Plaguesville, USA

By: Jim LaVigne

Narrated by: Fleet Cooper

Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

The year is 2075, and the vast majority of humanity is dead.

The global outbreak of a new strain of virus wiped out over 99% of the population. The lone hope rests on the slim, unready shoulders of Dr. Justin Kaes and a small team of specialists from the Center for Disease Control. The researchers have discovered a cure for the plague in the blood of a cantankerous 102 year old. But there's one minor problem: the old man couldn't care less whether humanity lives or dies. And he most certainly doesn't feel like going on a road trip to sunny California.

On the way to the coast lie murderous tribes, cults, voracious animals, and the toxic remains of civilization. They face a world gone backwards, technology and industry reduced to rusting garbage. Their mission seems doomed. But there are a few decent souls still out there, citizens of Plaguesville, USA.

©2011, 2012 Jim LaVigne (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"LaVigne offers the reader an incredibly well-developed post-apocalyptic America that haunts the imagination well after the last page is turned." (Jessica Meigs, author of The Becoming)

"Imagine Fallout mixed with Doomsday and Mad Max but with the violence, intrigue, and horror on overdrive; boil it down and you have the best apocalyptic novel ever." (Eloise J. Knapp, author of The Undead Situation)

Excellent Audio Book

Great Narration and Storyline. So glad I finally found a book that begins and ends in one listening unlike most of these types of books that the author has to beat to death in prequels and sequels..

Genericville. Mad Max if it was bad.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The Teresa Character was garbage. This book just seemed very schizophrenic/manic to me just jumping from one thing to another without really binding any of them together. The Characters never really developed or changed. It could use a little less comic book feel to it and use a dash more realism.

Has Plaguesville, USA turned you off from other books in this genre?

nope

Which character – as performed by Fleet Cooper – was your favorite?

Old man Lambert

Could you see Plaguesville, USA being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes, In the proud tradition of hollywood blandness it could stand shoulder to shoulder with Xena, Hercules, Star Trek Voyager, Stargate: Atlantis and Revolution.

Any additional comments?

Bland, generic, clichéd, common, conventional, cornball, cornfed, corny, dull as dishwater, dumb, everyday, flat, hackneyed, ho hum, hokey, humdrum, insipid, mundane, old hat, ordinary, pabulum, pedestrian, platitudinous, square, stale, stereotyped, stock, stupid, tired, tripe, trite, unimaginative, unoriginal, vapid, watery, wishy-washy and just "Meh".

Not 'great', but kept my interest

Would you listen to Plaguesville, USA again? Why?

No...I don't listen to any books more than once.

If you’ve listened to books by Jim LaVigne before, how does this one compare?

Haven't listened previously.

Have you listened to any of Fleet Cooper’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Don't be doopey, see this movie

Any additional comments?

The story was interesting, had unusual characters and I liked the pace.

The sub-story involving mutants at the end didn't quite mesh with the entire story, but still enjoyable.

Could have been a lot better

This story could have been so much better if the author hadn't indulged in creating an annoying fantasy involving a bright doctor and the dumb as a rock, illiterate, uneducated and very annoying woman who is apparently, to the author at least, completely worthwhile in this story because she is incredibly "hot" and "supermodel-like" and is happy to have lots of casual sex. This writer clearly cannot write women characters and doesn't seem interested in a story that is well rounded enough to include both genders as actual human beings of some kind of substance. So instead he indulges in some dopey fantasies that unfortunately this really dumbed down a story that had some potential and it may alienate 50% of the potential audience.

Also, this could book could have done with one more pass before an editor, as there is some awkward language and a lot of places that need to be tightened up and at many times the plot seems to meander too much.

The narrator does a great job though, and rescues the book somewhat through the performance.

It is too bad because, in my opinion, there is potential and it is a decent plot. But the down sides were pretty big down sides and hard to get past for me.

slowwww

This is a great story line but slowww - not a zombie apocalypse book :(

A slow moving, violent and vulgar wizard of oz

I must say that I had really high expectations for Plaguesville, USA, I really need to learn that doing this will ruin many very good audiobooks before even listening. I was expecting an action packed, no holds bared assault on the human condition. Plaguesville, USA was a slow moving, violent and vulgar apocalyptic version of the Wizard of Oz and I never would have made this comparison if it wasn’t for characters referencing it from time to time. I think the only reason I continued to listen was, I knew something awesome was about to happen. Unfortunately when Plaguesville, USA ended I felt empty inside because this could have been something incredible.

Fleet Cooper is an incredible narrator, creating many easily identifiable character voices and delivering emotion and obliviously crazy personalities effortlessly. If I didn’t know better I would have bet my life that there were no less than 5 different narrators, that’s how different his voice was at times. About half way through I couldn’t help thinking the Cooper’s chosen voice for Justin made me, well, think of Ben Stiller in Zoolander, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. This is my first audiobook narrated by Cooper and will not be my last. He was able to keep me engaged no matter what was happening or not happening in the story.

And Then, And Then, Aaanddd TtHHEeennn

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Probably shorten it a bit with some editing or Hmmm ADD ZOMBIES!! I bought this book thinking it was a zombie book and the was no walking dead, radiated cannibles =Next best thing!

What other book might you compare Plaguesville, USA to and why?

Some of your basic zombie novels. People was saying Wiz of Oz but I didn't see it and I've watched/listened to Dark Side Of Oz millions of times with Dark side of the moon rocking while the Wiz of Oz playing! Good sTory, they just lost me towards the end and I'd hop to other books and thn a few chapters of Plaugsvle USA then another book etc.

What aspect of Fleet Cooper’s performance would you have changed?

Voice of main character

Could you see Plaguesville, USA being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yeah deff. I'd watch it and they could drag many episodes out of This book that for sure.

Any additional comments?

Listen this is a good book, great ideas, character buildup is great I don't know why but I lost interest in the middle that all..

An awsome and intriguing end of the world story

What did you like best about this story?

It is well written, has great characters and is very believable. The whole way the fallen world is described (in a very "as a matter of fact" way... like this was just what happened) is how I could livingly imagine the world would end, was there ever a huge pandemic which couldn't be stopped.

When listening to the story I would imagine parts from the game Fallout 3 (mostly because of the infomercials seamlessly woven into the story) and parts (the good parts) from Mad Max, with the gangs and small communities/towns.

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

I must say that Fleet Cooper is one of the best narrators I have had the pleasure of listening to. He "does the voices" and captures the caracters very well, making them truly "come alive". This was one of the first audiobooks I bought and I really didn't know if it was for me, as I have always read alot of books myself, but Fleet Coopers narration won me over and opened a new world to me... Literally.

Any additional comments?

I am a big fan of both Zombie and "end of the world" litterature and media (movies and games) and this story was just up my alley... I had never heard of it when I saw it on Amazon, so I read some reviews and took a chance on it... I am very glad I did.