Onset

Dead, Volume 1

By: TW Brown

Narrated by: TW Brown

Today is the day that Evan Berry's life will change forever. His days working construction are about to end; he is finally going to be a high school music teacher. Stephanie, his bride-to-be, even has a surprise planned for him when he gets home from work that first night. None of that matters. For several days, the news has been hinting at reports of a strange illness that appears to be global. Unfortunately, this is no regular sickness. The dead are returning to life and attacking the living. Evan is at his new job for less than 10 minutes when he gets a call from Stephanie. There is a man in their house and he is trying to attack her.

Set in the world of the Amazon best-selling series Dead, there is a new story to tell. See the world die through the eyes of one man in Dead: Onset.

©2016 TW Brown (P)2016 TW Brown

Welcomed slightly different take zombie apoc

Evan Berry loves music and is looking forward to his first day as a music teacher at the local school.  Too bad it is the day the world devolves into zombie chaos.  He is the ordinary man in an impossible situation, forced to accept the death/turning of his fiancé and loss of everything and everything he knows.  He has to rise to the situation or be eaten alive with everyone else.

Carl, the shop teacher is more than ready for the breakdown of civilization and helps Evan through his denial.  Together they protect an unlikely group, a cranky middle-aged teacher and two children against the hungry hordes of zombies and the evil living.

The slightly different take on the overcrowded zombie genre is welcome, though Even quickly evolves into the standard kill or be killed apocalypse hero.  Evan often thinks about and refers to the many zombie movies and how his zombie reality is so different.  The thing is, it isn’t that different, or at least not different enough to be noteworthy.  The story does keep a backdrop of humor and a doesn’t take-itself-too-seriously tone that is very welcome.  It softens the gruesome parts but also dulls the poignant scenes.  It may not ground breaking, but it is fun and entertaining.

The story is performed by the author.  His voice is pleasant enough, but is difficult at first to get into the story as he stumbles over phrases and doesn’t always differentiate the characters well.  His female and male characters sometimes morph into each other.  On the other hand, he lends a personal tone to the story.  No one knows a story better than the author and the listener gets just a little more depth from certain characters for it.  It is a personal taste and one can’t really say if his reading is a positive or negative, adding in some ways and detracting in others.

Onset Dead is a fun zombie story with enough humor and flawed humanity to give us just a little bit different take on the many zombie stories.  There is plenty of gruesome chomping and hapless, dirty survivors fighting for their lives.  If you are zombie lover, you will probably never get enough, so give this one a go.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

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

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Find out how it begins

Onset Dead feels more like Fear the Walking Dead than The Walking Dead, only there's a quirky sense of humor in the main character. It's the beginning of the zombie apocalypse and people are running around trying to get help for their dying loved ones/or undying loved ones would probably be the better statement. I'm saddened by the loss of Evan's true love, which happens right at the beginning and teaches Evan a lot about the symptoms of tuning. The author does a good job with his narration, with a clear voice and good production quality. I love Chewie and hope to see more of him. There's a nice little group forming that doesn't always agree and tend to have a love/hate relationship. At least they try to watch each other's backs. If you listen to this book, you'd better plan to stay around for book 2!

TW Brown: Awesome Author and Narrator

Really great addition to the Dead Universe. If you like the other Dead books you will love this one! I love reading about the different experiences people have during the zombie apocalypse! While this book focuses on only 1 group, it’s still really good. When the real Zombie apocalypse happen, I’ll definitely refer TWB’s Dead books for survival 😊The cameos from some Steve and the Gang was awesome too! AWESOME NARRATION!!! TW Brown should narrate ALL of his books. The only downside is that this book is 2 years old and I fear there may not be any current ones.

Dead series is AWESOME

I think this book is great. I always enjoy listening to this series. These books can draw me in as I listen I can see it happening in my head like a movie or as if someone is telling me a story of something that actually happened to them. I also love how characters from his other Dead books randomly show up. I love all of TW Browns books. Todd, I think you are an amazing author. Thank you for all of the hours of enjoyment while listening and reading your work.

Love this

I loved the first series I am curious in hoping the story goes further. I have never been a zombie can until 50 so thank you for a new escape bhahhaba

Great new Dead series!!!

I was so happy to see you wrote a new Dead series. I was sad to listen to the last of your original Dead series and this one did not disappoint. It brings some of the old characters but builds new ones. I am looking forward to more in this series!!

Very excited about the new series!

What made the experience of listening to Onset the most enjoyable?

I listened to the entire previous set Dead books. I was sad when I had listened to the last ones - and then this showed up. I like how the narrator changed, just to give it a different feel. The geeks were my favorite, then Billy and Platypus creek, etc. It'll be interesting to see if paths cross, even slightly. Each Zombie novel author chooses different aspects to change in their world, I like the ones used here - I won't say anything as a spoiler!

What about TW Brown’s performance did you like?

New - I feel like his voice works well for Evan.

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

Fired up about the reboot - I already started the second book. Thanks for keeping it going!

A cheesy zombie book, but I like cheese!

I have read many zombie books and this was an easy read!it is not as gory as other zombie books, but more about relationships, trust, and surviving. I just downloaded the second book and I am excited to read it!

great series

I love these books I've listened to them all in less than 3 weeks. cried when Steve died and then you killed Chad too jeez no one is safe but it keeps it interesting. p.s. loved the wink to Steve tali and Teresa in the new series!

For zombies fans, this series is really fun.

The writing keeps getting better. will it win any pulitzers, nah, but the books are fun, the performer is not hard to listen to and the story keeps you guessing. T W Brown will kill people you like. he doesn't care, so don't get comfortable. He also doesn't pull punches. If you don't like gruesome descriptions of pretty much everything you can imagine, this may not be for you, but it's a zombie apocalypse series, so buckle up and hold on.