of twists, and turns, from character to character. Miller does a great job of developing each and every character. The plot is AWESOME, and the writing pulls you into this town and its plight. It starts out with Brad and his 5 yr old daughter Abigail leaving New York and his psychotic druggie actress ex wife for a country setting near Thunder Rise Mountain. Soon Abby & many other children become ill and have horrifying nightmares. All about horrible evil talking creatures that only children can see. Bear, Wolf Vulture and Snake. Turns out there's an old indian legend that an evil deity is imprisoned in Thunder Rise and just waiting for the chance to escape and steal the souls of young children. hmmmmm Charlie one of the last indians of a local tribe is on a quest to save not only his nephew Tommy but the other children as well. I wish the adults would have been "let in on what is really going on" allot sooner. I loved the small town doctor as well. Its not everyday you see one going out on a limb for their patients and one with such an open mind. I loved the characters! My biggest complaint is that the sequels have nothing to do with the characters in this book. I thought the ending was setting us up for Book 2 and book 3. Nope. Totally new stories about Thunder Rise and its mystic. Don't get me wrong. There is a resolution BUT I would love to know if Brad's ex wife goes to jail or if Brad and Thomascina, his love interest, end up together. Overall a GREAT read. I loved it!

2 people found this helpful

Decent thriller, but dated and awkward.

What did you like best about Thunder Rise? What did you like least?

I did like the performance by Mr. Richards. He seemed to be able to accurately portray the characters he read, no matter how poorly written they were.

Would you ever listen to anything by G. Wayne Miller again?

No. I found his writing style awkward, portraying adults as having horribly immature thought processes, and portraying the children as having more grown-up thoughts and imaginations than they should. The only character that seemed 'real' was the protagonist, and that was an evil spirit. Another thing that put me off was how dated the book was. There is a difference between a book that becomes dated, and a book that holds true, even when set in a different time.

Have you listened to any of Joel Richards’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard any of Mr. Richard's other performances, but I look forward to doing so. His pacing was perfect, and portrayal of character was well done.

Did Thunder Rise inspire you to do anything?

No.

1 person found this helpful

Thunder Rise #1

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book.A truely old fashioned horror story!There is something wrong with the children in Morgantown.Is it a virus,Poison,an ancient curse?I plan to listen to the other 2 in this series if they get to Audible.I thought Joel Richards narration was wonderful!I was gifted this copy for a fair review.

Good characters, unbelievable story

I received this a Listen & Review copy through Audiobook Blast. I really enjoyed this book for the first half. The character development and story pulled me in. I really wanted to hear more and more about the development of the main character's life in this new town. The mystery part of the story with the disease affecting the children (not a spoiler) kept me anxious to find out how it would be resolved. But the book fell apart when we found out what was causing the disease. This would have almost been better if the supernatural element wasn't a part of it (again, not a spoiler).

The narrator was good especially with adult voices but some of his kid voices were quite annoying.

Overall it was an enjoyable story and one that I would recommend on a long car trip. Keep in mind that this was written in 1992. I didn't realize at first and kept wondering why they didn't just call somebody from their cell phones.

Small town phantoms can be deadly

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The book isn't bad. Pretty well written. When you do listen to it, keep in mind that it is not mindless fluff that you can have playing while you do other things, you have to pay attention.

If you’ve listened to books by G. Wayne Miller before, how does this one compare?

This is my first book by this author.

Which character – as performed by Joel Richards – was your favorite?

I don't think I had a favorite, they were all good.

Did Thunder Rise inspire you to do anything?

Not really

Any additional comments?

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review

Classic Small Town Horror

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and really hope more books by the author make it to audiobook format. It was the sort of read I love to come across, like one of those Dan Simmons books like Summer of Night, or Stephen King's IT, or others. I loved the blending of native American legends into the story, and the progression of the characters as the situation devolved.

I have seen comments on the book that is was "dated". But frankly that sort of comment on any book is just embarassing. "I just read Nicholas Nickleby, and book, what the heck, they didn't have smartphones, or even cars? Sooo dated". I don't read reviews on Stephen King novels from the last several decades and see readers complaining that they are "dated". Books don't have to be set or written in this year, you know...

Narration was excellent as well.

Forgettable and Lifeless

I don't want to be too harsh in my review, because 1) there's still a lot that's done right in this book, and 2), other readers/listeners might not be put off by the same aspects of the work I was.

I liked the premise: an unspeakable evil has reawakened to victimize a small, relatively isolated community, preying on the community's most vulnerable members: children. G Wayne Miller writes well, and the book's overall outline/plot arc is entertaining, if overlong.

However, none of the characters in the book is particularly well-drawn out (in fact, two relatively minor characters are inexplicably given more detailed backgrounds than most of the principles). Moreover, I found several of the main characters to be fairly unlikable, although I don't believe that's the author's intention..The protagonist in particular seems to be kind of a jerk, waging a not-so-private war with his ex-wife (a nasty piece of work herself) at the expense of their daughter. But at the worst, their seemed to be no life to these characters.

And one VERY big complaint I have, which is no fault of either the writer or the narrator, is that the audio production is very sloppy in places. This ranges from weird buzzing sounds after chapters (tolerable), to long (maybe 45 seconds or so) periods of silence (not too cool) to the volume actually going out for a few seconds and then coming back as if a volume knob had been lowered and then raised, interrupting the text (unacceptable).