Hot Zone

The Zulu Virus Chronicles, Book 1

By: Steven Konkoly

Narrated by: Charles Hubbell

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Something insidious has arrived - right in the heartland of our nation.

Dr. Lauren Hale, a new hospital resident, is nearly killed by a raving mad emergency room patient, in a senseless, unprovoked attack.

Officer David Olson, veteran cop and former Marine, returns from a father-son camping trip to discover that his ex-wife has vanished under bizarre circumstances and his police department is on the verge of collapse.

Jack and Emma Harper, a young, upwardly mobile couple, find their hip city neighborhood rapidly descending into madness.

Dr. Eugene Chang, a research scientist for a major pharmaceutical company makes a shocking discovery that might explain the spreading wave of illness and violence gripping the city.

Eric Larsen, leader of a top-secret, rapid-response unit, circles high above the Midwest, in an unmarked military transport. Mission still unknown, his team waits to parachute into the night.

Within 24 hours, complete strangers from different walks of life will be forced to join together to survive the living nightmare that has been unleashed on their city - and their country.

This is their story.

Welcome to the hot zone!

©2017 Stribling Media (P)2017 Stribling Media

Entertaining

If you like television medical dramas, you'd probably like this book. There's a few cliches (imo) but overall I found it very entertaining. I thought the narrator was great! I'll be getting book 2!

Unknown virus takes out population.

A Rage Virus has been turned loose in several metropolitan cities and it is spreading at an alarming rate. People turned violent attacking each other without understanding why. The news media reported flu-like symptoms and neglected to mention the scope of the infection or the violent reactions. Those who worked in the specific field knew better though and suspected a modified weaponized virus had been released on the population. The unanswered questions in their minds were how large is the affected area and who is behind it. The story transitions through several individuals or groups of survivors recounting their travels and the hardships they encounter during the crisis. The characters are well-defined and likable.

I honestly wanted to call this story slow...

......But it's actually thorough and well written. Im looking forward to listening to another part of the series

Great beggining of another Konkoly series

Steve Konkoly is a master of this aspect of pandemic shtf prepper books great book

Great Story Horrible Narration

I have been a member of Audible since 2002 (15 years) and have well over 600 books. This narration was one of the worst ever. Taking in account this was for a dystopian pandemic audience it falls well short. Whereas Charles Hubbell might make a great children’s narrator as for the genre his style falls very short. His poor attempts at voice characterizations is limited to say the least. One can never concentrate on how the characters are built as you are constantly put off by the narration. The story itself was great. For Steven, I’ll reread the story in Kindle just to salvage my impression of the story. I hope while I am reading I am not visited by the ghost of narrator’s past.

Good book cringe- worthy accents

The book has a good premise and I will listen to the second one. When the narrator is doing a normal middle aged man’s voice he is great but for some reason he gives one couple these southern accents that make the book almost too difficult to listen to. And there is a boy who is supposedly 17 and heading to the marines and he reads him like a 10 year old baby-it’s so odd! Otherwise he is good- just those two and it’s frustrating! Book is decent- waiting for it to pick up some in the second installment!

Enjoyable

I don't understand why some people knocked this book. It was fast-paced, dangerous/thrilling, and I enjoyed it. The lack of zombies was actually a plus for me, although the virus-damaged people were scary enough. A group of strangers banding together to survive. I knocked the rating down on the story because it ended abruptly, and now I have to go buy the next one. I think books -- even in a series -- should be intact within themselves, and not end suddenly in the middle of things. But, I'm excited for the next book!

Not a bad story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The story is good. I think I could have enjoyed it more if not for one main irritation. The author has the characters constantly giving road and street names. I am a third generation born and raised in Indy and not once have I heard anyone say ‘the’ 465. It’s just 465. That may seem picky, but when the characters refer to it adnauseam, it made me want to scream. I wanted to stop listening before I was halfway through. This is my favorite genre, but I’m not sure I want to try to follow this series.

How could the performance have been better?

The narration was hard to listen to. Too many characters sound cartoonish. Once again, I’m a third generation born and raised in Indiana and never heard all these country accents. It made the story too unreal for me.

Great listen

Excited for what’s to come. An extremely well written story with a nice twist on the genre.

Good start to the series!

I liked the storyline it’s a good listen! However not thrilled with the narrator:(
I would definitely recommend to friends and family even though not wowed by the narrator