Way Down Dark cover art

Way Down Dark

Australia, Book 1

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About this listen

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award

Imagine a nightmare from which there is no escape.

Seventeen-year-old Chan's ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. They never found one.

This is a hell where no one can hide. The only life that Chan's ever known is one of violence, of fighting. Of trying to survive. This is a ship of death, of murderers and cults and gangs. But there might be a way to escape. In order to find it, Chan must head way down into the darkness - a place of buried secrets, long-forgotten lies, and the abandoned bodies of the dead. This is the Australia.

Chan, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, keeps her head down and lives quietly, careful not to draw attention to herself amid the violence and disorder. Until the day she makes an extraordinary discovery - a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so would bring her to the attention of the fanatics and the murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And a safe return to Earth is by no means certain.

©2015 J. P. Smythe (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton Adventure Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Space Opera
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Firstly, I thought this sounded good when purchasing. Interesting story, interesting idea. Set on a space ship. All boxes ticked for me. Oh boy I was in for serious disappointment!

Story slower than a dead snail. Sooo sloooow. I ended up jumping to the next chapter to see if it got any better. It didn't. Story gave no plausible twists and turns, a few points are ment to shock and shake up the story but you are so dulled by the monotony I couldn't even conjure up a "Meh". You are drip feed story background, but too (you know what words coming!) slowly, so you've forgotten which other pointless fact connects to it.

I have to mention the narrator who I found to have a truly bizarre accent that I just could not get on with. I'm British, but is she Australian, British-Australian, an Australian putting on a stupid posh accent? Goodness knows?! I've travelled around Australia and never heard anything close. So grating her next job should be in a cheese factory!

Awful! Slower than drying paint!

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A fantastic and tense story about life on a space ship with lots of secrets. The slow reveal of the background of characters and the life they're living allows lots of opportunities to form conclusions and change your mind. I think this would make an incredible TV series even if I would have to spend a lot of it hiding behind a cushion. I'm looking forward to continuing the trilogy.

I also enjoyed the voice of the narrator who was well suited as the voice of Chan.

Loved it

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