5 Years After

By: Richard Correll

Narrated by: Richard Correll

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

5 Years After is a fresh look at the apocalypse genre. A deeper, more intriguing story line with characters that reach out and grab you. They are defined not by their strengths. Instead, it is their weaknesses and emotions that set them apart. They feel real; they are just like us.  

"Richard Correll has created a rich and descriptive landscape that will make you believe." (KSPK Radio) 

"[A]s startling as it is descriptive. 5 Years After does a great job of presenting a future of darkness, contrasted with sprinkles of hope and humanity. Definitely recommend this one." (ATZ: All Things Zombie)

©2020 Richard Correll (P)2020 Richard Correll

Poor Narrator Choice

After 5 minutes of listening to the author's narration I removed the book from my library and requested a refund.

5 Years

Updating my review to be fair - I'll start by saying I love zompoc books and read a lot of them. I read the top names and the total unknowns. I enjoy the bad ones almost as much as the good ones. This one has it's ups and downs. It is not a straight narrative but more like several short stories set in the same universe and tied together by a few shared characters.

As I said, the book is basically several short stories. The first of which is absolutely terrible. If you have any knowledge of how the military works this one will drive you crazy. Not giving too much away by saying this section deals with the remains of the Canadian military fighting the Zs. Correll has done his research about weapons systems, which is important to many people, so he gets kudos for that. Unfortunately, this level of detail is ignored elsewhere and he seems to have done his general military customs and culture research by watching Saturday Morning GI Joe cartoons. Its bad - so bad my initial review was that the whole book was a total loss. Hint - there is lots of saluting, coming to attention and "Siring " and "Ma'aming" between low level enlisted and the chain of command is all mangled. If this type of thing bothers you, then skip it and move to the next story. Little is lost by passing it by.

Things get better in the following 3/4s of the book. The next few chapters are told from the perspective of an escaped prisoner. Correll does a much better job here by focusing on a person surviving alone. Much of the action takes place in post apocalypse Times Square, NY. In this section, the character and settings are interesting and engaging. This is followed by a section about a 60 Minutes reporter chasing a story about an Army General who has set up an independent republic in Virginia. The earlier military customs transgressions are less present here so its easier to focus on the narrative.

Correll is a talented writer, his prose is engaging and many of his analogies are great observations. The ideas and writing are good but some of the implementation here is sloppy. I hope he keeps honing his craft and comes back with something better. His narration of the book for Audible works and flows well for the material.