Resurrection Day

By: Brendan DuBois

Narrated by: Rich McVicar

Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

"Everyone remembers exactly what they were doing the day President Kennedy tried to kill them."

In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of the nuclear war. The crisis was averted, but what would have happened if war had broken out? In Resurrection Day, award-winning author Brendan DuBois brings this horrific concept to life.

©2014 Brendan DuBois (P)2015 Brendan DuBois

Critic reviews

" Resurrection Day is the best 'what if' novel in years - more clever and resonant than Robert Harris's Fatherland - and all the more scary because disaster was minutes away from happening for real. A book you'll read three times and keep on your shelves forever." (Lee Child)

"In his first novel outside of his acclaimed Lewis Cole mystery series DuBois delivers an alternate-history thriller that deserves to be as popular as Robert Harris' 'Fatherland. DuBois postulates an America that has been politically devastated by a nuclear exchange arising from the Cuban missile crisis.... Cohesively plotted and smoothly written, steadily exciting and rife with clever conceits, this is what-if thriller fiction at its finest." ( Publishers Weekly)

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

I picked up this book again after about 20 years. I had a dream about a specific scene in the book and figured it couldn't hurt to reread it. I am an entirely different person than I was when I first read this, shortly after 9/11, and it is so very much better on the second visit with older, more mature and educated me. What a treasure. Usually, alternate histories aren't anything to write home about. They're sort of circling the drain of the same old tropes and points of divergence again and again. This is a refreshing take, on a less visited topic. I highly recommend this book. The story is good, the characters are good and the worldbuilding is even greater. Don't miss out!

riviting!

Transported me back to a world that could have been. Great narration and non stop action mystery thriller.

Interesting if you like a Kennedy homage

Would you consider the audio edition of Resurrection Day to be better than the print version?

Don't know, as didn't read the print version

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Writer had some interesting ideas that were key to me continuing to listen. Some details were a bit much and oddly at times a bit too little, and the constant love affair with JFK got over way over the top at times. So much so I almost stopped the book more than once.

What aspect of Rich McVicar’s performance would you have changed?

He has a poor English accent, a main character that is from NYC I think he tried to give a NYC accent to but didn't manage it. Amusingly, when trying to perform the NYC accent his Bostonian one came through stronger than when voicing a character from Boston.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not truly no, at least not without giving away a plot point near the end I shall not detail.

Any additional comments?

It is an interesting alternative history. However it is obviously written from a perspective and viewpoint of a JFK fan. Not that that is a problem per-se, just by 3/4 of the way through it I found myself saying "enough already" we get you loved the guy. Some leaps in logic to be truthful, and as a 'fantasy' goes, and don't mistake it, this is at its heart a fantasy tragic albeit, the book is slightly above average and fairly long.Perhaps not living in the days this book is founded on has me at a loss, but I just don't understand the love affair with JFK and all his "plans". That's not the authors fault, and I can't blame him if he did and therefore does, but to me it was a bit much when it comes to the virtual worship of the former President. Way too complimentary and not fairly balanced with things not complementary to JFK that we know are factual.Overall, not horrible, but not great either. Solidly average even if the author obviously comes from a political perspective I do not share.

Iinteresting Historical what if !

I was always intrigued to listen to this book , I like a good Historical what if story, and the Cuban missile crisis was a big one ! I really think this book could have been edited a lot more, I would have made easier reading , overall not a bad story , but the narration was terrible , very lack lustre , and his English accents were atrocious ! I think a good narrator can even make an average book good , and a bad narrator can make a good book real hard to listen to !

Great alternative history

Actually 4.5 / 5 for story and 3.5 / 5 for narration but rounded up

Set in an alternative 1972, the USA is heading towards the 10 year anniversary of a nuclear war started when JFK failed to stop the Cuban Missle Crisis and Cuba fired upon the US. The story follows a retired solider turned investagative journalist Carl Landry as he investigates the murder of another war veteran. The murdered war vertan had previously contacted Landry promising the sotry of the centruy, and Landry starts to suspect that he may have been murdered because of that story. Landry must deal with government censorship, personal and societal shame about the events of the war, international politics and urban legends to get to the bottom of the murder.

This book is alternative history at it's finest, showing what could have been if the Cuban Missle Crisis hadn't ended in a stand-off. DuBois slowly releases details organiscally into the story explaining the events and how it came about and how the US has changed since. And everything about it just comes across as plausible - Collapse of NATO, European nations providing food and support etc (in a reverse Marshall plan sort of way), government or military men placed as editors at all newspapers to ensure that no unapproved story is printed, the shame of the people at what was done in retaliation, the oppressive atmosphere that means none of this is talked about openly... It just created a create mood for the book.

The story itself is full of twists and turns, with you never really sure until the end who is good and who is bad, and what each persons agenda is, and what the 'great story' the murdered vet actually had.

Absolutely loved it and I htink anyone who likes alternative history should check it out.

McVicar's narration is good. It took me a little while to get used to his accent (it is american, but I'm not sure which part it is from) but once I was used to it I was then able to really enjoy the book. He provides voices and accents for characters (although his initial british accent right at the start of the book was a little difficult to listen to) and provides the right inflection for what the characters said and did. Overall rather enjoyable.

This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.

A Fantastic Alternate History Novel

I've read quite a few alternate history novels, such as Len Deighton's SS-GB, Philip K Dick's Man in the High Castle, James Herbert's 48, and I got to say, Resurrection Day stacks up very well against them all.

Resurrection Day is set in a world 10 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, in a world where the crisis wasn't averted. America is a very different and darker place, under more or less a military dictatorship, with several cities lost to nuclear warfare, but the Soviet Union and China more or less non existent.

The story revolves around a journalist, who starts with trying to follow the story of the death of a man he had met, and the chain of far reaching events that unfolds as he continues to pursue the story.

The story was a journey that I didn't want to end. Although I got this as a review copy, I'd have gladly bought it, and will definitely by buying other books from this author and narrator.

Rich McVicar did a wonderful job narrating, and was very easy to listen to him tell the story. I hope he gets more narrating gigs on great novels like this. Looking at his Audible titles, this seems like the first "full length" novel he has done. I sincerely hope he gets more.

Highly recommended.

Great contrafactual story - awful British accent

"Resurection Day" is a great, contrafactual 'what if' story, no doubt about it. Its description of the consequences of a "limited" nuclear war is chilling and bleak, especially with what is going on in North Korea these days. The reader, Rich McVicar, is competent except for one thing: His attempt at an English accent. It is atrocious, horrible and just plain wrong. Thus, he makes one of the characters, (Sandy, an upper-class Englishwoman from London), pronounce "Manhattan" as "ManHARtan" and her own name as "SARN-dy, which nobody does or has ever done. His accent comes across as a weird mixture of Jamaican and Hollywood "posh" by way of Keanu Reeves in "Dracula." It is truly, frighteningly, horribly bad, and it seriously detracts from your enjoyment of the novel. Which is really a pitty, seeing how great the story is. :(

Good, but limited, terrible performance

The story is fairly good, although the author’s grasp of basic history was tenuous at a few points.

The performance was terrible, however. The narrator’s English accent was so bad it took me out of the story every time it came up. It was so bad in fact, that this is the first review of an audiobook I’ve ever written. I wrote it mostly to complain about the accent.

Had To Stop

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

I had to stop listening, it is just not good !!!

Awful Narration

The narrator’s voice tone and modulation were terrible. His “British” accent was awful. There is so much wrong with this narrator, that I stopped playing the title and just deleted it. I wouldn’t even want it as part of my collection.