Blurb

“They came after the impact and the firestorms. When the sun went dark. Like they’d been there all along. Just waiting.”

From executive producers of The Walking Dead and Travis Beacham, the writer of Pacific Rim, comes a heart-stopping Audible Original featuring a brilliant British cast. It’s the near future and seven years since a comet hit the earth and blotted out the sun. The world is a dark, frozen landscape. And then, beastly creatures emerge and take over. Can they really be vampires?

In the British countryside, a band of survivors forms a resistance in the fallout shelter of a medieval castle. Darcy is a battle-tested vampire hunter who is at the front line leading the charge to save humanity. Meanwhile, her younger sister Hope wants life to return normal so she can go above ground and know what it’s like to live again. And she just might be willing to risk it all.

A story of apocalypse, horror, and adventure, Impact Winter is a wholly original new saga created just for Audible with immersive 3D audio that dares you to pop in your earbuds and listen in the dark. Venture into an eternally sunless world of swords and crossbows; primal hunters and shape-shifters; leaders and lovers. Hear how a brave few fight to survive the impact winter.

Review

Not gonna lie, I walked into this one not knowing the background to it. It was free, in fact it is near the top of the free best sellers on Audible and has been for a while, and it had a badass looking female warrior with a sword on the cover art. That was enough to get me to download it.

Apparently, it is a podcast series story, with some high end production. And there is a comic book, it turns out. This was the free teaser opening to that series. The teaser worked. This was fun.

Impact Winter is Walking Dead meets Blade. The last book I read before this was The Covenant of Water, a 31-hour slog through a multi-generational family story. So this was a nice five-hour palate cleanser of a completely different type of storytelling. While I completely get why Covenant is a NYT bestseller and this is a podcast, this was also more my type of book. I can respect the former while still enjoying the latter more.

I tend to enjoy post-apocalyptic tales. I’m not sure what that says about me, and I refuse to explore that thought line, but this is set in a fun (ahem, bleek) world.

The production was done with multiple cast members, not just one reader doing multiple parts. And it was recorded in 3D audio, which I always enjoy. It makes it much easier to picture this book as a movie or series. I would certainly watch it if they did. In fact, the production reminded me of the Audible version of The Sandman, which was eventually turned into a pretty solid series on Netflix.

The book was short enough to leave you wanting more. It does not overstay its welcome. I have already added season two to my Audible library, but I also try not to skip ahead in it, so it may be awhile before I get to it, unless they do announce a show or movie, then it would skip the line.

I would say if you enjoy Blade, Underworld, The Sandman or The Walking Dead, then this is worth the short time investment for you.