Driver 5

By: Ray W. Clark

Narrated by: Larry Lang

Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sucked into another dimension by a Shelby GT 500 KR, Driver 5 finds himself in the middle of a cornfield that should have been a city. A black-clad girl is running for her life from a nightmare on foot. There's thousands of zombies. She directs him to the base, the underground complex housing thousands of people. It's there that he finds himself the only hope of not only these people but the entire world.

At the end of World War II, Hitler pulled off a sneak attack that we didn't see coming. Thousands of A-bombs fell across the West, causing everything west of the Mississippi River to fall into the ocean. Japan was swallowed into the sea, as was most of China. But that wasn't the worst of the Nazi treachery. They released a chemical agent that turned the rest of the population of the United States into zombielike creatures. Unlike the zombies in the movies, they do not kill for food - they just kill.

In the base, they fit Driver 5 with a suit that employs nanotechnology, making his synapses and muscles fire at a superhuman rate. It's also hardwired to his brain. The car is upgraded and responds only to his suit. Navigation and ammo specially made to kill only dead flesh are uploaded to the computers and the ammo pack on the suit back, respectively. They give him the tools, a nanotech enhanced suit, and slight modifications to his car to drive from Indianapolis to Detroit. He doesn't have a chance in hell.

The girl becomes his navigator and will call him only Driver 5 because of the short life spans of the drivers. They had a machine that went into other dimensions to recruit drivers, and only one has even come close. And he is someone they do not want to see up close. Half human, half demon, he hunts drivers to protect his master, Hitler, in Briggs (Tigers) stadium in Detroit.

Ride with Driver 5 as he battles his way through zombies and meets new friends along the way to the ultimate goal.

©2012 Ray Clark (P)2016 Ray Clark

Zombies, demon Hitler, and nanotech!

The man who will be known as Driver 5 for the entire book is offered a sweet fast car by an odd old man. He jumps at the chance and takes it for joy ride but soon finds himself in the midst of a zombie-filled land. Luckily, he runs into Leah pretty quickly and she gives him the basics and directs him to a safe place. This underground complex houses most of the remaining humans in the area and they have been fighting an ongoing mission to take out a half-demon half-human Hitler who has set up base in Detroit. Yeah, I know. This isn’t a deep work but it a lot of fun. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you my pet peeve with this story and then we can get to all the good fun stuff. First, there is only one female character, Leah, and she is a woman, not a girl. Additionally, 5ft 9in is NOT short. Just setting the record straight there Driver 5!

So Driver 5 has been sucked in to this alternate timeline where Hitler did a sneaky and deadly attack at the end of WWII which sunk much of the western USA and Japan and part of China, and created these zombies. He then dabbled in some occult stuff, became part demon, and moved his center of operations to Detroit. Ha! I was just snort laughing throughout this book in entertainment – some of the stuff is just so far over the top I had to laugh along with plot.

At the underground complex, Driver 5 (no one wants to know who he really is or what he’s like because these drivers don’t have a long life expectancy) gets gussied up for the quest. He gets some cool nanotech that heightens his reflexes and lets his car recognize him as the sole driver and it connects him to his weapons as well. The car gets well stocked for the crazy drive from Indianapolis to Detroit. Leah gets to be his copilot. Now why folks of this history line don’t drive yet have the tech to send people to hunt down drivers in alternate histories is a little odd, but hey, we’re hear for the crazy Thunderdome ride experience, right?

And, indeed, it is a crazy, crazy road trip. Leah does a good job keeping Driver 5 alive and he eventually gets up to speed and starts doing his fair share of zombie killing. Eventually, Leah becomes Driver 5’s romantic interest and she’s a full grown woman who can make up her own mind about him. When they get to Detroit, their intel says demon Hitler is set up in a sports stadium and is well defended. Yes, the ending was a full on action flick.

In short, I could totally pick apart the plot. There’s a lot things that won’t hold up under even light scrutiny. But honestly, that’s not why I listened to it. I read that book blurb. I knew going into it that this was not a book to take seriously. Yet I still enjoyed the hell out of it. So, yes, go pick up a copy, enjoy it, revel in zombie killing while driving a fast car with a weapons-competent leather-clad woman at your side.

I received this book free of charge from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: The narration started off rough. Larry Lang sounded muffled at first and some of his sound effects drowned out the narration. But things did get better. By the end, he has a good balance of sound effects and his narration doesn’t sound so muffled. Leah always sounded like a woman and the male characters all sounded distinct.

Driver 5

Would you consider the audio edition of Driver 5 to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version. I have only listened to the audio version.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Driver 5?

The battle at the end with Driver 77 attempting to smash through Driver 5's car. Very visual.

What about Larry Lang’s performance did you like?

He was able to provide consistent various voices for the various characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I like it because it was an adventure that we all wish we could go on while we are at work daydreaming. You just want to be swept into a new situation and be given the chance to do something extreme and heroic.