Hissers

By: Ryan C. Thomas

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

It's the last weekend of summer break in the small town of Castor, and four teenage friends are about to attend the most popular end-of-summer high-school party in town...with a massive wave of mutated undead about to crash the party. It's The Breakfast Club meets Resident Evil as the teens of Castor fight to stay alive.

BONUS SHORT STORY: Hissers includes "Confidentiality", one of four interlocking stories from The Junkie Quatrain by Peter Clines.

©2010 Ryan C. Thomas (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Not my kind of thing

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

nothing

Would you ever listen to anything by Ryan C. Thomas again?

probably not

How did the narrator detract from the book?

the narrator was OK

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Hissers?

I would,t know where to start

Any additional comments?

Kids with foul language ..high school bathroom humor..wasted my money.on this one.

Sadly...a bit boring

I don't know...maybe cause it's been a long time since I was 14, but this book really did nothing for me. Unless your a teenager, you'll probably have a hard time connecting to the characters. I have 2 teenage boys, so maybe they'll enjoy it. But I have a feeling that they'll be dissapointed by the lame ending. It's like the author forgot to finish the story.

Bland, contrived, humorless Zombie-Teen B-movie

This is a cliche 60's style B-movie overly stretched to novel length. 4 teens in a Dawn of the Dead scenario. The Breakfast Club set-up unfortunately falls flat from artificial, witless and humorless dialogue. If you can overlook this, there is a little coming-of-age redemption going on thru the long middle 3/4s of the story. The drawn-out action and conversations follow smoothly enough but the prose is formulaic or calculated rather than artful or insightful.
If you love the genre, maybe you'll endure it. For improved near-human metaphysics, consider a Christopher Moore book instead ("Lamb" if you want some adolescent characters, all the others involve mostly young adults).

A goofy gory read that eventually bores

Would you try another book from Ryan C. Thomas and/or Macleod Andrews?

No, the writing is pedestrian, perhaps aimed at teens, but over the top gore makes it slightly too graphic for that age group.

Has Hissers turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just this author.

What three words best describe Macleod Andrews???s performance?

waste of talent

You didn???t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

this book was a great reminder not to squander credits

Any additional comments?

I love a good zombie tale, this unfortunately was not one... the overly simplistic writing and plot never made me care or feel anything for the protagonists, who seemed cardboard cutouts of teen cliches. I have certainly downloaded worse, thus the 2 stars, but I encourage you to listen to a sample before buying.

Lost me on military portrayal - anti-Marine stuff

So I bought this book ages ago and just listened to it. I have not read the sequel but after 80% of this book I gave up. The idea of teen heroes is interesting here and their resilience and courage are to be applauded. The coming of age during a zombie apocalypse is a solid theme and handled well for the most part. The zombie virus created by the US military is not novel but the basis for the outbreak was a treatment to help wounded warriors was certainly somewhat novel 6 years ago. This helps explain why they grow limbs out of parts of their bodies. All this occurred after an inexplicable plane crash near the town of Castor/Caster in an unidentified state. I do however find that authors, this one included, who have a penchant for criticizing the military ought at least to get it right. I mean if you're going to through darts at someone, at least have the sense to make them sharp. So Ryan Thomas was unable to do so in Hissers. I was particularly turned off by his portrayal of a group of MARSOC Marines sounding like a bunch of squealing squeamish 13 yr olds to be dishonest or just ignorant or maybe it's just a projection of where one is in life or he's just a Marine hater. So that was a major turn off as was the author's lack of knowledge of modern mil terminology and equipment. Like who uses a jeep these days? Hummer yes, jeep no. Marines haven't used jeeps since maybe 1979? Yet the author uses that vehicle and of course the MARSOC Marines are killed by multi-legged zombies because they are unprotected in an open vehicle no longer used by anybody. It was just weird. The portrayal of the Marine Lieutenant General, and I've known a few, just sucked. I cannot imagine any Marine Corps general grade officer calling a civilian "private". I suppose its supposed to be a clever literary tool but it doesn't work. Lastly, all the MARSOC Marines I have known have been nothing but the highest, most courageous professionals I have ever known. So if you know nothing about the Marine Corps, then don't believe a word of this crap. Can generals be douche bags? Sure, all the time. But their doughiness doesn't extend to calling civilians "private".