Mad Science Institute

By: Sechin Tower

Narrated by: Jennifer Knighton, Robert Macfadden

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Sophia "Soap" Lazarcheck is a girl genius with a knack for making robots - and for making robots explode. After her talents earn her admission into a secretive university institute, she is swiftly drawn into a conspiracy more than a century in the making. Meanwhile, and without her knowledge, her cousin Dean wages a two-fisted war of vengeance against a villainous genius and his unwashed minions. Separately, the cousins must pit themselves against murderous thugs, experimental weaponry, lizard monsters, and a nefarious doomsday device. When their paths finally meet up, they will need to risk everything to prevent a mysterious technology from bringing civilization to a sudden and very messy end.

©2011 Marshall Sechin Tower (P)2016 Marshall Sechin Tower

a resounding meh.

I found the story to be very lackluster, the "surprises" were anything but, and the male narrator wasn't all that great. There were some interesting ideas that were shown to us and then nothing was ever done with.

Loved it.

If you could sum up Mad Science Institute in three words, what would they be?

Fun, Smart, Oddly Real

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I yelled at the book a few times for jumping perspectives because I wanted to see what happened next.

Have you listened to any of Jennifer Knighton and Robert Macfadden ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't.

Any additional comments?

There were a few spots where Robert Macfadden 'messed up' and they should be edited out. Otherwise, the performances were great and the story is awesome. I own the book, but do better with listening to them. And it was worth listening too.

The most unprofessional audio book ever

I started this book wanting to like it. It had solid reviews it seemed. It sounded like a book I would like. However this time a book with 60 ish reviews all positive failed to deliver. This will put all the other reviews into question.

I found a book full of pseudoscience, wrong science, and an author who felt the need to bludgeon an explanation of his one bag trick (the EMP) into the readers heads every few paragraphs. He also manages to get the explanation and expect results and uses of this idea wrong.

The Characters were flat with little growth. The stereotypes were awful and grinding.

There is a firefighter who can't manage to even "log" into a computer and from the struggles I have to wonder if the author has had the same issues.

The book itself earned a two stars on this.

The version I read was the audio book. The author of this book needs to listen to the last 30 min to find out how unprofessionally done it was. The reader even comments on a live mic about not fixing the book since the author will never check. There was throat clearing in parts. But the final 30 min were an eye opener.

The audio book gets < 1 star.

Narrator Robert Macfadden Drags Story Through Mud

Narrator Robert Macfadden and Publisher Siege Tower Entertainment have completely destroyed what should have been an enjoyable listening experience of a fun story. It sounds as if Macfadden has never had vocal performance training. While he certainly has a nice sounding voice, it is painfully clear that he has had no coaching on proper performance tone or inflection.
There does not seem to have been any editing done on Macfadden's reading. He can be heard coughing, correcting himself, starting sentences over and even making wet sounds which was quite uncomfortable to hear. Theses editing mistakes were only made during Macfadden's parts. As the audience, it was truly very frustrating to listen to.
I have only made it through roughly one third of the story. If it were not for the author's engaging story premise and the other narrator, Jennifer Knighton carrying the performance, I would not have been able to make it this far. I am very disappointed. I do not believe I will be able to finish listening to this story. However, like I said, the story itself is very engaging. I love that a young female engineering enthusiast is the star of the story. I am always seeking fun adventure stories with strong and smart female leads. Especially ones that do not have the female spending the majority of the story self-consciously pining over a guy. I CRAVE adventure stories with strong female leads. I will be picking up the book to finish this story.