Awares

About This Audiobook

In *Awares*, Piers Anthony flips first-contact sci-fi on its head by making invisibility the key to survival. Our heroine, Elasa, isn’t just fighting an alien invasion—she’s hunting for the Awares, humans who’ve evolved to blend seamlessly into their surroundings, both visually and psychologically. Anthony’s world-building is lean but potent, turning urban landscapes and dense forests into battlegrounds where the difference between predator and prey hinges on a whisper. The stakes feel intimate even as the scope expands, with Elasa navigating distrust, betrayal, and the moral cost of wielding such a terrifying ability. It’s a tight, high-concept thriller where the real enemy might be the ones who can’t be seen.

Narrator Shannon Condon breathes life into this deceptively simple premise with a voice that oscillates between urgency and eerie calm. Her delivery makes the supernatural feel grounded, whether she’s voicing Elasa’s grit or the Awares’ unsettling stillness. The pacing keeps the audiobook brisk—a rare feat in a 4-hour listen—without sacrificing depth. Anthony’s prose is as unadorned as the Awares’ existence, but Condon’s performance turns every clipped sentence into a punch to the gut.