Dark Days

Apocalypse Z, Book 2

By: Manel Loureiro, Pamela Carmell - translator

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

As the dead prey on the living…

The end of the world has come not with a bang or a whimper, but with the guttural snarl of walking corpses hungry for human flesh. The "lucky" survivors flee an unstoppable virus spreading death and societal collapse across the globe.

The living prey on one another….

As the rules of civilization crumble, a lawyer, a pilot, and a nurse become comrades-in-arms in the fight against extinction. But not every enemy wears a rotting face, and anyone who doesn’t have your back just might have your head. Humankind’s twilight is at hand, and these are indeed...dark days.

©2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2010 Manel Loureiro

wow! love his books!

A vulnerability about this character, where his friend is more the strong silent type.The narrator brings all the book to life.he was excellent. I highly recommend no1 and 2 in this series. Although it follows the theme every zombie book has. It has a slightly different flavor. Full of action, adventure and has a good ending which to me is most important.

love it!

second time around for me thats how much I enjoy it..i can c it as a movie..

Great 👍

I like that this is a zombie novel with a narrator who is different from the norm. It is also fun to hear from an author who isn't American, about zombie hoards taking over the world.

A rough middle that hasn’t aged well

I first read this series in paperback when I was about 16, roughly 20 years ago. A friend had recommended it to me, and I remember enjoying it at the time. Recently, after reconnecting with her—10 years since we last met—we reminisced about this series, which led me to check it out again, this time in audio form.

Since this is a trilogy, I’ll review all three books together, without spoilers, for anyone considering diving into this journey. I’m leaving the same review for each book to provide a complete overview.

The Beginning of the End: This book is written like a journal, which might not appeal to everyone, but don’t worry—it’s a format only used in the first one. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it held up well against my memory. If you’re looking for a light read and don’t mind a slower build, I can recommend this one. It sets the stage nicely.

Dark Days: This is where things start to take a turn. You can really tell that the book was written some time ago, and it hasn’t aged well. While I don’t consider myself overly critical, there were parts that felt absurd in hindsight. I was actually surprised that I didn’t find these issues strange when I first read it years ago. Overall, this one is a bit of a slog but still manageable.

The Wrath of the Just: Unfortunately, this one was a disappointment. I had to speed it up to 2x and even skip chapters at times. The story takes a turn toward fantasy, but not in a way that felt coherent or satisfying. It honestly felt like the author was indulging in “his fantasy” in a way that seemed out of place and a bit cringeworthy.

I don’t want to be disrespectful to the hard work that went into this series. The production was well done, and the narration was solid. But I feel obligated to warn anyone considering this series: the third book is a letdown.

Long Live Lucullus!

I don't understand some of the harsh negative reviews of part 2, from readers of part 1. It felt to me like a fitting continuation of part 1, and nearly as enjoyable. I think the whole trilogy will probably fit better read as a whole. This is really just the middle portion of a book. So it doesn't feel complete in itself.

And I really hope the negative reviews don't stop them bothering releasing part 3 in English...

I do admit, it wasn't quite as good as part 1, and had issues I feel:
- The whole side story of Prit being accused of a crime was just silly, and poorly handled. I mean the author himself is a lawyer, the character a lawyer, but even though the real culprit was known, nothing was ever really mentioned or done about it. It was kind of used just as a poor contrivance for them getting involved in the military.
- The last chapter. I don't like how the last chapter was left though, and I am going to keep thinking about it until part 3 is released. Part 1 at least ended on a note of hope, not a cliffhanger. I really don't appreciate books ending on cliffhangers...

But, that aside, the rest of the story was great.

Long live Lucullus! And bring on part 3