Mad Swine: The Beginning

I wasn't sure about this book after reading some of the reviews on another site, but I am so glad I got it. The story has a good flow and the narrator does a great job. It has ample character development. The story reminded me of Day by Day. With lots of other zombie books I find myself getting mad at the characters(and Author) for making stupid decisions just to make the story move a certain direction. This story has none of those stupid decisions and I'm looking forward to the next book.

First of the book starts out great. A man trying desperately trying to flee the city to reach his children during the beginning stages of the Zombie apocalypse. When I say desperately I mean this poor guy is extremely desperate. The first of the book is past paced frightening and very tragic. After finding his children he heads home to see his wife only to be met by his brother. This is where the book SLOWS down. The man settles as the leader in his home town. The rest of the book focuses on the adjustment period this town and man goes through. To me it was kind of boring but I heard part 2 picks back up!

The book is well written and character development is great. Dialog could be better in some places but it could be the way the narrator reads.

I will be moving on to book 2! Worth the credit if nothing else good is out.

i've read a few different zombie novels, and mad swine is somewhere close to the bottom. i think i somewhat liked it b/c it's different than the others. what i mean by different is the location. the main character lives in a suburb of chicago. can you imagine a worse place to live and try to survive in than a huge city.

the story starts as matt is at work. he's some kind of vp at a university in chicago. i was interested in how you escape and survive when you live in a suburb of one of the nation's largest cities.

everything else is typical. the infected want to eat you. matt has a military background of course. he carries a rifle in his trunk. he's a recent survivalist b/c of hurricane katrina. there are differences and infighting b/ween the different surviving groups. all standard zombie fare. ok, i can accept that.

i thought a place like chicago would be a hell zone, that the place would be infested with the infected! but he really has no problem getting where he tries to go. so, i started to lose interest when he's able to flee on a driving lawnmower. you'd think the infected would hear the noise and bum rush him. nope.

the only reason i finished listening was to see if there was anything new in learning how to survive in the suburbs of a huge city. nope. didn't learn a thing.

if you're new to zombie fare, try something else. if you need your zombie fix, then you'll get a watered down hit.

Errrrrrrt! This story comes to an annoyingly abrupt end! If they are trying to piggyback a sequel then they leave the reader with absolutely no conclusions to the impending problems of the main character. The narration is a little bland, monotone and no emotion. Understandably this isn't a pleasant story, but "I ummmmm took my SKS and shot the Zombie in the head, and zzzzzzzzzzzzz looked around for more because I was mad ........" Can't Jay Schneider or Ray Porter just narrate every book, they can make Mary Poppins exciting!

Finish the darn story and not leave the reader hanging!

Retirement!

I did, because it was so short and slammed shut like the front door of the prom queen to the pimply freshmen!

Too many titles with audible, buy another Zombie book. Sorry to be so harsh.... Recommend, Beyond Exile, Patient Zero, or World War Z for the same or less amount of money. Great Books!

I love Zombie novels.The best part of the book was the reader. He actually tried to bring this book out from the shallow end of the pool. The overall story was weak and predictable. How I judge weakness in writing really has to to with the overuse of the f-bomb followed by other colorful language. I don't consider myself a prude but come on, what educated person talks like that? I had to get out my ear bud and take this one off the speakers in my home because I was embarrassed by the language and the writing. This one was phoned in. There are so many places that this one could have gone. But the author just decided to shoot this one in the foot and try to run a marathon on it. I want my money and the time I wasted listening to this back.... with damages.

The story has no real focus on any Zombie action but rather the narrator just drones on and on about pointless things. The narrator sounds so bored and his attempt at character voices is annoying to say the least. I kept hoping for any real action and before I new it the book had ended.

No character development! I couldn't keep track of one guy from another but that could have been the narrators fault. Pointless descriptions of what people are wearing...really? Does that even matter during a so called zombie apocalypse?

A different narrator may have helped.

Sadly, No.

top 10%

I have read this book twice and I have come to the conclusion that it is an extremely entertaining read. Yes there are a few flaws but if you let those ruin your experience it's your own fault. As a "Zombie" book it more than lives up to, and in many cases exceeds, my expectations of the genre.

I enjoy that the primary conflict in the novel is NOT the dead/infected but instead the humans of the neighboring communities. I enjoyed the development of the communities and experiencing their fragmentation and the attempt of one to assume dominion over the other.

I will be reading the second one soon!

Not a life changing book, but a fun listen.
If you liked "One Second After" as well as "I am Legend" and "The Walking Dead"; I think you will like this book.
I am looking forward to new books in the series.