The Remaining

By: D. J. Molles

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker 20 feet below the basement level of his house, a soldier waits for his final orders. On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Someday soon, the soldier will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his mission: Subvenire refectus. To rescue and rebuild.

The Remaining is the first book in the best-selling series, which tells a gritty tale of survival, perseverance and fighting to get back what has been lost.

©2012 D.J. Molles (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great Narration

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

Christian Rummel is by far the best narrator I have heard. He brings the story and all of the many characters to life. In some books this may be an easy task with only a few characters, but in this book and the 3 others in this series there are a multitude of characters that play meaningful roles. Rummel represents each distinctly and brings appropriate emotion into each scene.

Its a good, entertaining story

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

His performance was great. Captured the voices and emotion well.

Any additional comments?

Post apocalyptic world, with the USA planting seeds of american soldiers to rebuild the government. Sounds like an impossible task, but thats what makes it interesting. Can Lee do it? I want to believe he can! This is the first in three books (the magic number it seems for a series) and leaves off in a great position for the next book. This is not your regular zombie book, because there is more in this story that "we need to survive", and more like "We need to survive and rebuild".

Refreshing take on the zombie genre

This book brings minor changes to the zombie virus that make a major difference. This is not a story with humorous one-liners or frequent jokes in the face of impending death. Instead, its grittiness makes it more realistic and suspenseful. Good narration too.

Awesome series!

I'm not really into zombie stories or novels filled with non-stop action. Zombies just seem too unbelievable and non-stop action without any substance bores me. Also, despite listening to numerous audio books over the years, I have never listened to a whole series continuously one after the other - as I tend to get bored and want a change.

This was all until the Remaining series came along. The story includes zombie-like creatures ('the infected') and lots of action, but it also includes great characters, an ever-developing plot, and a whole heap of tension and drama.

This is a very compelling series. I couldn't stop listening to the whole series of The Remaining, one-book after the other.

A fast paced start to an awesome series

Great start to the story. Good narration.
It's a little short in my opinion, but I still give it a solid A.
I definitely recommend the series as a whole.

Humorless survival story

This book is a competent effort in describing post-apocalyptic survival. It is very procedural in nature, the author clearly possessing deep knowledge of. military operations. The problem with the book is that is all it offers.

The lead character is one note kind of guy. Deeply serious, all business - yet easily blind sided. For such a character it is unlikely he’d be as foolish as he is about resources. But that’s what the author needed to move to the next scen4. Silly.

The world painted here is absent any humor. At all. And that’s my big problem with the book. Even in its darkest moments, humanity finds humor. This book is 8+ hours without a single chuckle.

On point.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Remaining to be better than the print version?

100%. The narrator is incredible, without a doubt. His voice speaks in a way I imagine Lee would speak.

Any additional comments?

I usually listen to audiobooks before going to sleep, but couldnt keep this one in the rotation - it captivated my attention to a point that I couldnt fall asleep, even if sleepy. A good movie cant do that - What does that say about how riveting this book is?

Better than I expected.

Any additional comments?

I'll be honest, I didn't have very high hopes for this when I bought it. I had been back and forth about getting it for a couple of months and finally thought "what the heck." I am a sucker for awesome covers, and this one is awesome... take a moment and look at it again.

As far as the story goes, it wasn't near as corny as I thought by reading the description. Although, it does get a little corny at times.

Be prepared to feel frustrated. That's one thing the story does well. When things go wrong for the main character I was right there with him feeling his stress and aggravation. It seems like nothing ever went right for the protagonist. I kind of wish the author had given him a few more breaks. I mean, a story gets boring when everything goes right, but there's something to be said about the opposite of that too. You want to feel frustration with your hero but you also want to have those moments of triumph too. There are none of those here (at least none that I remember).

This ends with a cliffhanger. This was a good enough story that I do want to continue it, but I'm not 100% sure I want to dive right into a sequel, though. I might give it time to stew in my head while I listen to something else for a while.

not just another zombie sorry

Every aspect combined made this a 5 start audio book. I've listen to zombie radio drama, watched television and movies, and a few other stories, and this one still hooked me.

Not my favorite

Lead character isn't anything special. Would be like him to either be more of a hot shot, or irreverent, or funny.....or something! Other charters have no depth either.