Domain of the Dead

By: Iain McKinnon

Narrated by: Karl Miller, Iain McKinnon (introduction)

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The world is dead, devoured by a plague of reanimated corpses. In a crumbling city, Sarah, Nathan, and a band of survivors barricade themselves inside a warehouse surrounded by a sea of shambling putrefaction. Days in seclusion blur by, and their food is nearly gone. The group is faced with two possible deaths: creeping starvation, or the undead outside the warehouse.

As Sarah stands on the edge of the warehouse roof preparing to step out into oblivion she spots a glimmer of hope. In the distance a helicopter approaches the city... but is it the salvation the survivors have been waiting for? And do they dare attempt to fight their way through the mass of infected dead to reach it?

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by the author.

©2009 Iain McKinnon (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

exceeded my expectations

Any additional comments?

decent zombie apocylapse story. takes place several years after the outbreak. the story focuses on a group of survivors at a warehouse who see a chopper and escape. half are taken away on the chopper to a research vessel on the ocean while the other half are left in the city, waiting for the chopper to return. from this point on, the story revolves around those survivors taken to the research vessel. the second book, remains of the dead, revolves around the survivors left by the chopper. i'm just starting that book now. so, i obviously liked it enough to pick up the second book after finishing the first. 

i thought domain of the dead was well worth the credit. it is a pure zombie book- no supernatural slant to it. i found it entertaining AND well-written:

"the wind changed abruptly bringing with it the stench of the corpses with it. it was a mixture of fresh dog$h!T and rotting beef. nathan looked down on the foul creatures and involuntarily flared his nostrils against the stench. the reanimated corpses jostled and pushed trying blindly to negotiate their way around the fences that encircled the warehouse. the stronger less damaged less weathered barging their more wretched companions out of the way. it formed an unending conveyor belt of festering corpses."

i actually liked the characters. there are a few civilians and a few military types. i say military types b/c the surviving militaries have grouped up. you get glimpses of why and what has happened to the rest of the world. i found it to be a realistic and believable scenario.

the book has a slow boil. you can see the plot developing and the web forming. you see things happening that the characters don't notice, which does a pretty good job of building suspense until things start to boil over.

overall, i enjoyed the book and am looking forward to listening to the second. More of a story than a pure zombie shoot ‘em up.

An excellent adventure!

Iain McKinnon has painted a masterful picture of a post ZPOC world. His lively and very believeables characters and descriptions bring this raw and gritty adventure to life. This is a must buy for any fan of the undead genre! Great job Iain!

For the Romero purest.

Of the recent zombie books (5/10/11) released by Audible this is the only one that remains Romero pure, if you don't know what that means I wouldn't bother with this title. It's not great storytelling or writing but if you got a zombie itch this will scratch it. Of the 30 or so zombie titles available on Audible this one is middle of the pack.

Great zombie book!

This was a really good listen. I enjoyed the characters, story and narration. The female lines sounded feminine but not transvestite.

The story doesn't spend too much time on the ground, but its pretty much non stop action before they get whisked away on the chopper to the boat which I guess is the special 'angle' of this story. The zombies are otherwise the regular slow and dumb types.

I gave story 4 stars because there are some things which I didn't like too much. Some pieces of plot were a little thin. Like there wasn't much of a plan on the part of the 'survivors'. It seemed darn right foolish (it was) running through zombies all that way. Why didn't they just send some out to make contact and bring help for the rest? And nuking a boat? Talk about over kill. I thought Nathan was a pretty cool character and don't really understand how the conflict with Bates suddenly seemed to happen. The funniest moment was between them in brig - "My left or your left?" "wtf! were facing the same way!"

Then there was the lull with all the explaining about how zombies came about. Ok, that was great, but this book is kinda short! If I had 2 hrs more real story and action, I could forgive this bit of the book. But lulls are needed in stories and then its right back into action again.

Can't wait till I get the second book the Remains of the Dead which is about the people left behind. Its too bad because I prefer series or at least trilogies but from what I read these two books don't cross paths so I won't be reading about Sarah, Bates or Angel again. Maybe there will be a third book to bring these two together?

Anyways, if you love zombie books, don't hesitate, get this.

Leaves it open for a follow up book.

Starts like your "normal" zombie book, however, quickly ventures into an area not explored by most zombie books.

I'd expect to see a follow up book, since this one leaves it open for another.

Good book

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sarah, she's pretty intelligent.

Any additional comments?

Pretty good book! There were some pretty scary moments and heroism. Liked it.

Day of the Dead...at sea.

I wanted to love this, but in the end...I could only almost like it. For one, the plot reminded me too much of "Day of the Dead: by George Romero only set at sea. Some of the plot seemed to almost be torn directly from the movie. Also, when the ship bastion falls, I just had a difficult time buying it. Too much coincidence. Years into this and a few newcomers arrive just as the ship falls to "escaped" zombie specimens.

Overall, just did not grab me with anything new, special, or original. Sorry Mr. McKinnon...I tried.

Hard to classify - Some good stuff, not all.

There were parts of this book I think worked very well: the danger, tension, some clever escapes, and some sad stories. There was also some good science here. I appreciated the author took the time to give us a plausible background for the outbreak.

But overall the book felt like an elongated opening chapter (which, I suppose, it is). It felt like we got to watch the first 20 minutes of a movie, and then the film broke. Yes, I will probably watch the rest of the film when the projecter is fixed, but as a stand-alone work this felt like a 2-act script (FYI: scripts have 3 acts). I liked the civilian characters, but they could have been fleshed out more before they got "fleshed out" (I apologize for that, truly). The military people all seemed to be pretty much the same character. I had issues with some of the other supporting players (I won't spoil anything by being specific) in that they acted like they weren't living in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Maybe there would be people that self-absorbed during such an event, but here is just didn't feel right.

Maybe some more time could have been applied to getting to know these people better. Some inter-character sub-plots would have helped, I think. A lot of potential was present. Mixing those in instead of having zombies be the driver of every story beat would have added depth.

Overall it was a good listen. I hope the next outing will be better.

CERTIFIABLE ZOMBIE BOOK

I thought that the book had everything a Zombie Apocalyptic book needs: heart stopping action, twists, shallow relationships, and gore, nothing was off limits in this book. Yes there are other books that are better but there are also many that are worse. If you are looking for a mind numbing read and are a Zombie fan do not let the negative reviews stop you from listening to Domain of the Dead. The only thing I wish would have been different was a broader description of human kind’s suffering at the beginning of the apocalypse. This would have added to the reasoning behind emotional decisions that were made in the book.

Zombie apocalypse with a cliff-hanger ending.

This book is full of suspense, and plausible characters. I can see myself behaving the way these people do, in a zombie apocalypse. The best thing is, this book does something few zombie apocalypse books do. It gives you tiny glimpses into the zombie's prospective. I hope he fleshes this out in future books. I also hope there is a sequel, because he leaves you with a cliff-hanger. These people are in a life-boat, after the ship they are on gets overrun by zombies. They don't know it, but one of their party is infected with the zombie virus. The last sentence in the book describes how they are all distracted, and the infected member of the party dies, then opens his eyes. Will they get rescued? Whom will this zombie attack? Will anyone survive until the rescue ship comes? We don't know. Come on, Iain, don't keep us in suspense.