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    Spark: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Spark: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Spark: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Spark: A Novel

    Written by John Twelve Hawks

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Edgy, hard-core, and wildly imaginative, this new thriller from New York Times best-selling author John Twelve Hawks (The Traveler, The Dark River, The Golden City) features an assassin-narrator unlike anyone we've seen before, set in a present-day dystopia.

    Jacob Underwood is a contract employee of the Special Services Section, a shadow department in the faceless multinational corporation DBG. Jacob is not a businessman...he is a hired assassin...and his job is to neutralize problems deemed unacceptable by the corporation. Jacob is not like other employees, nor is he like other people. Suffering from Cotard's syndrome—a real condition that causes people to believe they are dead—Jacob perceives himself as nothing but a Shell with no emotion and no sense of right or wrong. Emily Buchanan is a bright young second-year associate for DBG, and she has disappeared without a trace. Suspecting she may have stolen valuable information and a fortune from the company, Miss Holquist—Jacob's handler at DBG—assigns him the task of tracking her down and neutralizing her. Jacob's condition allows him to carry out assignments with ruthless, logical precision—devoid of guilt, fear, or dishonor. But as his new assignment draws him inside a labyrinthine network of dark dealings, Jacob finds himself up against something he is completely incapable of understanding. Spark is an ingenious and chilling vision of modern-day humanity under constant, invasive surveillance and a pulse-pounding game of cat and mouse.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9780553399073
    Unavailable
    Spark: A Novel

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    Reviews for Spark

    3.5/5

    45 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Loved this book. An intense page turner.
    • 3/5
      Very good noirish sci-fi thriller. Almost a 4. Enjoyed the unique character and the succinct writing style.
    • 3/5
      Pretty interesting futuristic/science fiction story about a man who thinks he's dead finding himself to be more human than he previously thought. After a horrible accident, Jacob believes he is a living dead guy who only needs nutritional supplement drinks and a constant guiding voice connected to him in order to function. An underground organization saved Jacob from financial and personal ruin after the accident and hired him to be a cold-hearted killer with no conscience about killing humans. The only compassion Jacob has is for dogs due to a movie he constantly watches about a dog who helps an autistic boy learn to behave better. Jacob carries out assignments for this organization and gets paid well for doing so until one day he finds himself unable to carry out an assignment to murder a woman and her young son. He gets punished by the organization, yet gets another assignment after assuring them he can do better next time. Unfortunately he feels a strange connection to the next woman he is assigned to kill and fails that assignment as well. Jacob struggles with these feelings, and questions if he is truly a living dead guy after all. Sprinkle bits of science fiction technology throughout the story, and it all makes for a pretty compelling tale. I won this book via First Reads.
    • 3/5
      Interesting setup, promising start and then mediocre and unconvincing story development. The same about main character. He is interesting and special in the beginning but it all disappears towards the end.
    • 5/5
      Very interesting protagonist narrating in first person the story of his "Transformation" from a Human Unit into a walking dead man who fears nothing and loves nothing, and who has become a contract killer for the secret services department of a multinational corporation. Jacob Underwood is not a zombie; he has been diagnosed with Cotard's syndrome, the result of a serious brain injury suffered in a motorcycle accident. He believes he has died and has been revived as a living, but non-human, being. This makes him an excellent assassin. When his superior decides he is capable of more sophisticated assignments that require more extensive interactions with "Human Units," Underwood's life—such as it is—begins to change again.
    • 3/5
      The book was "easy to read" - the words and dialogue flowed and I liked the use of sketches to convey the protagonist's emotions. However, there were too many villains. I believe a good thriller needs a single, great villain to hate. After finishing it, the story was forgettable.