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Without Warning cover art

Without Warning

By: John Birmingham
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Summary

America is Gone. It’s 2003 and American forces are assembled in Kuwait for the invasion of Iraq. In Paris an assassin wakes from a coma, in the Cascades a lone hiker watches a plane fly into a mountain and just north of the Equator a modern-day pirate, a rogue-Tasmanian, is witness to the unspeakable.

In one instant an inexplicable wave of energy has changed the world. From Canberra to Cairo things will never be the same. As the jihadists celebrate, Saddam plots revenge and the Israeli’s act, allied soldiers are left to fight a war without command. The functioning remnants of American government are left at Pearl Harbour, Guantanamo and in one desperate and isolated corner of the Pacific Northwest. A noxious waste darkens Europe’s skies and Australasia beckons as a sanctuary. An unknowable future struggles to be born.

©2008 John Birmingham (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"John Birmingham’s ability to seamlessly merge the gritty realism of Tom Clancy with the raw speculation of Michael Crichton is like no other author I’ve ever read. Brilliant, nail-biting, thoughtful, and excruciatingly pertinent to our times." (James Rollins, New York Times best-selling author)

What listeners say about Without Warning

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

Good book let down by spoken accents

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Cor blimey guvnor, luv a duck, up the apples and pears, what a palarva, it's all gone Pete Tong, would you Adam and Eve it? Knees up motha Braan, Knees up mutha Braan. By George I think she's got it.

Water U tokkin about mon ami? Thee woerds were veeery veeery better than I thott. Eiffel tower, French fries, baguette, et cetera.

I would recommend the paper/e-book to a Sci Fi fan, but not the audio book.
I'm an English native speaker, with fluent French (having lived over here for several years).
The French and British (Australian!) accents were presumably based on a ten minute review of Dick van Dijk. They first made me laugh out loud (ten minutes into the story), then groan (3 or 4 hours) then turn off (several times) and delete the e-book before finishing it (only once).
The Cuban/American/Australian/Arabic accents (and others) may be as bad, but I can't comment.

Read the book, leave the audio book alone.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Any English or French character - due to the silver spoon/golf balls in mouth accent for the French and wavering between Austrailian, British upper and lower class, and random regional pronunciations for the English.
Oh and any dead/silent characters, because they don't speak.

Would you be willing to try another one of Tom Weiner’s performances?

For an all American performance, yes, why not.

Did Without Warning inspire you to do anything?

1 - I've already bought a John Birmingham (physical) book.
2 - I've already deleted the audio book from my device.

Any additional comments?

What a load of pony and trap.
Sacre bleu, ooh la la! Quelle horreur

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great start to the Trilogy

After reading negative reviews, I personally really enjoyed it. UK listeners need to stop being hung up on narrators from North America doing "bad" UK accents. No one is perfect- deal with it!

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1 person found this helpful

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

Vintage Birmingham

I am a big fan of John Birmingham and this book did not disappoint. A great, what if? story it pulls no punches. It is overly violent and obsessed with weaponry, as usual, but despite that the strength of the story and main characters keep you riveted. One terrible flaw though that really detracted from the flow... dreadful accents and truly diabolical women's voices for the dialogue, with an upper class Julianne coming out somewhere between 18th century pirate (arrrrse) and Oscar Wilde, spoiling the otherwise excellent narration. Excited to read the next one though!

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