Title: The Rising Dead

Author: Devan Sagliani

Genre: horror, apocalypse

Publication Date: May 6, 2015

About the Book

(from Amazon)

Chaos breaks out when a virulent new strain of biological warfare is unwittingly released into the general population, causing all who are infected with it to turn into flesh hungry monsters driven by a hive mind that yearns to feed. Gunner, a paranoid war veteran and the head of security at the Biotech lab where the designer virus was created, knew this day would eventually come. That’s why he spent nearly every day since his return from Iraq preparing for the end of the world. It’s up to him to save the residents of Thunderdome, a run down apartment complex in Northern Las Vegas. Max hosts a live show as Asphyxia Stardust, a semi-nude cosplayer with a love of all things horror who is hosting the cities first ZombieCon. Travis is a computer nerd slash borderline stalker obsessed with zombies and Gemma, a misunderstood party girl everyone thinks is a tease. His roommate Parker is a star athlete gone bad who spends his days partying and chasing skirts. Holt is a stereotypical frat boy who finds new meaning in the apocalypse as a warrior for God with a crowbar sent to kill demons from the pit of hell. Together this unlikely band of college students and burnouts fight their way through a zombie horde in search of somewhere safe to take refuge, encountering every horror imaginable along the way. Is this an inescapable global pandemic or can they find a safe zone outside of Sin City and away from the endless sea of rotting monsters with razor sharp teeth trying to infect and kill them?

 

My Review

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author for an honest review.

I am pretty new to the whole zombie genre but, somehow, I’ve become hooked. I also like to get audiobooks so that I can listen to them instead of the radio in the car, so when Devan Sagliani asked me to review his audiobook, I jumped at the chance.

A lot of The Rising Dead is the typical zombie fighting, etc., but this one was a little gorier than the previous audiobooks I’ve listened to. Luckily, I’ve been in the process of watching The Walking Dead marathon so it didn’t bother me as much as it could have. How sad is it that we get used to all that gore and violence?

The Rising Dead just covers the very beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and in Vegas of all places. I’ve been there a few times for conferences and I thought how scary it would to be there when it happened. I couldn’t decide if I liked the end of the book or not. It’s not your typical ending but that kind of intrigued me.

The primary characters are mostly college kids except for Gunner, who is a security guard and a veteran. All the kids have always made fun of him because he’s actually prepared, he hopes, for just such a situation. There wasn’t much depth to the characters so at least I didn’t cry when one of them was killed. 

The story was full of action and, even with so many characters, it was easy to follow which I always think is a big accomplishment by an author. It’s so difficult to get into a book when you have to keep going back to figure out who is who. The narrator also did a good job at distinguishing between the different voices enough so that I could usually tell who was speaking. 

If you like zombies, you should read this book, but be warned: you may not like the ending.

Available on Amazon.