From the Ashes

Crawlerz, Book 4

By: R. S. Merritt

Narrated by: Elliott Bales

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

You can run forever or you can turn around and fight. Fighting hordes of the insane, imbued with superhuman strength, and broadcasting waves of psychic terror might not seem like a great idea. It might even seem a little suicidal trying to go toe to toe with millions of monsters when you've got limited ammunition and a president that kind of hopes you lose. Suicidal or not, the sibling trio of Yue, Drew and LeBron is ready to dig in their heels and do some serious damage.

Follow along in book four of the Crawlerz series as they try to make a meaningful difference. They commit to a goal of carving out enough safe space that people can start leading semi-normal lives again within a generation or two.

Even if it is a bit like trying to drain the ocean with a soup spoon...

©2020 Randall Merritt (P)2023 Randall Merritt

Interesting take into a “hive mind” zombie system

First off, I really love the narrator. All of his distinct voices and tones really make it easy to know who is who. Harvey’s character is my favorite I also liked his navy seal friend. :(
I’m not entirely sure I would have liked the direction Yu’s character went in but I was more open to it over time as they established she’s not the only one that’s been discovered to do what she does. Had they made it seem like she’s the “only” one, and a “savior of humanity”, I definitely would have stopped the series as it’s tired and cliche.
However, I still like the series. I really enjoy the authors way of storytelling. It’s easy to follow and doesn’t feel forced. Its loaded with lots of excitement and action packed scenarios that keep me listening. I’m curious how each of the characters will develop into their new roles over the next books in the series.

Zombies with a twist- suggest listening in chronological order

The story is alright as it goes for zombie books. The characters are constantly attacked, but the zombies are a little different. They come from an ancient tomb discovered in Egypt where a fungus and other things were lurking. They come in 2 stages- the first stage: adrenaline rush mixed with the need to infect, not feed; the second: more inteligent carriers who shy away from the light. The things that happen all have a good reason, except for the sensitivity to the telepathic communications... that sounds like the next book which is not out yet.
Left with a huge cliff hanger, these books so far answer all the questions throughout the series, so I guess if you really need to know, you'll have to read it yourself.

Still great but …

So far I’ve been really enjoying this series. Sucks the rest of the books aren’t available yet on here. But book 4 was going good as well expected. But I just don’t like how out of nowhere the sister has these abilities and to that extent so fast. Just seemed like lazy writing. These abilities should have been introduced throughout the series in little spurts with them not understanding what she was experiencing.

I think I’m done at #4

I enjoyed the first 3 books in this series (they're good enough, but not great), but this 4th book just feels like he jumped the shark. I’m finding myself rolling my eyes at so many of the situations and dialogue. I'll finish the book, but that'll be it for me.

I love these books!!

I love these books but in some ways I feel like the writer was being a little lazy with the characters,
For one every single military man or women has been killed off. None of them was ever given the chance to be a hero / part of the family like Harley has. I feel as if the characters was always killed off in the most stupidest ways. Unlike the little brothers that have been beat to hell and in some impossible situations that they somehow make it out of. I would love to meet a hero straight up bad ass military right hand man that looks death in the eyes and doesn’t waver and can not be killed no matter what happens to him/her.
Other then that I love the books and give them a solid B+ I would have given them an A if the story line wasn’t getting a little sloppy with this BS telepathic abilities by Yu