don't believe the negative feedback

if you like Brad Thor, this is another series to check out. the first two books are free with your audible membership and it has an interesting aspect that rarely occurs when the US and China team up to fight a new brand of terror.

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3 people found this helpful

Entertaining!

Enjoyed this story. Good characters and really well performed. The epilogue was a bit pedestrian but time well spent.

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Beijing Red a great listen

Good story, but a bit predictable. I liked how the Chinese protagonist was humanized. I enjoyed the listen.

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Surprisingly Good

This is an impressively mature action-thriller about a bioterrorism threat originating in China. As a free download (included in my Audible membership), I gave it a listen based on decent reviews but without much in the way of expectations. What I got was a well-conceived thriller in the mode of Jack Mars ('Agent Zero'), Vince Flynn ('Mitch Rapp'), or Mark Greaney ('The Grey Man') but with a strikingly human hero (US Navy Seal 'Nick Foley' is no cartoonishly overpowered/indestructible superspy).
The authors collectively writing under the pseudonym Alex Ryan researched the scenario extensively - putting readers in a believable modern communist China - and fed the story with plausible biology, accurate military tech & tactics, and realistic characters. The plot is sinuous, dialogue is true-to-life, and descriptions are vivid. I became engrossed in the story.. and often caught myself thinking about the plot while going about my business.
Don't get me wrong.. the book is definitely imperfect: the pacing in 'Red Beijing' is *awful*, for example: it takes forever to get going (to the point where I nearly gave up) and some scenes are so burdened with detail that they lose flow.

Still, I got an overall favourable impression from this audiobook. The performance from MacLeod Andrew is largely responsible for that. He reads with exemplary diction, timbre, and cadence - and his tone fits the text nearly perfectly.. suitably serious but emotive.
Less fortunately, his voice-acting is occasionally subpar (Asian accents are not very good), and the book is best consumed at 1.15X (Andrews reads a little bit too slowly).. but Andrews's narration alone is worth the price of admission.

Taken altogether, this sometimes plodding audiobook is a quality recording worth 8.5 stars out of 10. I am grateful to Audible for offering it as part of the 'Plus' catalogue - I wouldn't have tried it otherwise - and it ended up being a cerebral spy-thriller good enough to prompt me to download the second book in the series.

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2 people found this helpful

thoroughly enjoyed

great book. a great listen, downloading the second book on the series as I type this.

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1 person found this helpful

Really enjoyed this book

Finished this story I'm two days. I don't usually like spy novels. Couldn't stop listening.

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1 person found this helpful