Riders

By: Veronica Rossi

Narrated by: Dan Bittner

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Riders. A new fantasy adventure from New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Veronica Rossi.

For 18-year-old Gideon Blake, nothing but death can keep him from achieving his goal of becoming a US Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

Recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can't remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen - Conquest, Famine, and Death - are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now - bound, bloodied, and drugged - Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he's fallen for - not to mention all of humankind - he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger. But will anyone believe him?

©2016 Veronica Rossi (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Amazing Narrator

The Narration was amazing! Between the characters, horses and weapons it paints a very entertaining story. The Narrator provided great voices for the horsemen and the kindred!

Great Story and performance

Really enjoying this trilogy and looking forward to the second book. Great performance. Really like it.

Fantastic Audiobook

I highly recommend this (audio) book for horse lovers, supernatural fans, and anyone who is looking for a unique fantasy and retelling told in the real world full of adventure, great world-building and superb pacing. I can’t wait to read/listen to the sequel.

There were two short parts in the first half of the book where the recording sounded like it had recorded two voices saying different things, which was a bit distracting, but apart from that, the narrator was phenomenal- the voices for each character were so well done! I was very impressed.

The story was just what you’d expect from the description. I had super high expectations because I love the author’s other work.

Entertaining

This book won't go down as one of my favorites, but with that said, I did enjoy it and there was nothing I did not like about it.

We follow the story of Gideon, a sarcastically hilarious MC with a temper, who--thankfully--has zero feminine tendencies (no description of all the different colors in the girl's eyes and how they glitter under the sun) and actually sounds like a realistic dude. He's training to be an Army Ranger when he suffers an accident and dies. But then he comes back to life, wearing a mysterious metal cuff he can't take off. And he can heal like Wolverine.

Enter Seeker chic (love interest), who drops in to scoop Gideon on a road trip to find the rest of the horsemen, all the while fighting and escaping from the unsavory Kindred (aka the bad guys), who are after some heavenly key that only the Seeker knows about. Add some horsemen training, bonding and fighting, and that's the book in a nutshell.

What I really liked:

Gideon
Jode (Conquest)
The horses
The romance
The sarcasm
The hilarious scenes (I was laughing like an idiot in my car)

But even with all its positives, I still didn't love the book. I was never dying to find out what was next and was ok with not listening to the story for a couple of days at a time. And I'm not dying to get my hands on the next one either. I'm not sure why; I can't figure out what's missing for that wow factor.

Bottom line: it was a good, entertaining listen.

Needs to be fixed. Chapter 56 & 57 are the same.

Where does Riders rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Overall I enjoyed the story, but it is extremely annoying when there are errors. There is an echo or 2 lines being read at the same time in one chapter, then the repeated chapter 56.

Please Send My Apocalyptic Horse Via Snail Mail

SECOND REVIEW:
I reread this book before reading the sequel, Seeker. This time around, I listened to the audiobook, which was fantastic. I'm glad I listened, because I couldn't remember enough to move forward with the second book. I hate that feeling of confusion, and it was nice to revisit this story. I really enjoy Gideon's POV and sense of humor.

FIRST REVIEW:

I received an ARC of RIDERS through a Twitter contest and quickly fell in love. This story isn’t even published yet, and I’m anxious for the next one. I would beg Veronica Rossi to let me beta read book two, if that didn’t seem so desperate and stalkerish.

If you were a fan of UTNS, which I was (a serious fan), then you should know this story is absolutely, completely different. The contrast makes me want to fill my review with useless adverbs and adjectives, just to try to explain it to you. If you read a sample of both, I don’t believe you’d guess the same author wrote the stories.

I love that, because RIDERS is its own, different, fantastic story with a unique voice. It snuck its way into my heart with interesting characters and an amazing premise, which goes to show that a good writer can bring something new and different to every story.

I won’t summarize the plot, because everyone else will. Instead, I want to say that Veronica Rossi writes beautifully flawed characters that I adore and relate to. If you wrote a list of Gideon’s flaws down on paper, he wouldn’t seem like the kind of guy I’d want to be friends with, but he captured my heart (and often my sympathy), bit by bit, with the non-apologetic way his mind works. He reminded me that actions matter, but you also need to look past those to see a person’s deeper intentions, if you really want to understand someone.

The story shifts back and forth between past and present, and I really enjoyed how it all came together. Despite all the struggles and hardships, I want to be one of the boys and have my own horse, and I think that says everything. It’s a world I hated to leave and can’t wait to return to.

In search of identity .....do I have to choose ?

There are a lot of cool concepts in this story.... But you know there is always a butt, there was just something missing from the mix. The horses were a new touch, the armor, the weapons were really a neat touch. The talents of the characters were a reminder of Avatar the movie. All in all this story is worth the read and a credit, but again it will not become a classic tale

Fantastic all around!

Loved the story, narration... ALL OF IT! Great book, Veronica Rossi is just an amazing author and the narrator just perfectly fit!

I had high hopes

I am a big fan of Rossi’s. Outside of the Hunger Games and Twilight, the Delirium series is one of my all time favorite YA series and helped really get me into The genre. But this book I couldn’t even finish. I couldn’t get into the story or relate to the characters. I wasn’t thrilled with the narrator either. Just a bummer all the way around because I really wanted to like this!