Review of The Great Pack, Deathless series book 4 by Chris Fox
Narrated by: Ryan Kennard Burke
Series: Deathless, Book 4
Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
The reviews on audible for this book are all shouting high praise, but to be honest… I was glad it was finished.
So that says something in itself.
I got the Deathless Collection book, check out my review here. But basically that includes books 1, 2, 3 & the prequel book to this series.
Again, it starts off in a very basic sense, talking about werewolves and ancient civilisations, then adds more mystery and more intrigue, but then slowly adds more and more characters/ species, gods etc. and in the end, you realise that if you were to come in mid-way through the 3rd book, you just be like ‘well, this book is batshit crazy’ and you’d put it down and never pick it up again.
Well… the 4th book is adding even more stuff to the story line, and its reached a proper point of being absolutely batshit crazy.
This.. is the official publishers summary:
Five years later:
Set has been vanquished, but victory demanded a bitter price. The First Ark’s detonation flung the new Ark Lords five years into the future. They emerge into a world ruled by deathless, demons, and old things that have awoken from the sleep of ages.
Hades and the mysterious Grey Men have paved the way for the return of the Builders, slowly conquering the world. Only one part of their plan remains, seizing control of the Proto-Ark rumored to lay somewhere deep in the Amazonian jungle. Hades sends his demonic enforcer, Nox, once known as the Director, to claim their prize. If they succeed, the invasion of the Builders will finally begin.
Only the trio of returning Ark Lords has a prayer of stopping Nox, but they face problems of their own. Blair and Liz arrive in Northern California to find Angel Island deserted, and San Francisco controlled by a kingdom of deathless. Jordan and Trevor return to Peru where werewolves have founded a new religion worshiping the Mother. A religion that preaches that Trevor is the ancient enemy and must be destroyed. Only Jordan can save him, if he can finally learn to trust an old enemy.
Win or lose, the Builders are coming. They need an army. They need The Great Pack.
I doubt anyone can read that, and not be like ‘wtf is going on?’
Even people who have read/listened to the whole series up until this point… it just starts losing the excitement of it, because it just keeps adding.
My favourite character in this series so far was Trevor, ie the deathless (zombie race) with the nuclear green glowing eyes, whose exploration of his powers with Irakesh as his master in book 2 was really exciting. But in this book, there is much less character development of the characters already in place, and… much much less of this great character.
All in all, the book feels like a filler book for a grand culmination in hopefuly a 5th and final book.
I WILL listen to the 5th book, but mainly because I just want this series to end and have that sense of completion with the story having a decent wrap up.
Narration/ Performance.
Was great, nothing bad to say in this department.
Recommendation?
No, I wouldn’t really recommend this book.
In fact, this book has put me off other Chris Fox books, which is not good because he looks like he has a lot of talent… its just that he went overboard with this particular book… so much so, that it turned a decent series into a not so great one.
If you made it through the Deathless Collection book, ie the 1, 2, 3, 0.5 ….AND you managed to get this book 4 in a sale, Only then would I recommend going for it.
Otherwise give it a pass.
Story has gone downhill a bit, and Listenability has also gone down hill because it seems the plot is getting more and more convoluted without solving any of the setups that it started with.
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