Ruined by the production.

The tortured whining intonation, quite different from previous performances from the narrator make it impossible to finish this audiobook let alone enjoy it.

Unfortunate.

5 people found this helpful

Evan does soap

I’m a big fan of this series, but if this had been the first I wouldn’t have read any sequels. This was poor by his usual racy standards. It felt more like a soap opera . . . and not a very good one. Has this run out steam? It may well have done.

4 people found this helpful

Who told him we wanted more drama ?

I thought I was listening to a new narrator. Overly dramatic and "running" through the book. I felt exhausted at the end of it. Usually I get food for thought and in depth caracthers but there was no time for listening properly

3 people found this helpful

What has Greg done to our favourite underdog? 🙄

Spoiler Alert !
The main appeal of this series lay in us cheering for an underdog, an orphan, whose only family is the man who trained to become a killer and a human. The author has suddenly decided to kill our unusual hero by entrapping him in a boring family drama. In this book , X is not an Orphan anymore.. He not only has a mother but also a father somewhere, a half brother, a niece, an entire f*ing family.
I hated the character of Veronica and did not feel any sympathy for her. In fact started hating X for ‘understanding’ her situation and accepting everything with no questions, no anger, no resentment. It all sounded not only fake but not like Evan Smoke at all.
The whole plot and Veronica’s story did not make any sense. A mother, who is as powerful (she can pull strings at the very top and can find X with all his security etc ) as her, leaves her children to rot in the orphanage system without raising a finger and then decides to make an entry with both the children accepting her super lame excuses for dumping them and actually feeling sorry for this mother. Honestly?

I thought we’d get to hear the REAL reasons for why she had to let her kids have such terrible lives. Fine! She couldn’t stand looking at the product of a rape but couldn’t she still give the child a good life while staying at the periphery of his life? And then she doesn’t stop there but let’s the second one go through the same horrible system while living in grandeur herself. It doesn’t make an iota of sense.

X is supposed to be an Orphan. The worst bit is that the author not only gives him a mother but one who is super rich . Maybe if the mother had been dirt poor and couldn’t care for her child or maybe if someone had taken the child.. maybe then I could have forgiven Greg Hurwitz for taking away the orphan status from my favourite hero.

I get it! Greg Hurwitz had to find a compelling reason to get X out of retirement. But that could easily have been done by putting Josephine, Peter, or Mia in some sort of danger.


I loved the bigger space given to Joey in this book. Maybe Greg can explore X’s and J’s relationship more in the next books. Maybe talk a little about J’s back story. Keep the banter between these two coming.

But please, please, please, do NOT give X a father now. Or a step sister or another family member. This ruins his whole personality and all that the character stands for.

The best thing about the book was that Veronica died in the end 😊

Atleast Scott Brick didn’t do a Greg Huwitz on us - Scott stayed true to himself by delivering his much beloved narration.

2 people found this helpful

Love this series but I returned this.

I have no idea what has happened to the narrator but this is like an angst ridden tortured soul of a narration. So much drama even in sections where none was needed.
Awful - I gave up and I usually love this series.

1 person found this helpful

So not Orphan X. Return for refund.

As another reviewer said, if I had come upon this book first I would never have bought another. As it progressed it got worse. No returning for refund.

Scott Brick is deservedly one of the best narrators. Cannot be beat.

I found this to be the weakest Orphan X book so far. The action is all there. But Evan's fighting abilities are getting to the edge of credible. But as a big fan I will swallow that.

What made me ambivalent about the book was Evan's personal life and the mental effects of his personal history. I found it very meh.

There is also a borderline sci-fi maguffin which was annoying and detracted from the plot. Sometimes I just found myself ejected from the story by its silliness.

Hurwitz is a great writer. So I don't know where he is going with this.

1 person found this helpful

Slightly disappointing

I"ll buy the next one as I have loved this series up to now but I found this a bit heavy going ..a tad depressing actually although it did give clearer insight into the events leading up to his meeting up with Jack and the whole beginning

1 person found this helpful

Much awaited, left a bit disappointed (SPOILERS)

After the first Orphan X book I was hooked, and listened to them all in no time, so had to wait a while for this one. Just felt a bit disappointed throughout, the tone of the narration was different (perhaps due to more emotional delving into X) and the storyline just felt a bit more far fetched than usual. Oh and for someone who was nigh on impossible to find (thinking back to how Charles Van Sciver eventually managed it with his team, top tech and funding) his Mum managed it with none of these things? Really bugged me that!

1 person found this helpful

Good Story affected by narration

I’ve stuck with this series of books but the whining, sorrowful voice of the narrator almost has me giving up every hour or so. It’s a kind of torment that I put myself through - not sure why. Past sins maybe. I lose concentration because of the voice so would love a different narrator and then I’d listen again and engage more with the character whose strength is diminished constantly with the narrators depiction.

Time to let Evan retire into a humdrum existence.

I realise that someone may send a hitman after me for saying this, but: I think it’s time to bring the curtain down on Evan.

I’ve never been to one, but why Hurwitz felt the need to bore his readers though an overlong monologue during an AA meeting really beats the hell out of me.

Prodigal Sun is a fine example why a series should not go on forever and retire a concept while still at the top of its game.

Scott Brick doing fine job as narrator.