The Tilian Virus

Book One of The Pandemic Sequence

De: Tom Calen

Narrado por: Scott Aiello

So much sacrificed. So little gained.

Seven years have passed since the outbreak of the Tilian Virus and the effects of the disease devastated the world.

A resilient band of survivors have overcome insurmountable odds. But now, on the brink of human extinction, can hope's dim light be strengthened? Can a cure exist to purge the darkness before the infected complete their domination?

©2011 , 2013 Tom Calen (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Stick with it

I didn't like the first few chapters but it eventually evens out and I liked some of the characters. A little too much back story in the beginning.

A good choice

When your waiting for the next Mark Tufo and the like to come out. I was plesantly surprised, not as gory or militarized as some books, but still worth your time, I'm getting the next one. A very solid 3stars but definitely not 4.

Great story of leadership

The combination of a new take on the zombie genre and one of my favourite narrators provides an entertaining and insightful story. Some great leadership examples and a refreshingly non militaristic story of post apocalyptic survival.

Good Zombie Story; Annoying Narrator's Quirk

I love apocalyptic novels, both zombie and non-zombie. Unfortunately, I've run into many of this type that are sub-par and hardly listenable. This, however, is a book with a good story line, and is nicely written. I also applaud the author for creating a good zombie series without the use of coarse language throughout. That is quite refreshing.

All good so far. However...

The narrator, though talented, has an annoying [breath] style of inserting breaths at odd times. This is [breath] very distracting. I was so annoyed [breath] by this idiosyncrasy, that I often lost track of what was happening in the novel, and I had to [breath] keep rewinding and re-listening to parts of the book. The good news, though, is that I have listened to the second book of this series and found that, although it has the same narrator, the speaker does not employ the same quirk while narrating that book. To me, the second book is a much better listen.

My suggestion: Read the first book the old-fashioned way, then listen to the rest of the series.

thoughtful teacher vs. hard-charging infected

What did you like best about The Tilian Virus? What did you like least?

the group of survivors were different than any i've yet to listen about.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

i would've made it a linear story instead of constantly flashing forward and back in time.

Was The Tilian Virus worth the listening time?

yes, the story was short, at least to me. lol

Any additional comments?

after listening to all 3 books in this series, i can honestly say it was pretty good series. i'm a diehard junkie when it comes to zombies or the end of the world as we know it stories. so, i've listened to a bunch of these types of books. if you're like me and you've already listened to a bunch of the zombie books available on audible and you're looking for a zombie fix, then try the first book in this series, the tillian virus.

but if you're new to the zombie genre, there are some really good books i'd listen to before this. that's not to say this is a bad starting point. rather, there are essential zombie / the end of the world as you know it books i'd listen to first. please see my reviews if you're interested.

the 1st book in this series is mostly told from mike allard's perspective. he is a 22 year old history teacher at a rural high school in tennessee.

as the story opens, mike's getting ready for another monday at school. the receptionist, mrs. hooligan, informs him his parent teacher conference is cancelled b/c the girl's mother is sick. so as mike catches up on his grading, one of his favorite pupils, michele, asks if he can give her the next 2 day's assignment b/c her 2 younger brothers are sick with the flu, and she has to watch over them as her father has to work. at lunch, mike notices there are a lot of substitute teachers in, and they chat about how many kids are out sick.

later that week, the principal calls mike and asks if he's ok and if he can fill in for him b/c a lot of people are out, taking care of family. he informs mike that the superintendent has decided to keep the schools open so kids can have a place to go.

as mike is meeting w/ the other high school teachers to set up a teaching plan, they realize over a 100 kids are out sick. after getting all of the students situated, mike decides to watch the news w/ the class. a breaking news alert informs the country that president obama has come down w/ the flu and has invoked the 25th amendment, making the vice president the acting president.

later in the afternoon, mike and the other teachers see a few cop cars pulling up to the school. the sheriff informs them that the school is on lockdown b/c some of the sick are acting strangely. and that's how their struggle to survive the outbreak starts.

as other reviewers have reported, there are a lot of flash forwards. actually, the time flips with each chapter. the time jump is 7 years into the future. mike, some of his students, and some other survivors are encamped on a mountain eking out an existence. i didn't find the time jumps too bad. i didn't get confused. each chapter kind of ends with a minor cliffhanger so once i got into what was happening at both times, i wanted to keep listening to learn what happened. however, i do think i would've bonded to the character more if the story was linear.

regarding the characters, i liked the characters from both timeframes. many of the characters overlap. there isn't a lot of dialog b/c the story is told from mike's perspective, but you do get a sense of the other characters from mike's interactions with them.

i liked the story b/c it was different than many of the other zombie stories i've listened to. this is not a lone survivor story nor is it a military style survival story. mike is thrust into a leadership role that he often regrets simply b/c he is their teacher. mike has no skills and often has to rely on his students for help. he's from the northeast and knows next to nothing about guns. so at first he has to totally rely on some of his students, who have experience hunting, to learn about guns.

as far as an initial outbreak story, i liked the aspect of a teacher and a bunch of students being trapped in a school. i found that part exciting b/c it's an angle i haven't listened to yet.

the future part of the story is your typical fare- a group trying to survive a zombie apocylapse. well not really zombies but "tills." in this story, the infected are "tills." tills are not living dead. they are living people who got infected by the tillian virus, a virus that affects the reptilian portion of the brain. as such, they are ravenous flesh eating machines who aggressively and mercilessly attack and eat anyone who is uninfected.

the story goes by pretty quickly. there are parts where i wished the author slowed down and provided more details.

the narration is pretty good. it is easy to listen to the narrator and get into the story. i kept thinking his voice sounded familiar, like someone i've heard before. this "familiar" feeling helped me to further get engrossed into the story. i lke how he portrayed the lead character, mike. i found it easy to follow the other male characters the narrator portrayed through the different cadences he voiced.

overall, a pretty good series. i liked the characters, and i found the story entertaining.