Rise Again

A Zombie Thriller

By: Ben Tripp

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 16 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Forest Peak, California. Fourth of July. Sheriff Danielle Adelman, a troubled war veteran, thinks she has all the problems she can handle in this all-American town after her kid sister runs away from home. But when a disease-stricken horde of panicked refugees fleeing the fall of Los Angeles swarms her small mountain community, Danny realizes her problems have only just begun—starting with what might very well be the end of the world. Danny thought she had seen humanity at its worst in war-torn Iraq, but nothing could prepare her for the remorseless struggle to survive in a dying world being overrun by the reanimated dead and men turned monster. Obsessed with finding her missing sister against all odds, Danny’s epic and dangerous journey across the California desert will challenge her spirit... and bring her to the precipice of sanity itself.

Filled with adventurous human drama—and shocking inhuman horror—Rise Again marks a vivid and powerful fiction debut.

©2011 Ben Tripp (P)2012 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Danny's journey through a land of death to find [her sister] Kelley makes for a remarkable character-driven story, and the final sentence takes it to another level." ( Library Journal)

Kind of different

I liked the things about this story that were different from the typical zombie junk. Anytime an author can take a subject that has been so overdone and make me see it from a different perspective, it's a good thing. A lot of things about the story were unexpected, like the main character, Dannie. It's a lengthy listen. It starts slow, even a bit dull at first. I had to double check to make sure I was reading the right story because it took a while to get to the zombie stuff, but once things got going, I thought the story was pretty good. The ending was interesting enough that I am actually looking forward to the sequel.

This book is really good

This was a *really* good book and with a listening time of 16hrs, it is well worth your credit. The story was epic with a great narrator telling a tale of zombies right from the start, even before the infection and Tripp has his own take on how the zombie infection starts and spreads.

The narration is very good and easily fell into the background so I could focus on the tale she was telling. Different voices, male, female, all handled excellently. Interesting coincidence that there is a town in the book of the same name as the narrator.

As other reviewers have noted the big weakness in this story is that the main character isn't especially likeable. You end up taking the sides of the people arguing with her. Danni is slow to catch on that she is dealing with zombies and yeah, the whole "No looting" bit. Leaves me wondering what she has been eating all this time?

She also abandons her charges and goes off on a wild goose chase for her sister which is really stupid without specific information. Her sister could be in the abandoned building next to her, how would she know?

She is also sexless. The book has a lesbian and gay in it, but although there was a line or two in there that made clear Danni is hetero, she otherwise has no romantic interests and thinks like a dude with no testosterone. Its like the author doesn't know how to portray girls.

She does redeem herself in the end but as flawed heroes go, I couldn't find much to like about her, therefore the 4 stars for story.

The end was creepy and even though I don't like that mutation direction for zombies, I'd want to buy the next book that is due summer 2013; Rise Again: Below Zero.

Gives you your needed Zombie fix, but no more.

The story is original, great narraration, the inspired story, and the characters are fleshed out quite well. If you've already gotten through the first tier of MUST READ zombie books, then this shouldbe next on your list. WWZ, Day by Day Amrmageddon (series), Walking Dead, should be considered first tier.

The story is original, but I felt that it left something to be desired. The scope could have been much larger. Also, I did like the fact that most of the protagonists are from a small town, but i felt that that "small town" feel never really left. The story seemed confined, on the brink of greatness, but never quite crossing over. I know that sounds esoteric, but it's the best way I can describe it.

Overall, if you like Zombie stories, and you need a quick fix, go for this one!

Mostly Meh

**SPOILER ALERT** It would be difficult to review this book without some spoilers.

The book starts slow, which is a nice change from the typical ZA story. The zombie events happens at a much slower pace, but it's almost too slow in parts and borders on too many mundane details not relevant to the story. Eventually, the zombies make an appearance, but not after several WTF moments in the story.

For example, there's a point where the general public has become aware of something awful happening and they begin to flee and panic. However, none of the main characters, including the protagonist, has any clue as to what it is. This happens despite the fact that everyone seems to be getting their info from phone calls and social media. No one who is clueless thinks to ask anyone for information.

Another example, the sheriff has no idea what's happening, but spontaneously decides to use her shotgun to stop the panicking people. Without having any knowledge of the larger looming crisis, the she considers shooting one of the runners in hopes it will stop the others. There are other points in the book like this that left me scratching my head, as they made no sense.

The sheriff has several convenient blackouts, where she awakens hours or days later. These seemed more like conveniences to the author, as they occurred at action points in the book and left me, again, scratching my head as to what just happened - or why the author chose this time to stop and skip ahead in the story. I found it annoying.

Much of the conversations and actions of characters are unrealistic. Remnants of civilization (buildings, roads, etc.) would deteriorate much faster than reasonable - dust would coat things in a matter of days or trees would grow in the middle of roads in a matter of a few months - all because there was no normal daly life; or the protagonist would have to relearn how to deal with people again, after being on her own for only a few days. All of these broke the suspension of disbelief for me.

I found the characters were rather flat and uninteresting and didn't especially care what happened to them. The main character was hard to like and I couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not.

This is the first time hearing this narrator, and she did a respectable job, overall. However, she didn't really bring the characters to life or put enough emphasis on the action or emotional parts of the story. All of the male voices didn't sound male, nor did they include the correct emotional context (tough angry males sounded like mildy-annoyed women).

Overall, the book was interesting enough to finish, but it's not one I'd recommend or listen to again, nor am I particularly interested in any sequels.

A gruesome and tragic zombie survival story

Rise Again: A Zombie Thriller is a modern novel about a zombie plague spreadig across the land.

Set mainly in California and Nevada, I appreciated the numerous descriptions of terrain, flora and fauna, urban and rural buildings, roadways, and masses of braindead uncommunicative zombies travelling about. The author seemed to have a knack for describing mundane details in way as to make the details less mundane and more part of the action of each scene. Certainly, any way to render entertaining and interesting the everyday things that are seen thousands to millions of times could make the world a more scenic place, and story settings more developed.

The characters were fairly stereotypical propaganda types from modern society, and the plotline was violent and grotesque. Although the action and scenarios the characters found themselves in were far from average. Battles for survival during economic scarcity, struggles against hungry herds of monsters, and group dynamics of betrayal and thievery made for very thoughtful character interactions. Unlike many of the happy main character stories, these characters were often wounded, shot, blown up, eaten, and otherwise mutilated.

Dead on the Page

I'm a fan of zombie fiction, but Rise Again is not particularly well written. The first half is an absolute slog, with a meandering narrative full of non-events and plodding character busywork. I only kept listening out of obligation to the credit I spent.

The main character, for example, spends a lot of time ruminating about her sister or her opinions about things, but her thoughts are generally repetitive and dull. In fact, here's something I noticed while listening: Main character Danielle often "loses interest" in the topic at hand or the person she's talking to, right in the middle of the conversation. Once you notice it, you'll realize that Danielle loses interest in things over and over again throughout the entire book. The author seems to think that Danielle's lack of interest empowers her, but all it tells me is that if she's not interested in what's going on, then it's a fair bet that we aren't interested either.

Which brings me to my main gripe with the book. The author's writing style - and the story itself - lacks imagination. The story is serviceable, but I was never riveted. I never found myself hanging on the narrator's every word. The characters and locations and situations are not particularly creative or nuanced as written. The writing style gets the job done - and if you like zombies then there are plenty of zombies here - but that's about all Rise Again has going for it. Utilitarian writing and … zombies.

As for the main character, she doesn't have to be likable, but she should be at least be interesting. Danielle is rather dull. And she makes some ridiculous decisions in the story (at one point, with absolutely no proof, she tries to forcefully arrest a guy for murder in the middle of a zombie apocalypse). The author slants the narrative because he wants us to side with Danielle in these situations, but her actions are sometimes so silly that it's impossible. The result is an uneven main character that we never care much about.

The book comes in two downloadable parts. If you're going to listen, I would actually recommend skipping the first part entirely. You're not going to miss much, and though doing ths is not enough to save the story, the book only starts to realize its potential during the second half.

SHE TOOK A SPATULA AND SCRAPPED HIS FACE OFF THE

GRILL.
THE SHADOW OF THE NIGHT RETREATED FROM THE STREET, CURLING UP UNDER THE TREES.
Ben Tripp can write. He is no rookie stumbling through the zombie genre, thinking it is an easy sell. His use of the English language helps to make this literature. Academics should have nothing to complain about, while the common blue collar worker will not be overwhelmed with overly flowery language. The story is basic Zombie and any Zombie lover should have no problem with this addition to the genre.

THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS ANOTHER DAY, ONLY ANOTHER DAY SURVIVED
Anyone looking for strong female characters will love this book. Danny has RED HAIR, LITTLE TITS and AN ASS YOU CAN CUT STEAK OFF OF. She is the main character and the sheriff. She is also a Veteran. She is respected and their is no big deal made over her being a female. She is very tough and a leader. There are a couple of other lead females. This book could serve as an example of how to handle female leads in a book. There is no sex or even flirting. I also was impressed with the fact that they used more than one vehicle, even had a convoy. This has been a complaint of mine of similar books. In an apocalypse, vehicles are going to be easy to get, but in all other books they always act as if they are scarce.

DANNY WAS GOING TO DIE (for the thousandth time)
I could not give the book five stars for a few glaring problems. The first being that Ben overused they main character is about to die, only to be rescued at the very last minute. I lost count of how many times the main character was about to bite the bullet and then she was rescued by Wolf or some other character. Several times she was about to oft herself. The book dragged a little in the middle. I would have liked to have seen more imagination with the Zombies. There is a different angle, involving a zombie coma state and a hint at some evolution in the zombies, but most of that comes pretty late in the book and seems more of a set up for book 2.

HIS BLOOD TURNED TO SNOW
Kristen Potter is a top tier narrator and I look forward to hearing more from her.

FAIR, WAS AN IMAGINARY IDEA, THAT HAD NO BASIS IN REALITY.
If book 2 goes on sale, I will buy it, but I am not going to go out of my way to get it.

Good Zombie Story

If you could sum up Rise Again in three words, what would they be?

Scary, Thrilling, and unexpected

Any additional comments?

Pretty good zombie story. I like zombie stories that stick more to the George Romero version of zombies; you'll see what I'm talking about. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone.

I was getting annoyed with Danny and her need for law and order at a time when the world was becoming infested with zombies. If you are in a world plagued with man-eating zombies I don't think breaking into a store is going to get you jail time. She was the hero and I really enjoyed the cast. I didn't want to stop listening because I too was interested in whether or not she'd find Kelly.

There were some scary moments.

Immediately downloaded book two

Great for fans of this genre (as I am). Original. Great character development (who cares if the main character is unlikeable? It informs the plot). Great narrator. I immediately downloaded the second book, and was not disappointed with that one either.

Great starter audio book

Where does Rise Again rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the first so I have high hopes for the others

What did you like best about this story?

the way that you came to love the characters

What about Kirsten Potter’s performance did you like?

She was able to convey the strong female protagonist very well

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes but unfortunately I couldn't

Any additional comments?

I am excited about the other books I have in my wish list :D