Serum

By: Christopher McDonald

Narrated by: Robert Lee Wilson

Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Dr. Lacy Miller is the Chief Medical Examiner for New York City. She sees many murders go unsolved and her need to find the persons responsible for the crimes leads her to develop a serum.

A serum that will allow the dead to tell her their story. This highly unethical practice comes crashing down around her as the FBI and CDC become involved. The ripple effect of the serum continues to stack up leaving the world forever changed.

©2014 Christopher McDonald (P)2015 McDonald Books

Narration needs to be redone

What did you like best about Serum? What did you like least?

The narration and production values were simply horrible. As another reviewer mentioned, there seems to be a lot of background noise and not a very good recording. There were also huge problems with the narration. The narration cleared his throat, repeated text (Chap 6 in audible/5 in physical book at time stamp 02.31, 02:41, 03:41 and 04:42 to just list a few examples), mispronounced words and at times seems to be talking to someone else (again Chap 6 time stamp 01:41 sounds like he says to someone, "it says here" then reads line from book).

Would you be willing to try another book from Christopher McDonald? Why or why not?

I would but it would need to be very inexpensive.

Would you be willing to try another one of Robert Lee Wilson’s performances?

No. I would not listen to this narrator again.

Was Serum worth the listening time?

No it was not worth the listening time. Perhaps it would have been worth the time to read the book but in this case, the narrator made it impossible to follow the story because his narration issues were so distracting.

Any additional comments?

I received a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for a fair review. I am sorry to have to rate the book so poorly because I know the author put his heart into writing it. I suggest the author try to find a different narrator for any future projects and consider redoing this one. I will not buy the ebook version of "Serum" because after listening to this narrator turned me off on it.

Fast moving book

What did you love best about Serum?

I liked the development of the plot. it moved along quite nicely. I don't want to spoil the story but it ended not quite like I thought it would. There is room for another book at the end.

another zombie book -- and pretty good

I have read a lot of zombie books and this one starts out pretty interesting. The main character is a medical examiner and invents a serum to "wake the dead " so she can find out who killed them. It of course get out of hand and the story speeds by.

Some of the characters where not fleshed out enough. This felt like the first n a series -I can see more opportunity to do it.

I listen to a lot of audio books and this one was short, with a different take on Zombies

what a shame about the narration

Would you be willing to try another one of Robert Lee Wilson’s performances?

no I don't think so

Any additional comments?

The main problem with this audiobook was the narration, (by Robert Lee Wilson) for me it ruined the whole audobook.To start with I thought it was a computer voice, but happily is was not. I really don't know what happened in the book's 5th chapter (6th on Audible) I don't think the editor could possibly have listened to this chapter, the narator corrected himself several times, and constantly cleared his throat and one time actually said no it says .....and corrected himself again, I have never before heard anthing like it in an audioboook. Fortuanately it was only this chapter that was this bad, otherwise I would have given up.The story was ok, but as I said I was so distracted by the narrator I had difficulty concentrating on the story.As with Christopher McDonald's other book (which is very good) the style is in the feel of "Tales of the unexpected " so once again an unusual but clever story with twists in the tale. The author did well getting all this plot into just under 5 hours, without it feeling pressed together.this audiobook was kindly given to me in exchange for an unbiased review by the author , so I'm really sorry I could not be more possitive about it.

A short and fun mystery novel

My rating: 4 stars
Audiobook narrator Robert Lee Wilson rating: 1 star

This audiobook was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book – I found it interesting and fun, plus it was short. There was a small amount of main characters so it was easy to follow. There was a little bit of predictability within this book but that never bothers me (plus, I am good at not figuring stuff out until it happens – I like to be surprised with books!). This book had a great twist at the end of it that really made it much more interesting (that I did not see coming).

However, I did not enjoy the narration. There was a constant high pitch hum throughout the entire production. In chapter 5 (I think), the narrator has a lot of troubles with repeating words and clearing his throat (plus what sounds like blowing his nose). I thought it was my Audible app being buggy, but I think it’s the narration. I really think this should be edited more. I am unsure of what it takes to produce an audiobook but I would never guess that bodily sounds would be left in the final copy of the recording.

Thanks again, Christopher, for the copy of the audiobook! I look forward to future books that you write.

Serum

This was an ok book.The storyline is about a Coroner that develops a serum to bring people back from the dead,for a few minutes,so they can tell who killed them.The narration byRobert Lee Wilson was terible.It was very hard to listen to.This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review

Great story line, not prepared narrator

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Serum is a medical version of zombism, and that's what makes the story interesting. Dr. Lacy Miller wants to collect special viral cells so she can create a serum that "awakens' dead people. In a twist, a good friend is killed and Dr. Miller has to sacrifice her project to "recover" him

If you’ve listened to books by Christopher McDonald before, how does this one compare?

I have generally enjoyed Christopher McDonald's creativity, and this book was no different.

How could the performance have been better?

I may have just received a first copy of this book, but the author kept tripping over his words and cleared his throat a lot.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Serum?

I think the ending was elongated and could have been cut and less dramatized.

Outstanding!!

Awesome story!! This is a must have, you have to look past the horrible narrator and you will find an incredible story. If you are a fan of the zombie apocalypse genre, this is a fresh new spin on it. Finally an author who can envision something more than zombies bite everyone, the end. this book is fast paced and will keep you guessing, you will be begging for the next chapter at the end!!