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    The Courier
    The Courier
    The Courier
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Courier

    Written by Gerald Brandt

    Narrated by Ali Ahn and James Colby

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Kris Ballard is a motorcycle courier. A nobody. Level 2 trash in a multi-level city that stretches from San Francisco to the Mexican border-a land where corporations make all the rules. A runaway since the age of fourteen, Kris struggled to set up her life, barely scraping by, working hard to make it without anyone's help. But a late day delivery changes everything when she walks in on the murder of one of her clients. Now she's stuck with a mysterious package that everyone wants. It looks like the corporations want Kris gone, and are willing to go to almost any length to make it happen. Hunted, scared, and alone, she retreats to the only place she knows she can hide: the Level 1 streets. Fleeing from people that seem to know her every move, she is rescued by Miller-a member of an underground resistance group-only to be pulled deeper into a world she doesn't understand. Together Kris and Miller barely manage to stay one step ahead of the corporate killers, but it's only a matter of time until Miller's resources and their luck run out....
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 8, 2016
    ISBN9781501934667
    The Courier

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    Reviews for The Courier

    3.5/5

    27 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Kris is living on the fringes barely surviving as a motorcycle courier in a sprawling multilevel megacity in a future California. Offered the chance for a last run at the end of the day she takes it even when it is a bit out of her normal territory. Corporations use physical couriers to send data they can’t trust over the web. Multiple couriers are used and you never know if you are carrying anything important or just a blank data chip. Kris is on the run when someone tries to take the chip from her at the delivery site after killing the intended recipient. Not knowing who to trust she is sucked into a world of deadly corporate espionage where she is just grist for the mill as the corps run the world now. A good first book in a series and a good setup for future books. I liked it and I’ll be looking for more when they come out.


      Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
    • 3/5
      Set in 2140 in a United States pretty much owned by 3 corporations. Sixteen year old Chris, orphaned, works as a bike courier and gets snared by corporate intrigue. Point of view shifts between Kris, Quincy: a killer-for-hire, Devon: a computer nerd, a Miller: an agent in an anti-corporate environmental group. Our heroine is able to do more than is realistic but, hey, that's what escapist fiction is all about.Audio version is thrillingly read, great for staying awake on drives.
    • 4/5
      The Courier is the initial entry in a science fiction series titled The San Angeles Novels. It focuses on the exploits of Kris Ballard, a courier whose job is to transport corporate messages to the designated recipient. The story takes place in the United States in 2140. The earth’s enormous population lives in enormous cities like San Angeles, a seven-level city stretching from San Diego to San Francisco. The power of corporations has eclipsed that of the government and sophisticated computer systems now reveal the contents of electronic messages to competitors within minutes. Couriers are essential for moving confidential information from one place to another.Kris is required to work past her normal quitting time to transport a package message and walks in on a murder in progress at the drop-off destination. A desperate scramble for survival begins as Kris finds herself in a series of life-threatening crises. Unbeknownst to her, a tracker embedded in her back allows the assassins can find her with ease no matter how cleverly she attempts to hide.Early on the frequent lapse into exposition is off-putting as Brandt describes the political, economic, and social world in which Kim lives. The plodding pace requires some patience to get to the heart of the story. Once past the emphasis on scene setting, however, The Courier is an easy read with the chapters divided into 2-4 page segments The premise of The Courier will be familiar to readers who have read Tami Hoag’s Kill The Messenger or seen Premium Rush starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The Courier does not approach the quality of Kill The Messenger which I regard as the best entry in the embattled bicycle messenger genre. It’s a shame Hoag did not write a sequel featuring the same characters. Nevertheless, readers who enjoyed Kill The Messenger or Premium Rush will most likely enjoy The Courier.
    • 4/5
      I heard about this book via the CBC list of 10 Canadian works of science fiction you need to read. That list also includes Quantum Night by Robert Sawyer and Company Town by Madeline Ashby which I have already read and reviewed. Since I thought all three were great I am going to have to go back and see what else I should read. The Courier is the first book in a series set in a future when most of the habitable earth is covered by megacities. The west coast of California from San Francisco to San Diego is one continuous city in seven levels. Kris Ballard is a seventeen year old orphan who supports herself by working as a motorcycle courier. At the end of a day's work she is asked by her dispatcher to take one more package from level 4 to level 2 where Kris lives. She agrees to do so since the dispatcher tells her that she doesn't have to bring the paperwork in until the next morning so once she has delivered the package she can go home. Sounds good but when she gets to the drop-off location she finds a dead man with his killer just finishing up the job. She manages to get away on her motorcycle but when she locks up her bike at home she finds the killer already there. There follows a number of close calls with this killer and one other. Their ability to find her is due to the fact that every person has a tracking device imbedded into them at birth. It is possible to mask the tracker but Kris needs help from ACE, a counter corporate entity that tries to prevent the excesses of the megacorporations that essentially control everything. Ian Miller is assigned by ACE to help Kris but a mole in ACE keeps frustrating their plans. Miller is the first person Kris has felt safe with since her parents died and she is a little in love with him. Miller might return her feelings but their survival is more important than romance. Since this is a series it isn't really a spoiler to say that eventually Kris and Miller overcome the bad guys but it's quite the ride until they can do so.
    • 5/5
      Gerald BrandtTHE COURIERDawScience Fiction / CyberpunkCall me shallow, but I often judge a book by the cover. Well. Not the book, but if the cover doesn't catch my eye, I may not pick it up and see what the story is about. THE COURIER has that grab-me-kind-of-cover. And, when I picked it up to read the synopsis, I was hooked.Set in the future, it seems the world is past apocalyptic times, and has found a way to function, and thrive, and is right back to its old ways. Apparently, even in the distant future it is the corporations that run everything. Forget about factions. After the world is scorched by nuclear weapons, the city is divided into levels. Actual levels. Think one giant, underground parking garage. The farther down you go, the poorer you must be.Orphaned, independent, and driven, sixteen-year-old Kris Ballard, has been on most of the Levels. She's a bike courier, making ends meet (barely) delivering packages from point A to point B. At the end of a shift, and despite a nagging feeling, Ballard accepts a last minute delivery. After picking up the parcel at one end of the city, she has to travel across town for the drop off.Problem is, when she reaches point B, someone is inside the corporate building knifing her contact. Despite hightailing it out of the building, the killer saw her, and those behind the murder have the resources to trace her every move.With the package still in her possession, Ballard is on the run. It seems like anywhere she seeks solace, she is immediately found. The different corporations want her for different reasons. There is no one she can trust . . . until she is forced to finally put her trust into someone. Ian Miller.Miller works for A.C.E. and he is a lot like Ballard. A.C.E. is kind of like Greenpeace. They have a role in the future - stopping corporations from taking advantage of the innocent. Only now it is less about the package, and more about staying alive. Can Miller, Ballard, and A.C.E. survive attacks coming at them from every angle, and at every turn? Or is the gig finally up . . .I loved Brandt's writing. Crisp. Clean. The action was non-stop. The world-building was epic. So much has been set up. There can be a fleet of Courier novels (and I hope there is) in Brandt's creation. As a reader you immediately bond with Kris Ballard, you care about her. She is a tough lead, a likable heroine. I will be keeping tabs on Brandt. He is clearly a writer worth following!Phillip TomassoAuthor of the Severed Empire Series, andThe Vaccination Trilogy
    • 4/5
      Actiony, cyberpunky setting, super super cinematic. I really liked it.