Zombie Fallout: Zombie Fallout, Book 1

This book was recommended to me by one of my co-workers and without question I'm hooked! I enjoyed this title so much.. Between the wonderful narration by Sean Runnette and the excellent writing of Mark Tufo, this book is easily one of the most enjoyable listens I have had.

To start the concept of the audiobook is something that would interest anyone with an open mind. The book is current (provided you are reading/listening it in 2012 or prior at least), humerus and witty. Mark Tufo did an excellent job creating the Talbot family and experiencing a majority of the story from Mike Talbot's perspective is hilarious to say the least. The way that Mike Talbot's mind work and the very situations he finds himself in makes him easily one of my favorite literary characters. You can't help but find the humor in even the most tragic circumstances in this book by just finding out how this man's brain tick.

Sean Runnette did AWESOME if you ask me. I agree with my co-worker who said he sounds a bit 'dry' in the beginning, but as the story progresses, he got better. It almost was a case where the story was carrying him in the beginning but as the book continued you found yourself warming up to his performance and by the end of the book you frankly can't fathom someone else narrating the book.

This is an excellent title, one of those nail-biters that ends with a cliff hanger but totally worth the listen! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes that witty, sort of satire, sarcasm riddled, modern titles!

I've read a couple of reviews that mentioned this was like slapstick (as in Zombieland) and I passed over the series for quite some time. I HATE anything slapstick! Boy am I glad I gave it a chance. I absolutely love zombie and/or apocalypse books and movies. Sure the book was chock-full of humor but it was not ridiculous nor did the characters behavior exceed the boundaries of common sense! I found it to be very entertaining and very believable. I thought the narrator did an excellent job and cannot imagine anyone else voicing Mike. I also liked the hint of paranormal vibe i.e., Tommy. It is in my top 3 reads! Please give it a chance. If you're like me and cringe when you see the Three Stooges don't worry - this book is not slapstick! Love it!!!

if you're new to the zombie genre, stop reading this review and download zombie fallout NOW! if you're into zombies AND haven't read this book, download it NOW!

ok...on with my review...

this is a funny book. hi-lar-ious! political correctness be damned. the story follows mike talbot and his family as the zombie apocalypse begins. mike lives in denver, colorado with his wife, tracy, 2 teenage boys, justin and travis, and his dog, henry, an english bulldog.

mike is in the shower when his wife screams. finding this unusual, mike dons a towel and heads downstairs to see what the heck is going on. tracy and travis are trying to shut the front door as mike appears. after they get the door closed, they implore mike to look through the peephole.

i'm inserting that part here:

"look out the peephole my wife whispered. i put my eye to the hole, expecting to see some little s#!t gangbanger out there tearing s#1t up. what i saw was a tongue. i see a tongue! some a$$hole is licking my peephole i said. then i laughed a little bit.

that sounded a little gross even to me. my wife didn't see the humor. her face still hadn't regained her color, and my son looked like he was about to hyperventilate.

my wife told me to look out the window, but she made no move to look with me. i'm not the brightest bulb on the string but even i knew at this point something was really messed up. i put on my best male bravado and stepped over to the window and rolled up the shade. to this day, i don't know how it happened, but i simultaneously felt my stomach lurch into my throat and my balls fill in the abandoned spot my belly left behind. there had to have been at least a couple dozen dead people milling about on our communal lawn."

so starts the zombie apocalypse and the quest for survival. mike's oldest son, justin, is working the night shift at walmart. mike, tracy, and travis set out to rescue justin.

while rescuing justin, they also rescue tommy. tommy is a greeter at walmart who gets stuck on the roof with justin. tommy is a jolly, seemingly retarded guy. he's huge, overweight, and always eating something sweet. mike and his family learn there is more to tommy than meets the eye. he hears a voice in his head. i won't tell you whose voice it is, but it's hilarious.

when mike and his family get back to their neighborhood, the entrance is blocked off by a bus full of armed people. jed, the neighborhood president, recognizes mike and lets him and his family through.

back at the house, mike finds his daughter, nicole, and her fiancé, brandon, have fled there. so starts the process of fortifying the neighborhood and venturing out for supplies.

on a supply run, mike notices a weird zombie, who just stares at him. later, he notices the same zombie following him. just what does this zombie have in store for mike? it's a joy to find out!

this story has it all! lots of humor. unimaginable gore. the power of a hoard. whew! when you get to that part, you just won't believe how well it's done. lots of zombie carnage. a great human nemesis, dergin. now, that's a great bad guy's name.

there are just so many superlatives that if i haven't convinced you by now, i never will. you know what they say...you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I like zombies and comedy, but I called it quits on "Zombie Fallout" after a few chapters. I'm chiming in because many of these "unanimous five star" genre books have been unqualified hits for me. With this one, I wish I'd listened to the sample, although frankly I think the cover, title and marketing should indicate a bit more of the schticky style contained.

There's a lot here that just wasn't my taste - constant references to past zombie pop culture (no 00's movie or videogame goes unnoticed), the conceit that the main character was fully prepared for a zombie apocalypse, and, most of all, Mr. Tufo's overeager and slightly corny sense of humor.

Not a minute goes by without him trying to elicit some kind of laugh from the listener/reader, and just about every attempt was a failure with me. It's all firmly from the Jeff Foxworthy/King Of The Hill school of "redneck sitcom husband" humor; he slips in poop, gets annoyed with his wife, disdains anything more high-brow than a monster-truck rally, and expresses exasperation at the idiot neighbors. Hey, I have no problem with humor or bending genre conventions, but it didn't connect with me and felt fairly stale after Shawn of the Dead and Zombieland (which, of course, are knowingly referenced).

I can't say the narrator helped. Mr. Runnette is affable and sympathetic but his reading neither delivered the punchlines or amped up the suspense for me. Frankly, he sounds like a quirky character actor more than the leading man I'd want to join for a multi-book saga.

I sensed some inventive supernatural twists before I quit, but all of this was too much baggage for me. But hey, a quick listen to Audible's generous sample should be enough for you to tell which reviewers you should listen to.

I don’t usually write reviews on books purchased on Audible, but I have to about this one. I enjoy a good Zombie book like the next person but this was neither a good book or a good Zombie story. The author’s poor writing skills become apparent after a few paragraphs that include phrases like “she retorted” “I barked”… It’s not “slap stick” as some reviewer stated, its one bad joke after another, after another, after another! The narrator sounds like Billy Chrystal delivering a boring monologue filled with old tired jokes. Do yourself a favor and listen to the sample. If you can stand that, then maybe you can get through the entire book. To me, it was a waste of a credit and time. I really did try and give it a chance, but the plot and jokes are so predictable I stopped listening.

The first thing you should know is that this is a zombie story in the tradition of movies like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland. That is to say, a zombie comedy (zombedy?).

I am going to make this review easy. I imagine you are not going to buy two zombie comedies this month which means you may be considering this or The Zombies of Lake Woebegotton (also available from Audible). The difference between the titles is easily articulated: Zombie Fallout generates its humor primarily from one-liners, bad smells, slapstick, and bodily functions. The Zombies of Lake Woebegotton's humor is primarily situational, satire, and irony. I think the The Zombies of Lake Woebegotton is the much better of the two books, but you should assess by your own sense of humor.

Taken on its own, Zombie Fallout isn't bad. It is amusing, and I love a good zombie story. I think I'll even buy the sequel. However, if I were looking to buy a zombie-comedy this month, this would be my second choice.

I'd be the last to praise this book as I often found myself cringing at the writing, but I was entertained to some degree.

It is interesting to hear a zombie story for the point of view of someone who might be suited to deal with it (mike's guns and weapons training) rather than the usually random dude. The characters were mostly unbearable.

Different narrator, was not a fan of the narration.

It was pretty entertaining if you overlook the obvious problems.

Mike was not funny, not in the slightest. No one was legitimately entertaining. Sarcasm seems to be the only attempt at humor which was kind of awful. The wife is irritating, irrational and endlessly nagging.

It was entertaining. Great first half, second half could have used more details. Items are left hanging that I thought should have been expanded. However, it could be made up for in the next book.

The story follows Mike Talbot and his family as they try to make sense of the new Zombie apocalyptic world. Mark Tufo does an excellent job developing multidimensional characters that force you to cry, laugh, and cringe at them and with them. This gory, intense, and frightening story is defiantly on my top 5 Zombie list. A MUST listen for ALL Zombie fans. Spoiler**** My favorite part was the mother and daughter's journey into town to purchase cigarettes only to find a perfect and frightening opportunity to extract revenge on a Zombie from their past....the dialog is hilarious. And of course the haunting Zombie kiss, which freaks me out to this day.

I really like Mike, I found myself relating to him in so many ways as he is sarcastic, witty, and a survivalist.

Spoiler*****Road trip to purchase cigarettes, the final breach of the wall as the Talbots move from one room to the next trying to stay ahead of the NEW intelligent Zombies.

The book provoked all emotions, some at the same time, mostly fear!

Starting the second book now.....CAN

For $5.00 I figure I had nothing to lose, but honestly this book was a waste.

The story was pointless and implausibly absurd. For example, the hero's wife and daughter are living in a fortress neighborhood because of the zombies (oh and they still have electricity of course) and these two women don't even know how to make sure their guns are loaded, but while all the men are off fighting zombies they decide to go off alone and raid the local gas station for cigarettes... yeah right. Before the huge zombie attack a single female zombie points at the ex-Marine hero and he's suddenly compelled to jump over the barricade and give her rotting face a lip-to-lip kiss... yeah right. And then there is the kidnapper/rapist who has a zombie chained in his basement and prefers her putrid flesh to human hostages because real girls "always lose the will to live"... yeah right.

This doesn't appear to be a campy parody, but a low-brow pot boiler trying to capitalize on the zombie craze. The whole story is so stupid it's amazing and even more amazing to me is that there are lots of folks who rate it very highly.

The narration isn't terrible, but as another reviewer said, he doesn't sound like an ex-marine.