This Shattered Land

By: James N. Cook

Narrated by: Guy Williams

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

Eric Riordan doesn't look for trouble, but trouble has a way of finding him. Two years have passed since the Outbreak, and after joining forces with his friend Gabriel, he has managed to stay alive by fleeing to the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains.

With supplies running low, and enemies gathering, the two survivors are forced to begin their journey west to Colorado. Along the way they will find unexpected allies, reunite with old friends, and make deadly new enemies. As difficult as life has been, the most dangerous times lie ahead. Nothing is ever easy at the end of the world.

©2012 James N Cook (P)2013 James N Cook

The Thing About Zombies and Physics

Would you consider the audio edition of This Shattered Land to be better than the print version?

Yes, the narrator does a splendid job. The story flows well enough that the listener stays engaged.

What does Guy Williams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Absolutly

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

There is a general problem with most zombie, walking dead, infected or whatever, stories. The laws of physics are such that the energy expended by the creatures has to come from somewhere. If it is from what they can catch and eat, then when their hunting stops showing results, they will weaken and be unable to hunt. They will run out of energy unless they can consume whatever mass their bodies retain to provide energy for movement. Even so, they are on the wrong side of the energy curve. Factor in the ravages from maggots/flies, they will run out of juice and cease to be able to move. There is no way that zombies are not on their own doomsday clock. This rarely comes up in this genre and does not in this series. Other than that, this is a great series.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great Book!!!

Any additional comments?

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters or Eric and Gabriel and their struggles. I hope there are more to come.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great follow up to "No Easy Hope"

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this follow up to "No Easy Hope." I got more about the character Gabe, which I had wanted. So far this series has a good and gritty realism with a good understanding of human nature, both the highs and the lows. Really enjoyable!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

pretty good 2nd book

Any additional comments?

this shattered land picks up 2 years after the end of the 1st book. eric and gabe have been holed up at eric's grandmother's cabin in the mountains. they both begin to realize that they want more than just surviving. they decide to head to colorado springs, where what's left of the u.s. gov't has established a safe zone.

while hunting in one of the valleys around their cabin, eric and gabe discover a small family: tom, sara, and their 12 year old son, brian. the first half of the story deals with eric and gabe meeting and getting to know this family and getting prepared to leave their safe place for the wild journey to colorado. but before they can leave, they decide to venture into one of the nearby towns for supplies and items that might have a trade value. there are a few zombie battles in the first half of the story, but the survivors quickly learn their trickiest and deadliest enemy may be other survivors. those who have managed to survive have learned how to use zombies as weapons.

the second half of the story revolves around the journey to colorado. on their way there, they meet another survivor who deepens the mystery behind the red phage that turns humans into zombies. the group also learns the hard way that there are other groups vying for power with what's left of the u.s. gov't, in particular, the legion.

an old friend comes to the rescue during a deadly battle and leads the remaining wounded survivors to a safe zone. however, the safe zone has its own problems, and eric and gabe have some big decisions to make.

in this story, there is a transition between what's dangerous. initially, the zombies are the threat, but as the story progresses, other groups of survivors become the primary threat. i imagine this is believable b/c i believe this would be the natural progression in a zombie apocylapse, especially b/c there are no "special" zombies a la day by day armageddon.

it seems as if the story is also transitioning from a zombie survival story to more of a survival and re-building society story, which is kind of different than most of the z-stories i've listened to lately.

overall, i liked it. if you listened to the first book and liked it, you'll probably like this continuation. NOTE: i'm a zombie enthusiast and listen to a lot of z-books and really like series. so if you're like me and exhausted a bunch of other z-books, try this. it's pretty good. there are some problems/weaknesses, but i can easily say i was entertained. to me, it was worth a credit, but i go through credits easy. LOL

i guess my biggest complaint is still the narrator. while his male voices are ok, his female voices are just awful. it did detract a little from the story.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Cooks the bomb

I just found this guys work. It is a really fun and gripping saga. Love finding new talented authors!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Incomplete book

I got into the first in the series and liked it. The two main characters, Eric and Gabe are designed as almost super heroes. They know how to do everything, make obvious suggestions that no one else managed to think of, with near unlimited resources, and manage to instantly attract any single female they come into contact with. They are completely unrealistic, and it kind of ruins the suspension of disbelief. It is clear that Cook wrote these two guys how he fantasized about himself. However, still a decent story.

The second story is much the same as the first, super heroes, take out massive hordes of zombies, marauders, etc. However, this book kind of ends abruptly, as in I was listening to it, heard the "Audible hopes you enjoyed this program." and said "WTF" out loud to myself. There was no real climax, no real goal accomplished, nothing. The author was building into it and I thought we were getting to the turning point of the story, and then it stopped. Clearly this author has a lot to learn about the fundamentals of writing non-fiction. Like each story should have a point.

The gist of this book is that the characters left their mountain retreat/fortress, met some people along the way, landed in a town, and NEXT book they will do something worthwhile...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Narrator redeemed himself

Any additional comments?

The only complaint I had about the first book was the narrator. He redeemed himself, no more surfer dudes and valley girl voices.

As some others pointed out there was a survival guide feel to it, lots of info on weapons proper preps, and human dynamics.

Although it is not non-stop gore, it is still a zombie story. More information comes to light regarding the outbreak, and you get to hear the story from both Gabe and Erics points of view.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Don't hesitate buy it great narrator

looking forward to the next book.
one of the best audio book series out there.
put me to bed many nights

Better than the first

Any additional comments?

Usually, I always find the first books of an apocalyptic story the best because they deal with the fall of man kind. But James Cook too it to another level this time and I really enjoyed it.

Decent follow up

What did you like best about this story?

Consistency. The author for this series has managed to achieve what only a few other authors have: consistency. He introduced some new characters and did so with good timing and allowed their stories to develop.

Have you listened to any of Guy Williams’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, but only for book one of this series. Guy Williams' take on female characters can be... interesting, but I've listen to far worse performances.

Any additional comments?

I enjoy this series. Not quite as good as Arisen when it comes down to the 'zombie post apocalyptic' genre, but then again, the too series are vastly different in story and content.

Mates have eachothers backs against the Zombies.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you Read the first book and liked it. Then the story just gets even better.

What did you like best about this story?

Gab and Eric working as a team.

Which character – as performed by Guy Williams – was your favourite?

Gab - he has him down cold.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

If you can kill one Zombie, you can kill a legion.

Any additional comments?

Loved every minute of it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Brilliant story and narration

For the last 10 months I have been listen to the Survivalist Series on Graphic Audio and had got quite used to having a cast and sound effects. So when I first start listening to the Surviving the Dead series it took a little while to adjust to one story narrator.

I am really into this series it is rare that I will fill any time but dead time ( driving etc) listening to audio books but after getting a little way into this series I find myself finding time to listen, was up till 2am the other night!

I don't really have any dislikes, the story pace and content suites me fine and one of the things I am really enjoying is the way it flicks viewpoint from Gabe to Eric, 'The diary of Gabriel Garret' neat!

If you like this series then I would recommend the A. American series starting with Going Home also good listening!