Dead Moon

Publisher's Summary

Audible number-one best seller Peter Clines returns with a thrilling tale of the creature above - and the deadly threat below. 

In the year 2243, the Moon belongs to the dead. 

The largest graveyard in the solar system, it was the perfect solution to the overcrowding and environmental problems that had plagued mankind for centuries. And the perfect place for Cali Washington to run away from her past. 

But when a mysterious meteor crashes into one of the Moon’s cemeteries, Cali and her fellow Caretakers find themselves surrounded by a terrifying enemy force that outnumbers them more than a thousand to one. An enemy not hindered by the lack of air or warmth or sustenance. 

An enemy that is already dead. 

Now Cali and her compatriots must fight to survive. Because if they don’t, everyone on the Moon may be joining the dead. 

And maybe everyone on Earth, too....

©2019 Peter Clines (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

Critic Reviews

"Narrator Ray Porter actually catches a break with this gruesome science-fiction audiobook. Much of this thriller's cast is composed of thousands of silent zombies, so Porter doesn't have to differentiate much among them.... But he still shines while bringing to life multinational characters, ably employing distinctive accents and timbres. He really ramps up the tension as a dwindling handful of survivors struggles to save humankind from a chilling threat." (AudioFile Magazine)

This has nothing to do with Fold and 14

This has to be among the worst books that I've ever finished. That is not to say it is a terrible novel, but it is clearly unfinished, rushed with nigh a character that you care about.

I've read the other THREE books in the series (I have no idea how Paradox Unbound is not included in this) , and outside of the author, you can barely see any resemblance. The other three books deal with parelell universes and strange scientific occurrences, Those books were brimming with science.

This book is not a science fiction novel. It is a horror novel, a zombie novel with hints of Ctuhulu. Despite the strong opening that introduces to us a mysterious outsider, this interesting premise is soon abandoned for your run of the mill zombie movie tropes. The moon offers a dull and uninteresting backdrop and there isn't enough else going on in the book to distract from the absurd premise of burying bodies on the moon. The book prods on. The solution that "saves" the day literally is brought up about 3/4 of the way into hte book but the ending drags on so much that by the time you reach the end you are begging for all of the generic protagonists to be killed. Instead, the only people who are killed are those who are very stupid and very much no longer a plot device. Most characters make asinine decisions during the book that no one would make in such a crisis. For instance, an important item is carelessly left lying about. In another scene the 'greedy (que cartoonish handclasp) bad guy is completely unphased by the all out zombie attack and just wants to make some extra money. In another scene, the career-minded politician refuses to warn anyone because she doesn't want to lose her job.

49 of 50 people found this review helpful

Why did you do this? Just why?

I had this pre-ordered and was excited the new Threshold series book was coming. LOVED the first two and eagerly started this as soon as it hit my library. Sad to report I couldn’t be more disappointed. I’m not even sure that’s the word. I’m shocked at how bad this is. Remember those fun and well thought out sci-fi plots with great characters you really got attached to? Remember how there was some attention paid to science? Forget all that. That’s old news. You know what the people want these days?

Space. Zombies. I wish it were a joke. It’s almost as if they tried to have AI write this and it decided to just copy paste from every possible cliche zombie book with one dimensional characters. Don’t worry. This is different because......they’re on the moon! The entire premise makes zero sense and there’s no attemp to explain any of it. At all. And there is no one or anything to care about in this stupid story. The characters aren’t developed and the “main” characters actions I could predict enough so that I was skipping through chapters just trying to find something interesting. Hours and hours of just, running from zombies, or not believing there’s zombies and then running from zombies. The only characters that made sense are the ones who kept saying “This is madness”. Yes it is.

I can’t review this without mentioning the female lead. It truly makes me question how this book happened. *Spoiler - I guess. Seems silly to call it a spoiler since there’s whole threads on reddit about this female trope. Picture this: Mysterious and attractive 25 year old who has secrets. Her intro starts with her jumpsuit being too darn tight in the hips and chest and repeatedly has to “adjust the crotch” much to the delight of males around her. How do we know? Because it’s mentioned often. What’s she hiding? Running from her secret past as a drug dealer? No. Victim of abuse? No. Death of someone close to her? No. Witness Protection? Nope. She’s a failed ballerina. That’s right. And she just has to turn down those modeling gigs because darn it she’s more than her beautiful and flexible body!! Which is also mentioned multiple times. This. Is. Real. This is a thing written, edited and packaged for fans of the Threshold series*

My god why have you done this to your fans? Why did you put this into the world? I tried to listen to the end and can’t do it. It’s that bad. I have less than 90 minutes and can’t. I have over 500 books in my Audible library and I can only think of a handful of times I couldn’t make myself finish. I’m sad to say this is one. Bring back this series please. This cannot count. We can all pretend this never happened.

214 of 224 people found this review helpful

Just not as good and doesn't fit

Just wasn't that good and doesn't make sense with the rest of the universe he built. Just seems slapped together and someone that just wanted to write a zombie book set on the moon for fun. The concept wasn't that that interesting and go old very fast. Felt like it had a lot of plot holes someone tried to fix after the fact and just didn't do a great job of it.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Doesn't make a lot of sense, really annoying..

Was so excited for this book, but it's really hard to get past the constant overly complex made up scenerios. It's space travel and they don't have coms? Or space suit repairs? Really?

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Not my favourite

I really wanted to love this, but I found it extremely slow to get going and without the two most important things I expect from a Peter Clines novel - awesome characters/character interactions, and twists.

I felt that the characterization was too little and much too late. I didn't have any reason at all to care about any of the characters until about 2/3 of the way into the book. By then, I would have already returned it, if it wasn't a Threshold book, to be honest.

The first 2/3 of the book is a very linear, standard story without surprises of any kind. It just wasn't very interesting, especially without strong characterization to carry the story along. There weren't any of the cool mysteries like the green roaches or blacklight fixture of "14", to pique my interest and make me wonder what was around the corner.

Don't get me wrong - there are some really cool scenes, and the Big Bad when it finally appears, really delivers! I feel like this book would have worked WAY better as a novella that omitted most of the first part of the story. I just didn't feel the moon zombies really added anything. Which is too bad because I thought the concept of moon zombies was pretty exciting :P

Still looking forward to the next book... just hoping it will be a little more like 14 and The Fold as far as pacing/characterization!

55 of 59 people found this review helpful

I'm clearly not the the only one disappointed...

I loved 14, I've listened to it a handful of times. I loved The Fold, it did an excellent job of building that lurking fear of the unknown.
I slogged through the "Ex" zombie books hoping to find some of the same intensity, but the zombie genre is so saturated that only the most well written and unique stories manage to hold their own.
I always assumed Clines wrote the "Ex" books because he could fire them out at a rapid pace and earn a steady paycheck. I figured he wrote them while he was brainstorming the good stuff like 14 and The Fold.
I listened to the first 9 hours of Dead Moon in a state suspended disbelief: "It can't just be zombies on the moon".
It is.
It's zombies on the moon.
Sure, there's a tiny bit of the same Space-Whale-Alpha-Predator story in the very end, but it's not worth getting there.

Silver Lining: Ray Porter remains an incredible narrator. Thank you Ray, for breathing life in to this husk of a story.

63 of 68 people found this review helpful

How can you call it Threshold series?

If you enjoyed 14 and the Fold (which I loved) and expected anything similar, then you will be disappointed. This has nothing to do with other two. This is basically zombie/alien outbreak on the moon in future. No reverence to Kavach, characters form other books etc. To the very end I was expecting some connection or plot twist that would put it with 14 and the fold in Threshold series. I like Peter Clines' writing style and Ray Porter is one of my favourite narrators. It simply was not on par with other books. First half was extremely linear and it was hard to keep focused. I also had feeling that Ray Porter forces himself to read throug it due to some loyality to the author. Even if I wouldn't have such high hopes for this book I couldn't give it more stars for the story.

38 of 41 people found this review helpful

Plot 100% driven by Pure Idiot Ball

I loved 14. I loved the Fold. I absolutely hated this one. My problem is that the entire story is entirely driven completely by pure undiluted idiocy of massive and unbelievable levels. Almost every single character behaves in the most ridiculously over the top lobotomized way possible (esp the 'Mayor')- and it's entirely what drives the plot and story. I could believe a character or two could be this dumb or just react poorly to the stress of the situation, but pretty much everyone on the moon seems to have been hit by a cosmic ray of mental enfeeblement. It strained my credulity to the breaking point and beyond. Just left me frustrated and angry.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

No, just no

It's a bad zombie story. I hate to do it as I love Mr, Clines previous works, but this ain't the one to start with if you've never read him. I like zombie stories. I've read many, and can say this one is bad with some authority. Don't do it.

25 of 27 people found this review helpful

Dead Book

So glad to pop in here to see if it was me or not and find out it's not!

I generally love Peter Clines but even Ray Porter seems to read this book meh.

I've got about 2 1/4 hours left and I'm not sure if I'll finish.

I don't usually read reviews while I'm actually reading the book but as I said I wondered whether it was me struggling or whether anyone else was too.

It doesn't really give me any satisfaction to know I wasn't the only one mugged

40 of 44 people found this review helpful

Danger! There be Monsters Here!

Those of us that were drawn into the first book of this series, 14, who were intrigued by the quirky character mystery and the quite outlandish fantasia ending will have been awaiting the followups with considerable anticipation. But my, we have come a long way from there to get here. It's not just that Clines has taken us to the moon but that he's basically delivered a zombie-horror show that is so far removed from that odd tower block we started from we might as well, well be on the moon. This can easily be read as a standalone novel without losing anything.

Those who like a good zombie horror will likely enjoy this as I did. The added dimension that space brings really adds something to the mix. There's plenty of action, tension and hard-edged horror to get stuck into. Those looking for another installment like the first book could well be disappointed.

So, enter at your peril. There really are monsters here!

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

A missed opportunity

Such a wasted opportunity to bring back the characters we know and loved from the first two in the series. The mystery and intrigue departs as we find ourselves instead in the midst of a zombie horror story set on the moon. The events of the first two books were bizarre and outlandish but relatable context and colourful characters kept the reader curious and hungry. It didn't matter how unbelievable it was because it was happening and you were there. Unfortunately this time the context is gone, the characters feel flat and uninspiring and the whole story just doesn't feel believable, even after 14 and the fold. Events unfold as they do in zombie horror books and if that it what floats your boat then I'm sure you'll love it. For me, threshold aside, this just didn't even feel like I was reading Peter Clines.

I pre ordered this one as I was desperate for the next installment of the threshold series but this just wasn't it. Hopefully there will be another and we can just put this one behind us.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful

Didn't really cross the threshold.

Whilst The Fold and 14 were fun and sometimes terrifying puzzle boxes that unfolded slowly, Dead Moon felt more like another in the "ex heroes" franchise. Just like in ex heroes we are treated to pages of detailed zombie takedown narrative with little tension built and (presumably redshirted) characters dying who we don't really care about. Compare to the hapless marines in The Fold, tricked into fighting in the basement. I really was rooting for them and when they were slaughtered I felt really hurt about it. All the characters who died in "Dead Moon" mostly died from incompetance and a failure to heed basic Zombie lore. Finally when we meet the antagonist of the plot the monster is too easily overcome in a way that felt derivative of the Alien franchise. A pity because I'd been waiting a long time for another in the threshold series. I hope another comes along and Clines thinks carefully about what made the first two books such good material. Please! No More Zombies.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

As if a different writer

Loved the first 2 so was exited for the 3rd story, it was not a follow on or linked in any way. Lumbering confusing scenarios and no real depth as in the first two books, really can’t believe the same person wrote it.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great book

Really enjoyable listen, another great book from Peter Clines! Can't wait to read more in the future!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Superb. Quick paced cthulhuesque terror.

what's not to love about dead moon? Peter clines delivers another fast-paced character driven horror. masterful twists and chilling climaxes that will take your breath away just like losing pressure in a space suit.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

dissapointing

this book was disappointing in comparison to the first 2 books of this series, the narrator was excellent but the story just didn't have me hooked.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

ok

good story and interesting take on zombie genre. I have really enjoyed peters other stories but found this one less engaging due to lack of character consistently, you don't really get to know the characters untill very near the end. worth a read but it's no 14

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Definitely not clines best work....

Firstly, Ray Porter is his usual great self.... but even he can’t save this one.

The story’s all over , the characters are forgettable, the things that happen, from the plot to the characters actions, make no sense and just leave you feeling frustrated and annoyed.
Such a disappointment, this is one to miss I think, it’s a below par zombie book.... a real struggle to get through!

Bad Form !

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

zombies on the moon

this is a zombies on the moon book.
wait for the film, that it is so obviously designed for.
there is nothing in it to link it to the rest of the threshold series.