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The Exphoria Code cover art

The Exphoria Code

By: Antony Johnston
Narrated by: Yolanda Kettle
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Audible's Crime & Thriller Pick of the Month: April 2020

Love nothing more than being engrossed in a creepy thriller or playing detective with a gripping mystery? You're not alone! Always ready for a challenge, the Audible editors have taken on the tough task of seeking out spine-chilling tales that will keep you up all night. Every month in 2020 we’ll bring you the very best in murder and mystery in Audible's Crime & Thriller Pick of the Month.

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Anthony Johnston

About the author


Antony Johnston is a New York Times bestselling writer and podcaster. The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde is based on his graphic novel; his Brigitte Sharp thrillers are critically acclaimed; and Dead Space, his first videogame, redefined its genre. He also hosts the podcast Writing and Breathing.

Antony’s books, graphic novels, and videogames include The Tempus Project.Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Shadow of Mordor, the ALEX RIDER graphic novels, the adaptation of Alan Moore's ‘lost screenplay’' Fashion Beast, and more.

He lives and works in England.

Yolanda Kettle

About the performer


Yolanda Kettle is an actress and voiceover artist. Her work in theatre includes the revival of Plenty by David Hare at Chichester, Oil at The Almeida and The Deep Blue Sea at the National. She has appeared in productions at the Royal Court, Hampstead Theatre, Young Vic and West End.

Her screen work includes Roadkill for the BBC, Made In Italy, The Crown, Marcella for ITV, Howards End and Love, Nina.

Summary

Brigitte Sharp is a brilliant but haunted young MI6 hacker. When she decodes encrypted online messages, which she believes are connected to her best friend's murder, Bridge uncovers evidence of a mole inside a top secret Anglo-French military drone project. 

Forced back into the field by MI6, after three years desk-bound and in therapy, she discovers that the truth behind the Exphoria code is far worse than she could have imagined. Soon she's on the run, desperate and alone, as a nuclear terrorist plot unfolds around her.... 

©2017 Antony Johnston (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about The Exphoria Code

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Dreadful

I endured 12 chapters of this book before being saved by a phone call. It is littered with acronyms, unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. It is full of cliches both in the narrative and the characters. Numerous characters are introduced by name followed by swathes of background and life story which grinds everything to a halt. That said, I'm not sure the story even got going. I couldn't care less about the main character. There is nothing to make me feel any kind of emotion toward her or to root for her.

Given that the audiobook is almost 13 hours long, my assumption is that the word count must be around 120,000 - 130,000 words. It needs a very thorough edit - a 25% reduction would be a good start. E.g. the scene where Brig' meets with her obnoxious sister and her friend in a restaurant. The only thing we seem to learn is that Brig' doesn't get on with her sister.

I read a lot of the other reviews for The Exphoria Code and began to wonder if they'd read/listened to the same book. Save your money or credits. It takes a lot for me to give up on a book. I probably would have thrown the paperback across the room after the first three chapters.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Duplicate Chapter 12

Not sure what happened with my copy but chapter 12 was duplicated as Chapter 13 in the downloads (both show as 8:34 in length before downloading also)

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent and different spy thriller

I was so hooked that I finally finished listening to it at 3am. Great protagonist and loved not figuring out who the terrorist was. Looking forward to the next escapades of Brigitte. Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not for me

Don’t often give up on a book, but this wasn’t for me I’m not a hacker and to much went over my head. You need to care about the characters and I’m afraid I didn’t

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3 people found this helpful

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

Goodish

Good tale, well told, far too drawn out though. Could have been 50% shorter and still have said it all twice and again for luck!!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best book of the year

This book was gripping from the start. Loved it. the narration brought the characters alive and along with the superb description from the author I felt like I was experiencing what the characters did.

Plot was excellent and the protagonist a strong female made an uplifting change in this genre.

Will look for other books by this author now.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

So many twists and turns

It’s really well performed and I enjoyed it. Sometimes it got confusing with the way the story jumped back and forth and all the acronyms.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Quite a good story

Not a bad story at all. A little slow to got going as the author laid out the background, but not bad at all. Quite technical, quite interested and modern. The only thing that irked me ever so slightly was the whole premise for discovery of the code was technically wrong, as the author confused fixed length message signing, with variable length message encryption. That said, he got everything else right, so only a small thing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good yarn

An excellent story, well read and with a likeable heroine.
Very relevant subject matter in these times.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Old Time Spying Much More Interesting

As someone who has loved Le Carre and Deighton over the years - and some of their more recent heirs - I was left cold by this reasonably written and reasonably exciting story. The protagonist, Brigitte, is also a good character, complete with the usual tinge of guilt in her past...but hackers and computer code doesn't tick many boxes for me. The violence and threat that were shoe-horned in seemed an attempt to raise the tension. But all in all, I won't be going back for any more.

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1 person found this helpful