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)

Characters I hated

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The characters would have had to be much better written. This book started out with so much promise, but ended in major disappointment. The premise was great, however, the written needed to do much more with character development.

What was most disappointing about Shane Gregory’s story?

The wooden characters, the lack of common sense and the general pathetic reactions of the characters to many of the different aspects of what happened to them.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was fine, his voice was good and I had no objections to him. It's just unfortunate that the story didn't work.

What character would you cut from The King of Clayfield?

I think there were many characters that weren't necessary. The story just had too many holes in it.

Any additional comments?

I'm sure there's a sequel... I'll pass.

Just too mant stupid characters

Would you try another book from Shane Gregory and/or Scott Aiello?

No, it was not the writing style. It was the lack of characters acting in a way consistent with the situations they are in.

Has The King of Clayfield turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, the end of the world can be interesting but spending it with really dumb survivors is even worst than the end of the world.

Standard zombie fare

No really new ground covered here, as the vanilla protagonist is drawn into an apocalyptic scenario that gives the author a convenient backdrop to talk about things like guns, generators, food storage, etc -- your basic prepper porn.

That said, I didn't hate it. The characters weren't totally obnoxious, and displayed only limited amounts of the standard clinically-detached worldview that you'll see in all books of this ilk, i.e., "I know that everyone i love was just murdered or died of a virus, but right now I'm really concerned with telling you the make and model of all the guns I have and what their ballistic characteristics are..."

Anyway, if you're looking at this one, I doubt that it's your first zombie book. You know what you're in for. This book sticks to the formula, for better or worse.

Poor Writing, Poor Narration

I've listened to many zombie books but I was shocked at how simplistic and flat out corny this one is. I persevered but just cannot finish it. Pass this one by - there's too many other reasonable to good stories out there in this genre. A very amateur production.

zombies, what zombies?

What disappointed you about The King of Clayfield?

Not much zombie action. More boring, detailed, not important narration.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Don't know

What didn’t you like about Scott Aiello’s performance?

Soothing voice. Probably not a good zombie reader.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

It went know where pretty fast. That could be good or bad.

Any additional comments?

Don't know what the great reviews were about. I'm going to try and return it.

been down this road many times before

I came across this book after reading a review from a source I have found many hidden gems from in the past. So I was expecting a good zombie story. King of Clayfield didn't quite live up to my expectations.

I wont go into the plot here. Nothing is new. The characters reacted to events and with each other in predictable fashion. I felt the author Shane Gregory is either unimaginative or lazy. Sappy romance, cheesy zombies, and Walking Dead style politics.