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I Am Pilgrim cover art

I Am Pilgrim

By: Terry Hayes
Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
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Summary

National Book Awards 2014: Crime/Thriller Book of the Year

Can you commit the perfect crime?

Pilgrim is the code name for a man who doesn't exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a run-down New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder - and Pilgrim wrote the book.

What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race against time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruin on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his god.

This is now the entire audiobook, not in two parts.

©2012 Terry Hayes (P)2013 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about I Am Pilgrim

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

Insulting pricing policy, misogynistic plot

Really expected more from this, it's mock 90s Frederick Forsyth spy thriller where the Americans are heroes the 'Arabs' are all villains and the Europeans are complicit or prostitutes depending on gender. Some very offencive stereotypes, and early scene of the innocent daughter of a Swiss banker being threatened with rape and death by the US government is really unpleasant but seems to have been written as if the reader will totally understand that the ends justify the ends. To reach the 10 hour mark and be told that you need to pay another credit to finish the story is high arrogance... I will not be finishing the story.
Update: the novel is now offered as a single 22 hour download for a single credit, not 2 parts (for 2 credits) when originally published.

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96 people found this helpful

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

Shallow, uninteresting, predictable

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This is supposed to be some great new age spy thriller. The narrative is so shallow and the characters so unengaging. The main character is supposed to have risen to the top of his profession, but it just feels like the plot just conveniently gives him the right answers when he needs them, or he is put in the right place when he needs to be. It is frankly unbelievable, in the way that James Bond used to be. And the guy who is reading it is trying very hard to sound as if he is not trying very hard to sound like Tom Cruise; his breathy and deep voices sound vaguely comical, and after a while call I could think of was his voice sounding like it would be more suited for The Muppets. And that is where this is probably best aimed, boys up to the age of about 13, but given the rather graphic violence, I wonder exactly who it is really aimed at. Oh, and you might like to know that this is "Volume 1" meaning that you'll need to spend another credit to listen to the second half of this story, that is if you can be bothered. Ten hours of my life I'm not going to get back.

Would you ever listen to anything by Terry Hayes again?

Yes, if he learned how to give characters substance, to create engaging situations and stop thinking that we need to hear all the name dropping of luxury goods. In other words, No.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christopher Ragland’s performances?

No

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, it was only ten hours long

Any additional comments?

This is actually half a book and it is frankly misleading to imply anything else. At the end of volume 1, no plot lines have been resolved. The only way to make anything of this story would be to listen to the second volume, and spend another credit.

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51 people found this helpful

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

Less stars because 2nd book to required!!

What did you like best about I Am Pilgrim, Volume 1? What did you like least?

American hero who is wonderful at everything but entertainingly so, lots of rambling subplots that will, I presume, all come together brilliantly. UNFORTUNATELY I must presume because I find that I have buy a second volume to complete the story!! first volume is not a stand alone book!
Not made clear at the time of purchase - naughty practice Audible two credits required,
you could be losing a loyal long time customer.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Would I have to go to see two films?

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43 people found this helpful

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

Please don't download! Worst story I've heard

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Completely rewrite the plot, it starts off relatively interesting but then completely goes off the beaten track with tangent off the tangent. I can't even now really tell you what the plot was about even now. It reads like a bad HBO show, excessive descriptions of sex and violence detract from the plot itself. Not what you need on the commute in to work.

Would you ever listen to anything by Terry Hayes again?

Not if it continues in the same vein as I Am Pilgrim.

What does Christopher Ragland bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The Narrator is the best thing about this, he's clear and easy to understand excusing his accents and voices. His depiction of female characters seems a little absurd and almost funny at times.

What character would you cut from I Am Pilgrim, Volume 1?

The main character? I'm not sure he even had a name.

Any additional comments?

This is split in 2 parts. I'd generally avoid getting titles that are split on audible they nearly always seem unresolved and are terrible value for money when you break it down. Plotlines seem seldom resolved at the end of the 1st half too.

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40 people found this helpful

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

Childish and self absorbed

Would you ever listen to anything by Terry Hayes again?

No

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Christopher Ragland?

Anyone that can portray a female without making her sound like a sex call worker

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33 people found this helpful

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

Bigoted and Simplistic!

A bigoted tale with a literary value slightly less than the average phone-book.

A tale of heroic American Christians in a world with moronic Europeans and evil Muslims.

The book belongs at a time of Bush-Patriotism. Its comparison of "twin-tower heroism" and bloodthirsty Muslims is sadly nauseating.

The description of the world makes the author seem like a teenager who has never left his home in some US backwater. It is rather shocking that Terry Heyes can come up with this after more than half a century on this planet.

The narrator does not help. Mr. Ragland renders all Arabs with a terrible Slavic accent and uses quite possibly the worst Australian accent in recorded history. Mr. Ragland's attempt at a tough-guy voice sounds like someone struggling with constipation.

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26 people found this helpful

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

Exciting but a bit too full of cliches

Firstly I want to highlight that the only version available on Audible in November 2016 is the full complete book. It is not in two parts like other reviewers have apparently experienced.

It was an entertaining book, good pace and fairly well written. The story was a bit far fetched, and a lot of the science was made up or exaggerated, but I didn't mind that so much. - it's fiction and you just have to go with it and enjoy it.

But I agree with other reviewers that it is rather black and white: The Americans are the heroes against a mostly all, either evil or dumb/corrupt etc world of muslims and Russians.

The narrator was mostly very good, in all the non-accent parts - his voice is clear, easy and pleasant to listen to. But his range of accents is quite limited. He has no idea what a Turkish accent sounds like, which was a bit annoying since the book has quite a lot of Turkish characters. His British accent was terrible as was his Italian.

All in all I would probably still recommend this book as an entertaining listen.

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20 people found this helpful

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

Disappointing

Would you be willing to try another one of Christopher Ragland’s performances?

Unlikely, I found the range and 'accents' of his various characters rather limited and hard to distinguish from each other

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from I Am Pilgrim, Volume 1?

All the stuff about how the president got to be president for a start.

Any additional comments?

I bought this to listen to on holiday, to fill down-time gaps. Even for this undemanding role it was at best 'just about OK'. The books seems to be confused as to what genre it wants to be. It starts off as a basic whodunit - body in hotel room, mysterious circumstances etc. Then becomes a memoir of 'my time as a spy', followed by a rather self-indulgent bit about what an awful life the protagonist had as a fostered kid. Then it becomes a long-winded tale about how a young Saudi becomes a terrorist and what he sets out to do. Then it becomes something of a political drama, with all the Washington in-fighting of politicians. Interspersed in all this is a lot of stuff about how awful 9/11 was and how brave lots of Americans were that day And to be honest it doesn't do any of these particularly well.
The writing is inconsistent and unsophisticated in a lot of places. The 'shock-horror' aspects (what the terrorist plans to do, how he accesses the secret lab. etc) are not that original and rather derivative. But I ploughed through it waiting to find out how it all ends - only to realise towards the end of the book it doesn't end at all. The various strands of the book barely touch each other but we are left in the last chapter with what, I guess, is supposed to be a teaser of how they might begin to in the next book. I felt cheated that, having had to push myself to get through the book in places, I was left without any kind of resolution - other than to buy the next book. Something I will certainly not be doing!

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19 people found this helpful

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

Brilliant!

Where does I Am Pilgrim, Volume 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Among the very best.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Pilgrim, as written in the first person, I enjoyed his character and cared about the outcome.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Too many to choose from, all good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Only the common complaint of other reviewers "why two books?"
Also, why is this book not in Audibles short list, I definitely would've voted for it!!

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17 people found this helpful

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

Far Fetched

Would you try another book written by Terry Hayes or narrated by Christopher Ragland?

This was recommended by a friend but I found it too far fetched and there was one particular part near the end when I thought this would never happen. I wad disappointed.

What will your next listen be?

Jaqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobbs book

Would you be willing to try another one of Christopher Ragland’s performances?

possibly

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

not for me

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16 people found this helpful