Note: I received access to read this book from the publisher for free. That doesn't influence my opinion on it, but it is worth disclosing.

Midnight Suns: Infernal Rising commits the largest sin that exists for a media tie-in: it made me less interested in playing the game it acts as a prequel to. I was extremely disappointed in the writing. I felt like I needed to know about every character beforehand, because they certainly aren't described well, or consistently throughout the book. The word "based" is used to describe someone without irony. Multiple things "exploded into a thousand pieces," over the course of the story.

I listened to the audiobook and didn't enjoy the narration. The narrator frequently mispronounces words, inserts strange pauses (like he is turning the page while reading the book) and, generally, doesn't have a great flow.

I enjoy Marvel Comics on a regular basis. They have a good supernatural side to the Marvel Universe. This book sounded like it would be a nice fit for me.
Story wise, it was pretty good. A couple of characters weren’t quite up to snuff for me, but they didn’t bring the story down much.
I listened to the audiobook for it. A good audiobook can be a great thing. You get a good narrator with a good rhythm and you don’t even notice the time going past.
Unfortunately, this narrator never really worked for me. I just never clicked with the voice. While saying it was bad would be a disservice, it just didn’t keep me going.
Next time, I might go with the ebook instead of the audiobook.

Being a huge Marvel fan, going into Midnight Suns: Infernal Rising I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy it. After all it was written by SD Perry, who has had a history of ‘playing’ in established worlds. She’s written books taking place in the Resident Evil, Star Trek, and Aliens universes to name a few. And I was right, the story within Infernal Rising is solid. It revolves around a group known as the Triumvirate trying to claim a relic that will give them domain over Mephisto and the Midnight Suns attempt to thwart them. This version of the Midnight Suns is made up of Blade, Ghost Rider, Magik, and Nico Minoru…with Caretaker acting in a type of mentor/overwatch role. I must admit that while I’m a huge Marvel fan there were a few characters that I was only vaguely familiar with from my comic reading days and had to look them up. I should note that this book is a prequel to the forthcoming Midnight Suns video game, which I’m definitely looking forward to. I have to say I’m of mixed feelings when it comes to J.D. Jackson’s narration. He has a kind of raspy voice which I think is perfect given the nature of this storyline, unfortunately I felt there was little ‘passion’ in his delivery. Sadly his line delivery in action sequences was no different from his delivery of a scene description or info dump. While it wasn’t bad by any means, I can’t help but think how much better it would have been had he ‘embodied’ the characters and their emotions. I’d like to thank Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advanced audio copy of Midnight Suns.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3LK5RNH5W4OXC/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ARC audiobook. Midnight Suns is something I was very interested in divining because I LOVE BLADE! This audiobook had all the exciting action-packed adventure and was entertaining. However, I enjoyed this voice actor in a different story. This narration I felt could use a little more "POW" during the action scenes. Other than that, this was a solid and enjoyable read. I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All of these opinions are my own.

This book was enjoyable for me. I liked meeting new to me characters and seeing references to other Marvel characters. The action was good and I was invested in the story. My only complaint was likely only an audio based complaint, which was that the perspectives changed rather abruptly. I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series and seeing how the story goes. I'd love to see more mentions of Avengers or other more popular Marvel heroes as well.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for providing an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Marvel's Midnight Suns: Infernal Rising by S.D. Perry
Narrated by J.D. Jackson

This was an interesting and engaging story. First of all, let me state that this is a prequel to the forthcoming video game Marvel's Midnight Suns, so I came into this knowing there is going to be some type of unresolved plot point; even if it bothers me now that I finished it. But after I got over those unresolved plot points (yeah there's more than one), I can honestly say this is a pretty well-written prequel for a video game. After doing some more research into J.D. Perry and seeing her other works in video game media tie-ins, this really shouldn't have been so surprising. It's just, I remember watching the game trailer and thinking "This looks cool, but how did we get here?" Well, look no forward than Infernal Rising for all your background information needs. How did the Midnight Suns get together? Why did they get together? How did the big bad in the game rise up? Well if you're willing to read a full prose novel to find out, I promise you probably won't come out disappointed. Those questions and more get answered in a pretty interesting sequence of events, all neatly written down for any fan's perusal. This book really makes me want to go back and binge-read The Midnight Sons comics.

Now let's critique the narration. J.D. Jackson does a pretty good job in this audiobook. While there was one voice that just didn't work for me, everyone sounded pretty much how I would imagine they sound when reading them in a comic. Sure some female voices sounded masculine, but he did the best he could and it showed. The only dry moment for me was the big bad's voice, it just didn't project as a revenge-obsessed archdemon maybe it just needed to be more gravelly. Still, this was an enjoyable listening experience and I'm absolutely looking forward to the game to see if I can get more info on those plot points.

3.75 out of 5 stars.

Having no idea or any knowledge of this branch of Marvel or the superheroes, I was a bit nervous going into it but holy crap I am so needing more of these characters. The sass, the drama!! The wit! And the narrator pulls it together so, so well.