A shipwrecked team of experts must unravel the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, before it kills them all.
Since two massive hurricanes hit the Bermuda Triangle region, ships and planes have disappeared, leaving behind a trail of haunting radio transmissions. A covert task force investigates, but finds themselves caught in a third hurricane and shipwrecked on an uncharted island. They discover something shocking there—and not just that they aren’t alone on the island. Can they survive long enough to escape the Triangle and tell the world?
Dan Koboldt is a genetics researcher who has co-authored more than 90 publications in Nature, Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, and other journals. Every fall, he disappears into the woods to pursue whitetail deer with bow and arrow. He lives with his wife and three children in Ohio, where the deer take their revenge by eating all of the plants in his backyard.
I received a free ecopy from Serial Box Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
I've always been intrigued by the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, but I've hardly ever read any novels on the topic. The Triangle from Serial Box by Dan Koboldt, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and Mindy McGinnis was exactly the YA sci-fi mystery I needed on the subject. The project is cowritten by three authors and each one smoothly trades off on chapters. Of the three authors I'm only familiar with McGinnis. In fact, she's one of my favorites and as for the others I think I'll have to check out more of their work now. The story is quite fast-paced, filled with plenty of twists and turns, and it's visually cinematic. I only wish the ending didn't seem quite as hurried. Overall, though, The Triangle is well worth your time, especially if you're into the Bermuda Triangle and enjoy tight mysteries.
An audio detour into the paranormal on a Caribbean island cloaked in mystery, where the worlds of military, science, and pop conspiracy clash. A little Cold War intrigue thrown in, as well. At the end, the character most mocked throughout the story turns out to be the smart one.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.
This was, frankly, an entertaining read. The Bermuda Triangle mystery is always a rich source for stories, and I have to say I have never encountered this particular explanation before (I love it!).
The novel, read as a whole, has a very clipped, visual feel to it - at times it feels like the script to a graphic novel. The action is continuous and something is always happening. As this story is meant to be read in serial form, meaning there might be breaks between chapters, the style is very suitable.
The main characters, while each has a unique voice, aren't too complicated in their motivations and personality. We know exactly how this person will react to a situation or what they will say or what they will eventually do or think.
The plot has a natural-feeling progression and the mystery eventual resolution was well done. The only con was that ending was far too rushed, and the sudden entry of the sole villainous element was just too jarring and out of place. It didn't feel organic with the rest of the story, taking the graphic novel element too far and bordering on cartoonish. The ending is my only quibble with this novel which had been otherwise satisfactory.
2.5 to 3 Stars (It wasn't the right series for me, but it might be for you...)
The Triangle is a Serial Box production centering on disappearances in the famed Bermuda Triangle. After a series of storms, disappearances start occurring in the region but once an entire warship, USS Wasp, goes missing the US government puts together a covert task force to investigate what's going on. And that was part of my problem with the structure of this story- the idea of a covert team seemed implausible when you're talking about a response when an entire naval warship is missing, let alone all the airplanes that have been lost. Where is the Federal Aviation Administration? The Department of Defense Investigative Services? Coast Guard Investigative Services? Instead we get a single National Transportation Safety Board investigator, a retired Navy vice admiral, a data recovery specialist, a conspiracy theorist writer, and they are joined, for some reason, by a police inspector from Antigua. Yep, great team to solve the mystery of a missing warship that in real life would have cost well over a billion US dollars to build.
The writing style of this serial felt choppier than what I've seen with prior co-written Serial Box productions I've read and enjoyed (most recently The Vela but also Fisher of Bones, Bookburners, and The Witch Who Came in from the Cold.) Let me say, however, that I am still quite sold on Serial Box as a concept. Once again, for those new to the platform, the stories are released in episode format and you can both read and listen to the productions, which is wonderful for someone who has to switch back and forth between written and audio reading.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this series from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review.
When a misfit team under government supervision gather to solve the mystery of recent disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle (and particularly locate a state-of-the-art sub), things don't go quite as planned. Their brilliance lands them on an uncharted island, but they're not entirely alone. The other castaways have their own stories, and most are not what they first appear to be.
And rescue doesn't look likely with the strange conditions that govern the island and keep it hidden.
This was an interesting tale, and it was cowritten by a group of writers. It kind of reminded me of those stories where someone starts and someone else carries it on, adding new twists as they see fit, though this was more cohesive than some of those games pan out. The writers each took turns with portions of the book, carrying the story forward until its conclusion. And they each seemed to tackle and present a new mystery, which helped keep the pacing up and the pages turning.
And what a turn of events the whole thing turned out to be! Like, so much emotion there. And potential for more story. And Lydia... I almost wonder if she's a tie-in with the The Rogue Retrieval? Maybe not... But an interesting thought.
My only complaint is that the authors didn't say how much time had passed while they were on the island. I had to look it up, and I'm still not certain.
But a fantastic treatment of the Bermuda Triangle mystery. I can highly recommend this book to readers of adult fiction.
🎧🎧 Currently listening to „the Triangle” (see link below) 🎧 I had my eye on this for some time. I first saw this on goodreads, but then did not really find it anywhere as an ebook. Now I stumbled upon it on iTunes as a well produced multi-hour podcast produced by realm.fm ! 🤩🤩 After a series of hurricanes, the disappearances in the infamous Bermuda triangle increase drastically. Among the disappeared is a US warship, the UUS Wasp with more than a thousand souls aboard. 🚢 While looking for his former ship, the recently retired Admiral David Segarra assembles a rather motley crew to find out what is happening in the Bermuda Triangle. Among the crew are one data analyst trying to get his life on track, a NTSB agent who really does not like people, a conspiracy theorist-turned-author - The characters are rather varied and that makes for a pretty explosive mixture once the rescue-team get’s stranded themselves . . . 💥💥 I’m right now in the middle of episode 4 (of 10, all about an hour long) and the action is picking up, more questions, more mystery, not so many answers jet. I love it! 💖💖 I recommend it greatly for podcast/audiobook fans, who like to puzzle out the pieces bit by bit while listening to the story. At this dimension, this is less a podcast and more an audiobook in parts. Narration and sound-design are great, I was up until 2 am yesterday. Just to listen a little longer. 😇 If you are curious go check it out -> https://www.realm.fm/shows/the-triangle
Update: Now that I'm finished I have to say that it started stronger than it ended, there was a bit too much US-military cliche in the end. But still a well made and entertaining listen
Serial Box gifted me a copy of the series. They didn't ask for a review in return, but here it is.
This is a story about the Bermuda Triangle. Had I known that to begin with, I might have passed on Serial Box's offer. Those kinds of stories usually come across as hokey and stupid, but hey, free fiction, and I thought this was going to be just a three-part story, not ten parts.
The Triangle has about as much subtlety and nuance as the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. It just wants to get things started enough to get the story started, and then rolls on through everything else without any grace. It's full of cliches, both in character and scene, and at one point a little girl holds "a stuffed rabbit by the ear, his bottom legs dragging in the dirt, one eye loose in the socket, held in place by a single string".
The authors seem to be trying for a serious tone to the series while also having an irreverence to the narrative. And the banter. Oh good Lord, the banter. It gets tiresome after a while. To their credit, they maintain a continuity of style, so it's not jarring to move from one author's section to the next.
The story is easy to read, and it's relatively short, but that's not enough to make me recommend it to other readers. It's not as bad as some of the Abyss books I've read, but that's only because it doesn't have the kind of rampant sexism and misogyny I've seen there.
tl;dr: I was already put off that it was a Bermuda Triangle story, but beyond that, it's just kinda stupid.
I got a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The story’s fast-paced with a lot of mysteries and twists and turns which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the sci-fi elements a lot, although the ending could have explored them more. Pretty much the only thing that didn’t work for me was the romance. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel any chemistry between those characters, it felt like ticking a box of “romance”. The mysteries actually made me read the last three episodes back-to-back because I didn’t want to wait a week between them. ;)
The characters are all competent adults (with the possible exception of McBride although he gets his chances to shine, too) and I always enjoy reading about characters like that. They have some friction but are able to put them aside and concentrate on the task at hand. Marie St. Clair is a local police officer who forced her way to the team in the second episode, which was a good because it and unexpected person to the team. I think McBride could have been used more as a comic relief, though. The POV shifts were sometimes abrupt. The story was told from the POVs of Segarra, St. Clair, Hammond, and Dumont who are the most developed characters, naturally.
A highly entertaining thriller with sci-fi elements.
Serial Box and Dan Koboldt's team of writers bring this amped up thriller to the banquet table... and it's delicious!!! This serving-course explores the Bermuda Triangle and recent disappearances that start occurring in the Hurricane torn region! But it's only after a warship, USS Wasp, goes missing that the US government puts together a covert task force of misfits to investigate the incident. And I loved it, even as I binged the book and headed into what I suspected would be a very Crighton-esque conclusion, ending in just another Damn government coverup! Seriously, beyond the expected confrontation, the final episode held my attention and actually held a few unexpected surprises up it's sleeve... Neil Hellegers is a narrator that I've recently found and he did a superb job bringing these characters to life!
A pretty nice, action and tension packed story exploring the myth around the Bermuda Triangle. Narration worked nicely and the sound effects weren’t too much, even though the embedded ads were ANNOYINg but easily skipped.
The story itself was, well, okay. A bunch of very archetypal characters are dumped into a mystery island in the Bermuda Triangle, add in strange adversaries, a predictable and painfully white hetero romance, and a situation that slowly turns from a rescue mission into a Lord of Flies play. As the story progresses and tension rises, the characters slowly morph into caricatures of who they were in the beginning. Considering the vibes of the story, the ending is what you might expect.
This isn’t something I’d pick up from the shelf but I would (and did) listen to when it’s offered on my podcast feed for free.
2.75 stars. Diverting enough to make a commute more bearable. It mostly made me want to rewatch "Lost." Fun use of "The Hunt for Red October" as a plot device.
It did bother me that Antigua appeared to be somewhat randomly selected as an island representative of the inhabited Caribbean, for comparison with the deserted island. Maybe I missed a crucial detail about the location of the mystery island, but Antigua seemed far off course for the plot. Maybe it's just a fun island to name in a story? The islands of the Caribbean aren't interchangeable!
Fun, Crighton-esque serial, which is what you expect from a story about the Bermuda Triangle! Features a diverse cast, and a few more mysteries than answers. A good helping of X-filesian «THEY don’t want you to know...»
(I received an ARC from Serialbox for this one, but chose to listen to the audio episodes, because the productions are top notch.)
The mysticism and intrigue of the Bermuda Triangle has just turned personal for Admiral David Segarra: his former ship, the USS Wasp, has gone missing in the area without a trace.
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: If you're on the hunt for a creepy thriller with a supernatural twist, then this Michael Crichton-esque show is your prey.
Sorta speedy mystery-thriller about, you guessed it, the Bermuda Triangle. Ties things up neatly with room for a sequel. Maybe a little bit of sci-fi mixed in, and a very good use of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
A storm is brewing and that means a host of evacuees making their way up the coast from Florida to safer areas. Grace Phillips offers her farm to a few close friends and their various animals, which is fortunate because they have the space and the means to put up a number of people, dogs, and, thankfully, horses. But throughout the week, the stress and tension of close quarters and worries over the storm play havoc on the farm and its residents. As the storm tears through its path, they all find that while they may be physically safe, the hurricane will tear through them emotionally. By the end, friends and lovers will find the closest of relationships stressed to the max. Whether they'll come out of it intact is the real question.
Talk about a book I can empathize with. Growing up in southwest Louisiana, I was no stranger to hurricanes, storm preparations, and evacuations. My final years of college were the worst with storm after storm threatening the area and dissipating before hitting, causing all of the local businesses and the schools to wan in their response levels with each new storm.
So yeah, I can understand stress centered around leaving your home, wondering if your home will make it, worrying about animals, and even the friction it all causes among groups of people sheltered together.
Of course in The Summer Guests, the farm these folks have evacuated to is HUGE! There's the main house, the barn, and two "cottages," which are anything but the small abodes I imagined they would be. So there's plenty of space for these folks to all spread out and ignore one another. But they don't. In part because of Grace and their relationships with her.
While the various guests all vaguely know one another, some simply due to being part of the horse world, the one person they all know is Grace. And she'd like nothing more than for all her close friends to get along with one another. But tension and stress definitely don't bring out the best in people. You can imagine the strength of the emotional storm brewing is as strong by the time it figuratively hits as the hurricane they're all bracing for!
One thing I'm not familiar with is horses. I rode, more regularly than most, but it was limited to summer camps and trips to dude ranches. Dressage and jumping, maintenance, sales, etc are all foreign to me. But they are a central portion of The Summer Guests. This was an interesting aspect of the book and one that's threaded throughout, giving the reader a sense of familiarity from the start even if you know literally nothing about horses at all.
The Summer Guests is the kind of read you can sink into and the characters are the kind you can call friends by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more so now that I no longer live along the coast and have to worry about storms that are already earning names this calendar year!