Narrated by: Ryan Kennard Burke
Series: Deathless, Book 0.5 –>3
Length: 40 hrs and 57 mins

1st of all, this is the publisher’s summary:
Warning: May contain Egyptian gods, werewolves, power armour, and a world-ending apocalypse
A pyramid predating all known cultures appears without warning. Its discovery throws into question everything we know about the origins of mankind.
Inside lies incredible technology, proof of a culture far more advanced than our own. Something dark lurks within, eager to resume a war as old as mankind. When it is unleashed, it heralds the end of our species’ reign.
A plague of werewolves spreads across the world. A sunspot larger than anything in recorded history begins to grow. Yet both pale in comparison to the true threat, the evil the werewolves were created to fight.
“It’s like Indiana Jones went through the Stargate and ended up in Aliens versus Predator.” – One of the author’s totally biased friends

The summary was interesting enough, yet it sounds a bit complicated, plus the cover art looks like something from the 1980’s or something.
But the reason why I decided to give it a try in the end was because of the previous reviews available on audible.

Plus, the fact that it is a compilation of 4 books, available for 1 credit.  So if I liked the series, then to finish it, I only have to buy 1 more book rather than use 5 credits total.

Books included:
Book 1, No Such Thing As Werewolves 14 hrs 19 mins
Book 2, No Mere Zombie 12 hrs 44 mins
Book 3, Vampires Don’t Sparkle 12 hrs and 14 mins
Book 0.5, The First Ark: Deathless Prequel 1 hr and 32 mins

So, glad I got this book, because it was much better than I expected.

In my own words, (something that hopefully adds a bit more to the story), the story essentially combines an end of the world event with Egyptian gods that have managed to shape and create a virus to stave off death, and struggle for authority and control of the world.

Although it’s obviously based in fiction, you end of learning a lot about Egyptian mythology, the characters and the relations between them all.

The short story-arc is that when an obsidian black coloured pyramid has arisen in the South American jungle which seems to predate anything that has been discovered before; a team of scientists are called in my a mysterious organisation known as Mohn corp to uncover the truth about what this pyramid may hold.  Werewolves being among the secrets.

The long story-arc mainly follows Isis, her husband Osiris, Ra who is actually Sekmet in this story, and Set as they struggle for control and power.

Originally Isis found an Ark (refuge place for knowledge left by an earlier civilisation) and with the help of the hologram keeper of the Ark called Ka, creates a virus which she hopes can bring back her dead husband.
As it turns out though, the virus is the preliminary step in creating zombie immortals with the essence of the keeper Ka which has been corrupted, telling them to feed, and grow stronger.

The even longer story-arc has something to do with ‘the builders’ and the fact that with each 13,000 year cycle (Mayan calendar) as the earth gets warmer, there’s a chance that they return to earth to re-colonise.

The builders being the original creators of the Arks (obsidian black pyramids)

Combined mythologies/ philosophies
The author does a great job of combining different mythologies over the ages into not just a workable story, but an interesting one.

He ends up combining Egyptian mythology, the stories of Isis, Osiris, Set, Sekmet, Anubis Irakesh, Ra etc, the concept of ‘Ka’ (spirit); with Greek mythology such as the gods of Olympus – Hades, Vulcan, Zeus etc. As well as the ideas that ‘builders’ or possibly beings not from this world were the original creators of the Egyptian pyramids, Mayan buildings and many other great structures around the world.  Also adding in the beliefs of the Mayans and their beliefs with the cycle of the calendars.

He manages to combine all of this with the science of viruses, sun flares, warming and cooling cycles of the earth etc., into a story that supports the concept of werewolves, zombies and vampires which were simply the meddling of powers, that people at the time were not capable of understanding.

Listenability
It’s like a guilty pleasure of just having 41 hours of zone-out enjoyment in 1 book.
You would think so many potential things happening all at once, like the summary states… Werewolves, Zombies, Aliens, Egyptian gods…. would just be too much to take. But because the author adds all of these things gradually, it’s actually a very enjoyable story.

The plot outline for book 4 sounds utterly crazy, however as the previous books have added things so incrementally… things pretty much make sense.

The fact that the story just builds and builds, and keeps things interesting by adding more characters and introduces more powers that each character realises, and the different take on what Werewolves, Zombies and even Vampires were and what they are capable of is an enjoyable journey.

For example all the ‘Deathless’ (people that have some sort of a virus which modifies their DNA, helping them to become more or less immortal) , they all have different powers, and different limitations.

The Zombies in this story are actually capable of functioning more like gods with insane powers, such as learning through eating another’s brain, growing stronger & faster and even energy manipulation.

The Werewolves have different abilities based on either being female or male, but generally have increased strength, healing factor, ability to talk to canines, ‘blurring’ (moving incredibly fast) ability, blend into shadows and a host of others.

The constant exploration and discovery of powers from all the different factions ensures that the story is always entertaining. The story was much better than my expectations.
And, for sure I’ll be listening to book 4.

Narration & character development
Narration was great, absolutely nothing to complain about here.
The characters and character development was great also

Recommendation
All in all, it definitely has my recommendation, and it’s incredible value for 1 credit.
The only thing that I’ll add, is that its not written to be a humorous book, just an entertaining one.
There are a few little jokes and reference throughout, but its not a core component of the book.

That being said, if Sci-fi, fantasy is not your ideal genre, then of course this book is not for you.