The King of Clayfield

Clayfield, Book 1

By: Shane Gregory

Narrated by: Scott Aiello

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

On a cold February day in the small town of Clayfield, Kentucky, an unsuspecting and unprepared museum director finds himself in the middle of hell on earth. A pandemic is spreading around the globe, and it’s turning most of the residents of Clayfield into murderous zombies. Having no safe haven to which he can flee, the director decides to stick it out near his hometown and wait for the government to send help.

But the disease and those infected are not his only concerns. He must also contend with armed gangs, strife within his group, his own lack of skills… and his conscience.

There are tough decisions to be made if he is to survive. But if he is smart - and a little lucky - he can do more than survive; he can live like a king.

©2011, 2013 Shane Gregory (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the best survivalist horror stories I've read in quite a while.... This is a tale that is well worth reading." (Jeff Jellets, Territorial Disaster Coordinator for The Salvation Army)

Author looks and writes like a young Gurney Norman

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Great dystopian tale, fine Kentucky writing, great mythology...attention Walmart shoppers this Kentucky zombie trilogy is a real Bluegrass Special!

Ugh, only if you want to read the entire series

As far as "zombie apocolypse" stories go, the premise is pretty good. There are a few tried and true tropes to be trundled (cast of survivors flung together, sad loss, humans scarier than monsters), a few WTF moments (no power, anywhere, yet the local internet connection works??), and some surprising turns (the protagonist pulls of an excellent "every man", and there is some good dialog about maintaining civilization vs just surviving. Most refreshingly the author does not really bludgeon the reader with a particular viewpoint and make everyone else out to be idiots (except the actual idiots). The writing is adequate and narration is pretty good.

Unfortunately, the book is, essentially, just the opening act. It tells what is very clearly only a small part of a larger story and this book simply serves to feed you into the series. Sadly, I just can't say I am up for a whole series of this. If it stopped at one decent book it would have been a fun romp where I could overlook some of the obvious technical and fridge logic issues... but, I don't know if I am up for 3 books of "Meh", especially after feeling like I just purchased and read a partial book. And, while some of the character interactions are good, Most of the twists are telegraphed pretty far in advance, so it isn't even really that suspenseful.

I get it, we can't just have "a book" anymore, it needs to be a series, at least three... because reasons (mostly financial). If that's the space this author and publisher want to be in, then I would suggest that book 1 needs to be awesome, not adequate, and provide at least some sense of being a complete story so the reader doesn't feel cheated . e.g.: Hunger Games, Star Wars, Ender's Game, any of the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy. All excellent series, where the first was perfectly capable of standing alone

Good zombie book

What did you love best about The King of Clayfield?

The desire to stay 'home' despite the folly

What other book might you compare The King of Clayfield to and why?

It is a typical zombie book but has a few interesting spins on the genera.

What does Scott Aiello bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He was a good reader. Bad guys had hillbilly accents, good guys had Texan accents, and the hero's had no accent... kinda funny but still a good listen.

Any additional comments?

The only real complaint was that they did not do any real reinforcing of the places they stayed at. Doors wide open people wandering around alone and then the monty python "run away run away" at times they may have defended and they would stay and fight when it was pointless.

Fun enough.

My main glaring issue here is the main three characters. Frankly, i don't like any of them. The love triangle stuff completely blew me away. Are we really discussing this sort of stuff while there are zombies out there? I mean, the three characters are all normal people, i suppose. And they are believe-able and i even quite liked the way the zombies were handled. But why in the heck are we having conversations about jealousy, and such silly ones while this stuff is going on? The book was fun and even had some new stuff for someone who admittedly reads/listens/watches/plays too much zombie fiction. But the book felt like not much at all happened, which is impressive for its length. I dunno, maybe i'll try the second book because i do like alot of whats here.

Finally a zombie book worth the money I paid for

it. Apocalyptic novels offer the author a terrific opportunity to develop characters, imagine how things might happen, how people react to change (radical change) in society (in the case of the zombie novel the obliteration of such). However virtually every zombie novel I have read (or tried to read such as Molle"s "The Remaining") I end up giving up and putting away or reading only one or two of the series.

Most of these zombie books are pure trite- endless descriptions of weapons, over the top scenes, cliff hangers that are anything but cliff hangers, stereotypical characters (he man sniper saving helpless but beautiful babe). The set ups are usually ridiculous as well (okay the entire concept is ridiculous I admit but why add insult to injury). The protagonists is a trained killer and is an ex Marine, Navy Seal, Delta Force member or who happens to have a billionaire friend who is and also happens to have a survival shelter. The plot simply a trail of bodies like one of those first person shooter videos. There - I got it out of my system as to why all the zombie books suck for the most part & that gets me to a review of book "The King of Clayfield" by Shane Gregory

I only purchased it because Audible offered it to me for $ 4.99 (probably because I quit buying zombie novels). I begin listening,fully prepared to cut it off and demand my money back. Instead I found a novel that deals with a normal "work a day guy" in the middle of no where Kentucky faced with a major disaster. The first person narration has a dry sardonic humor (not over the top) but also flashes of humanity and the book offers real questions about what happens when industrial society goes kaput. The women are women- not Barbies, my favorite is red neck Jen (Jennifer) who no one pushes around but is still a female and the protagonist, of all things, is a museum curator the very opposite of the normal Zombie Protagonist. He is a really nice normal guy who knows a little about how to survive but not much about killing and shooting.

Clayfield goes to hell in a zombie hand basket and the story revolves around the story of how the characters adapt to their new social environment and how they respond and learn to adapt to the new physical environment (good bye refrigerated orange juice hello planting sweet potatoes!). The pace is well done, the characters real- meaning not only do I like them they are not some cardboard imagination to serve a plot.

Well done- Well done- it deserves more attention than it seems to have gotten. If you enjoy reading a "what if the world ended as we know it" instead of "Lets kill 100 zombies per chapter and describe every gun ever made" novel then buy this book and listen to it!

Thanks Audible for putting it on sale- smart marketing move because I now plan on purchasing the rest of the series!

I'm not usually a Zombie Apocalypse kind of girl-

But this was GREAT! The few zombie books I've read previously focus all on the zombies and horrible deaths - but this book is more about the characters and how they survive the zombie/horrible death that is now part of life. I'm looking forward to book 2!!

It's just okay

After surviving through Covid, I can see that this is very possible scenario. However, I have read better dystopian books than this one. This is a cliff hanger, but I am not buying the rest in the series.

Scott Aiello's narration was great.

surprisingly good

What about Scott Aiello’s performance did you like?

the narration is very good. the narrator has a smooth voice, and he's easy to listen to. i found it easy to distinguish the different male characters he portrays, and he even does female voices well!

Any additional comments?

DON'T be put off by the title and cover art! chessiness aside, this is a solid zombie tale! definitely in the top 10 i've listened to so far. i actually liked it that much!

the story is told in the first person by our nameless protagonist. he's not a survivalist nor has he any military background, which i found refreshing. instead, the main character is an out of shape, 30 something museum director. he's unprepared and has no ready supplies,
except a submarine sandwich and a few packets of ketchup. he's kind of a loner and is preparing for a senior citizen's tour when the canton b virus hits his small town.

the author does a good job developing the characters as the story progresses. the main character's gradual transformation is believable. he makes mistakes, which is refreshing. a few times, i found myself talking aloud- you idiot...why didn't you...i was totally engrossed in the story.

the supporting characters are also given the time to develop, and they aren't the typical cardboard cut out supporting cast. they definitely add to the story.

this story has a mix of zombies- the slow, shambling kind and the quick kind. there are lulls in the zombie action, and the author wisely uses this time to develop his characters. this is more than just a zombie story. it's also a story about how to survive when civilization collapses.

this is the first in a series, and the ending really surprised me. i didn't think the author would go that way, but he did.

overall, a surprisingly excellent addition to your zombie library.

A fun typical zombie romp

This may not have an original take on the zombie apocalypse but it was a fun and interesting read. It was never boring and had a great balance of action and character development. Not much background on how the virus happened or spread which kinda leaves a little hole in the story. The alcohol aspect of it was never explained...I hope it will be in the next installment. I like a little bit of a science mixed in with my post apocalyptic fiction and there isn't any here. Just straight into the mayham and zombies...which is okay too sometimes. I've already started the second book so I feel good about recommending this as an addition to your collection.

THIS IS KENTUCKY, I THINK I WILL FIND MORE GUNS

While this was not the most exciting Zombie book I have ever listened to, it might be the one with the most common sense. With the exception of the good guy act, that was taken way to far, everything else seems to go as you would really expect it to go for a regular type guy in this situation. I just wish he could have made it a little more exciting and not have the main character be such a goody two shoe. When faced with a naked woman that could have been the centerfold of a girly magazine, who is trying to seduce you, no red blooded straight guy would have been the idiot this guy was. Other than that it is all straight. I listen to all of this, which is rare and I have book two in my wish list.