Devoured

The Hunger, Book 1

By: Jason Brant

Narrated by: Wayne June

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

*Day One:* A series of terrorist attacks spread a cloud of noxious gas over highly populated areas.

*Day Two:* Higher brain function erodes in those exposed to the gas. Their bodies begin to distort, faces distending, skin sallowing, teeth elongating.

*Day Three:* The infected disappear into the shadows, fleeing the harsh daylight which has begun to sear their flesh.

*Day Four:* The world is DEVOURED.

Life isn’t kind to Lance York. A full-time job has eluded him for years, his wife loathes the sight of him, his bank accounts are empty, and his wealthy father-in-law revels in his failures.

After he lunges in front of a car to save a sick and disoriented woman, Lance awakens in a quarantined hospital. A devastating plague is spreading worldwide, driving those infected with it insane. Their bodies begin to mutate into horrors that have haunted mankind’s nightmares for centuries.

The world descends into chaos as the infected flee to the shadows, emerging at night to devour the remnants of civilization.

With the help of an unlikely ally, Lance must navigate through the collapsing city of Pittsburgh, striving to escape the madness of the apocalypse that unfolds around them.

©2013 Jason Brant (P)2014 Jason Brant

crazy humans and zombies.

this is good story , sort of romp in a PAW scenario. Crazy survivalists, day walkers which change into vampire like beings.
great character development so far a good overall plot line.

Cas & her battleaxe rock!

The world is about to go down the drain, and Lance York is barely aware of it. His own life, riddled with failures, seems to be in the toilet already. He bumps into an old coworker, Ron, who calls him ‘buddy’ but seems to be snickering at him half the time during their brief conversation. And then an apparently sick woman walks past them on the street and Lance attempts to keep her from walking into traffic, only to be hit by a vehicle himself. His wife Liz, who he is estranged from, meets him at the hospital. That is where all hell breaks out; not only is the sick woman from earlier there, but also other infected and they are getting more violent and hungry by the minute. Even with military reassurances that all will be well within the quarantined hospital, Lance, Liz, & Ron break out and flee. That is when the true adventure begins and Lance finally starts living his life.

This was another take on the current zombie craze, but an entertaining one. The start is admittedly a little slow, with Lance sniffling about his loser life and inwardly raging about his hateful wife. But once they part ways, things get really interesting for Lance and I really started enjoying his character. On the cover art, you see Cassandra (Cas) who actually doesn’t come into the story until about half way through. She is the most interesting character of the book and her arrival kicked the story up a notch. She carries a badass axe for dispatching the ravening infected. She dresses how she likes and has a practical haircut for the end of the world. I want to do shots with her.

So lets talk about the monsters. In this book they are some cross between zombies, vampires, and demons. In essence, they are all infected humans, but the infection has different stages. At first this isn’t apparent, but as the book moves forward you get to see the later stages of the disease and what the humans turn into. Also, our heroes speculate that the infected retain some of their intelligence, which makes them different from the common mindless zombies we see in nearly every zombie flick/book/tv. I really liked this aspect to the story and it added a new dangerous tone to the monsters.

Lance spent quite a bit of time early int eh book thinking angry thoughts about his wife. Justified or not, it started to feel like the author was using this scenario to exorcise some of his personal hate for a failed relationship. It was turning me off to the book because it was repetitive and Liz’s hoity-toity-ness was over played. If it had been toned down a bit, i would have gotten the idea quite well without getting bogged down in it.

The pacing of the story was good once we got past the initial moping by Lance. There were plenty of monsters that needed killing and plenty of humans simply taking advantage of the chaos. Action was interspersed with meaningful conversations or introspection. Over all, I am very glad I gave this book a try. I listened to it in 2 large sittings as I definitely wanted to see how ordinary Lance was going to keep himself alive. After all, he did start off in the chaos wearing nothing more than a hospital gown! Looking forward to book 2.

Narration: Wayne June did a good job with distinct voices as well as feminine voices. He put in plenty of emotion where it was called for. The terror of the monsters and wonder of a new found friend came through clearly.

What I Liked: The cover art; Cas & her axe; Lance is pretty ordinary & it was great to see how he managed everything; the monsters are more than your average zombies; I want to listen to Book 2!

What I Disliked: Liz (Lance’s wife) is a bit over done, like the author was trying to exorcise some personal demon – it became repetitive.

Great start to a series

Story started slow and gradually improved fast. Wayne June did the story justice. highly enjoyable.

CHOCK FULL OF ZOMBIE GOODNESS!

I LOVED this book. After Walking Dead, I'm very partial to zombie books/stories, and I LOVED this one! Tons of action, the characters are well-developed and strong, the writing is superb, and I loved the narration. It's very believable, and I found myself immersed in the action and couldn't stop listening. Awesome job!! I can't wait to listen to/read more in the series!
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I LOVED the characters...

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

Yes, you cant help but love these characters. I found myself laughing out loud and really being able to relate to them.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I have to say at the end of the book I found myself really admiring the growth of Lances character. So for me it would be Lance but Lance from the end of book 1.

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

I loved his narration. It was great he nailed the sarcasm and humor.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not an extreme reaction but it made me really start to care about the characters. It made me want to know what was and is going to happen. It kept me completely engaged.

Any additional comments?

Although this is not a zombie fiction book which is my favorite genre. ..... It is awesome!!!! I completely loved it. The characters are developing as the story goes on the action is great... All in all it is a great listen and I have already purchased and started listening to book #2!!!! What a great series keep it up!

Love it!

Any additional comments?

While this book doesn't really present anything new as far as apocalyptic books go, the main characters are rich and fully developed. In addition instead of including preppers as eccentric side characters, this book explores the nature of the survivalist or prepper mentality. Specifically, this book tries to incorporate how survivalists or preppers might fair in an apocalyptic USA. It is an interesting Naziesque twist. The narrator does a passable job.

this is a good book

this is a good book. you can't stop listening to it. I love it. I highly recommend it.

I devoured this series!

Want to have a little fun while being creeped out by the monsters in the dark? This is your series. I couldn't put them down. I had to read them back to back. What a great take on the genre. Who else could come up with pet names like B***h and Dumb***?!?! I like humor with my horror and you get it in spades here. Sooooo worth my credits.

Excellent. Despite the over the top cover art.

enjoyed the narration. the story was entertaining and dark with humour spread around at the right moments.

Zombies? Vampires?

I enjoyed this apocalypse book. I thought it would be your average zombie story, but it’s not. I like how you aren’t safe during the day or at night. Edge of seat kind of stuff. Of course there is also the regular people being a-holes as well. Tough going, can’t wait to see how the main characters make out in book 2.