Tooth and Nail

This book was something of a mystery to me, because at moments it shines, and then for many more it is clumsy and amateurish. A quarter of the way through the book I was prepared to hate it. Somewhere around three-quarters through I found I had started to care about some of the characters. By the end, I had something of an emotional investment. But that's a long time to wait--other readers might not be so patient.

The Bad: Early in the book, the characters are very difficult to distinguish from one another. With one or two notable exceptions, there isn't a whole lot of character development. Dialogue can be stilted and phony. DiLouie seems to "tell" when he should be "showing."

The Good: For as clumsy as the writing is throughout much of the book, DiLouie shows moments of tight writing and good insights, which might bode well for future books.

One aspect of Tooth And Nail sets it apart from any zombie/plague fiction I've yet read--DiLouie's familiarity with the military and small-unit tactics is outstanding. I suspect the author has either served in the military or done a great deal of homework; he seems very comfortable writing about military matters. It shows; these are the book's finest moments.

Holy mackerel! I've been waiting for a zombie novel this good since listening to "Day By Day Armageddon". I've read about 10 in the meanwhile that ranged from satisfactory to amateur to unreadable. This one was exciting, believable and well researched, with a solid writer at the helm. I'm really hoping for a sequel (or two)!

Well written and well researched story that reminds me of the late great Zachary Recht works. The story held my attention straight through with know problem at all. Steve Coopers raspy voice took a little to get use to at first, but eventually grows on you as he does a great job narrating it. Looking forward to next one!

A decent listen for those who enjoy apocalyptic fiction. While the characters are generic the action more then makes up for this. I enjoyed the focus on small unit tactics as well as the social/psychological implications of a viral/zombie outbreak.

I thought it was better written then most zombie fiction and would recommend it to those who enjoy this genre. If you are less interested in zombie fiction the book may not be your cup of tea.

This was "OK" I didn't mind all the military stuff and thought that sort of set this story apart from other zombie books but I would have liked to see these guys use their military expertise to actually try to survive. The whole book was about how they just couldn't accept what was happening and it got to be a little frustrating. A better zombie book with military references is by far Day by Day Armageddon and the sequel Beyond Exile by JL Bourne. There just didn't seem to be much plot past going from one street to the next... it was a bit shallow and two dimensional. Could have been so much better but not a total waste of a credit either. You can't completely fail when a zombie hoard are taking over a major metropolis, for those of us who love these zombie stories that is half the storyline requirment right there. So three stars for somewhat entertaining but think the author really missed a lot of great opportunity to write a 5 star story.

Although not a true zombie book (listen to me I am new to the genre) it has all the things you could want from a gritty, on the front line, fight fro your life.

highly recomended.

I liked the story. The plot was great, but I had trouble telling the characters apart. All in all it is a pretty good listen. I would purchase and listen again.

The narrator has about 3 voices and 2 accents. He does not serve the material well. The characters are not developed. The moral qualms of the soldiers are unrealistic in the situation as described. Too many characters who are not anchored by time and place and personality. Poor writing. I can't give it one star because the spelling was fine.

If you are looking for a decent zombie book, then yes. If not, than don't waste your time.

Better, believable characters. More coherent story line.

I really didn't like his performance. There was not a huge distinction between each character.

Again, if you are looking for a zombie book, than I would say yes. It was still an enjoyable book, and it had plenty of action.

Let's face it. We run woefully low on any type of decent zombie book. I find myself slumming from book to book hoping to find a zombie story that isn't terrible. Until the day arrives where we have a plethora of great stories on a consistent basis, we have to scrap by on what we can find.

With that in mind, this story is not great, but at least enjoyable. It had plenty of action, and I didn't find myself being too annoyed with either terrible characters or ridiculous plot developments. Not to say that this book is devoid of those things, because it's not, but it's at least tolerable.

I liked following around with the military in this story, as it's not done as nearly as much as the survivor perspective. I'm an Army veteran, so it was fun to follow these guys around from skirmish to skirmish. I tried to be not too critical of the military tactics or the "cordite" issue, as I want to enjoy the book and not get hung up on crap like that, although the constant cordite reference did start to bother me.

All in all, if you are looking for a decent zombie book, where you get to ride along with an Army unit to battle the zombie hoards than you will enjoy this book. Be prepared though, as it's not a great book, but definitely serviceable.

Solid Zombie book, probably in the lower half of my top 25 zombie books. It always makes me shudder to think of living in a city like New York during a Zombie apocalypse.