Beyond the Dark

By: Patrick D'Orazio

Narrated by: Jim Cooper

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

The dead have risen, and their hunger for the flesh of the living is insatiable.…

It has been six weeks since the virus engulfed the world. Everyone who was infected died, and then rose again. Governments collapsed, armies fell, and civilizations turned to dust as the human race tore itself to pieces. The living are in danger of becoming extinct.…

Jeff Blaine has witnessed the annihilation of his family and everything that mattered to him. When he steps outside his home for the first time since the world died, he meets Megan, George, and Jason, three other survivors who force him to accept that there may still be a reason to fight and live to see another day. It doesn’t take long for the quartet to stumble into a trap set by a group led by the charismatic Michael. While he promises a safe haven from the undead behind the walls of his makeshift fortress, the loyalty he and his cronies demand may be too high a price for Jeff and the others to pay.

Daylight is fading for humanity.…

When a routine supply run to a nearby town turns deadly and the ghouls walking the street track the living back to their hideout, the mettle of the meager band of survivors will be tested as they are forced to face the onslaught of the undead. Even as they flee, and their world falls deeper into despair, Jeff and the others must find a way to defeat not only the undead, but the hatred that threatens to cripple their souls. Because the only way anyone will survive is if they can find their way beyond the dark.

©2012 Patrick D’Orazio and Permuted Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

great ending to the series

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

yes. the story is short, but full of hold onto your seat action. i couldn't stop listening. i wanted to see how the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks they got outta there!

Any additional comments?

book 3 picks up where book 2 ended- with the group of survivors fleeing the hoard of zombies in an rv. if you listened to book 2 and are hesitant to download book 3, DON'T BE!

book 3 is non-stop action from beginning to end. i won't give away what happens, but there was a satisfying ending for all of the characters, especially george.

so if you made it through book 2, book 3 is worth its price. it's full of fleeing, fighting, chilling scenes of characters dying, settling old scores, and re-uniting with loved ones. oh yeah! and lots of zombies. no character is safe! i like authors who have the gravitas to off a character.

my main caveat is i really wish the author had combined all 3 books into one 1 book, but that's my 2 cents. overall, it was a fun series to listen to.

Not very good...

CONTAINS SPOILERS: Don't read if you haven't read the book.

I listened to the first 2 books and enjoyed them, but this book was simply about crazy Michael and crazy Cindy hunted the main characters through town. There was no real plot unless you consider picking off minor characters one by one to be actual character/plot. I sure don't. Plus too many deaths of children, and descriptions of kid deaths. Yeah I get it. Zombies kill people. I don't need to hear about their bodies being mutilated and children being killed and eaten in gory detail. I know it happens but less detail please. No point in introducing those characters in the first place if you are just going to wax them and go back to the original cast.

Plus, nothing ever happens. They are trapped in town. At the ending they leave the town, nearly the same group that enters.. Part of the fun of a zombie book is getting out and seeing what happened to the world. Being trapped in one place while psycho badies stalk you is rather boring. And plus whats the point of introducing minor characters just to pick them off. You know the main character and his girlfriend won't die, so there really isn't a lot of suspense.

Hated the ending with George. He was a great character. Just never thought him as crazy or suicidal. What a waste of time reading that.

Overall, this series should've been a single book. Broken into 3 parts, the ending felt absurd and more like a bad slasher horror flick.

Not my favorite.

Much Better

This was much better than the previous book, with a faster pace more action and just a better story. No where near as good as the first book though.

The RV they tried to get away in crashes and everybody separates for various reasons and horrible things happen as they try to survive the marauding zombies in the city. I'm not too keen in children in stories because they usually are just a burden and don't help out, and this story is no different. Of course they whimper and cry, attracting the hoard. Didn't mind how things turned out though.

The epilogue with George was just great, think I liked that part more than anything.

A satisfying conclusion, but I will miss Megan and Jeff and wish the author would continue with their story. Preferably minus the children unless they have helpful roles like Jason had in the first book.

I wished and hoped they would all die.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This was not time well spent. By the time I got half way through I was only listening so I could be done with it.

Would you be willing to try another book from Patrick D'Orazio? Why or why not?

Yes. The first two books in this series were pretty good.

Any additional comments?

By the end I wanted every character to die. This may spoil the book for anyone that wants to listen, so be warned. The book picks up at the very end of the second, and from there is just one long slog of being chased and characters trying to reconnect. They action in this book is so no stop that it goes beyond suspension of disbelief into bad action movie fight sequence. This overall made the listen very tedious. It was only stubbornness that made me hear it through to the very end. After I was done I listened to Day by Day Armageddon just so I would not have this book's disappointment stuck in my head.