Code Breakers: Alpha

By: Colin F. Barnes

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

In a post-apocalyptic future, humanity survives within a single city run by a shadowy benefactor known only as The Family. Each week, the death lottery claims more lives and Gerry Cardle, head of the lottery, inexplicably finds himself next on the list. Something's wrong with the system. A deadly artificial intelligence has breached security. Gerry has just seven days to live. Forced off the grid, Gerry has to do the unthinkable: willingly leave the city. What he finds in the abandoned lands will shatter his perception of what it means to be human. Everything he had been told before was a lie. In a deadly world of conspiracies, Gerry has to sacrifice everything he loves in order to save it, and time is running out.

©2016 Binary Books Ltd (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Fairly predictable

Anyone who knows Bladerunner, The Matrix and other well known stories won't be surprised by this plot.

Not for real techies

I had a really hard time with this. My 20 year background in IT makes much of the dialog and usage of the concepts very difficult to enjoy. The narrator reads the technical aspects of the story the way I expect my mom would read me a technical manual. Pronouncing the words correctly, but really not knowing what they mean, putting emphasis on the wrong parts of the words, overly dramatic inflections in the wrong places. I love sci-fi, but the story, narrator and ridiculous cliff-hanger made me decide to not continue with this series. If I had paid full price for this I would be extremely salty.

One challenge after an other…

Mzny challenges face a highly intelligent person in an Alternate future, faced with an alternate reality he had grown up unaware of..

An interesting dystopian technothriller

3.75 out of 5 stars

Sometimes a book hits you at the right time. And sometimes it hits you at the wrong time. I've had this happen to me on numerous occasions. When I first started Code Breakers: Alpha I had a really hard time getting into it. It was a confusing techno-world that I should have loved. So, instead of forcing my way through it and giving it a sub-par review. I decided to back-burner it. This might be the first time I've done this and gone back to the book and enjoyed it more. I'm glad that I did because I've been wanting to read this series for quite some time.

With that disclaimer out of the way, Code Breakers Alpha tells the story of Gerry who runs the lottery. Sadly, this isn't a lottery you want to win (any time I hear of a lottery that's not good all I can think of is the movie The Island [one of Michael Bay's best movies IMHO]). There is a lot going on with lots of undertones of "The Family" and a dystopian world that isn't all that it appears to be.

As I stated above. I had a really hard time getting into this book. But after taking a step back and just trying to enjoy the flow of the story -- everything started to fall into place. And soon after that Gerry (and the book) started to all makes sense to me. The book picked up and honestly I didn't look back.

The story itself was really enjoyable. I've read other stories like this with similar stories and similar protagonists but it was still nice to look at this another way. Barnes is a great storyteller and I just think that Code Breakers Alpha struggled from the first book syndrome that some first books have (I might have made this term up). An author has to explain who people are and why they do the things that they do -- but do that without confusing the reader or going into too much detail. It's a tightrope to walk and sometimes you fall.

The narration was done by Marc Vietor who does a great job. He made this book easy to listen to.

Overall, Code Breakers Alpha was an intro story that definitely had its moments. It's not a perfect book, but most aren't. By the end of it, I was glad that I'd read it and that there were more books in this series. I will definitely be continuing Code Breakers.

I was given a free copy of this book which has not affected my review in any way.

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CODE MONKEY

SO MUCH DATA, SO MUCH POSSIBLITY
This is fast paced and very, very tech, almost overly so. Everyday conversation is most likely going to have words related to computers, even if they are talking about going to the bathroom. I personally could not get into it, but I do see where several people will like it. I could not connect to the characters and it was too much to fast for me. Someone just about dies or does die every five minutes. It begin by reminding me of Clarke's, City of The Stars, only as if it was written by William Gibson. It will probably make a good B Movie.

I will not continue the series.