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Winter Dawn cover art

Winter Dawn

Written by: Alex Callister
Narrated by: Lorelei King, Ell Potter
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Publisher's Summary

Meet Winter: she’s the audacious, hyper-intelligent GCHQ agent with more notches on her bedpost than James Bond and more hacking cred than Lisbeth Salander. 

Winter Dawn is the third instalment in the Winter series, journeying back to the beginning of her story. This time, she’s grappling with Colosseum: a sinister online phenomenon that has gripped the world. It promises a massive cash prize to the successful hunter of its victims, unleashing an unstoppable tide of violence - and the world’s authorities are powerless to prevent it.  

When a New York senator is targeted, Winter is called in to protect her. But with all the world watching, there’s nowhere to hide. No one has ever survived Colosseum. It’s the winter solstice and as they journey together into the dark heart of the longest night, they soon discover that nothing about Colosseum is what it seems. 

There are rules and there is a purpose, if only they can solve the riddle in time. Colosseum is more than a hunt: it’s a challenge. Targets must face their darkest fear or die at dawn.

Winter Dawn is the third instalment in the Winter series - the first of which was Audible’s Thriller of the Year in 2019 - and journeys back to the beginning of her story.

©2020 Alex Callister (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Winter Dawn

Average Customer Ratings
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Stunning performance!

I absolutely love this series, it has a wonderful heroine at the centre who is lovely and flawed and young and amazing. Must be the best in this genre.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Surprised Me

In the beginning of the book I was thrown off and almost stopped listening. I am very glad that I did not stop. This book was fantastic!!!

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Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

I read one review that says he was annoyed their were two narrators. For me, that was not an issue. in fact, made more sense to have American characters read by an American instead of an English woman performing with an American accent.
This story backtracks in time, and we learn alot more about Winter and her, um, training. A stand alone piece of writing, well worth the read.

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This book was a great listen!

The action and the story were well paced and well narrated.
Knowing there was a before time in this series helps humanize and flesh the characters, and the performance was stellar.
I definitely preordered Winter Falling.

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Loved the plot and Winter’s back story

I throughly enjoyed the book. While I absolutely love Eli’s reading, having the second reader for the other part of the story made for an enjoyable listening experience. I can’t wait to hear the next book.

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  • SP
  • 2022-05-09

A novel package of mind-warping clues.

Callister delivers again! I must admit I didn’t think this would be one of my favorites in the series, but the truth is, if you get over what you think you should be hearing, and pay attention to what is served up, you get a delightful ten course meal with plenty of appetizers and some dessert. I have no idea if Callister wrote these books in the order they were released, or if this was one of the earlier ones but it provides some interesting and needed background. Needed, if you are interested in the psychological aspects of not the characters but of the underlying messages and themes in the Winter series. Callister’s commitment to challenging patriarchy, gender conformity, and societal standards are front and center.

She opens with notions of female strength, weakened by societal pressures to look, and act a certain way. In fact, throughout you can see how Callister shows us how traits such as empathy, love, intuition, superstition, and compassion, are supposedly not only female traits but traits that make women weak, and then turns those traits into the foundational strengths of her characters. She then tosses these weak maidens (lol) into territories that have been landscaped by technology.

Technology, that makes the primacy of ‘might is right’ appear tantamount. In Callister’s world (which might become the real world), technology gives us so much freedom, that what becomes accessible and attractive is a return to what logic tells us is primitive. In fact, throughout the series, the biggest ‘gift’ the internet appears to be offering everyone is entitlement. Commodification at its greatest. You can now not just get anything you want, but more importantly, you can get rid of anyone who stands in your way.

The beauty of what Callister has done is not only has she created a kicka$$ protagonist, but one who, in a very timely manner, appears to be learning that supposed weaknesses, are strengths that confound the patriarchal understandings of how the mind works. It’s as though Winter is being tossed into the gladiator pit with only her ‘monkey brain’ to rely upon. See what I did there? The tech world is returning us to the idea of fighting pits, and Winter’s weapon, is her intuition. Okay, maybe she showed us martial arts skills, and such in other books, but this is before. This is where we learn why and how she relies on herself. It is also where we learn why and how she might have insecurities we don’t understand. And it is where we see who Simon is to her. That cannot be a small clue.

Read/listen to the book, pay attention to all the clues. Callister doesn’t quote other authors, or use repetitive phrases just for their beauty, they are there to keep reminding us of how we, as humans, are so alike, and how different we can become, if we begin to believe someone else’s truths about ourselves. There is no topic that is sacrosanct in Callister’s writing. If you move beyond the obvious – this is a modern hero set in a world of thrilling intrigue, sex and savviness- you will see a contemplative journey that shows us how having knowledge and access to others at our fingertips, can break taboos like misogyny, mental illness, self-harm, and low self-confidence, while simultaneously feeding the monsters that do become monstrous.

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Unexpected.

I don’t know how to describe this without spoilers. Someone else said it wasn’t good. I think it fills in blanks. I really enjoyed it.

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Amazing third book of an incredible series

At first i was a bit perturbed as this book all of a sudden seemed to break the series and kind of went to a timeline before the first two ....and at times seemed to not make sense.....but the author did (again) an amazing job, creating a suspenseful story in which at least i couldn't find any lapses and where the twists came initially expected , just to take on an even deeper layer a moment later ... doing "time jumps" in the story that made sense, gave a glimpse of what/who might be involved without hinting too much beforehand was actually very impressive .... can't wait to listen to the fourth one .....

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Well now

It was hard to get into for the first 5 chapters. Keep @ it though u will b pleased. I loved it. Great work

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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new narrator not great

lorelei did s horrible Winter. I don't know why she was needed. ruined the start of the book for me

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