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The Rising
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
Since its 2003 debut, Brian Keene's The Rising is one of the best-selling zombie novels of all-time. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, inspired the works of other authors and filmmakers, and has become a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of horror fans.
The Rising is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man.
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- By The Lone Mopper on 07-30-15
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
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900 Minutes
- By: S. Johnathan Davis
- Narrated by: Jamison Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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John is a father, but that wasn't his day job before the Zombie Apocalypse. Seven months after the events in 900 Miles, we pick up with John and Kyle who are bunkered down with their newfound community back at Avalon. Unexpectedly thrust outside the protection of Avalon's walls, they're forced back into the world of the dead on a scavenging run that should be routine. However, they quickly learn that there are forces at play making this journey anything but...
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started off oddly like the game Undead Rising 2
- By Midwestbonsai on 03-10-16
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Rise Again
- A Zombie Thriller
- By: Ben Tripp
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Filled with adventurous human drama-and shocking inhuman horror - Rise Again is a vivid and powerful debut novel of the zombie apocalypse.
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SHE TOOK A SPATULA AND SCRAPPED HIS FACE OFF THE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-13-17
By: Ben Tripp
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Allison Hewitt Is Trapped
- A Zombie Novel
- By: Madeleine Roux
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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One woman's story as she blogs about - and fights back against - the zombie apocalypse.
Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop. It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison's blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures.
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lots of potential but disappointing
- By Linda B on 04-29-11
By: Madeleine Roux
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The New Hunger
- A Warm Bodies Novella
- By: Isaac Marion
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of the world didn't happen overnight. After years of war, societal breakdown, freak storms, and rising tides, humanity already hovered near the edge. Then came the most unexpected threat of all: the world's corpses rising up to deliver the final blow.
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Not worth more than $1.00 or so
- By cristina on 11-20-15
By: Isaac Marion
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The List
- By: J. A. Konrath
- Narrated by: Benjamin L. Darcie
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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They are ten strangers with one thing in common: A mysterious tattoo on the bottom of their feet. None of them know how it got there or what it means. One of them is a homicide cop who’s determined to find out. All of them are marked for death - because they’re next on...The List. The explosive thriller from bestselling author J.A. Konrath, The List takes you deep inside a top-secret techno-conspiracy that’s too shocking to comprehend, too insidious to detect, and far too powerful to stop....
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Better than expected
- By Sammie on 07-19-19
By: J. A. Konrath
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13 Bullets
- A Vampire Tale
- By: David Wellington
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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All the official reports say they are dead—extinct since the late ’80s, when a fed named Arkeley nailed the last vampire in a fight that nearly killed him. But Arkeley knows what most people don’t: there is one left. In an abandoned asylum she is rotting, plotting, and biding her time in a way that only the undead can. When state trooper Laura Caxton calls the FBI looking for help in the middle of the night, it is Arkeley who gets the assignment.
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HER LARYNX ROTTED AWAY YEARS AGO
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-20-16
By: David Wellington
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Monster Hunter International
- By: Larry Correia
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
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Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a 14th story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.
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Suprizingly entertaining
- By Konstantin on 02-17-12
By: Larry Correia
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Krampus
- The Yule Lord
- By: Brom
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus.
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5 stars
- By colleen on 11-17-12
By: Brom
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900 Miles
- A Zombie Novel
- By: S. Johnathan Davis
- Narrated by: Jamison Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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John is a killer, but that wasn't his day job before the Apocalypse. In a harrowing 900-mile race against time to get to his wife just as the dead begin to rise, John, a businessman trapped in New York, soon learns that the zombies are the least of his worries, as he sees firsthand the horror of what man is capable of with no rules, no consequences, and death at every turn. Teaming up with an ex-army pilot named Kyle, they escape New York only to stumble across a man who says that he has the key to a rumored underground stronghold called Avalon....
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A "road story"--with zombies!
- By Lesley on 09-30-14
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Cryptids
- Cryptids, Book 1
- By: David Haynes
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Facility is a research centre that specialises in cryptozoology, the search for legendary creatures. Once these ‘cryptids’ are found, they are caged, abused and experimented on to graft their physical prowess onto ordinary soldiers. Even as the Facility’s troops hunt down Shaw, and the cunning Cryptid Nine plans her escape, something far more horrifying is emerging from hibernation to feed. And both human and cryptid will discover that nothing can stop the Wendigo....
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Awful Narrator!
- By Roni on 05-18-22
By: David Haynes
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Outstanding narration & a fun story.
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Awesome story!
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Amish paradise
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Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer's field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull's razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.
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THIS HAD A GUN SHOW BEAT TO SHIT
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Excellent
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Dark Hollow
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Something very strange is happening in LeHorn's Hollow. Eerie, piping music is heard late at night, and mysterious fires have been spotted deep in the woods. Women are vanishing without a trace overnight, leaving behind husbands and families. When up-and-coming novelist Adam Senft stumbles upon an unearthly scene, it plunges him and the entire town into an ancient nightmare. Folks say the woods in LeHorn's Hollow are haunted, but what waits there is far worse than any ghost.
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Just... don't waste money on this.
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By: Brian Keene
What listeners say about The Rising
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- sci-fi nerd
- 08-17-17
What was with all the religious stuff?
2.5 stars rounded up to 3, because maybe I just didn't get it the way I was supposed to?
Anyhoo...
I remember when I first saw Stargate, and marveled at how conveniently wormholes were used to explain religion, mysticism and other oddities in human history. When an author can take an overused theme, and give it a fresh explanation that enriches the myth, it's priceless. That kind of enhancement is exactly what Brian Keene weaves into the world of The Rising.
We have a mixed bag of Thetan-style body occupiers, a la Scientology, mixed with evil Christian demons, jumbled up to give rise to zombies. We get the explanation for why zombies only maim then move on (hint: they need our bodies). We also get a lot of references to Stephen King's works, through direct quotes ("Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance") and characters with nods to popular ones in his novels, like John of Many Colors for The Stand's Trashcan Man. It's a whole lot of pop horror culture woven into one ultra-campy zombie novel.
And then all those cool ideas fizzle into half-developed characters, "off" dialogue and weird gore.
There was a sharp emphasis on how badly people behave during the apocalypse, mostly that men will immediately turn the clocks back a few hundred years and start gleefully raping and pillaging, and we lose focus on the zombies themselves. I get that this is supposed to be bloody and gory, but could the evil and bloody destruction have been at the hands of the bad guys (the zombies) and not mostly perpetrated by the humans trying to survive?
And while I'm complaining, what was with all the religious stuff? Seriously, all the Bible verses and prayers were too much. The Martin/preacher character and the constant discussion of God, Jesus, faith, and actual prayer recitations were tedious. I wish this book had been identified as Christian fiction, because I would have known it was not for me.
Even though I have the Author's Preferred Edition in audio, which I hear is considerably cleaned up from the original publication, the writing could still use a great deal of editing and polish. It reads like a raw and unfinished self-published novel. There exist a multitude of forced, awkward or incorrect phrases, more than I could keep up with while listening:
"murmur of consent", when it should have been assent
"delay that order", when it should have been belay
We also endure a lot of one-liners that are way too cheesy, especially when coming from the zombies. Certainly nothing quotable or meaningful can be found in there, just a bunch of awkwardly campy dialogue.
As for the audio, the narrator, Joe Hempel, had a few mispronunciations, but overall did a more than admirable job of differentiating the characters' voices. I was thankful for this, because the characters were not developed well enough for me to tell the difference between them without his addition of inflections and accents.
Frustratingly, the story ends very abruptly, literally on the threshold of resolving the single driving plot point of the novel. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, the manipulation of the reader to buy the next book in the series, so I guess I'll never find out.
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- patrick
- 07-17-17
good book
this is a good book. the relationship between the father and son are...... very real. the overall idea of the dead is pretty original.
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- Victoria
- 09-02-18
Still the great zombie story that changed everything for the genre
I read The Rising when it was new and loved it then. I decided to get the audio book to revisit the story before reading volume 3 of the series. I got wrapped up in the story again and remembered why I loved it then. Ready to listen to City of the Dead now.
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- Katie
- 05-05-21
love zombies!!
this book was great! was so surprised I couldn't put it down! wow! frickin awesome ride
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- Joe
- 07-22-17
Not your Average Zombie Apocalypse!
This is not your average Zombie Apocalypse. If you are looking for the standard Zombie stuff this is not the story for you. But if your looking for a story that will hook you in with great characters and a new take on The Zombie Apocalypse stick around. These Zombies are the result of some brilliant Government Scientist playing with a particle accelerator. Something old and evil found its way back to our universe. The New Zombies only gut Not kill you or eat your brains you so that it can take over the body when it dies and the soul leaves.
One of the characters in this huge cast is Jim he has survived for the first 3 months but is separated from his son. He gets a phone call and the boy is in danger at his mothers and step dads home hundreds of miles away. And so begins the horror adventure. There are many other characters and stories lines but Jim's was my favorite. I highly recommend this excellent audio book. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and highly entertained.
The narration was done by Joe Hempel. Mr Hempel brings depth and passion to all the characters in the grand cast with a high quality, professional performance with great emotion and variation for each character.
This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Bill
- 12-31-17
Whole lot of crazy going on in this one!
I had read this one previously, but when I saw the audio come up, I jumped all over it and Joe was kind enough to gift me a copy to check out. It is even better the second (or third) time around and Joe's narration really added to the experience for me. His cadence and tone made the pages come alive. Very well done. Thanks, Joe!
**Minor spoiler warning ahead**
Jim is on a mission to get back home and save his son. The Rising has begun and an ancient evil has entered the dead thru the soul as an entryway. Back from the Void, they are growing in numbers and planning on taking back what they see as rightfully theirs.
This one was pretty crazy. These are definitely not your mommas’ zombies. Part terrifying and part tongue-in-cheek, there is a lot going on in this one. There are several memorable characters throughout the novel and it even has zombie squirrels! That’s right squirrels, man!! Crazy!
Hardcore zombie apocalypse "traditionalists" may not dig this one because it is not “real” enough (that’s lame anyway) but that’s what makes it good, at least in my humble opinion. Recommended for a bloody good zombie romp!
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- Michael Hicks
- 03-08-18
Dark, Occasionally Silly, Pulpy Fun
When I first read The Rising five years ago, I didn't much care for it. Here's why: early on in Brian Keene's zombie adventure, we discover that it's not just humans that can become reanimated. Animals are fair game for zombification, too, and the demonic Siquissim that possess Earth's corpses give all these zombies the ability to talk. This means that in addition to talking zombie humans, we also get talking zombie fish and talking zombie lions. My first encounter with these creatures seriously disrupted my suspension of disbelief. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a talking fish was enough to take me right out of this zombie novel.
Over the last few years, though, as the book marinated in my psyche and I've become a regular listener of Keene's podcast and privy to the stories and behind-the-scenes discussions he's given us about his books and influences, I grew tempted to give The Rising another shot. Joe Hempel's narration of the audiobook edition sealed the deal.
Boy am I glad I did! In fact, knowing what to expect out of this book helped me enjoy it a heck of a lot more. My prior reading gave me the inside track on what's what here, and without any jarring surprises, like a talking fish, to snap me out of the reading I was able to really sink into the narrative and accept it for what it is. And what it is is a heck of a lot of dark, occasionally silly, pulpy fun.
Keene's conceit for the zombie apocalypse is a nifty one. A Large Hadron Collider-like bit of science opens up a portal between this world and The Void, allowing the evil Siquissim entry into our dimension where they take up residence in our recently dearly departed. When a person shuffles off their mortal coil and their soul escapes the confines of the flesh and blood, a Siquissim takes its place. This is a zombie apocalypse by way of demonic possession and cosmic horror, and it's an interesting, original take on the end of the world as we know it.
At the core of all this is our every-man hero, Jim, who just wants to make it to New Jersey to save his son. He's joined along the way by other survivors, but when a rogue platoon of National Guardsmen begin rounding up and enslaving folks, it's only a matter of time before everybody is set on a collision course. There's an urgency to Jim's situation, and the perils he faces on his road-trip serve to heighten the tension. Keene makes you feel his desperation as the clock ticks down, right from the opening chapter. I was surprised at just how emotionally resonant and earnest our introduction to Jim was, and Keene is sure to pull on our heartstrings every now and then, reminding us of the humanity of our small band of survivors even as he grips us in moments of true despair and shocking violence.
Joe Hempel's narration is strong throughout, and I particularly liked the affectations he gave to the zombies, particularly Ob, the malevolent leader of the Siquissim. He voices each character well, providing enough subtle distinction and occasional accents or tones that each line of dialogue is unique to each speaker. Hempel's narration is top-notch, and his reading makes for a truly compelling listen. He's a great fit to Keene's sensibilities, and I'm looking forward to listening to his reading of City of the Dead next.
While the text is the Author's Preferred Edition, I think it's safe to say the audiobook is my own preferred edition. Listening to Joe Hempel's reading of Brian Keene's Bram Stoker Award-winning debut horror novel was a terrific amount of fun, and it gave me a new appreciation for the work as a whole.
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- Nomi
- 08-20-17
❤️
Unusual, weird and disturbing. I loved it. Definitely a favorite of mine now. A must have for any ZA fan.
I will pick a book just because Joe Hempel narrated it. I love his work.
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.
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- Serenity
- 05-24-19
Supernatural zombies are here!!
Good zombie apocalypse book with a difference, more supernatural as the dead are inhabited by an evil other dimension creatures.
Well read by Joe Hempel, he keeps the story moving nicely.
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review."
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- Goldfish8
- 07-03-19
How many stars for OBsEsSED!
Brian Keene is a genius and so brutal. He really broke me of my “everything will be okay in the end” attitude. This book is so amazing I can’t even fault it! On to the sequel!
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