Elements of the Undead

Books One - Three

By: William Esmont

Narrated by: Stephanie Bentley

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

For a while, it seemed as if the good times would never end, that mankind had truly become masters of our own universe, gods in our own right.

Little did we know, our time was almost up.

No one knows where it started. No one knows why. By the time the scientists figured out what was happening, it was already too late. Most of humanity perished in the first few weeks, stricken down by a fast-moving infection, only to rise up as a zombie with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Millions burned to ash when the military rained fire on the cities in a futile effort to halt the contagion. Millions more simply lay down and gave up, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to exist in a world no longer fit for human occupancy.

Despite all the death and destruction, there were survivors, brave men and women who stared into the face of annihilation and chose instead, to live. Together, they set about to rebuild civilization, to create something new and permanent out of the ruins of what came before.

This is their story...

This omnibus combines the three Elements of the Undead books in a single volume.

©2012 William Esmont (P)2013 William Esmont

great

good book. recommended reading . going to m look fot mo% of her books. .

OK zombie story

Tufo he is not BUT it isn't horrible either. I don't feel the need to return it. It needs a little more zombie action/fighting. It is mostly about the humans & their struggles/relationships. The characters are likable & their actions believable. No dumb blonds (I'm blond I can say that) going up to a zombie asking if they need some lipstick! So So story, nothing special. Narrator did a really good job. Bottom line, if out of zombie books to listen to buy it. If one of your favorites is coming out in a day or two - save your credit it for it!

started strong but left me seriously disappointed

How could the performance have been better?

almost all of the characters are male. why would you use a female narrator to narrate an almost all male cast? her female voices were ok, but her male voices were horrendous, laughingly bad, especially the teenage boys! omg, they sounded like my dogs' squeaky toy!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Elements of the Undead?

cut? cut? cut? i would ADD lots of scenes, seems like the editor cut the best scenes!

Any additional comments?

book 1 starts off pretty good. it introduces a lot of characters in diverse situations.

megan is a prostitute who works in a brothel outside of las vegas. after her last client, her manager informs her there's some serious virus going around making people sick. they flip on the tv to see the cities imploding from seemingly rabid people attacking each other.

kevin is just waking up as his plane lands in boise, idaho. he's been travelling the last 20+ to get home. all he wants to do is get to his motorcycle and go home. however, as he jostles his way up the tunnel into the terminal, he hears screaming and passengers start running back down the departing tunnel.

alicia and brittany are finishing up their day as cashiers when something grisly happens in the parking lot.

mike pringle is flying across the u.s. when one of the stewardess calls him on his pilot's phone, reporting a really sick passenger. soon, nobody is responding and there is a banging on the cockpit door.

jack and sara are having a hard time digging a koi fish pond as a surprise birthday present for their twin daughters when jack's mother calls and tells him that something is wrong.

cesar is part of a group of illegal aliens crossing from mexico into texas. when they run into someone strange, they think the person must be half-dead from the heat.

betty hollister is the first female submarine captain. as she prepares her crew for exercises in the pacific ocean, she receives an alarming eam (emergency action alert) ordering her to release her nuclear weapons.

like i said, book 1 starts off pretty good. i liked the diverse cast of characters, and how they reacted to their different situations.

HOWEVER just as i was wondering how each of them were going to escape their precarious situation, there's a 3 month time skip! can you say blue balls? sorry ladies! lol

some of them have found their way to competing compounds. one compound has most of the characters i've mentioned, and the other compound is filled with who's left from captain betty hollister's sub. some how, they've ended up in texas. they've abandoned their military professionalism and become sex-crazed and drug-crazed, especially the captain, who routinely wears out all the young male stragglers her group picks up. i know the author was trying to create the "bad" group, but it is an utter failure. totally unbelievable!

then just as tensions start to build...book 1 ends, and book 2 starts! book 2 is a short story with new characters. as a standalone story, it's ok. chris goes to the hospital to see how his brother, dave, is doing. dave got into an acident driving his motorcycle. while chris is visiting dave, the hospital is overrun by the infected.

book 3 then picks up 3 years later. megan and jack are reconning a canyon with another new character, archie, looking for a good source of water when they notice a massive zombie hoard.

three more new characters are introduced- ryan, paige, and luke. they are a family who've been holed up in a bomb shelter for 3 years. they and another family have adjoining bomb shelters. ryan notices the hoard coming, and he and his neighbor try to plan what to do- to fight or flee.

there is no mention whatsoever of what happened to captain betty hollister and the "bad" group. there is no mention of why the zombies are acting differently.

i imagine there'll be more books forthcoming b/c of the lack of closure and a subtle hint at the end of book 3 when 2 characters are kissing, and one of them gets a funny taste in her mouth.

this omnibus started out strong but went downhill. some of the characters i liked in the beginning become unwitting victims of the author's lack of imagination. there was a lot of potential, but it was wasted. i'd fire the editor.

B Movie Horror at best

This is horrible, the narrator is mechanic, the storyline was okay until separated appendages began moving independently. No longer worth putting up with the robotic narration