Awakening

The Hunt Chronicles, Book 1

By: J. D. Demers

Narrated by: Joshua Story

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

After a contagion engulfs humanity, zombies rise to feast on the few survivors that are left. But they are not the worst monsters to come from this plague. There is hope, though: Christian Hunt is immune. But how many lives will it take to bring his gift to what's left of mankind?

©2015 Jacob D. Demers (P)2015 Jacob D. Demers

Very good first days of the outbreak book!

This book is open-ended so of course there is a second one. Over all I enjoyed this book very much. I'm partial to outbreak zombie books rather than 50 years after books so this was up my alley. A canine sidekick is featured which I always enjoy, characters are a mix of retired military and every man, well fleshed out and interesting, and I am definitely in for book two. No huge new zombie ground broken here - attempts at which I am sick of as they rarely go well - but a solid entertaining story with solid writing and characters.
Great female character I hope to see more of as well!
Medium gore, mild swearing, no sexism, no animal abuse, no sex (thank you to the author), and no military jargon rants or long equipment descriptions that will annoy civilians.
Very solid first book in a series. Narrator was invisible.

An Impressive First Novel

Things have certainly changed in the world of zombie fiction in the last ten years.In the old days, you would be hard pressed to find any. One of my favorite paperbacks was a collection of short zombie stories by various authors, set in a Romero zombie-verse. Then there was an online site that had zombie fan fiction that I found, and that gave some good short stories by aspiring fan-writers. Nowadays however, with the world of self publishing, and a modern resurgence of the genre, great zombie novels and series are plentiful. There are just too many to be able to read them all. Even if you are like me, and now only listens to audiobooks, there are still too many to be able to listen to them all. It makes it hard picking a series or standalone book to start a difficult choice sometimes. My wishlist if full of such books, and I hope to eventually get them all, but possibly not. Awakening was actually one of these books in my wishlist, and when I had the opportunity to get a review copy of it, I leapt at the chance.

Firstly, I'll just say what I like or don't like to get in post apocalyptic tale. I get very frustrated with books where it seems the majority of the conflict or plot in the story comes from just plain bad people. It might be realistic, but it gets me down. Sure, you are bound to encounter people like this, but I'd prefer if it wasn't the main focus of the stories, or if it is something that isn't resolved. I also like it when the author comes up with some new ideas or slants on the genre. I like it when a book is contained - sure it can be part of a series, but deliberately ending on a cliffhanger is just poor form. You may never get the chance to read the next one, and the author may not even get a chance to write it. So don't do it... I like it when the main characters are good people. I also like it when there is some form of hope to the tale. And as an audiobook listener, I definitely prefer it when the book is no continually jumping around randomly among a huge cast of lead characters. It really can be hard to track in audio format. If you do, make sure the breaks are clearly marked, and the narrator puts in a decent pause. And on top of that, do not write a book in first person from more than one characters perspective - it is just impossible to track. There are several well known authors who have done this, and in audio, it really can make it impossible to follow, especially when the characters are so alike (eg I have some from well respected authors where it is is tough guy 1 and tough guy 2, both first person). And finally, I'd like to say I really prefer it when the series covers the actual collapse, and it doesn't start some unspecified time after the event. I like reading about the whole transition from when things were all fine to when they weren't, and how the characters react to this. I kind of feel cheated when that happens.

Awakening met all of these preferences of mine and more. Without giving too much away, there are two categories of "zombies" in the book, and neither of them are your standard run of the mill traditional zombie variants, fast or slow. This was also introduced very well in the story. Awakening is a story in first person, from the perspective of Christian, an ex soldier. And no, before you ask, he isn't some ex special forces, combat veteran, prepper, gun collector, survivalist, like so many post apocalyptic lead characters. He did a tour in Afghanistan, but in supply, with no combat experience. The novel is bookended by a journal entry at some unspecified point in the future, where he is trapped and in a dire situation, and it gives you some knowledge of what is to come, and the hope there is. He then proceeds to recount his entire tale, as the journal drops back to where it all began. The book proceeds at a leisurely pace through his story, and the people he meets, and their journey and decisions. I didn't find it overly gratuitous in violence and gore, but it may just be I'm so desensitized after so many zombie novels and movies. Their encounters with both zombies and humans, and their handling of losses were well written, and I felt humanizing. When Christian tries unsuccessfully to save someone, and realizes he is alone in a gift he has, it is moving. When it ended, I really wanted more, but I did feel like it ended at an appropriate point. I just hope the author does get to finish this story.

The narration by Joshua Story was excellent, although I found some pronunciations a bit odd (such as how he said "melee" and "peripheral"). His character voices were excellent though, and pace and clarity were great though, so I'd not deduct any points for that.

In all, highly recommended. I do hope J. D. Demers does actually get to finish this tale, and they all get audio releases!

On A Whim

As the title of the review states, I started listening to The Awakening on a whim. I have read and listened to countless zombie stories. They usually all start the same, which really makes sense. You have to set the stage to put your characters through whatever insanity they must go through. With that being said, setting the stage for this particular story was done in a way that I have rarely seen. I am a HUGE fan of Christian. Why? Most zombie stories have a strong hero, who has some sort of uniformed service background. When put to the test, he/she rises to the challenge and the story goes from there. This one was a bit different. Christian DID serve in the military, even deployed. The difference, he stayed within the wire. He was a supply guy. Yes, training he had, but only the training the Army gives to everyone. Another difference. He has a HUGE self preservation instinct. Admits regularly in the story that when it comes to fight or flight, flight is his first choice. He knows he's fallible and is okay with it.

I love how the author writes this character.Not everyone is a "Kill 'em all and let God sort out the rest". He's an every day man in his mid 20's, placed in a situation that he has little to no control over. As I said before, I really like this character. The story runs well...there's little downtime between going from one crisis to the next, which I have to believe in reality would be just like that. The characters he creates (other then Christian) are excellent (a big fan of Fish as well).

Joshua Story, the narrator is simply outstanding. He applies different voices to the characters, from a 14 year old girl to a grizzled combat veteran, and is consistent with the voices. You become invested in the characters, that's a trait that a lot of narrators I've listened to just don't have. I listen to my books on my commute back and forth to work. Never when I am at home, yet with this story I've had to stop myself from listening to it. I killed the first book in 3 days and am 5 chapters into the second. Trying to take my time and not devour it like the first.

I had no intention of writing so much here for the review, but seriously. If you like zombie horror, either reading or listening to, check these books out. I searched and have found that there are only 3 books out currently. I truly hope that Mr. Demers has the intention of writing many more, as speaking for myself I will happily pay to listen to as many as he puts out.

Great!!!

This is my 7 zombie apocalypse series. So far it has not disappointed me at all. Plus POGs need to stick together. Haha. Haooh! I do recommend this if you looking for a good zombie apocalyptic read

Down to earth approach of Zulu apocalypse.

Down to earth approach of Zulu apocalypse. Great story and story teller does a great job. I'll be getting the next two books.

Great

Great story, Great author. It is absolutely worth the purchase and read. It has adventure, humor, drama, all that you want in a book. You wont be disappointed.

Nice and fast paced

I enjoyed this book. It started off quickly and held my interest .
The narrator was decent, couple of mispronounced words but editors should have caught those.
I’d have like my description and detail in the zombie attacks but I know some don’t like a lot of gore, overall it didn’t ruin the story. I knew by halfway in I was going to use another of my credits for the second book. I listen to the Zombie Fallout series and I tend to judge other zombie books and narrators based on Tufo and Runette. Probably not fair😂 I’m enjoying this series so far and looking forward to book 2!

Pretty good zombie book.

This book was enjoyable enough, I'll probably listen to the next one. Like other people, I found the narrator's performance to be somewhat lacking. It was also distracting when he mispronounced words like "acrosst" (across), "meelee" (melee), and "seement" (cement).

World War Z meets Zombieland meets I am Legend!

When this book was recommended to me I wasn't sure but I am REALLY glad I got it! I listened to it in just 2 sittings. This is not just another Zombie book, the storyline is awesome with great character development.
This is the best fiction book I've read all year, I can't wait to get the next book! awesome reader too! Get it, you won't regret it.

awesome read!!!

This book has an awesome storyline and characters! can't wait to jump into the next!!!