TRWells

I thoroughly enjoyed it

Reviewed: 04-18-24

I really liked it and wish it had been a bit longer.

spoiler: with the way that it ends I'm hoping that's not the end of the series. I would love to see it keep going. Does it?

Also RC Bray rocks, as always. The voices he gives these characters fits their persona so well.

please make a 4th book to this series!

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far fetched even for a zombie book

Reviewed: 03-13-24

now that Russian special ops guys are done for, I hope that puts an end to the ridiculous fight scenes.

seriously... the battle for the airplane took like more than an hour. I just imagined the plane taxiing endlessly on a 50 mile runway while absolutely idiotic hand to hand combat scenes play out inside. so silly. By the time it was over I didn't care who won lol.

also for gods sake - can we just finish off the Canadian police officer woman? just write her out of the book. I don't think I can take anymore of her somehow being an unkillable super soldier while also constantly hearing her regret for flirting. Also, somehow, the same woman has virtually no regrets or remembrance of her family that she got killed.

her family died. oh well. *shrug*

but she flirted with Henno and might not ever fully recover from that.

so dumb.

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the whole subplot about JoJo and bigger monsters

Reviewed: 10-30-23

I like the book series, I love RC Bray narration, and I enjoyed this book adding some hardship to their idyllic life in vanguard islands.

but...

This whole "I have a monkey who is also a diver and I'm going to come out of a coma, skip rehab, go off to war the next day and go totally crazy against an army of creatures in order to rescue my monkey - AND anyone who stands in my way is dead to me" is just a tad much. As is the whole idea of a damn monkey being a hell driver (or an attache to Ada). An average diver lasts 15 missions, and here we have an invincible ape who can detect danger a mile away and has nearly human level intelligence. Just... no.

I got hung up on that and felt myself wanting to skip entire sections where the name "JoJo" was mentioned (I didn't, I roughed it out). Felt like a totally paper thin plot premise that was completely unbelievable and a bit of a betrayal in mood/sincerity to the series.

separately, they gotta find another way to keep the intensity aside from getting bigger and bigger and bigger monsters. I mean... sirens, I get. stone beasts were a little less believable... and then inexplicably we have these enormous flying creatures the size of an airship.

also, come on... who honestly suggests "securing panama canal" (50 miles) in order to open up western south America? they never really explain what makes that area so compelling. And why would a character like X believe they could take the whole canals distance with a few hundred or a thousand troops or so against a huge, unknown enemy? kinda getting unbelievable...

anyways, hoping the believability doesn't slip much further in the remaining books. Still getting entertainment out of it.

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pretty solid series

Reviewed: 08-14-23

RC Bray is the man.
Story is pretty solid. A little heavy on the forgettable action sequences, but if you can get past that then you'll be happy with it. I'll admit the story line in book 1 was a little 1-dimensional but really ramps up in #2 (just finished #2). I like it a lot! Looking forward to 3.

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Why did RC agree to do this book?

Reviewed: 12-31-22

This is for sure the worst book I've listened to all year, and maybe the worst of all time.

RC Bray does great narration, as always, but even his master skill can't save this heaping ****pile. Why he agreed to do this book I will never know. It hurts his brand.

Regarding the story...

The author clearly has a scat fetish. He spends at least 10% of the story talking about Gus taking a dump, having to take a dump, or cleaning himself up after a dump. He starts on that theme early and hammers it often. You have to hear it to believe it. It's ridiculous.

Near the end our fearless Gus is chased into a house by Z's only to promptly forget about the zombies clawing outside to get in because Gus stops and admires the teal colored toilet and decided he needs to take a long dump (this is while he still suspects there are Z's in the house, which he has not yet cleared). It then colorfully details his struggle to get his pants undone in time and his ensuing multiple volleys of dumps and even tells you how much he enjoys the toilet paper.

Gus also risks his life repeatedly to get toilet paper. Doesn't matter that he's out of food, he'll risk going into a "zombie nest" just to get TP. It's insane.

Oh and then there's the "ball scratching". Exactly what it sounds like. An inordinate amount of time spent detailing how Gus' balls itch. It's like the author was intentionally going out of his way to make the story as stupid as possible.

Our pointless character, Gus, also goes through some incredible transformation. Like how he's "not a drinking guy" and then 2 days later he's looting palettes of rum and whiskey from an abandoned liquor store instead of seeking food or weaponry.

Or how Gustopher was extremely cautious not to make any noise but then with no reservations will use a 12 gauge down in the city to kill one Z (don't sorry, there's no danger to him at any point in this book).

Gustopher also has some shockingly arbitrary "red lines". He will, without care, trade his bar and use a screw driver to stab through the eyes and ears of Z's and be totally fine. But then other times he'll see a random single zombie that "terrifies him down to his balls and gives him nightmares". Beyond comprehension.

Lastly, at no point will you ever feel like Gus is in actual danger. You're going to see Super Gus mow down hundreds of zombies with a van but then be terrified by a single remaining Z. You'll see him lay waste to an entire residential block of people only to then be more immediately concerned with taking a dump.

This book really never should have been made. It's not worth $1, or 1/1000 of a credit, or anything. If you have any common sense (I sure didn't) you'll conclude the book is **** in the first hour and then get a refund.

I feel bad for the other fans who liked his previous work and then got suckered into this thing. This was not even a cash-grab, this was intentionally horrible story telling.

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Super exciting and excellent narration

Reviewed: 12-05-22

and I'm glad to finally have some less savory characters out of the picture!

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loved it.

Reviewed: 10-26-22

I was a little worried at the closure of the second book, but the 3rd set was fantastic.

RC Bray is amazing.

the author does a fantastic job tying everything together.

I wish it wasn't over :(

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I'm enjoying it mostly; spoiler alert

Reviewed: 10-24-22

First, I love RC Brays performance. Magnificent.

The story is good and well written IMHO. The only things I didn't like:
1) For highly pragmatic survivors in England to choose, on a whim, to uproot and leave to Africa completely betrays the characters intelligence. I understand the backdrop/rationale for it and it still makes no sense. it's starting to feel like it's getting further fetched which I don't like.
2) The group needs to incur more losses to keep it believable. Leah/Dan being nearly invincible super soldiers is a little tiring. That works fine when they're ambushing 1-2 unprepared guys, but when they're swarming a group of 20+ semi-organized folks and they just do a clean sweep it makes it far less believable.
3) It would be more enjoyable if the cause of the illness was still unknown. The way Emma stumbles into it with a random post-it note with top secret credentials -- which then leads her to nearly undeniable evidence about what happened is far, far too convenient. It would have been a better outcome if they came out empty handed, far and away more believable.
4) The rapid fall of the camp post Dan is... a little crazy. I know the author wanted to make it clear that it takes a unique set of skills, personalities and ethics to establish and run a camp like that - but the rapid decline after Steve's accident, where they have their first suicide inside of like what... a week? Lexi instantly being sidestepped and infuriated to the point of wanting to leave inside of a couple weeks? come on. I felt like that was a little much.
5) It'd be nice if they stopped personifying Ash so much. I like the character of course, but hardly a scene goes by without making Ash seem like he's a sentient human. Also, they can cut down the number of coffee scenes. it seems like every other sentence is talking about getting a cup of coffee...

Really hoping for books 5&6 that the struggles of the people traveling the mainland continent are realistic. Though I'm concerned that their bee-lining it for Germany to pick up MRAPs are kind of sending it down a bad path. For a group so focused on logistics this seem like an awful, awful idea. And again, still totally struggling to find it believable that anyone would completely abandon their home and try and go to central F Africa for what? I'm really hoping they turn back to keep the story in the realm of somewhat believable.

overall still enjoying the series though, and REALLY enjoying RC Brays portrayal of the characters.

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best ending yet

Reviewed: 06-18-22

I loved the book.
I love the ECO.
I'm pretty sure I'm Captain Scarandom in a previous life (and proud of it).

(spoiler comes next)
I have dutifully listened to all the books and I just have to say, this was the best ending I've heard yet. Of every book series I've listened to, this was the best cliff hanger.

PLEASE. PLEASE let the ECO group play a key role in the next book. Their antics and comedy are one of the greatest gifts!

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1 person found this helpful

absolute must read, esp with Ukraine right now

Reviewed: 05-02-22

Incredible, true story that's well told by Bill Browder. A great follow-up book to red Notice. Highly recommend to anyone.

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