The Nox

by Joe White, Catriona Ward, Lashana Lynch (Narrator)

2045, the Arctic Circle. A crew of six aboard the research vessel, The Nox, embark upon a voyage through the melting ice and Arctic dark in search of the last of the polar bears. The mission represents a ray of hope in a world ravaged by climate change, but it quickly becomes clear that some on board are in search of more than bears....

Isolation and the disorientation of 24/7 darkness soon have the group losing their grip on reality – accidents, nightmares, or hauntings – no one can be sure, but the voyage seems cursed. For Professor Clara Fitzgerald, the mission quickly turns from conservation to survival as she realises that danger lurks not only out on the ice, but on The Nox itself.

The Nox is a nightmare fuelled SciFi thriller that asks how far is too far to save the world.

Genres: Audiobook, Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery Thriller

4 pages, Audible Audio

First published October 13, 2022

Reviews

[Calvin Biss · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of 4 hours of my life . The characters were so bland I actually hoped they would all die . If I could give 0 stars I would .

[Emmett · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 rounded up because godlike generosity. This was bad. It was not good. I will not elaborate further.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A full-cast audiobook production of slightly under 4 hours of listening time.

I was underwhelmed. The captain mumbled a lot and was hard to understand, quite a few sound effects where hard to puzzle out, there was too much unnecessary music. The overacting of the voice actors was not my thing either.

The story had potential, but was not developed in a meaningful way in those 4 hours. There were some good ideas, but nothing much was made of any of them. It was unsatisfactory.

[Mike Finn · Rating 2 out of 5]

'The Nox' is an ambitious audible drama that overreaches itself.

The good things first:

The '3D Sound' technology is very impressive: immersive, complex, and spatial.

The cast all act their hearts out.

The story has some clever twists and some very tense moments.

There is a serious and sophisticated attempt to explore the textural differences between, dreaming, remembering and being awake and how those states can become harder to distinguish from one another in the Arctic dark after your circadian rhythms have been disrupted.

The things that overwhelm the good things.

The podcast format is annoying. I don't see the point of it. Why not just chapters? It was a distracting waste of time.

The 3D sound effects are pushed beyond their limits. Much of the story takes place in the dark, with minimal dialogue and no descriptive text, leaning entirely on the '3D sound experience' to let the listener understand what was going on. It worked but only some of the time and eventually became an obstacle to comprehension rather than an aid to storytelling.

The 'Am I awake or am I dreaming?' theme was carried so far that even the main character didn't know the answer and, by the end, I no longer cared.

The pacing of the final few chapters, sorry, episodes, felt slow to the point of being tedious. I hung on the end but I didn't get any value from the last ten per cent of the story.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off- I feel these reviews are harsh. I almost didn’t do this because of them. But I don’t feel it was that bad. I was still enjoying myself in the read. It was disorienting with not knowing what was real and not. But it does still have a conclusion, though I would’ve loved to have seen a little more of the world they were living in (still earth, just alternate reality).
Didn’t enjoy the voice actor of the captain- was way too hard to understand. Otherwise, I don’t regret reading this.
Catriona Ward (why I read it in the first place) only wrote two of the episodes- and not surprisingly they were my favorites.

[Mazzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great voice acting (particularly Kelly Paterniti, Kae Alexander, Chipo Chung and Lashana Lynch), a solid production and the story was all right.

[GҽɱɱαSM · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2*
Audiollibre dramatitzat, molt ben interpretat, amb uns efectes de so magnífics, una música que ho acompanya tot a la perfecció i fa venir calfreds i el Dolby Atmos, bruta. La trama és no lineal I pot resultar una mica confusa però es va aclarint a mida que avança la narració i conté uns girs argumentals sorprenents i interessants i, malgrat quedar tot ben lligat, no és una lectura gaire apta pels amants dels finals tancats.

[James Morpurgo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun and immersive with a solid cast of voice actors. Some good climate change themes but without being heavy handed with the subject. Being in a scripted play format, this story could have done more with the character development and better dialogue to carry the listener through and there was perhaps too much reliance on sound effects but otherwise better than I was expecting from seeing other reviews.

[Jerome Terrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great cast of characters but the story took a turn halfway through that left me confused…a lot of things didn’t make sense and was thrown together to make the plot more suspenseful but ultimately missed the mark.

[Nico]

I don't think I've read enough of these types of books to give it a fair rating. It's very immersive. Really good sound editing and voice acting. It's just a little wasted on the story which reminded me of Nightflyers which I hated. I cannot put into words how much I dislike "exploratory mission goes wrong because everyone goes crazy" type stories.

I like it more than the Graphic Audio type production though. If you're going for immersion, then go for it one hundred per cent.

[Abi Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk man. For the first half i was like wow what is everyone else on Goodreads complaining about but then it went downhill from there really. I was a bit bored and then a bit confused. I think I would have preferred it if it was straight up just a paranormal mystery haunting thing set a bit in the future rather than liked a science experiment gone wrong kind of thing, like I came here for a freaky ghost ship in the arctic, not fucked up corporate experiments.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[D.K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay, held my attention enough to want to find out what the big reveal.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. The first half is entertaining after that it is just bad.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up on it.

[Victoria Zigler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because the reviews on the Audible version made it sound like an excellent creepy read for Halloween. I was disappointed. I was led to believe it was a gripping read with excellent atmospheric sound-effects and a riveting plot. It wasn't. Oh, it had potential alright, and I've read worse. However, the sound-effects were pretty good but over-used to the point of quickly becoming annoying (you can only take so much huffing and puffing while wind blows and things make groaning sounds in the distance before you get sick of hearing it) the characters weren't relatable so I wasn't really all that bothered about whether any of them survived, and the plot moved in a way that made it impossible for me to get in to it. Honestly, it was only a combination of mild curiosity and being in the habit of always finishing a book I start that kept me reading until the end.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Aline Leal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the story itself was a bit confusing, coming back and forth. And I would've enjoyed more details about the characters. So the story is not perfect because it's short. Haha
The narration and the sound effects are amazing, it's super immersive.

[Rachel England-Brassy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arggghhh not what I expected: well enough read but tedious.

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one definitely had potential and the performances from the cast were brilliant, but it felt like the 2 writers had very different ideas of where the story was going so it didn’t feel at all cohesive and the 2nd half went into what felt like a completely weird direction.

I think it suffered from being too similar to another Audible original from this year - The Sound At The End. Both were set in the Arctic doing research, both psychological, both had unreliable narrators. A lot of the characters are similar too. Neither are brilliant, but this definitely wasn’t the best of the two.

[Niamh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The acting was mostly fine. The sound effects were done well, although far too much huffing and puffing, panting and mumbling. The script, especially the dialogue, was very poor. There were some potentially interesting themes hiding in there trying to get out.
Overall, I felt that it dragged on and on. It felt like a chore every time I'd press play again. It took me quite a while to finish it, despite it being so short, and even though I got so fed up half way through that I increased the speed.
I would not recommend this to anyone.

[Don · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another short read, this one is about an expedition to the Artic Circle sometime in the not-too-distant future in search of polar bears, thought to be extinct. The research vessel, called the Nox, is carrying the Captain and about a handful of scientists with different specialties. The Nox is aided by a computer of the same name. Shortly after its departure, things begin to go haywire. The scientists begin having auditory and visual hallucinations, accidents, and nightmares. The trip is not what it seems, and they begin dying one by one. There's much heavy-handed dialogue about climate change as well.

This was produced in podcast format. A few of the voice actors are too similar in sound, making it difficult for me to keep track of what character is speaking. Also, there is too much extraneous noise (wind blowing, bear cubs screeching, etc.) distracting me from the speaker. Not too my liking.

[Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Catriona Ward’s name and had to do it. This was a novella type listen with a full cast and production, which were top notch. I was enthralled with this listen! Some parts felt so disjointed but once I realized what was going on, I was enraptured and thrilled with the read. I’m still a little befuddled by the ending but I think I’m supposed to be. When I first ended this, I was like, “Wow, this was amazing!” But now that I’ve sat on it for a little bit, I think it’s great… but maybe not so amazing. I did like that we are told who wrote which episode and Catriona ended up only writing two of them. White is an amazing writer from what I can gather from this listen and their episodes went seamlessly. I can see how this would probably be a love it or hate it kind of story/listen. I’m on the positive side of the reviews on this one.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this. It hit a lot of my tropes. It progressed well maybe a little quick. I would have liked to feel more of the suspense and got dragged into the characters better..
The characters were a bit empty I didn’t get drawn into there story very well. You even humanised the scientist who tricked them and it became hard to conceptualise the bad guy when the protagonist just suddenly was ok with being tricked, which is why I would have elaborated more on the character’s.
I liked the natural, non extravagant or pointlessly over elaborate story line but it was too thread bare. Save the polar bears! It had a nice twist and again developed well, but maybe it could have been a bit more involved.

[Book Monitor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much style over substance

Reviewed: 21-10-22

On the plus side this is quite short and fairly well acted. Otherwise it was way over-produced with too many sound effects, way to much huffing and puffing, growling and groaning. It was such a slight story that any tension is completely dissipated and very little happens.
The concept was good and the voice acting was quite good except for the constant "out-of-breath" style. With a better storyline, and much better editing/production this could have been good.
Overall 2.5 out of 5 stars
Performance 3 out of 5 stars
Story 2 out of 5 stars

[Katherine R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a late night mild sci-fi thriller. The story started off a little too heavy handed with the scared breathing and people freak outs. I was neither invested in the characters yet nor felt any reason to be afraid. Also, taking melatonin all the time will give you nightmares. They should have been suspicious from the start but this fact never comes up as a common side effect.

After its rocky start, I did find myself kind of curious but the growing number of disappearances. The implications of whodunit and why were intriguing and confusing.

I'm not thrilled with this one but again, quick short radio series-style listen.

[Sharron Joy Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Nox is a research vessel on a mission to find the last polar bear with 6 crew members.
The world has been devastated by climate change and this mission represents hope for the future. But soon the 24hr darkness has the crew questioning what is real and what is dreams and soon they are fighting to survive.

This is an excellent sci-fi thriller that shows the descent of each person into paranoia and fear. The location is isolated, desolate and dark, their reality twists and changes, time is fluid.

I listened to this in audible and it is a full cast production which was excellent, the performances elevated this story immensely, a great read.

[Olivia Chapé · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I absolutely loved the sound effects. It was perfect for sleepless nights.

The story was about going on a polar expedition, but where everything goes wrong. The author attempts to confuse the reader on who they can trust. Psychological thriller with ghosts.

It is classified as a sci fi, because it is based in the future where polar bears no longer exist, but in this story they do.

The ending could have been better as it wasn’t clear if she survived or not, but maybe that’s because there’s supposed to be a part two.

The theatrical music created an atmosphere of anticipation and feeling of fear, which I loved and need to find more audibles like this.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a complete psychological mindfuck.

From the beginning to the end you are constantly warped between the past, present and future.

I absolutely loved the cinematic feel, the added theatrical affects made it so much more dramatic.

I'm a sucker for audiobooks with full casting and dramatisation, this book had it all.

You do have to pay attention while listening because if you miss even One part you're completely lost in the story but I thought that made it all the more exiting.

The ending was a complete mystery which I think was done on purpose so you either believe they died or survived, who knows... If there will be a second book I hope it's just as good!

[Martti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audible spam in the form of free short listen with sound effects. An expedition ship to the Arctic Circle with people heavily breathing and wailing a lot into the microphone. A jump-scare movie in an audio-only format. I don't think much of jump-scares even in a movie format, but audio-only works even less.

Some people going a bit crazy in an isolated environment. Think of the Thing, Terror or Sphere, but less character development and nothing much happening. Nox is the name of the vessel and the AI helper on board.