Surviving in the Time of Zombies

The Most Uncommon Cold, Book 2

By: Jeffrey Littorno

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The zombie apocalypse continues....

I did the first thing that came to my mind, and that was to kick the shell in the head as hard as I could. Although there was an audible snap, the head moved very little. The putrid, undead thing continued trying to grab hold of me, but I managed to evade its hands and keep kicking.

At the same moment, I heard a squish sound and saw blood start pouring from the head onto the yellowish tile floor. Lawrence was standing next to me. He had his gun out and pointed at the stairs. The sound of shells slowly grew louder.

And just like that, the wave of bodies began pouring down the stairs.

©2014-2114 Jeffrey Littorno (P)2015 Jeffrey Littorno

Drowning in a sea of competition

I purchased the first one in this series without any reviews and it seems I did it again with this second in the series. It has also been a long time between titles so I wondered how I would go particularly because I have listened to a lot of zombie titles in the meantime.

I need not have worried because this one started off with a lot of the detail from the first. So I was quickly able to recall the story. It went into so much back story that I wondered if I had purchased the same book with just a name change.

In this title the same things can be said about the first in regards to narration. At normal speed it is just way to slow. Speed it up to 1.25x or even 1.5x speed and all is well. However, at 1.5x speed you are shortening the listening time to an already rather short story!

One thing which did strike me as odd was that at no time in the entire story is the word ‘zombie’ mentioned! In my mind that is just weird! Another thing is odd, is occasionally the main character will go off into day dreams. I afraid for me it just didn’t work. It just felt ‘odd’.

I stated in my review of the first in the series that I was looking forward to the next one. This time round I am not so sure. There still is a glimmer of hope for me to try the next in the series, but I will definitely want a longer story for it to be worth it with such a slow narrator.

I hate leaving a review like this, because I know some author has spent countless hours working. But then I know that there are people like me who don't have a lot of cash and spending money on a audio book is something which means a lot. Therefore I feel compelled to say with so many other great zombie titles around at the moment, this one just doesn't rise to the top. My buying advice on this one is ‘wait until it is on the special price table’… sorry

This was a great extension of the first!

This was a great extension of the first!

There are new characters in this one. Fortunately they are for the most part pretty intelligent and are now starting to realize that life is not as they once knew it. It’s still only a few days in, however, so the entire zombie apocalypse thing is a new one for them. This explains a lot of their stupidity, like using guns, or even once A CHAINSAW! But, they realized that noise brings in the shells (Jeffrey Littorno’s usage for zombie) and they try to keep it down. After a while they even decide to control their gun use even though they know it will bring them closer to the shells.

The zombies are not talking as much. The characters are all trying to hypothesize why and what is going on. They wind up making up some pretty reasonable excuses for what is going on. I was impressed although it took them a while.

I really enjoyed reading about Lawrence. He seems to be able to snap back easily. He’s very optimistic even though he has lived a really hard life and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the others alive. Normally this means sitting back and watching the young girl that is with them. This is great! Having a hero like this just really makes me happy. He’s being a hero without being in everyone’s face about it. Especially around these egomaniacs.

Sadly, there were some of the same issues as book one. Constantly going off mentally like you’re Walter Mitty is NOT going to keep you alive. This should be a rule. Do not visualize stupid crap while in an apocalypse. I do understand that to a point nobody will want to be in that situation, but visualizing other crap and leaving, even for a few seconds, mentally will put you and everyone else at risk. In a word, it is: stupid.

Some of the drama is built off of dreams and visualizing again. I really hate these parts. If there is going to be drama, I mean it is the zombie apocalypse, then do not make it up! It just goes back to the last paragraph. There is enough drama around to not put yourself (or a reader) through this.

The audio was fantastic. Todd Menessess does a fantastic job of making me feel like the zombie apocalypse is real. I could listen to this narrator all day long. He is perfect for this type of story. I looked up Todd’s work and it seems like he has done many zombie stories. His voice totally fits the grit and terror that these stories evoke.

In short: A really good story. I liked the characters more in this one. Really enjoying Jeffrey Littorno’s take on zombies. It’s refreshing and bloody!

Audiobook provided for review by the narrator.

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

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