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Ground Zero

The X-Files, Book 3

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Ground Zero

By: Kevin J. Anderson
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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About this listen

Don't miss this thrilling audiobook in the series based on the award-winning television show The X-Files!

Dr. Gregory, a renowned nuclear weapons researcher, is not only dead - he's been charred to a radioactive cinder.

Since this is a death on federal property, FBI agents Mulder and Scully are hastily called in. As agents who specialize in unexplained phenomena, they are the investigators of the X-Files, strange and inexplicable cases - mysteries the FBI doesn't want solved.

When a second victim, completely unrelated to nuclear science or to Gregory, is obliterated in the New Mexico desert and then a third dies the same way in Washington, DC, Mulder and Scully begin to focus on the frightening dimensions of their task. The bizarre deaths cannot be a coincidence. And as they work to uncover the secret element that unites these deaths, it becomes clear that this twisted puzzle has fatal consequences for the entire world.

©2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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What listeners say about Ground Zero

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Captures The Mood

The writing and performance embody the spirit of the TV show perfectly. The way the story unfolds and the portrayal and interaction of the characters make it easy to visualise this unfolding as an episode of the X Files.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent stories

I really enjoyed this book and the way it built the story to its climax.
If you are a fan of the X Files there is all the usual banter between Mulder and Scully. The characters are true to the series.
I had a couple of stories on CD before the days of Audible and love that I can now hear the rest here.

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

Listen at a higher narration speed!

I have an abridged copy of this story on cassette, read by non-other than Scully herself; Gillian Anderson. But at only 2h45m in length, it's had to ignore the fact big chunks of the story are missing, so I was keen to give the whole thing a listen.

Unfortunately the differences in performances between Gillian and Patrick are also hard to ignore. Patrick Lawlor is a very clear and precise narrator, he enunciates. Every. Word. But this comes at the expense of pacing and characterisation, which are glacial and lacking personality respectively.

Listening to it at 1.2x speed helps a bit, but I still found it to be something of a slog to get through. Being an X-Files fan back in the day I'd like to continue with the rest of the series but since the other titles also have the same narrator, I'm not sure that I will.

As for the story, it's an amiable enough mystery involving the testing of an experimental nuclear weapon and the strange deaths of scientists connected to the project. The final reveal is - even by X-Files standards - a little silly, so you're more likely to be chuckling to yourself than chewing your fingernails by the end.

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

Not very good

A mediocre story that relies to much on lists of real events and not enough actual story. Clearly written when Mulder & Scully were being established as characters and neither feel correct in this book. Not worth the listen.

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

Another FANTASTIC X-Files story !!! EPIC AS ALWAYS

If you are an X-Files fanatic like myself then you will enjoy this audio book immensely !!!!!
As ALWAYS I do NOT do spoilers or plot twists and try not to give to much of a books storyline away in reviews !!!
This is a true classic X-Files story though, dead scientists, strange occurrences, mysterious questions needing answers, & secret government tests,.....
All needing answers that can only be investigated by the amazing duo, that is FBI's Agents Fox Mulder & Dana Scully !!!!
Need too find out more,.........
Then I guess you will have to listen to the X-Files - Ground Zero audio book yourselves !!!!!
If you are a fan of The X-FILES, then regardless of the story (*although this is an EPICALY classic one !!!) Then this book is a MUST HAVE listen !!!!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant

What a great story, I always watched the X-files on TV and this was just as good.

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Classic Xfile

Classic Xfile material. Great story and easy listening. Well read and worryingly might be based on some truth!

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

X as in just plain wrong !

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I Luve the X files but this range of books is sadly lacking ive read 2 so far and both have been very disappointing...not only are the stories formulaic in worst kind of way but they lack any of the humour or thrills of the tv series the characterisations of mulder and scully are bland and lacking and the reader totally kills any resinance to the show with his dull lifeless reading he doesent even try to capture any of the subtlety of the characters we have grown to love
a real missed opportunity

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Probably for devotees of the TV show only

I hoped this would provide a compelling introduction to the series and the characters and listened to the first two chapters. I found the writing clunky (too much ‘tell’ and not much ‘show’) and way too much emphasis on what the women look like and what they are wearing, which doesn’t serve to advance the plot or develop characters.
If you lioe the TV show they you should give this a go, otherwise , read some Ann Lecke or Mary Robinetterie Kowall.

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

Poor book well read

I have read several Kevin J. Anderson books because he keeps getting contracted to write books for franchises I like, however, I am not a fan of his style.
I find his dialogue clunky, and stilted. The plots always seems to revolve around a bigger super weapon. This book is no except to that.
There are some interesting ideas in this book but it's undermined by the very 'male author' tendency to write about a woman's breasts for no valid reason.
Seriously, there's a scene where apropos of nothing he refers to a female character who "...crossed her arms over her small breasts and stood confident."

She's not naked. It's not a romance scene. It's literally just an office meeting and he starts talking about how small her breasts are. WTF??

Ugh.

The audiobook narrator however is great, and does a good job with what he is given in this audiobook.

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