The Black

By: Paul E. Cooley

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Under 30,000 feet of water, the experimental exploration rig Leaguer has discovered an oil field larger than Saudi Arabia, with oil so sweet and pure, nations would go to war for the rights to it.

But as the team starts drilling exploration well after exploration well in their race to claim the sweet crude, a deep rumbling beneath the ocean floor shakes them all to their core. Something has been living in the oil, and it's about to give birth to the greatest threat humanity has ever seen.

The first book in Paul E Cooley's Parsec Award-winning series, The Black is a suspenseful thriller that puts the horror and action of movies such as Leviathan and Carpenter's The Thing right into listeners' hands.

This second edition includes a completely revised text.

©2022 Shadowpublications.com; 2nd edition (P)2022 Fireside Audio

The Black

I enjoyed this book, it’s unlike anything I’ve listened to before but was full of action and suspense. I think it was well worth reading or listening to

Good character development & plot.

Enjoyed it very much. Will read the sequels. There shouldn’t be a 15-word minumum.

Interesting

This is an interesting story. A different story from your normal book. Really enjoyed, very exciting. Recommend listen.

Good story but not much world building to me

Not bad, maybe not something I'd read again, but not bad. Read it on recommendation to it having The Thing vibes, which it kinda does. 2 main gripes. First is the world building was not really constructed. No place was described to the point I could picture it, so it was sort of hard to visualize what was going on in some scene, especially with character names changing from first to last usage constantly which also made it hard to keep track. Or if it wasn't between first and last names, at least the sudden jump between characters we never met, I honestly couldn't tell you unless I got a physical copy and color coded names. Second gripe is that if I took a shot for everytime I heard "[character] opened their mouth but then closed it" as a response to someone not having an answer, I could have downed a whole bottle of alcohol. Final note is anything really happening wasn't until the last 25%, which I get is try to build tension but still.

Decent concept, well performed.

Liked a few of the characters. Interesting concept but poorly executed in my opinion as someone who loves Eldritch horror.
No buildup or true terror — just flat storytelling and resolution.