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  • Pandemic

  • The Extinction Files, Book 1
  • By: A. G. Riddle
  • Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
  • Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (221 ratings)

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Pandemic cover art

Pandemic

By: A. G. Riddle
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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Publisher's Summary

A deadly outbreak in Kenya. A conspiracy beyond imagination. And a race to save humanity in its darkest hour.

From A. G. Riddle, the worldwide best-selling author of The Atlantis Gene and Departure, comes a novel that will change everything you think you know about pandemics.

A hundred miles north of Alaska, an American Coast Guard vessel discovers a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It has no national identification and doesn't match the records of any known vessel. Deep within, researchers find evidence of a scientific experiment that will alter our very understanding of the human race.

In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO. What they find in the remote village is beyond their worst fears. As she traces the origin of the pathogen, Peyton begins to believe that there is more to this outbreak - that it may be merely the opening act in a conspiracy with far-reaching consequences.

In Berlin, Desmond Hughes awakens in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there or who he is. On the floor he finds a dead security guard from an international pharmaceutical company. His only clue leads him to Peyton Shaw - a woman who seems to know him but refuses to tell him how. With the police searching the city for him, Desmond desperately tries to piece together what happened to him. To his shock and horror, he learns that he may be involved in causing the outbreak - and could hold the only key to stopping it.

As the pathogen spreads around the world, Peyton and Desmond race to unravel the conspiracy behind the pandemic - and uncover secrets some want to keep buried.

©2017 A. G. Riddle (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Pandemic

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Horrible Australian accent and a tenuous drawn out story

If you've got a book with many many Australian characters, hire a narrator who can do an Australian accent. Every time an Australian character started speaking I cringed and it (among other things) eventually made me stop listening.

The story is very drawn out and all over the place. I agree with many other comments that it's about 10hours too long and has many story lines that are unnecessary.

A really shame I got about 8 hours in and wanted to give up, gave it until 13 hours and then really did give up.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator needs to work on his Aussie accent.

A great story and I enjoyed the plot thoroughly. However the narration, particularly the Australian characters, was atrocious. If you are going to produce a book with many Aussie characters, please employ a narrator who can do an authentic accent. I cringed every time he attempted to speak in an 'Aussie' voice. It almost made me give up and miss out on a great story.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

good story, horrendous Australian accent

imagine a new Zealand accent mixed with a drunk angry constipated south African, and that is their idea of the Aussie accent. I am not usually bothered by bad accents, but this was incredibly bad. The rest of the performance was great, but there were way too many Aussies. I recommend you get the Kindle and read it rather than subject yourself to this accent.
In his defence, the Aussie accent is difficult, but seriously, get an Aussie to verify it before you subject the world to it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

all over the place!

lost track of what was going on from chapter 99. too many people, too many coincidences without explanation, new characters jump in suddenly. why were there random missiles and planes to fly all over the world? bad Aussie accent.. not going for the next book

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Potential not reached

Some aspects were interesting but overall it was a cliché secret-agent-with-amnesia genre book. Pandemics are fascinating in themselves and the done to death overplot detracted from the book's potential.

The narrator had a good voice to listen and expressed well. It has to be a difficult choice when the characters are international - to do the accents or not. The narrator chose to do them, but didn't do them at all well, and this was winceworthy. It's probably necessary to get someone from country to model those parts or not do them, rather than guessing at them.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story! Not so such a great performance

Amazingly detailed, scientific and futuristic as usual from A.G Riddle.
Another original and amazing plot.

The only thing that kinda got me was the performance.
Some of the characters are Australian.
I can appreciate the American narrator trying to get into the characters, but him putting on the accent was sooooo cringeworthy and horrible.
I almost couldn't do it for a while in the beginning.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed but ...

I enjoyed the aspects of the book directly relating to the pandemic, how it spread, how dealt with etc.

There was need for the back story to how it all happened but I felt that went into a lot of unnecessary detail and became a bit tedious.

A good read overall but I skipped sections without losing any important elements of the story.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent page turner

The author is adept in depicting human nature and interaction while taking us through some significant science and multiple dramas (including flashbacks to the past).

My main gripe is the shocking 'Australian'. Sounds South African/a bit British Cockney at best!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A very enjoyable read, though a bit convoluted.

This book is quite long and tackles the stories of many different characters, whilst focusing mainly on the life of one of those characters. as such, there are many jumps back and forth in time and location, and while this may be manageable reading a physical book, with an audio book it means that if you miss one line of information, it might take you a few minutes to grasp what's going on, who is involved and when in the story the event is occurring. The overall story however is still very much enjoyable, albeit a tad unbelievable at times. I'm not sure the timeline of events would play out in such a way in reality, with some characters flying back and forth across the world in what felt like a day or so.

The narration is quite well done, though the use of a few more varied voices would have made it easier to comprehend more quickly who was speaking. The narrator's African voice was done rather well actually, but there Australian accent was more laughable than believable (and that's coming from an Australian).

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love Mr Ballerinis performance

Great story but made that much better with the wonderful narrator - ONLY criticism is that his Australian accents sound like half South African half east London, could use some work, but such a pleasant voice to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.