‘Impact Winter’ was a wonderful surprise. I’m not normally a fan of ‘full cast’ productions. I realise now that that’s because the ones I’ve listened to have been adaptations of novels and I’ve usually preferred the original. ‘Impact Winter’ is different. It was conceived as a ‘full cast’ sound performance and it was executed with great skill.

The first thing that hit me was the quality of the sound. I felt as if I was seeing with my ears. The sound effects created not just a mood but a strong sense of place. The actors, who were all superb, sounded as if they were moving around and interacting with each other and the environment, not just standing around saying their lines into individual microphones. Then there was the music for each episode. I’m not a fan of music in audiobooks but this wasn’t an audiobook, this was a play with its own soundtrack. The songs fitted the action. I love the idea of a couple of people, trapped in an eternal winter created by the dust cloud from a meteor impact, playing ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More’ as part of their first attempt at a radio broadcast to the rest of the world.

The next thing that caught and kept my attention was the acting. The parts are played by people I’ve seen in many other things and the acting is of the same quality as a high production value television series.

At the start, I thought I knew where the story was going. I mean, it’s a post-apocalypse story with an isolated set of survivors surrounded by dangerous creatures. OK, it was a vampire apocalypse and not a zombie apocalypse but I was fairly sure I knew how the tropes would play out. I was completely wrong about that. By an hour or so in, the story twisted in ways I’d never have predicted. The world kept getting more complex. The characters developed. Each episode left me surprised, satisfied and eager to know what would happen next.

I had a lot of fun with this.

The ending wasn’t a cliff-hanger, the story works as a standalone, but there’s ought potential for a sequel or several sequels. I hope they happen and I hope they happen soon.

Oh, and one other thing, did I mention that Audible is giving ‘Impact Winter’ to members for free?

I recommend you get your copy as soon as you can.