Ex-Heroes

By: Peter Clines

Narrated by: Jay Snyder, Khristine Hvam

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Stealth. Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. The Mighty Dragon. They were heroes. Vigilantes. Crusaders for justice, using their superhuman abilites to make Los Angeles a better place. Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Despite the best efforts of the superheroes, the police, and the military, the hungry corpses rose up and overwhelmed the country. The population was decimated, heroes fell, and the city of angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland like so many others.

Now, a year later, the Mighty Dragon and his companions must overcome their differences and recover from their own scars to protect the thousands of survivors sheltered in their film studio-turned-fortress, the Mount. The heroes lead teams out to scavenge supplies, keep the peace within the walls of their home, and try to be the symbols the survivors so desperately need. For while the ex-humans walk the streets night and day, they are not the only threat left in the world, and the people of the Mount are not the only survivors left in Los Angeles. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power. And they are not heroes.

©2010 Peter Clines (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Surprisingly not bad....

So, I am not a big zombie fan, don't usually read this kind of book. Having said that I will also add that I was rather pleasantly surprised! A bit gory and the duel narration was not my favorite, but I really liked the Heroes and I liked how the Zombies came into existence. Like I said I have never read a zombie book before so can't and won't compare it to others. But for me it was worth the buy and I think I would buy another book from this author.

Great book!

Entertaining, fast moving story with really well done characters. It's a unique take on zombie stories, combining the fun of a variety of superheros and their varying super powers with a zombie apocolypse. Loads of fun! The next novel in the series is pretty good too, so if you enjoy this, I recommend that as well... Hope they keep coming!

Interesting Idea- annoying narration

I couldn't handle the boy/girl narration on this one. it was exhausting. I wish they'd stuck with one narrator and left it at that, but I had to stop listening it was super annoying.

CREATIVE AND UNIQUE ZOMBIE NOVEL

Would you listen to Ex-Heroes again? Why?

I think so. The story does start a little slow, but the superheroes story tugs at you. And as the different characters develop the story comes together. And comes together well. Character development is important to this book, and the author knew it. The story works well?

What did you like best about this story?

The not over-the-top use of superheroes. A handful of different characters some still with"superpowers" and some whose powers were gone, brutally taken away. This sets up good tension between characters. You want to know what happens to them as they fightfor the mount.

What does Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The obvious answer is that women should sound like women, and men like men. These two narrators do a great job, especially in their description of the everyday and the subtle sexual tensions experienced by both the special heroes and the everyday joe blows that the powerful protect .

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the two main characters left the safety of the mount for two days to do some recon.over and in enemy territory. You learn a lot about the two main characters and the differences between them.

Any additional comments?

Ending of this book sets up the second book beautifully. I now look forward to hearing the second book. I want to know what happens to the characters. Does the mount expand?Stuff like that.

Good, but nothing special

Would you try another book from Peter Clines and/or Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam ?

I may try another book by Clines, the two readers brought nothing special to the book.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The book was a fun, summer popcorn movie in text (spoken) form. Generic but enjoyable.

What three words best describe Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam ’s voice?

Nothing special, adequate

Was Ex-Heroes worth the listening time?

Sure, it was not very long.

Awesome & Original

Would you consider the audio edition of Ex-Heroes to be better than the print version?

Not a clue, but it was still an awesome listen.

What did you like best about this story?

I really loved the whole idea of the story. Superheroes, a "zombie" apocalypse that they're powerless to stop, how to survive afterwards... what's there not to love!?!?

Which character – as performed by Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam – was your favorite?

That's a hard one. I really liked the Mighty Dragon, but that's probably because he was the main protagonist. Zzzap is pretty awesome too though. And Stealth is... welll ... stealthy lol.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES!

Any additional comments?

Already bought the next edition.

Solid, but reaches a bit

Good listen.

Two narrators took me a bit to get into, but ended up liking it.

My only issue is with clines in general, he takes an interesting concept/story and heaps as much sci-fi as possible on it. (WARNING PLOT STUFF; not really spoilers) It's a superhero story... with a crazy virus... that makes people into zombies... but a superhero can control the zombies with the crazy virus... and oh yeah there is dark magic... and another realm with creatures that can be brought here by light from an eclipse housed in metal... you get the idea.

Clines is like that in Folds, also.

Solid read, worth your time, just know what you are getting into.

Great!!!

Great Read! Gritty in the best ways! I liked the unique powers and resource management.

Weird thing is that it actually works pretty well

At first sight this title was a clear "no way" but the story works, this mix of zombies and super heroes is fast paced, well written and entertaining. One of these titles that is difficult to put aside as you want to know what's going to happen, and for my surprise there are are few unexpected twists to surprise you. I arrived here after listening to Cline's 14 and Fold, this is different, different good.

Original - 3.5 stars overall

I really enjoyed the fresh take on a zombie world, but i found the story and character arcs hard to follow for the first half of the book - the characters were pretty flat until you reached their flashback chapter - the performances wrre good - but the pacing of the cuts between each actor was a little jarring sometimes. Overall - pretty good