Bewilderness Part Two: What Rough Beast

Bewilderness #2

by Jonathan Maberry, Shayna Small (Narrator)

The Gateway Project was going to save our world by opening up a doorway to infinite versions of our planet. But the threshold has gone completely out of control, sending all those other Earths onto a collision course with ours. Now, our reality is cracking apart.

Abby Corman did not open the Gateway, but she is the only one who knows how to close it. But an alien Hunter and her pack of deadly hellcats have stepped into our world, and they will stop at nothing to kill Abby. Because in a universe of parallel worlds, one Earth’s savior can be the worst criminal other Earths have ever known.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Thriller, Novella, Action, Fantasy

Audible Audio

Published January 7, 2021

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[* A Reader Obsessed * · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This is when science and the best intentions go so very wrong.

The portal to access multiple parallel worlds is open, and Abby desperately goes about trying to close the gateway, all the while fighting a killer from another dimension as well as avoiding not getting eaten by the terrifying creatures that have crossed over.

Following multiple characters trapped in the building with said monsters, this is a fight for survival in the most extreme!

So if you want action and suspense with not a small amount of gruesome horror, laced with some ethics, science, and a smidge of romance, then check out this story!

- only available on audible.com and possibly free to subscribers depending on which country you’re from -

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes:

Solid follow up to the first book. Good mix of action, learning about what's happening & clean mini-arc that connects from the first book and lay the path to the final installment.

[D.K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pact and action pick up from Book 1.

[Udy Kumra · Rating 4 out of 5]

2/10/23: 4 stars. Very fun sci-fi horror.

[Māris Seimanovs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of many-worlds sci-fi and I had high hopes for this one. Maybe I would have liked it, had I read it before some other great books on the subject (Peter Cline's 14 series, Dark Matter by David Crouch, etc.). In comparison, Bewilderness felt bleak and sometimes even annoying.

At first, the individual books felt too short. No reason to make a trilogy, really. Then, chapters in the books also are very short. You keep switching places and characters almost every few sentences. Annoying.

Also, it has very cliche characters who are overly stereotypical villains and heroes and talk with pathos, and also do not learn from their mistakes.

I'll try to reproduce an example from the book without spoiling too much.

Intense fight scene.
Person A: - Hey, why are you accusing her? Yes, she did this and that, but she didn't ... (interrupted by an attack).
A minute passes.
Person B: - Hey, why are you accusing me? Yes, I did this and that, but I didn't ... (interrupted by an attack... again!).

Now you see what this book is about. The protagonist does not attempt to deliver the truth ASAP that could stop the fight, even after her colleague was attacked while talking too long. And even later she continues to linger. Come on! Why not spill it out immediately and stop the fight? Oh, then we would not have a few chapters with fight scenes.

I guess, my expectations were too high. If you want something easy, action-packed, and unpretentious then this book is good enough.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the continuation of an Audible Original series about what happens when scientists try to open a threshold into another dimension and things go VERY bad. For some reason, this part did not wow me as much as part one, but I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea how this is going to end.

This entire book takes place in the skyscraper that houses the Threshold and it focuses on several different groups who are all on different floors of the building. There are lots of monsters, different creatures and an otherworldly "Hunter" who is after Abby Corman as the "Destroyer of Worlds".

Apparently, the next part is the conclusion and since this part left off with a huge cliffhanger, it will be interesting to see where we go from here. I will say this though, the character of Sloane (?) - the woman who ACTUALLY set everything in motion - is one of those very rare characters in books where you cannot stand the character and wouldn't mind if one of the scary monsters actually bit her in half....yet unfortunately, she is still safe. Honestly though, she really is an awful person.

So - now we wait for the final chapter in the story...we shall see....

[Dale Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The portal is open, flashing through alternate Earths, one after another. Creatures have come through, and our Earth is changing, incorporating itself with those alternates. David is trying to find a way into the building, in to find Abby.

Abby is on the run from the hunter, trying to find a way to close the threshold, trying to hold on to her sanity, trying to save as many others as she can. The pulses keep coming. And the hunter is right behind, looking for Abby.

The second book in the Bewilderness series starts up right where book one ended. Shayna Small’s narration of the Audible version carries you right along, caught up in the story as if you were there. The story is fast paced, even if both books so far are mostly taking place in one building. A building in lockdown while the world starts to implode. But, inside isn’t any better, in fact it may be much, much worse.

Midway through, I came up with a hypothesis on what was going on. I caught a vibe about a couple of Bruce Willis movies, and another of a Ray Bradbury story. One of those was borne out. The others - well, I’ll have to see. I’ll let you know after book three.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is not good. I love Maberry's other stuff, but this is a big miss. Good story idea, but cartoon characters, and surprisingly bad writing. It's like the book was finished, then some grad student was assigned to go in and randomly add 500 adjectives and adverbs with a thesaurus in hand. Just awful. And Maberry cannot write female characters. AT ALL. Really terrible. Just cliché stick figures. And the woman they chose to do the audio book is BAD. The lead character is named Abby, and her boyfriend says/moans "Abbeh" 300 times in 11 hours. So bad. A real wasted opportunity, with a good original story idea.

[Chapter Pumpkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I thought that the ending was slightly plot twist, slightly I kind of guessed it. I’m loving the story so far but I am starting to see a lot of storylines that are similar to that of the show/comic The Flash. Without giving away any spoilers, I think that the plot twists in the book were a lot more surprising and enjoyable than the first book and I really liked that aspect of the book. I will be racing to listen to the last book right now. Oh, and I do NOT like Sloane’s character at all and you will see for yourself why I think this!

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. This series/trilogy is so frustrating. I'm a fan of Maberry, a big fan of many of his other series, but this reads like someone else wrote it. Seriously, some things that are said don't fit the situation or the character(s), are repeated for no reason, etc. I really wish this was a more enjoyable story for us, instead it's become something we're determined to/pushing ourselves to finish just to see how it's wrapped up. *sigh*

(✯✯½; listened to audiobook w/hubby)

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good follow-up to part one. I was worried the hunter would be a simple villain instead of something interesting, and I was glad to be wrong and spend nearly as much time in her head as Abby’s. I was proud of myself for guessing the twist maybe halfway through and can’t wait to see that expanded upon in part three.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again although Sci Fi is not my preferred genre, I'm enjoying this series. I think that's because the story is as much about the characters as what is happening around them. This one was certainly more in the Sci Fi realm, but still enjoyable, I predicted the little twist at the end of this story. I look forward to listening to the last one to see what happens.

[Graeme O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun continuation of Part One, providing plenty of action and terrifying atmosphere. The pros and cons of the previous part are flipped on its head here - now there is plenty of action, but there is a less-than-ideal amount of character work. With a solid cliffhanger expectations are now high for Part Three to finish strong.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight up continuation of the first story in the series picks up exactly where the other left of and just keeps rolling along only to end up at another cliff hanger ending.

Still fun and entertaining without challenging the brain even a little bit.

[Karsyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Approx 118 pages

This one was alright, though I hope we weren't supposed to be surprised by the end. Wasn't surprised by anything that happened through any of them. It was good for listening to something quick for the readaton.

[Dante · Rating 4 out of 5]

This filled in several missing elements and expanded your knowledge of the world and characters. Certainly don’t like Sloan and really thought she would be taken down sooner but maybe this is where the bad guy wins, a great character to hate! lol

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues the first one and the cliffhanger has me thirsting for the last installment.

[HobbitFromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw that coming, I knew it was one of two people.

[Julie Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great continuation of the story, and things are amped up even more. I am immediately diving in to book 3!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, fast paced, and entertaining story.

[Isca Silurum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sloppy writing and editing, security no Mobile phones, everyone has mobile phone? 🤔

Listen if free and do not expect much!

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a short and entertaining second installment, but the overall plot was a little bit predictable. I mean, when I can predict what is going to happen, its pretty obvious. :)

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun. I am loving this trilogy.

[Jason Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tension was broken and the story struggled for a bit but the ending was compelling enough that I will continue.

[Alexander · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible overall, I haven’t read anything this bad since the second and third Primordia books. You could not pay me enough to read the third book in this series!

[Brian Layman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like a serial movie including explainations of things the characters learned in the last installment.

[BH Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book better than the first. It is sort of a Stargate/sliders goes way haywire with some semi-invincible protagonist moments.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short, but good nonetheless. The talented author shines as usual, despite this being a very common trope used and recycled ad infinitum.

[Andreas Acevedo Dunlop Strom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still excellent. The nightmarish world(s) and events Maberry conjures here brings to mind elements of Tim Lebbon's Coldbrook, Stephen King's The Mist, H P Lovecraft and, yes, Stargate. It all works wonderfully. Fastpaced and actionfilled fun.