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  • The Rule of Three

  • The Extinction New Zealand Series, Book 1
  • Written by: Adrian J. Smith
  • Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
  • Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (36 ratings)

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The Rule of Three cover art

The Rule of Three

Written by: Adrian J. Smith
Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
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Publisher's Summary

What would you do to survive the apocalypse?

Jack Gee, hiking the New Zealand mountains, is blissfully unaware of the Hemorrhage virus sweeping the world. A desperate message from his wife, Dee, alerts him, and he must return to Hamilton. On the way, he is captured by flesh-eating Variants and taken to their meat locker. To escape, he will need to draw on all his experience as an outdoorsman, but first, he must find the will to survive.

Surrounded by Variants, Dee is trapped in her Hamilton basement with a group of survivors. With Jack missing, and dwindling food supplies, she must leave the basement, her only defense a katana.

The nightmare has just begun. Will they find each other in the chaos?

©2019 Adrian J. Smith (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Rule of Three

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story but most women characters are weaklings

It’s a well constructed story, interesting apocalypse story.

My only beef is that all the women are portrayed as weaklings that cannot defend themselves against men or monsters attacking them if they are not armed with guns or in one case a rock.
This is a good critic on society and the rape culture but that is unnecessary in an apocalypse story when life in general is cheap with anyone getting killed at any moment.
This focus makes the female gendre utterly weak that needs saving by men from men and monsters. Frankly that rankled!
I am a woman that can fight and I know a lot of men that cannot defend/protect themselves and would be the first to perish in an apocalypse setting. When will people understand that gender has nothing to do with someone fighting spirit!

If you want to show how weak humans are in general after a global crisis, portray them equally weak don’t pick just a gender that need savings. Yes, there will be crazies but they don’t have a higher chance of survival than the rest of humanity! Their precentage will dwindle as fast as the rest of humanity.

Kudos for the horror setting in the story!
There were nice touches (for the horrific setting) with kids trying to save themselves with some getting eaten and other getting captured to be added to the monsters food larder.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent!

It was SO NICE to have a post apocalypse book that wasn't American. I have questions about the virus, but on the whole, it was a really entertaining read. The narration was also great! I can't wait to read the next book, and will happily listen to more of this narrator. Thank you!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Zombies

If you like zombie stories you’ll like this. I don’t so I didn’t. Good writing and characters were believable enough. I just don’t like the idea of a virus turning people into monsters without some semblance of explanation.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • DY
  • 2023-08-20

good attempt

it was an okay enough book to have playing in the background. I struggled to get into the story ... it was alright, but I never really got to the point where I cared about the characters. The story felt rushed at times, and other times, it dragged out. Quite a bit of time was spent describing smells of things.

I'm not sure if I would give the next book a try. I commend the author for his effort. It is interesting to hear a disaster story that isn't from the American PoV. The narrator did his job well.

main character started annoying me pretty quickly.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, bad pronunciation

I enjoyed the story line but to have the narrator mispronounce every single Māori word was shocking. How this wasn’t flagged as inappropriate is beyond me.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Promising, but

This was a promising story, but I found it to rely too much on drawn out action scenes and repetition in characters' thoughts. Also, many of the characters seemed added to the story just to serve as canon fodder,without enough character development to make me care whether they lived or died (and it was very predictable which ones would live and which ones would die). I liked the setting and the basic plot line of two people trying to find each other in the apocalypse while helping others along the way.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping story

I found this story to be fast paced right from chapter one. Great characterization with multiple layers to each of the main characters. It's a classic pandemic zombie type story with a New Zealand twist that had a very enjoyable level of depth to the characters and place.
Looking forward to reading/listening to more of this series. Amazing work on this debut novel!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

my first book in many years

loved it was hooked from start to finish excited to see where this story goes

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fan freaking tasting

Well read
Built nicely
Every character is given just enough to make them memorable
Great ending to carry on the story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome!

I have been listening to lots of books lately, 11 to be honest, I absolutely loved this book, the narrators voice and how this book is a little different end of the world book from the others I’ve listened too.

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