Flesh Eaters

By: Joe McKinney

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

They rise... Out of the flooded streets of Houston, they emerge from plague-ridden waters. Dead. Rotting. Hungry. And as human survivors scramble to their rooftops for safety, the zombie hordes circle like sharks. The ultimate killing machines. They feed... Houston is quarantined to halt the spread of the zombie plague. Anyone trying to escape is shot on sight---living and dead. Emergency Ops sergeant Eleanor Norton has her work cut out for her. Salvaging boats and gathering explosives, Eleanor and her team struggle to maintain order. But when civilization finally breaks down, the feeding frenzy begins. They multiply... Biting, gnawing, feasting---but always craving more---the flesh-eaters increase their ranks every hour. With doomsday looming, Eleanor must focus on the people she loves---her husband and daughter---and a band of other survivors adrift in zombie-infested waters. If she can't bring them into the quarantine zone, they're all dead meat.

©2011 Joe McKinney (P)2011 Tantor

Unbelievable!

(mild spoiler warning!)
I've listened to almost all of the zombie novels available here. This book started out as what I thought was going to be the best written among them, going the extra step in character development where the other stories failed to do. The horror depicted with the aftermath of a series of Katrina-like storms was terrifying enough to stand on its own, even without the zombies! The big failing of the story comes when main character, a kind of dumpy middle-aged female patrol officer, in the midst of what is probably a world ending apocalypse, decides to risk the lives of herself and her surviving family members to take on some veteran hardcore seasoned SWAT team members that she believes looted some money from a submerged/ruined bank! There are mountains of drowned dead, disease, starvation, rioting, the cannibalistic zombies are running amok but unbelievably in the midst of this she gets a bee in her bonnet that 'stealing is just wrong!'

She instantly develops a skill set (along with unbelievable strokes of luck time after time) to take on the SWAT team (John McClane would be envious!) and it just really goes downhill from there. The ending was so ludicrous and out of left field that it ruined what was otherwise turning out to be my favorite zombie story from audible. Very disappointing. The narrator could have been a lot better too, because he really has no skill in portraying the female character voices.

23 of 23 people found this review helpful

Mediocre at best

While not the worst zombie story out there, it is also far from the best. Slow and uninspired plot, and boring characters , it's an O.K. waste of a credit and a few hours. I found myself constantly checking the remaining time because I wanted to start something better.

The reader is one of the WORST I have listened to on any audible title. The story itself is a 3 of 5 star. The performance is a 1 of 5. It would have been a MUCH better listen if he would have read in mono tone. I will really avoid getting anything read by this guy again.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Liked the story BUT

I really liked the book; so much so that I've listened to this book twice. However, I don't remember than the narrator irritated me so muc the first time around. But I only noticed the issue when Mr. McLaren tried vocals where the characters were yelling. The narrator made me want to throw my tablet out the window to avoid that horrible vocalization. Yuck!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting twist on the Zombie Theme

First there were slow Zombies (Romero-type), then fast Zombies (9 Weeks Later), and now we have living Zombies. The story starts out slow, but the action builds slowly but steadily. As disaster after disaster strikes Houston, they finally get the cherry on top, a virus that turns people into mindless flesh eating creatures (that will die if you put enough holes in them, but as with any Zombie (or human) a well placed head shot will always work better).

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Wow part 2

What made the experience of listening to Flesh Eaters the most enjoyable?

I accidentally did not finish in the Dead World series but just loved this book just as much as I did Mutated. Again, Todd McLaren's performance was top notch!

A real page turner :)

The narrator awesome ..
I really enjoyed the plots and twist to this book.
It kept me on my toes..
The bonus for me was having a female hero..
I really seem to enjoy reading Joe's Books

Pretty good zombie genre

Would you try another book from Joe McKinney and/or Todd McLaren?

I listened to all the books in this series, just to see what was going to happen next.

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

Equal

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Was Flesh Eaters worth the listening time?

Yes it was good, but not the best I have ever heard. There wasnt anything really surprising or different so if you are expecting that, you will be disappointed. This is just a good old fashioned, somewhat predictible but entertaining zombie book.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not another zombie book

This story had a different approach, it is not your typical walking undead zombies, is about how an infectious disease spread due to poor emergency planning, severe weather catastrophe and terrible luck. The first few hours was kind of a "drag", maybe because I expected a "zombie attack" right away, but it added value towards the end of part 1, showing humanitarian effort, greed, politics and despite all miseries, human cruelty will always be present.

Zombies are in your subdivision!

Very scary stuff. Galveston is totally underwater. Further inland is the "new" coastline.

A lot of the population has been drowned or otherwise killed from recent hurricanes. Zombies start coming up out of the dirty water. One of the lead characters is a wife, mother and a cop. She is desperately trying to get her family out of the Bayou city (Houston) while being attacked by zombies and crazies.

Great character development and an enveloping story. I highly recommend.

4 of 8 people found this review helpful