Rise Again

A Zombie Thriller

By: Ben Tripp

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 16 hrs

Publisher's summary

Forest Peak, California. Fourth of July. Sheriff Danielle Adelman, a troubled war veteran, thinks she has all the problems she can handle in this all-American town after her kid sister runs away from home. But when a disease-stricken horde of panicked refugees fleeing the fall of Los Angeles swarms her small mountain community, Danny realizes her problems have only just begun—starting with what might very well be the end of the world. Danny thought she had seen humanity at its worst in war-torn Iraq, but nothing could prepare her for the remorseless struggle to survive in a dying world being overrun by the reanimated dead and men turned monster. Obsessed with finding her missing sister against all odds, Danny’s epic and dangerous journey across the California desert will challenge her spirit... and bring her to the precipice of sanity itself.

Filled with adventurous human drama—and shocking inhuman horror—Rise Again marks a vivid and powerful fiction debut.

©2011 Ben Tripp (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Danny's journey through a land of death to find [her sister] Kelley makes for a remarkable character-driven story, and the final sentence takes it to another level." ( Library Journal)

OMG - excellent books!

Just finished Book 3 - You HAVE to read/listen to these books. Please let there be another one!!! Gotta go shopping!!!! You - go read!

SHE TOOK A SPATULA AND SCRAPPED HIS FACE OFF THE

GRILL.
THE SHADOW OF THE NIGHT RETREATED FROM THE STREET, CURLING UP UNDER THE TREES.
Ben Tripp can write. He is no rookie stumbling through the zombie genre, thinking it is an easy sell. His use of the English language helps to make this literature. Academics should have nothing to complain about, while the common blue collar worker will not be overwhelmed with overly flowery language. The story is basic Zombie and any Zombie lover should have no problem with this addition to the genre.

THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS ANOTHER DAY, ONLY ANOTHER DAY SURVIVED
Anyone looking for strong female characters will love this book. Danny has RED HAIR, LITTLE TITS and AN ASS YOU CAN CUT STEAK OFF OF. She is the main character and the sheriff. She is also a Veteran. She is respected and their is no big deal made over her being a female. She is very tough and a leader. There are a couple of other lead females. This book could serve as an example of how to handle female leads in a book. There is no sex or even flirting. I also was impressed with the fact that they used more than one vehicle, even had a convoy. This has been a complaint of mine of similar books. In an apocalypse, vehicles are going to be easy to get, but in all other books they always act as if they are scarce.

DANNY WAS GOING TO DIE (for the thousandth time)
I could not give the book five stars for a few glaring problems. The first being that Ben overused they main character is about to die, only to be rescued at the very last minute. I lost count of how many times the main character was about to bite the bullet and then she was rescued by Wolf or some other character. Several times she was about to oft herself. The book dragged a little in the middle. I would have liked to have seen more imagination with the Zombies. There is a different angle, involving a zombie coma state and a hint at some evolution in the zombies, but most of that comes pretty late in the book and seems more of a set up for book 2.

HIS BLOOD TURNED TO SNOW
Kristen Potter is a top tier narrator and I look forward to hearing more from her.

FAIR, WAS AN IMAGINARY IDEA, THAT HAD NO BASIS IN REALITY.
If book 2 goes on sale, I will buy it, but I am not going to go out of my way to get it.

This book is really good

This was a *really* good book and with a listening time of 16hrs, it is well worth your credit. The story was epic with a great narrator telling a tale of zombies right from the start, even before the infection and Tripp has his own take on how the zombie infection starts and spreads.

The narration is very good and easily fell into the background so I could focus on the tale she was telling. Different voices, male, female, all handled excellently. Interesting coincidence that there is a town in the book of the same name as the narrator.

As other reviewers have noted the big weakness in this story is that the main character isn't especially likeable. You end up taking the sides of the people arguing with her. Danni is slow to catch on that she is dealing with zombies and yeah, the whole "No looting" bit. Leaves me wondering what she has been eating all this time?

She also abandons her charges and goes off on a wild goose chase for her sister which is really stupid without specific information. Her sister could be in the abandoned building next to her, how would she know?

She is also sexless. The book has a lesbian and gay in it, but although there was a line or two in there that made clear Danni is hetero, she otherwise has no romantic interests and thinks like a dude with no testosterone. Its like the author doesn't know how to portray girls.

She does redeem herself in the end but as flawed heroes go, I couldn't find much to like about her, therefore the 4 stars for story.

The end was creepy and even though I don't like that mutation direction for zombies, I'd want to buy the next book that is due summer 2013; Rise Again: Below Zero.

I had to purchase 2nd book ASAP!!

Where does Rise Again rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Great book audio was good. Narrator did an excellent job performing.

What did you like best about this story?

All the twist and turns the author took you on.

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

I do not think so.

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

I would laugh out loud at parts in the story. But boy did I get some tears at the end but then......well you will have to get the book don't want to give anything away!

Any additional comments?

This to me was an excellent book. I would recommend this book to anyone, I was totally drawn into the story. Which is why I have purchased the second book :)

What a great epic tale.

Narration was really good. Story kept me hooked. The ending was a unsettling surprise. I really enjoyed this audio book.

It has a slow start, but hang in there!

While the story has a rather slow start, it’s definitely worth sticking around. The main characters are flawed individuals, but you’ll come to like them all.

Delivers well on familiar Zombie elements

First, well written. That's getting to be important in the Zombie genre. The narration is a bit dead-pan, but I liked it. Characters develop nicely and the final resolution of one main story line is understated and moving. I understand why some reviewers didn't like the main character, but I thought she was interesting, conflicted and ultimately satisfying. The San Fran element is familiar plot, but I enjoyed the characterization of the 'top-cat' politician.

Whaaat?!

the ending...wasn't expecting that! now I need the next book! so much detail during battles

Good Z apocalypse story

I really enjoyed the human story in this zombie novel. Great character struggle throughout the story.

A zombie story that has real people in it.

So... you're thinking, yet another zombie book. Well, yes and no. It is another zombie book and zombies are bad, and people are bad when the world falls apart - at least many of them are... but... this one is actually better written than a lot of the more recent zombie schlock out there - particularly in how well the people are written. Of course, there is the standard zombie gore and hack-n-slash, and this part is not very different or unique, but... the characters are distinct and real, and they behave in mostly normal ways. They don't suddenly become super heroes, and the women are not just there to be raped then rescued (or rescued then raped)...

Sure, the women are rescued then raped - it is still a genre novel and the author relies heavily on the stereotype behaviour of humankind (dare I say "men"?) post-apocalypse - but the women are not ONLY there for that. The main character is a strong woman (non-lesbian too, nice change to see a female lead that isn't portrayed as a pseudo-man). Sure, she is flawed and damaged, but most male protagonists are as well...

The author actually made me care what happened to the people in the story - this doesn't happen very often in zombie books; normally I just read them for the action and zombie bashing and don't really care which of the "survivors" survive until the end of the book because we aren't usually able to tell them apart. In this case, however, we want at least the main character and her original entourage to survive... because... well, we like them.

The narration is seamless (you will forget it is being narrated). There is zombie gore but it isn't particularly graphic. There is some swearing and no sex. There is a bit of a twist at the end, but it isn't truly a cliff-hanger: I bought the next book in the series at full price on Audible as soon as I finished this one.