Fall of Night

Dead of Night, Book 2

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

Stebbins Little School is full of bodies. It's unthinkable to Desdemona Fox. Children are sobbing as panicked teachers and neighbors beat down their family members outside of the school - or the things that used to be their family members. Parents don't eat their children do they?

Officers Fox and Hammond, along with journalist Billy Trout, are calling it the beginning of the end. This is the zombie apocalypse. An insane escaped serial killer is infecting Stebbins County with a deadly virus, and now the whole world is watching while Fox, Trout, and the remaining inhabitants of Stebbins fight for their life against - what? The undead?

The President and the National Guard are ready to nuke Stebbins, PA off the map and cut their losses. But the infection is spreading and fast. Worse, the scientist who created the virus is missing. It's a numbers game as the body count rises; Fox has to contain the infected and evacuate the living before it's too late, and the clock is ticking.

Fall of Night, Maberry's nail-biting sequel to Dead of Night, picks up where the first novel left off - on a wild goose chase for a madman and the missing scientist who gave him new "un"-life. Chilling, gory, and hair-raisingly scary, Maberry fans won't be able to read this fast-paced thriller with the lights off.

©2014 Jonathan Maberry (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Well written and read!

What did you love best about Fall of Night?

Probably the split and individual attention given to both the main characters and non main characters and their reactions and stories to the zombies.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fall of Night?

I won't say, but Maberry does any amazing job doing something few writers can these days without it being a "jump the shark" moment. If you have read a lot, or all, of Maberry's books and know many of his CHARACTERS, you'll know what I mean.

What about William Dufris’s performance did you like?

I was a little hesitant when Dead of Night came out. I actually had a chance to meet Maberry in Doylestown PA on Holloween at a book signing for its release. First off he is such a pleasant guy and very fan friendly. He told me that the guy who did the voice for Bob the Builder was reading it. I was so used to hearing Ray Porter's voice, but after a while, Williams voice grew on me and I really enjoyed both books. William, in my opinion, really excelled at both his transition of unique voices, and his passionate expression of stress and fright of both male and female characters. In a horror/suspense novel, getting a listener to really feel stress and anxiety is not easy, so kudos.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I'll get back to you ok that

Any additional comments?

This was one of Maberry's better books of late. I will never get tired of his Joe Ledger series, and while zombie fiction seems to never want to die (ha ha), Maberry does a fresh job with this book. Not only with what his version of zombies really mean, but adds these unique side stories that all tie into one and other in a very nicely done way that is never stale. And, to be honest, I was caught off guard by the ending and the surprises that were thrown in there. I won't spoil anything but I thought it was very well done and does the fans a huge service. Hopefully, there will be a third book in this series that, given the way this one ended, will have a lot of Maberry fans "chomping at the bit" to get to the end. Come on, who can help but make puns like that.

Simply Ear Candy

Being the Jonathan Maberry fan that I have turned into over the years and even though I didn't like William Dufris' past performance, I had to give this a listen. I really have no excuse, other than craving an amazingly well thought out zombie story to escape to for many hours.

First let me say thank you Mr. Maberry, thank you for intertwining all of your series into one extra long tale. And thank you for giving me yet another series to listen to, especially the Benny Imura series.

Fall of Night picks up almost immediately where Dead of Night left off. All of the characters that we started to love or hate in the previous story are still here. Yet introducing some fairly important new ones. Such as Benny Imura's father.

This is a pretty standard and self explanatory runs from the zombies type of story. Here is the golden jewel. The parts told from the perspective of those that are turning into zombie are nothing less than ear candy. Totally creeped me out each and every time. I had always wondered what one was thinking about turning this gruesome transition.

Sorry, no summary here. But if you want to be completely transported to life in the zombie apocalypse. To be surrounded by interesting characters. To follow the escapade of a truly evil villain that is neither human nor zombie. A great telling of a series that is a prequel to another series. You get all of that here.

Everything that I didn't like about William Dufris' performance in book 1 was not present at all in this book 2. Unless my taste has changed dramatically over the past 2 years.

I couldn't find any unnecessary over acting, over emphasizing, or anything annoying at all. Trust me I wanted to so I could say, "See I told you so...", but this just goes to show that a narrator that I once didn't like can become a favorite. Never ever judge an audiobook by its narrator, difficult I know, but just don't.

Audiobook purchased for review by the reviewer.

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Now I have PABD

Read/Listened for Fun (Paperback/Audible)
Overall Rating: 5.00
Story Rating: 5.00
Character Rating: 5.00

Audio Rating: 4.50 (not part of the overall rating)

First Thought when Finished: Fall of Night by Jonathan Maberry has given me PABD (Post Awesome Book Depression)!

Story Thoughts: You know when a book just has you on edge THE ENTIRE TIME? Well that is me with this series. Even though I ultimately know where it is going because I have read most of the Rot and Ruin series. The path is still emotionally gutting. From seeing characters that I have heard about in the other series (Ledger and Imura) to the characters I already cared about from Dead of Night, I just care about everything they go through. This story made me cheer, cry, and cuss Jonathan Maberry just a little bit. When the last minute ticked away, I pretty much just sat there thinking: I am just not sure what I can follow this up with!

Character Thoughts: These aren't your typical "lovable" characters but dammit I loved all of them. I just wanted to find them a safe place to go. I loved their passion, stamina, and will to live. I loved the chances that they took. The people that they mourned (because it is a zombie book y'all--people die). The love that they still managed to have! I particularly loved all their batshit crazy moments--though Dez just gotta say that taking a bath in steak sauce is not on my Zombie Apocalypse plan *snort*. Each character was unique and brilliantly written.

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated by: William Dufris /Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins


Holy crap William Dufris was excellent. This makes me want to go back and listen to the first one which I originally read. His pacing, accents, emotion, and urgency were just the right pace for this story. I will definitely listen to him again in the future!

Final Thoughts: PABD--I will try to fight through!

NOTE: PABD was stolen (with permission) from Tara from 25 Hour Books. It stands for Post Awesome Book Depression when you are just not sure what to read after because this book was so awesome. I will soldier through but I am going to completely change genres. It is the only solution!

good narration , bad story

same zombie story we've heard a thousand times before. narrator was pretty good though. I skipped first book due to bad reviews and wont continue after this one. Still like the Joe Ledger series though!

Loved the narrator!

I hated the narration in the first book but in this one Mr. Dufris rock!!

Mayberry working his magic.

Prequel to the riveting Benny Imura series. This book does a beautiful job setting up the world to come. The characters and story are what you would expect from Maberry. I wish there was more.

Great story, hilarious narrator

I loved the story and can't wait for the next one. William Dufris narration is hilariously over the top though.

Fills in a lot of gaps

Would you listen to Fall of Night again? Why?

Good narration and a lot of depth and action to the story.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the fact that it introduced new characters that helped close the gaps in many other books by the author. Captain Ledger is mentioned as are Tom Imura and Charley Pink Eye. It confirms that all of the stories take place as part of the same infection and in the same "world".

Enjoyable, but slow in parts

The first book was better, IMHO, but ss a sequel, it was nice to have follow up to the Dead of Night story. I would assume, given the ending, there will be a part 3, as well.

This storyline was not as good as the Joe Ledger stories, which are phenomenal (particularly in audio form; Ray Porter's narration is amazing). Much of the content seemed to be filler. Not that it was drab, but there was a lot of repetition of information, told from a different POV. These had the effect of slowing down the story's progression.

I did like how the story wasn't very predictable. Hopefully, there is a 3rd book, as I'd like to know how it ends.

Heart pounding, action from start to finish

I love this book and almost all the characters. Dez Fox is one of those characters that you try to understand and like, but she's too arrogant. I don't like her. I wish she had been taken down a peg. Too bad she's the main character. JT is awesome, relatable, and a real hero, one of my favorites. The author missed the mark, not focusing more on him. This book has so many interesting details, everything that other books in the genre lac. Excitment at every turn. I highly recommend listening and am looking forward to starting the next book.

Horrible characters ruin the book.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Better characters would have helped. The two main characters of Des Fox and Billy Trout are loathsome and weak in that order. There is nothing wrong with a flawed hero, but not when they are only flaws and have nothing to redeem them and make you care if they die. In fact a lot of readers might actually find them rooting for them to die.

Des Fox's bad traits include being borderline alcoholic, anti-social, borderline psychotic, verbally and physically abusive, sexually promiscuous and prone to outbursts of near insanity and any given moment. And yet apparently all this makes her a good cop. I can't think of anyone worse to be a cop. Why anyone in this book would follow her leadership is beyond me. After one crazy act she actually gives a lecture to people on them not doing stupid things and they agree with her. Never wanted a main character to die more than in this book.

Billy is just a weak character. He allows Des to beat on him and verbally abuse him constantly. Only she can engage in positive physical or emotional contact or Billy is likely to get hit. So I found him to weak to enjoy and found the idea of book that is effectively giving the ok to be an enabler to an abusive person a bit poor.

If you’ve listened to books by Jonathan Maberry before, how does this one compare?

Only one and I'd forgotten what I'd thought of the first one of this series. It is just the same as before.

What three words best describe William Dufris’s performance?

This narrator is a tough one. He wanders from good to bad. When he is good he is enjoyable to listen to. The problem is he has this really bad habit of delivering some of the narrative in a hyper-slow, overly dramatic manner. Maybe others won't mind it, but it really grated on me and he does it a lot. Change of pace in your voice is needed to set mood or the situation but show me one actor that would talk this slowly ever and I'll change my mind.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes it did have some redeeming qualities. Some of the plot was good, and I did like some of the characters. Sadly most of the ones I did like didn't make it. There were some amusing points that made me chuckle as well. So some people may enjoy this book more than I did, as it will depend on if they look for the same things I do in a book. If you want characters you care about then this won't be your cup of tea, but if not you may well like it.

Any additional comments?

If this series continues I'd wonder how he will do it, as quite frankly I wouldn't give them a snowballs chance in hell of trying to protect a large group of children without a very secure location. Think they would live longer herding them unprotected into a lion enclosure than on the road in a full scale nationwide zombie apocalypse.