The Atrocity Engine

Custodians of the Cosmos, Book 1

By: Tim Waggoner

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Men in Black meets Hellraiser in this rollicking mash-up of urban fantasy and cosmic horror from four-time Bram Stoker Award-Winning author Tim Waggoner.

Creatures from dark dimensions infesting your home? Demonic beings trying to drive you insane? Alien gods attempting to destroy your universe?

Just call Maintenance.

This underpaid and overworked secret organization is dedicated to battling forces that seek to speed up Entropy and hasten the Omniverse’s inevitable death.

Neal Hudson is a twenty-year veteran of Maintenance. A surveyor who drives through the streets of Ash Creek, Ohio constantly scanning for the deadly energy known as Corruption. Since the death of his previous partner, Neal prefers to work alone, and he’s not happy when he’s assigned to mentor a rookie.

But they better learn to get along fast.

The Multitude, a group of godlike beings who seek to increase Entropy at every opportunity, are creating an Atrocity Engine. This foul magical device can destroy the Earth, and they don’t care how many innocent lives it takes to build it. (Spoiler alert: It’s a lot!)

Just another day on the job...

©2024 Aethon Books (P)2024 Aethon Audio

made work sufferable

good book made the time go by at work. hopefully this series continues.. I will be looking forward to it

If you like dark fantasy this is the book for you!

4.5 ⭐'s. This was a lot darker than I expected, almost too dark for me, but what hell. What else could I have expected with a name like Atrocity Engine. So although I might not have loved the book to pieces I certainly respected it. It had a great compelling storyline that had me riveted throughout it's entirety, as Gina and Neal race ahead to stop the corruption and Atrocity Engine from being built.
So yeah if you like dark fantasy you won't want to miss this action-driven story by Tim Waggoner and narrated to us by Joe Hemphil.

Creative Approach and Entertaining

I enjoyed this book. It’s definitely men in black remade with a twist. I don’t mind though. This book ends really well too. Even though it’s book 1 of hopefully many, it wraps up well so you don’t have to worry about starting a new series and waiting for future releases. I’m happy for this, thank you Tim!

There are aspects of the story I just had to roll with. It was the creative direction and lead into meat for the story and different flavor dynamics for the characters. I would have gone a different direction on roles and responsibilities of the company though… some aspects of surveyors just doesn’t make sense.

It’s a very linear storyline. Some folks like that, some hate it. It made it easy for me to follow and come back to without having to think hard about something.

The story had humor, emotion, and omg disgusting moments. I loved taking the journey.

Don’t take this book seriously, roll with it and you’ll have an entertaining experience.

A decent listen.

A darker take on a Men In Black concept. Some interesting mechanics of the universe kept me engaged. The narrator was decent, but not great. He was a bit too monotone during the exciting scenes. During a car chase scene, I had actually forgotten that the main characters were in a life-or-death situation because everything was read so plainly.

A dark and interesting concept

The idea was unique, but characters 2D and their motivations too simple, but entertaining story and wide world clearly developed and loved by the author. The character dialog and action felt somewhat disjointed and fell short of its potential. The performance was good from the narrator.

Freaking Blood Awesome

This book starts with a Bang and takes off right off the bat, with goes quickly to cosmic horror. I loved the world setting that was set up and even though not really lovecraft but could easily fit in those who like those stories and could be a fun call of cthuhlu setting. highly recommend and can't want to see where this goes in the future at least I hope there is one and can't wait until book 2

Unique, and Definitely Scratched an Itch

The only reason the performance gets four stars, is because of how he pronounces "mausoleum" and how many times the word is said. Maybe unfair, but dang is it annoying. I wish there were more stories, focusing on an organization that fights supernatural crime!

Nice series start ...

Enjoyed this book; interesting premise about an organization fighting against primeval chaos if more than a bit bleak. Interested in seeing where this series goes next.

Blah blah blah!

Seriously what is this book really about? It goes on and on about nothing. Literally nothing!

Don't cut yourself on this very boring edge

The only horror you'll find here is the boring writing and bland, stilted delivery from the narrator.

The writer clearly wants to try to shock you with edgy violence and suffering, but the narrator comes across like a sleepy text to speech program, complete with bizarre mispronunciations.