Acheron

By: Bryon Morrigan

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Captain Nate Leathers had thought that being a soldier in Iraq was hard enough. And when his convoy is attacked and he is taken prisoner by Iraqi insurgents, he thinks things won't get any worse than that either.

But that's when the entire world turns upside down. The city of Basra is under siege from creatures far worse than your average terrorist. And now Leathers will have to find a way to survive against monsters even more horrible than he can imagine, some of which are even human.

BONUS SHORT STORY: Acheron includes Predator and Prey, one of four interlocking stories from The Junkie Quatrain by Peter Clines.

©2011 Bryon Morrigan (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Enjoyable siege feel

Light of zombies, but has a good PA feel. Set in Iraq and the Christians are the fundamentalists, delicious irony. Some plot holes but as far as zombies books on Audible this one is better than 75% of them. Narration is strong.Not Romero pure however still recommended.

11 people found this helpful

ROTC Apocalypse Fantasy

If you're an Army Officer, read no further and do not/not buy this book. I cannot believe how bad this book is on so many levels. Narrator starts with a Maine accent although you then learn the character is from the South, maybe Mississippi or Alabama (I forgot, the passage was so riveting) and after the narrator read that, there was some effort to dial in a proper Southern accent but couldn't hold it long.

So the main character is an Army officer with the rank of Captain with at least one previous combat tour - 2003 in Iraq already. He gets ambushed and captured in Basra in southern Iraq and allegedly can speak Farsi fluently but complains he can't speak a word of Arabic. Kids, Farsi is about 50% Arabic - so many cognates - so this bit non-fact is highly annoying. There are a lot of Farsi speakers there. He could easily have communicated with the Iraqi who saved his butt in the first place. Although I'm not sure why he bothered to save him as the character's douchey-ness was pretty overwhelming. The fact that he gets captured and never mentions one word of concern for his soldiers is equally vexing, highly annoying and an indicator of a leadership vacuum that would make even the crappiest of officers embarrassed. Plus all the while complaining of his malnutrition and aches and pains while captured which, if I have it correctly, was only a few days. The average soldier in Iraq went through a lot more doo-doo than this clown. So this guy is a basically a sniveling pussy in uniform.

The author clearly has no actually knowledge of the US Army - maybe sat in on an ROTC class or something? - and picked up a few faux tidbits to toss in to try to get some kind authenticity but it doesn't work especially when he starts with the sage advice voice trying to show "he's been there, done that".

Note to Author: Get the facts. Please don't lecture us on how tough Basic Training was - what, like 4-5 times? Army Officers do not go to Basic Training - that's for enlisted - they attend Officer Candidate School aka OCS. There are so many mismatches of fact and experience it's nauseating. Tactically, the character (I can't call him Captain - it'd be an insult to real Captains) is a dope. He is not a professional and does not have situational awareness, self-awareness or innate intelligence. He picked up an MP-5 from an abandoned office and immediately named it "Baby". What a rube.

I stopped listening about halfway through, it just bites - lack of realism, lousy character development and narration. The story line is interesting to a point but it's not strong enough to overcome the rest of its shortcomings. Give this a pass. To all soldiers, thanks for your service and read something else.

I really hope I can return this one.

Semper Fi!

2 people found this helpful

Part one....

A decent read but also not really a zombie book. More of a supernatural end of the world book. I don't recall one person becoming infected by a zombie. The book could have ended an hour earlier because there really wasn't an ending...just a lead in to the next novel. The book was more like a re-imagining of Stephen King's The Mist with zombies thrown in for background. All in all a decent read and has a lot of potential for a sequel, just not what i was looking for from zombie fest.

6 people found this helpful

Conduct most becoming.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would most definitely recommend this book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Nathan Leathers of course. This guy is the new John Wayne. His manner of speaking and the way he carries out the actions forces upon him are an impressive example to which all our military aspire. Conduct most becoming.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, It was very difficult to put is down.

Any additional comments?

The perspective of a veteran southern US soldier in Iraq in this genre is genius.

1 person found this helpful

Great Spin

I enjoyed this story. A lot of action, creative monsters, even though it wasn't a huge "zombie" book. I only wish it had been longer.

4 people found this helpful

Military / Service may Enjoy. Others steer clear.

This book starts out with a good premise- a firefight leads to a capture of a US serviceman,and while he is in detainment, a zombie/supernatural event breaks out. When he escapes, he must first understand the new world and then survive it. This has potential-- ah, if only it were well written.

The main character is really annoying. He has this "better than thou, you lowly civilian" attitude, his consistent swearing is distracting, and his entire character is one dimensional. I kept on thinking of other zombie books I enjoyed, and how the main characters had flaws and humility that made them likeable. Not this guy. He is an alpha military man, and his attitude is seen as the apparent truth in the book. I kept on looking for the breakout moment where he would grow - never happened. I gave up after 4 hours, halfway through. The other characters are one dimensional as well. (The contractors/mercenaries are bad, the female doctor is good, the professor wise, other military survivors are good, the Iraqi is a helpful sidekick).

That being said, military personnel may enjoy this book. The book does use technical descriptions of ammunition types, weapons and fighting stances, which may engage that audience as it did not engage me.

If you're looking for a good Audible zombie book, look somewhere else. I recommend Day by Day Armageddon -great suspense; Rot & Ruin was lighter but a great listen as well.

9 people found this helpful

Great Zombie Book!!

The narrator did a good job with this book.And the writer did a good job describing the creatures. It's not your ordinary Zombie book. But its a good read/listen.

2 people found this helpful

Brilliantly written and narrated

The real story starts off slowly and builds up the suspense.
It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and subject to interpretation by the reader. And that is good.
Tightly written and narrated with the intent of author.

the cinematography

but the villain was a little over the top. naaa, but really.. great story.. but Leathers didn't save the nerd or the hot chick.. closer to reality.. except for the main groups of antagonists.

Baby

Overall the story was engaging. I was annoyed by all the chapters that didn't seem necessary. I pictured Caprain Leathers more as a sergeant then a Captain and the story ended with the a similar rank disappointment. That is to say, there was no ending.  The imaginative demonic creatures animated by the ethereal green mist lacked the same substance as the story came to end of book one. I will likely shine the light on book two.

2 people found this helpful