Abducted By Aliens

I’ll admit, I side-eyed the ‘narrated by Virtual Voice’ credit at first—how could a synthetic voice carry a story this weird? But within 20 minutes, I was sold. The flat, slightly robotic delivery *works* because Trissii *is* a cog in a broken machine. When she sighs, ‘*Another* human with the same useless fear responses,’ the lack of inflection makes it funnier than any dramatic reading could. That said, the voice does struggle with emotional range in a few key scenes, particularly during a late-act reveal where a human character’s desperation gets lost in the monotone. It’s a minor stumble in an otherwise brilliant performance, but worth noting if you’re sensitive to narration quirks. The story itself is a slow-burn gem. Collins takes the alien abduction trope and drains it of glamour, replacing it with the banality of evil—think *Severance* meets *They Live*, but with more paperwork. The first half drags *intentionally*, mirroring Trissii’s ennui, but the payoff is worth it. A mid-book sequence where she ‘processes’ a human who’s eerily *good* at the tests (and thus ruins her metrics) had me cackling. The production is clean, though the lack of music or sound effects means the virtual voice carries the entire atmospheric load. My only real critique? The ending feels a touch rushed after such a meticulous buildup, like Collins got tired of the joke before the audience did. Still, for fans of antihero aliens, corporate dystopias, or audiobooks that double as social commentary, this is a standout.