The Breakers Omnibus

Breakers #0.5-3

by Edward W. Robertson, Ray Chase (Narrator)

Books 1-3 and the prequel novella of the Breakers series. In the Breakers series, humanity faces not one apocalypse but two: first a lethal pandemic then a war against those who made the virus.

©2012 Edward W. Robertson (P)2015 Podium Publishing

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

Audible Audio

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Ed is the author of the post-apocalyptic Breakers series and the epic fantasy series The Cycle of Arawn. A former New Yorker and Idaho-guy, he currently lives in the LA area. His short fiction has appeared in a whole bunch of magazines and anthologies.

Reviews

[Ebony Irby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 2 books were pretty good. The last one was more of survival than alien takeover. 3/4 of the final book was 5 years on, and how humanity was the enemy more so that the alien invaders.

[Brittney Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Not bad. Not great.

[Lisa Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Cycle of Galand and The Cycle of Arawn, so I took the leap into the big 40 hour Audible Omnibus of Breakers. The apocalyptic story is not my favorite, but I trusted the author enough to give it a go. Breakers Book "0" was good. It was a little creepy living through Covid and listening to a story about a pandemic taking hold of the world. Book one backs up the story to the beginning of the Panhandler epidemic, this time with two sets of characters-- one east coast and one west-- what they live through and how they cope. It's slow, but ok. I keep wondering about the folks in Book Zero but we don't hear about them again (until book 4). As other reviewers lay out the plot moves along to where it's not about the epidemic anymore, most of the people are dead. I had to keep redirecting myself that there was no competition for resources as in The Walking Dead because most of the people died so there is plenty of stuff, just no power etc. The alien plot and new associates felt like they came out of the blue. A couple of the plot actions felt like the typical horror movie where the pretty girl goes down the basement alone and in the dark... Nooooooo! Book 2 starts off with the plague just starting (Again!) and new characters, of which 3 of 4 are unlikeable and unsympathetic. But book 3 picks up and becomes engaging and the second half of the series really picks up the pace.

And since I'm an audible listener, a comment about Ray Chase. His gravelly voice and pauses would be great for a sinister, threatening thriller or scary story, but since much of this book is relationship drama and story building it felt overdramatized and it took me a while to geet used to him and then acutally embrace his reading. Coincidentally, he got better as the plot pacing got better!

EDITED UPDATE WITH PERSPECTIVE-> Wow, Have I changed my tune! I still say Books 1-3 could use some serious editing but Robertson finally gets the series to pick up a dramatic pace and books 5-8 were virtually unputdownable! Through Books 0-3, Robertson tells the tale of several key characters to present the drama's core group to the reader in the entirety of their experience. We know why each one of them became the person they are by the time their adventures come together (in part or in totality) or at least begin to overlap. Then along comes Book 4 which us back to Elle, the story from THE PREQUEL (Book zero) that was left hanging. While this book introduces another new set of characters it also begins the intertwining of events. Book 5 begins the adventures in ernest and it made the books so much more enjoyable and unputdownable.

Last an update on Ray Chase (audible version)... He's grown on me so much! His tone in the early books echos Robertson's drama and somewhat tedious pacing. I felt it made it drag even more by giving a sinister feel, but as the books got a better pace so did his read. His chacterizations and voices were so good! Even two of the main male characters whose voices had been similarly deep and gravelly were still distinctive 8 books later when they were in the same story. Now I can't imagine listening to them without him.

Bottom line: it's not a pandemic story, it's not an alien story, it's a humanity story... both about man's inhumanity to man AND survival and salavation. BRAVO!

[Analecta Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit bittersweet - I do a lot of audio books, and a lot of physical reading. I would probably never have taken a gamble on this one, it was a new author for me, but a genre I like and a plot that sounded interesting, but the clincher for me was that for £7.99 (on Audible) you could get the whole trilogy, plus a novella prequel - an absolute bargain. I really enjoyed it the narration was really good, but there was a stretch in the story where the plot became all tree-hugging hippy $h!t and I have to say, it really put me off. I won't give that bit away, but then ensuing strand (which thankfully wasn't a prevailing one) really put me off. This tainted my enjoyment of the book overall, so I have reluctantly downgraded it. Sorry to you readers who like that sort of thing, but it didn't work for me - leave that stuff to Greta, thank you very much.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good end of the world and alien invasion sci fi! The characters are interesting and there are good twists and turns. Hard to predict!

[R.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A buddy of mine convinced me to try this series and I'm glad I did. It was funny...gritty and action-packed all the way to the very exciting end.

Well written and well-narrated.

[Jenni Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting mix of pandemic AND aliens, but it just goes on and on and on. The last book has a particularly unbelievable teen heroine.