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    Awakened: A Novel
    Awakened: A Novel
    Awakened: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Awakened: A Novel

    Written by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

    Narrated by James S. Murray

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The star of truTV’s hit show Impractical Jokers—alongside veteran sci-fi and horror writer Darren Wearmouth—delivers a chilling and wickedly fun supernatural novel in the vein of The Strain, in which a beautiful new subway line in New York City unearths an ancient dark horror that threatens the city’s utter destruction and the balance of civilization itself.

    After years of waiting, New York's newest subway line is finally ready, an express train that connects the city with the burgeoning communities across the Hudson River. The shining jewel of this state-of-the-art line is a breathtaking visitors’ pavilion beneath the river.  Major dignitaries, including New York City’s Mayor and the President of the United States, are in attendance for the inaugural run, as the first train slowly pulls in.

    Under the station’s bright ceiling lights, the shiny silver cars gleam. But as the train comes closer into view, a far different scene becomes visible.

    All the train’s cars are empty.

    All the cars’ interiors are drenched in blood.

    As chaos descends, all those in the pavilion scramble to get out. But the horror is only beginning. High levels of deadly methane fill the tunnels. The structure begins to flood. For those who don’t drown, choke or spark an explosion, another terrifying danger awaits—the thing that killed all those people on the train. It’s out there…and it’s coming.

    There's something living beneath New York City, and it's not happy we've woken it up.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9780062800381
    Author

    James S. Murray

    James S. Murray is a writer, executive producer, and actor, best known as “Murr” on the hit television show Impractical Jokers on truTV. He is also one of the stars of the TV show The Misery Index on TBS along with his comedy troupe, The Tenderloins. He has worked as the Senior Vice President of Development for NorthSouth Productions for a decade, is the owner of Impractical Productions, LLC, and is the author of the international bestselling novels Awakened and The Brink. Originally from Staten Island, he now lives in Princeton, NJ. Facebook / Twitter: @ jamessmurray Instagram: @TheRealMurr

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    Reviews for Awakened

    3.5/5

    106 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Good creature tales are hard to find! Exciting and fun-yet smart!
    • 1/5
      A bundle of narrative clichés bundled with poorly written dialogue. Pretty rough.
    • 4/5
      Good book. Love all the hints for the next book!
    • 2/5
      Eh...This story left me feeling more annoyed than excited. It felt amateurish due to the lack luster communication between characters which seemed unatural and forced. The narrator enhanced the deficit in the character development and relationships even more. The narrator actually made the story so hard to get through, note to self...AVOID OTHER BOOKS NARRATED BY HIM. He was rushed with very little to discern between characters. A good narrator might have made this story tolerable. All in all I guess I hated it. Why 2 stars? Because I've heard worse.
    • 1/5
      The xenomorph-inspired monsters start of scary, but as their powers and abilities are expanded they become silly, then boring. The conspiracy and political bits are entirely unnecessary, and the political bits are especially clumsy. Instead of wasting your time with this book go stare at a wall for nine hours.
    • 4/5
      This was a fast paced horror novel involving conspiracies and things that go bump in the underground subway tunnels. Looking forward to book 2!
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Yes, it is far-fetched and rather gory, but I am a sucker for these kind of books. It reminded me a lot of James Rollins' Subterranean and even Excavation. Fantastical creatures abound and the story is fairly predictable, but hey, it was fun.

      The story left a lot of unanswered questions, but clearly a sequel is in the world. I can't wait.
    • 4/5
      A romance set in the middle of the 12th century in England. The Earl of Pembroke is marrying off his daughter to a knight twice her age for political reasons, intending to kill his son-in-law at some later date.
    • 1/5
      Very disappointing. It was promoted as being like « The Strain ». Not even close. This book had ever cliché in the genre. Monsters, an evil organization , damsels in distress , heroes a plenty , over the top mayhem, etc. This appears to be the start of a series. Please save us from any more of this junk
    • 4/5
      Very good. As usual for a Gellis, it's as much about politics (of the time of Stephen) as it is a romance about Cain and Leah. There's a lot of misunderstandings, and suppression of comments, but it's not, strictly speaking, a misunderstanding trope. More "I am not worthy" plus mistrust. Leah is totally on Cain's side, as no one ever has been before; he can't believe it, so is constantly looking for plots and schemes in what she says (not without reason, her connections are entirely untrustworthy). Leah also had never had anyone, except her mother, trust or care for her, and her experience of men has been limited but bad - an abusive father, mostly. She can't believe Cain cares about her for herself at all. And all this plays out against plots and politics, assassination plans and years-long schemes to steal land and foment rebellion. Very good, and had me crying at several points. More Gellis, please (yes, the more stories in this bundle). Oh, minor note - there are quite a few scannos and mis-formatted bits - I need to check if that's how it came or if I messed stuff up in calibre (I forget if I changed formats). For instance, all the en-dashes disappeared - a lot of "II..." when there should have been "I - I...", and dosed for closed, and the like. Never quite threw me out of the story, but distracting at best.
    • 2/5
      The audiobook looked interesting at the beginning, but was ultimately dissapointing. The good idea of monsters appearing in New York underground. However underdeveloped cardboard characters and for whatever reason plot to kill president and a powerfull evil "foundation" in background (why? aren't "Alien like" monsters under New York enough?). No real emotions, there are many bloody scenes, but those who die there do not look alive in the first place.
      I have listened to about half of the audiobook and it was enough.
    • 5/5
      this book had so many suspenseful moments. i loved it. the characters were amazing. i cant wait for the next two books.
    • 3/5
      Stephen King taught us that the author should never narrate than audiobook. Talking faster and slurring syllables doesn't increase the tension. Took my evaluation of the story way down due to the distraction.
    • 2/5
      The theme of the abominable, blood-thirsty creature hunting humans in dark, confined spaces is one that’s been used often to promote a claustrophobic feeling of horror in the readers or viewers, one of the best examples being that of the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise. Awakened multiplies this effect by creating a veritable horde of terrifying critters haunting the bowels of New York’s subway system.Mayor Tom Cafferty’s crowning achievement is the implementation of the Z Train track connecting the city of New York with neighboring New Jersey by digging under the Hudson River. Despite a major incident during the construction - an incident that opens the book with an adrenaline-infused, and quite ominous, prologue - the ambitious project is finally ready for inauguration, and the state of the art terminal station is packed with guests and media people, and even graced by the arrival of the President.The expectant crowd waiting for the first train is however first mystified by its delayed arrival after loss of communication, and then shocked by the appearance of the wrecked, empty cars, gruesomely drenched in blood. The first hypothesis of a terrorist attack is strengthened by rising levels of methane gas that could kill the attending crowds in a short time, and the situation is made worse by the total lockdown imposed by Secret Service agents bent on protecting the President’s life. It soon becomes evident, however, that the attack on the train was no terrorist strike and that the so-far untapped depths under the city are home to an ages-old menace that’s been disturbed by recent human activities and is now out for blood…Awakened is the kind of “popcorn thriller/horror” that relies heavily on plot and does not care much about characterization, and as such it could have worked very well for a total immersion in a scary, monsters-of-the-week story asking only for a modicum of suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately the authors choose to reach beyond the parameters of this kind of narrative and added further elements, like a decade-old secret organization born out of a former Nazi’s plans, or a conspiracy theory linked to this organization and involving various world governments. On the positive side, I enjoyed the mounting terror experienced by the people trapped in the subway station, and the escalation of the stakes building against their survival, and even though the characterization was somewhat stereotyped, it was of the kind one can expect in this kind of narrative environment: from the quiet guy turning hero to the unexpected double player who betrays the others, to the estranged wife seeking solace elsewhere - the downside is, unfortunately, that the reader is unable to bond with any of them and rarely cares about their survival or early demise. The environment of the oppressive subway tunnels is made even more disturbing by the awareness of the tons of water under which the galleries run, and together with the other elements - the monsters, the methane levels, the impossibility of using conventional weapons because of the explosive danger - makes for a compelling story that simply begs to be consumed quickly.The negatives, however, gather more and more weight as the novel progresses: the harvesting of pregnant women by the creatures is never explained, and the scene of one of them slowly opening a victim’s shirt with a talon feels more ludicrous than scary; the monsters themselves generate a lot of unexplained questions: we are told that they are intelligent and quick learners, for example, and yet they seem little more than pack animals grunting their way toward the intended victims, while in other instances they exhibit the ability to perfectly mimic human voices to lure people toward their demise. These are minor annoyances, still, in the face of bigger ones like the representation of the shady Foundation for Human Advancement, which for decades has been keeping the creatures at bay while blackmailing governments for funds: this truly baffled me, because no one seems to be aware of those demons’ existence, and yet politicians have been funding the organization for decades on the basis of pure… faith, for want of a better word. And let’s not go into the Nazi origins of the group, because it feels like such an overused trope, the kind that worked well in the early Bond movies and here is resurrected, complete with the required scene in which the evil guy details his dastardly plans to the heroes while gleefully twirling his mustache.It was disappointing to see how a novel with the potential to be a good - if somewhat predictable - science fiction/horror story slowly downgraded into a clutter of ideas haphazardly thrown together with little rhyme or reason, which in the end defied its initial purpose. As Coco Chanel was fond of saying about her dressing philosophy, less is more, and it’s a pity that the writers decided to ignore this little piece of wisdom, burdening their story with so much unnecessary baggage.
    • 4/5
      Let's face it. I was drawn to this book because it was written by Murr from Impractical Jokers. I love that show. I went to see their tour last year. I am a big fan. I don't know how much was written by Murr and how much by his co-author. I like to think Murr contributed an equal amount to this.

      The story reminded me of two of my favorite horror books, The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone and The Descent by Jeff Long. In all of these books, humanity is threatened by a heretofore unknown species living underground. I like this idea. To me, under the earth is a scary place. I can't imagine why people enjoy exploring underground caverns. It is just too much.

      In Awakened, we get into trouble by digging an underground subway tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey. Not only is the tunnel underground, it is also under the Hudson River. So not only do our heroes have to deal with the killer inhabitants, but also the methane rich atmosphere in the tunnels, and the threat of tunnel collapse bringing in the water and drowning them all.

      The story contains some likable heroes, some terrible villains, double crosses and some mild political intrigue. (I generally don't like political thrillers, but this was mainly a horror book so it was ok) The ending is a definite set up to the next book in the series. I had a lot of fun reading this book and I am glad I did. The story was interesting, I was rooting for the people to make it to safety.
    • 2/5
      I could not finish this book. I love the story line but just can't read the vivid descriptions and graphic content. I gave it stars because I really wanted to read it, I was very interested in finding out what was going on, but, honestly, it creeped me out.So, if you are not bothered by graphic content and love science fiction, this would be a great book for you to read!
    • 5/5
      So Intense!!! This was an extremely hard to put down, non stop thriller/horror, with something new to cause nightmares! Fans of James Rollins, Jeremy Robinson, Warren Fahy, and Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child will love this book. I highly recommend this title.