Not So Dead

Publisher's Summary

A scientist with a lifelong dream. But his modern-day breakthrough may have devastating global consequences...

"There's a cutting-edge current to every page that's hard to resist, so get ready to engage your heart and your mind." -Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author

What could go wrong when a team of brilliant computer scientists achieves immortality by digitizing their personalities? Everything - if the government wants the technology and you've crossed paths with a band of ruthless terrorists bent on causing unspeakable damage.

Follow Sam Sunborn as he teams up with a real Einstein to give birth to an invention that could change the lives of everyone on the planet forever. Sam wants to help people with his invention but lands up having to defend it and his family from a sadistic psychopath known only as the Leopard, a driven and demented terrorist, whose mission is to rein chaos and destruction on the Western World. Using the latest technology and a battle of wills and wits, Sunborn and the Leopard engage in an epic global clash. What disasters befall the innocent in the Leopard's wake? Can Sam and his rag-tag team use wit and will alone to prevent a worldwide catastrophe? Mysteries and surprises abound in this fast-paced thriller.

Not So Dead is the first standalone book in the Sam Sunborn series of cutting-edge techno-thrillers. If you like Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and Robert Ludlum, then you'll love Not So Dead, which combines all of their best traits in a captivating, current-times to near-future global thrill ride. If you enjoy heart-pounding action, mind-bending inventions, and terrifying villains, then you'll love Charles Levin's gripping saga. 

Buy Not So Dead and plug into this exciting thrill-ride today!

"A tense, high-powered techno-thriller." -Kirkus Review

About the author: Charlie's 23-year background in tech, degree in philosophy and love of fast-paced thrillers are the brew that created Not So Dead. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Amy, and has two sons, too far away in California. 

©2017 Charles Levin (P)2017 Charles Levin

the characters all fully developed and detailed

Sam Sunborn is a quirky nerdy techno guy who, along with members of his team, comes up with digitizing personalities of people.  Why?  Well, when we lose a loved one – isn’t it better to have some form of them present than nothing at all?  And what could that hurt anyway?  It would provide thousands of children, parents, friends and more with an everlasting connection to the deceased.  Perfectly harmless and helpful … that is until terrorists become involved.

The Leopard is a terrorist; he’s always one step ahead of Sunborn and the team of US agents representing all the secret agencies.  Sam along with digitalized Frank Einstein and Rich Little of Homeland Security go toe to toe with this dangerous and demented terrorist, fighting to protect the US and their allies.  With help from an unlikely person, Sam and The Leopard come face to face with only one winning.

This was one of those solid thrillers with the characters all fully developed and detailed giving the listener the illusion that everything was transparent … however, the twists and turns in this book will leave you sitting there wondering what the heck just happened!  Then you’re like OMG … no freaking way ….

Charles Levin crafted a unique story that draws in the listeners completely.  Work and bedtime and other activities made stopping the book difficult for me … I wanted to keep listening.  Levin is a storyteller that plays his audience like a violin – he knows just the words to keep you interested and keep the book moving forward at its breakneck pace of action.   I see the potential for more and I hope he doesn’t disappoint.

The narrator, Daniel Greenberg, performed the book very well.  Each of his character voices was unique and specific.  The voice he had for The Leopard was perfect as was the rest but The Leopard’s stands out.  He got the “better than thou” attitude and self-appointed doomsayer perfect!

This is a good book for anyone interested in thrillers, espionage, and sci-fi.  There’s a little bit of everything in this book!

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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4 of 4 people found this review helpful

A Great Listen!

What did you like best about this story?

Not So Dead was a can't put down high-tech thriller with lots of twists and turns.

What about Daniel Greenberg’s performance did you like?

Mr. Greenberg brought Charles Levin's characters and world to life with a subtle and entertaining performance.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not So Dead made me think about some timely and provocative philosophical and ethical questions.

Any additional comments?

The end will stun you! I highly recommend you listen to this debut novel and I hope there is a sequel!!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Intriguing story

I found this story very intriguing and creative. There is one part I could have done without, the part where the Leopard turns out to be not only a terrorist but also a pedophile. Not sure why the author felt he needed to put that into the story because the story was just fine without it. As for the rest, the theme of good vs evil being fought in both the physical and digital world bring a unique twist. Daniel Greenberg does an excellent job of narrating the story and bring the characters to life.


"I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book

I received this book on the understanding that I would review it and I am so happy that I did.

At first I felt the book was a little slow although it was still interesting. Then the pace picked up and it just kept ramping up the suspense. I thought the characters were good and the central ones were very sympathetic. I can’t wait to see more.

The narration was excellent except that he pronounced nuclear as ‘nucular’ and he said it ALOT. This is why 4 stars not 5 and that is a pity as the rest was really good.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Wonderfully Engrossing and Exciting

Before I write my review of this book I have to admit to several things, I'm not a hi tec person. I can use my laptop, my tablet and phone but sometimes I have to ask my grandson for help! So the premise of this book was and still is way out of my comfort zone but that in no way limited my enjoyment of this wonderfully engrossing and exciting story.

Sam Sunborn is an a techno person, he runs a company which works in cyber space, he employs geeks for want of a better word. He meets and forms an alliance with Frank Einstein, yes Einstein. Together with Sam's team they begin to develop a way of digitizing people's personalities. Why? Well the idea stemmed from a program allowing people to upload memories of loved ones after their deaths, rather like a perpetual memorial. The next step - upload the person's personality and make it possible for friends and family to still be able to communicate with their loved ones as well as the deceased person being able to watch and interact with his family and friends via the technology of the cloud. The idea itself is perfectly harmless and helpful even … that is until terrorists become involved.

When terrorists attack their lab and kill Frank the story takes off. The baddie in this story is The Leopard, his plan is to destroy western civilisation. He is a cold blooded terrorist who has no compunction against killing anyone, even members of his own team and what he plans will make the attacks of 9/11 seem like small change.

Sam helped by the digitised Frank along with his team, and people from the police and DHS work together to foil the plans of the Leopard. The story takes you on a real rollercoaster of a ride and will in places takes your breath away. There are so many twists and turns to the story that just when you think you know what is going to happen, you guessed it, the story goes in a totally different direction.

I NEVER GIVE SPOILERS especially to a book like this one but what I will say is that I can not stress enough how much I enjoyed this book or how engrossed I became in the story. The writing style was excellent, so much so that even a person with little or no digital knowledge could still follow along and enjoy this gripping tale.

The end of the book whilst not a cliffhanger leaves the door open for more which I for one really want to experience.

The narration by Daniel Greenberg was excellent, he had every single voice down so well, every personality came over in his voice and this really added to my enjoyment of the story I also own the ebook and when I couldn't listen I would pick up the book BUT I missed Daniel's internations and the personality he managed to evoke for each person.

At the end of the book we are told that much of the technology used in this story is available now and what isn't is being worked on - I'm not sure how I feel about that but I have no hesitation in recommending this book, it was excellent.

I was given this book as a gift and I am voluntarily writing my review

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Scary But I Could Picture This Happening

The story take place in the near future with a group of people who will be able to create digital copies of themselves so that after they are dead, they can interact with their love ones. This is reminds me of something that was on TV in the late 70s or early 80s.
The story is about Frank Einstein and his partner Sam Sunborn who are attacked by by terrorist leader the Leopard. Frank is killed in the process. He just happened to be wearing the device to digitize himself at the time so all of his information up to the point of death is available to him.
They travel across the US trying to capture the Leopard with a local police detective and Rich Little from Homeland Security (no not the famous one). As they travel you get pulled into the story and start to like each one of the characters. I listened to this story on the audio book and it is amazing how it did hold my interest but also it was scary because I could see something like this happening in the future.

Not So Dead Indeed-Listen to Find Out

Wow. This is a rip roaring E ticket ride into the near future. I say near because all of the tech mentioned in this book is in various stages of development. The author even provides links at the end of the book.

This is a techno thriller with an unusual premise. Can we digitally upload ourselves when we die and live on in cyberspace? In this book we find out that we can. We follow the events of Sam Sunborn and his tech site that uploads mementos of the deceased for loved ones. His bright idea of uploading actual memory and human intelligence begins an adventure fighting a brilliant terrorist. To mention anything else will spoil the elaborately plotted book. The plot moves quickly, perhaps too quickly, with many characters introduced. I had to re-read and listen to certain passages more than once just to make sure I was caught up. There are a number of twists and turns, some I could guess and others I could not. I did not see the ending coming at all. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audio book. Daniel Greenberg was a fantastic narrator, perfectly hitting the right tone of this work. A fantastic thriller from a new author. I also enjoyed how the tech did not overwhelm the story, it was explained during the course of the book at proper intervals. An enjoyable read with determined heroes and a despicable villain, this book is a wonderful standout in a somewhat crowded field.

victoria Palmer's Review.

I. gave the story itself 4 stars due to some of the content, but the premise is a fantastic ahrad of it's time pioneer. very intelligently written. What chilled me was how it's not far from today's headlines. A masterful work.

Not So Dead will keep you thinking about it

This is Charles Levin debut novel and I'm sure if he continues in this trend there be many more to enjoy.
I have both the e-book and audio version so for the first time have been trying switching back and forth between reading and listening. Worked great on both my tablet and phone. Rather nice when you need to do something besides reading.
On the audio version Daniel Greenberg is doing a great job in narrating the story.
You are convinced different people are talking and he really brings the various characters to life.
The story is a combination of reality and futuristic possibilities.
Placed in a real world of politics, terrorist, global events and been able to store oneself as a digitized version in the clouds allowing interaction with the living after death.
Opens up a lot of ethical questions but the story line is wonderfully put together.
The ending is a surprising development and leaves some opportunities for multiple books. I highly recommend this Audio book.

Mind Twister

There were a few parts that disgusted me. There were parts that were offensive. But, the author made you really Hate the villain. It was a real villain. No confusion there. The story was one that I thought back on while I was working. There were philosophical conundrums that I had to question. This occupied my mind when I wasn’t reading the book. When I had time, I was reading. This wasn’t a book I could casually read. Attention was always on this book. I had to have it going even when I only had a spare two minutes in the bathroom. Page turner? Oh yes! I do recommend this book.