GoodReads Rating:
4.58 |
The Enigma Source (The Enigma Series Book 10) by Charles V. Breakfield & Roxanne E. Burkey and narrated by Derek Shoales is a riveting audiobook of 9.5 hours to entertain you on your next road trip. Shoales, does a tremendous job of giving a voice to the Enigma Series books. He is the narrator of each of the series’ novels. This techno-thriller centers on cryptocurrency and how it has invaded the world’s money markets. Cryptocurrency is supposed to be a safe, uniformed, and universal system of currency that simplifies and facilitates trade, communication, and understanding among nations. However, Breakfield & Burkey’s novel illustrates that there are many pitfalls in the world of cryptocurrency. Derek Shoales is a master voice actor who treats readers to a divine theatrical reading reminiscent of the radio shows of old as he narrates The Enigma Source (The Enigma Series Book 10) masterfully weaving the happenings and characters together. As usual, Breakfield and Burkey provide enough backstories of the Cyber Assassins Technology Services or CATS team to allow you to easily enjoy this tenth novel as a stand-alone episode of the series. Derek Shoales’s strong narration beautifully captures the indomitable spirit of Su Lin, whose story of being kidnapped by a low life, referred to as Colonel Guano, hustled off to China and forced to share her wealth of scientific knowledge with her captors will engage even the most discerning audiobook listeners. The characters, Matthias and Dutch, are a couple of shady operators who promote and market their cryptocurrency to nations all over the world as a panacea for a country’s economic and financial downfalls. They are just one set of bad guys the CATS team must contend with. Breakfield and Burkey paint a realistic story of the issues that plague the new form of currency. The novel also serves as an educational narration for readers to become more knowledgeable of the dangers inherent with cryptocurrency. The Enigma Source is a Compelling, satisfying, and clever read or in this case, listen, that has all the elements of a good mystery, plus wonderfully complicated, protagonists and villains. The 9.5-hour audiobook version of the novel may at first feel a bit intimidating, but narrator Derek Shoales' gift of accents, distinctive character voices, and his ability to add dramatic tension to the tale will whet your appetite for another chapter of the Enigma Series. There aren’t many fictional books that have cryptocurrency as their core theme, but fiction is a great way to introduce and create people’s interest in extremely thought-provoking new technology. With little bits of truth and facts wrapped in emotional engagement, Breakfield and Burkey edge the reader into the fresh new world of digital currency. Their thoughtful balance between a crypto commentary and telling a thrilling and exciting story was a challenge, but surprisingly well done. You will find The Enigma Source persuasive and engaging. |
Breakfield writes with his co-author Rox Burkey. Together they write The Enigma Series and multiple short stories in various genres. Charles is a technologist who specializes in network connectivity, security and leading edge technology integrations. Charles' love of wine tastings, cooking, and Harley riding has found ways into the stories. As a child he moved often because of his father's military career, which even now helps him with the various character perspectives he helps bring to life in the series. He continues to try to teach Burkey humor. Burkey works as a business architect who builds solutions for customers on a good technology foundation. She has written many technology papers and white papers but finds the freedom of writing fiction a lot more fun. As a child she helped to lead the kids with exciting new adventures built on make believe characters, was a Girl Scout until high school, and contributed to the community as a young member of a Head Start program. Rox enjoys family, learning, listening to people, travel, outdoor activities, sewing, cooking, and thinking about how to diversify the series. Breakfield and Burkey started writing non-fictional papers and books, but it wasn't nearly as fun as writing fictional stories. They found it interesting to use the aspects of technology that people are incorporating into their daily lives more and more as a perfect way to create a good guy/bad guy story with elements of travel to the various places they have visited, either professionally and personally, humor, romance, intrigue, suspense, and a spirited way to remember people who have crossed paths with them. They love to talk about their stories with private and public book readings. Burkey is also conducting regular radio interviews with other authors, which is interesting. Her first interview was, wait for it, Breakfield. You can often find them at local book fairs or other family oriented events. The original series is based on a family organization called R-Group. Recently Breakfield and Burkey spawned a subgroup that contains some of the original characters as the Cyber Assassins Technology Services (CATS) team. The authors have ideas for continuing the series in both of these tracks. They track the more than 150 characters on a spreadsheet, with a hidden avenue for the future coined The Enigma Chronicles tagged in some portions of the stories. Fan reviews seem to frequently suggest that these would make good television or movie stories, so the possibilities appear endless, just like their ideas for new stories. They have completed book video trailers for each of the stories, which can be viewed on YouTube, Amazon's Authors page, or on their website, www.EnigmaBookSeries.com. Their website is routinely updated with new interviews, answers to readers' questions, book trailers, and contests. You may also find it fascinating to check out the fun acronyms they create for the stories but summarize on their website. Reach out to them at Authors@EnigmaSeries. com, Twitter @EnigmaSeries, or Facebook @TheEnigmaSeries.