7th Son Book I: Descent

7th Son. A podcast novel by J.C. Hutchins.

Again, this isn’t what I would call an audio drama but a podiobook. Or an audio book for your iPod.

This is a story, read by the author, of seven clones, on a mission to help find the man they were cloned from. John Michael Smith, or John Alpha as he is called.

It is a much longer story than Severance. There are three books, which when written consists of about 1200 pages. I’ve listened to the first book so far and I really liked it. It was made into 24 chapters. That might not be entirely accurate as some of the mp3’s contained two chapters. They range from 30 minutes long to an hour. But before you put it off for it’s length let me tell you about fluff.

Fluff is the excess banter that is included in each podcast where the author thanks you for listening, gives you updates on the 7th Son online community that is being created, promotes other podcasts and airs recorded calls left by listeners asking questions or telling about how much they like the story. There is also a 1-2 minutes summary of the previous chapter.

Some of the fluff is interesting and it helps to create a sense of community with the author and the other listeners. The average length is 5 minutes before the story starts and 10+ minutes after. I remember one chapter where the story was 20 minutes long and the fluff was about 21 minutes, maybe longer. I chose to listen to very little of it.

Well I guess you’re probably wondering what the story is actually about.

The author J.C. Hutchins reads the story with some music background and musical transitions between scenes. He changes his voice for the different characters and is much more effective than Andy Evans. It's a good thing he does as the 7 clones are all named John Michael Smith. Each clone ends up going by a different name and with in a few chapters I was able to keep them all separated in my head. The story delves into the science needed to clone the humans and grow them at an accelerated rate; the secret government organization that did the cloning; the moral dilemmas involved; transplanting memories from body to body; the mystery of John Alpha and his army of Nepthcharged humans (people who have had their memory erased and replaced with someone else’s, in most cases a killer recruited by John Alpha to do his dirty work.) Oh did I mention that the story starts out with a little kid killing the President of the United States. That is one bit that hasn't been answered in the first book. The final cliffhanger (I'm not giving away the BIG cliffhanger, there are a few) of the first book are the stolen Russian nukes that are in control by John Alpha's legion of nepthcharged warriors, who are all the same man. You'll understand after you listen to the story.

There is action, cussing, intrigue. I can’t wait to listen to the next book. Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger that leaves you wanting for more. The story is to be released as a book in 2009.