An "Arisen-ish" great listen, keep em coming!

What did you love best about These Dead Lands: Immolation?

The story started and progressed without unnecessary filler or character development. This is a fast pace, realistic and well developed listen with likeable and understandable characters who band together to defend against realistic (as flesh eating zombies can be) living and dead bad guys. In most stories I've listened to with over armed military survivors (except Arisen) there has always been over eager bad character/s who want to rule the world. This story has an over armed group of hard core military members who want to protect survivors without exception, or demands, even though I found myself wanting some survivors run over, beaten or eaten.This is an incredible beginning to what can be an outstanding series, please keep going, I am a fan!

What does R.C. Bray bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

R. C. Bray is hands down the BEST at what he does. He could narrate paint drying and I would listen for hours. The only problem with his work is I do not want to listen to anyone else.

59 people found this helpful

From one 10th Mountain guy to another...

This was one of the most enjoyable audio books I've ever listened too. I was attached to the 10th Mountain Division while in the NY Army National Guard and the banter, camaraderie, and humor was spot on. Some reviewers are getting down on the way some of the characters were written but that's because they were never in and don't understand that the depicted humor is out of love and respect, not malice. Watch out for the yogurt joke near the end, you may crash your car! I can't wait for the next book!

39 people found this helpful

more than a shoot-em-up/eat-them zombie book

These Dead Lands: Immolation by Stephen Knight and Scott Wolf is a definite must-read for those who love the zombie genre.  But it’s so much more than that!  The authors bring in the humanity piece in a vivid and realistic manner.  Ballentine is a soldier who discovers his family has survived and does anything and everything to protect them once they are back in his world.  But in the midst of all his angst and fears, he still has a job to do as do the others.

The main characters are complex but personable; Ballentine, Guerra and Hastings never forget their mission or their humanity.  The others: Diana, the Asian stripper/call girl, Kenny the autistic orphan, and Devil Dog an ex-military old guy add more flare to the story engaging the audience.

I enjoyed the new ways in which Knight and Wolf describe fighting the zombies or "reekers" – makes me want to move next to a lumber mill!  The book was detailed a bit on the military weapons but I didn’t think it was overly so.  I will say, that Knight and Wolf do not go into great detail about some of the action scenes; for instance, what happens to the group of men they track down for their actions against Kenny … that was just missing.  I went back and listened to that passage two times before I realized I hadn’t missed it – they just hadn’t detailed it.  Neither good nor bad, but I think a better transition would have made it easier to follow.

Overall I enjoyed the book, I thought it was written in down to earth language; I never struggled with any of the terms.    This was more than a shoot-em-up/eat-them zombie book.  I appreciated the inner glimpses into humanity.  The bad guys didn’t get away with anything!

R.C. Bray, as usual, provided an excellent performance!  He owned the book using his “military” type voice that has a strength to it that is both riveting and mesmerizing.  His ability to assume different accents is amazing and well done.

There were no issues with the quality or audio production of this book.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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36 people found this helpful

Unimpressed

The audible narrator is excellent! But that's about where it all stops. We follow a small group of survivors through a story that goes nowhere. At first it seems like the story is off to a good start. The first half is interesting and you get the feel is really going to be good. But then it goes into tangents and unnecessary stereotypes that make finishing the novel a struggle and you wonder why these first world problems are brought to the forefront when it doesn't matter in the face of an apocalypse. On top of that there are long strings of military jargon that makes for dull filler writing. I don't need to know EVERY detail about EVERY thought and EVERY action and EVERY conversation leading to that action. It makes for several long drawn out chapters where nothing is actually happening. So I found myself fast forwarding more and more through parts to where the story became a story again. There's no explanation to the massive zombie hoards and why they're literally "millions" marching toward the base 100 miles away. Big massive herds and groups come at the survivors base in waves but with little rhyme or reason as to why the zombies would focus on attaching it and not wander elsewhere. Why is this tiny spec on a map the target of every zombie in the county? It makes no sense. I keep hoping the story gets better but I'm becoming less impressed to the point I'm searching for something else to read/listen to. I don't think I'm going to finish this one.

18 people found this helpful

good story but his political stance shows

pretty good story and as a veteran he know his stuff but I have read most of his books. the author has a deep hate for liberals and it shows in his story telling. I lost count in one book after 13 at people being a liberal. it takes you out of the story.

17 people found this helpful

Quite boring

Mostly military talk and not much zombie action. Starts in the middle of the outbreak.

15 people found this helpful

Wow awesome book

So, my first thought: this story is very similar to the Arisen series by Michael Stephen Fuchs, but with a couple of key differences. 1. This zombie story takes place all in the US. 2. The military character personalities are very realistic and RC Bray does a FANTASTIC job of bringing them to life in a very realistic way. Either one of the authors is prior military or they did extension research and/or had access to some military personnel for reference. There were only a couple of things that bugged me about the overall writing of the book: the formality of radio communication was a little too formal, but towards the very end it did significantly improve. Another thing was that general military assets were not brought up that would certainly be brought up in real life... such as: status of NORAD, ability to use heavier aviation munitions (such as bombs). I mean the authors clearly covered the continuity of government and the succession of POTUS... so why not even mention the status of NORAD and the nuclear assets. The topic could have been brought up as a cliff hanger type deal.... but I digress. Fantastic book nonetheless. I sincerely hope that book 2 is not far in the future.

15 people found this helpful

Missing a section.

It seems the audiobook is missing a section between chapters 10 and 11. One second they are rolling up on the bad guys and the next they are holed up in some farm house. Everything else is fantastic; story (except for the missing part), narration, etc.

14 people found this helpful

RC Bray is the only redeeming quality of this book

All non-whites are constantly referred to by their skin color , and the author couldn't stop reminding us that the idiot in the group was the black guy and the angry liberal woman was Asian.

12 people found this helpful

"Yeah, no."

Let me first say that I picked this up solely because of R. C. Bray and that I don't really like zombie stories. That said, the zombie part wasn't what killed this for me. It was the subtle or at times, not so subtle misogyny, the "coincidence" of the only black guy being the loud-mouthed guy that no one liked, and the "liberal civilians hate the military" delusion. That being said, it was the usual excellent performance by Mr. Bray.

I'll return this title. I don't want to give the authors my money for this one.

11 people found this helpful