Siege

As the World Dies, Book 3

By: Rhiannon Frater

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Siege is the conclusion to Rhiannon Frater’s As the World Dies trilogy, which should appeal to fans of The Walking Dead. Both The First Days and Fighting to Survive won the Dead Letter Award from Mail Order Zombie. The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner.

The zombie illness has shattered civilization. The survivors, who have found tenuous safety in Texas, defend their fort against the walking dead and living bandits. Katie has made peace with the death of her wife and is pregnant and married to Travis, who has been elected mayor. Jenni; her stepson, Jason; and Juan - Travis’s right-hand man - are a happy family, though Jenni suffers from PTSD. Both women are deadly zombie killers.

In Siege, the people of Ashley Oaks are stunned to discover that the vice president of the United States is alive and commanding the remnants of the US military. And what’s left of the US government has plans for this group of determined survivors.

©2009, 2012 Rhiannon Frater (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"There's a lot of great zombie fiction out there, but Rhiannon Frater sets the gold standard. She's got the goods." (Joe McKinney, author of Dead City and Apocalypse of the Dead)

"The First Days is one of the few zombie novels fueled by the power of feminine protagonists in an apocalyptic world gone wrong." (Harrisburg Book Examiner, "Best Zombie Books of the Decade")

Frater Does it Again!

Rhiannon Frater does it again with this third and final installment of the “As the World Dies” series. Honestly, I read this series when it first was published, but recently decided to revisit it in audiobook form. I wasn’t disappointed because it was even better the second time around. The performance was as realistic as it could get and I felt like I was there involved in things as they happened. The storyline was very well put together so much so, that I found myself hoping that another series involving the zombie apocalypse, uprising, or similar, would be forthcoming. I haven’t given up hope yet...

Story wasn’t as good as first and second but still worth the read.

This is book 3 of the First Day series. It starts out great with interesting new characters being added. The plot was captivating with a rollercoaster of emotions. Some characters I loved and others I feverishly hated. They stor became a bit weird about halfway thru the story. Up until that point, choices had been made as though they were real people but at some point things started happening out of convenience...very deus ex machina. The ending was a bit anticlimactic and seemed a bit abrupt...almost like she didn’t really know how to end everything. Don't read any of the spin-off books before you read this one or you'll spoil it.

Best one

I loved this book. It wrapped everything up nice. I found myself stressed out with them, then full of joy with them. The writer did a wonderful job telling this series. The readers did a great job with the telling. I was overall impressed with the story. I will definitely be looking for this authors books in the future.

Free-spirited. Love it!

I have just read all 6 books in the "As the World Dies" series. This review is long, because it embraces them all. I give them all a 5-star rating. The things that I like best about these books are: strong female characters, including some women in leadership roles, and taking risks right along with the men. Also there is a small military presence, and most of the soldiers are working to help survivors. They are not the power-hungry, evil,male chauvenistic bullies that most post-apocalyptic authors seem to make them. If you have read other reviews from me, then you know how tired I am of books where women take secondary or submissive roles, and the men do everything, and make all the decisions. There is none of that in this book. I love the fact that some of the best soldiers are women. I love the fact that the survivors are just ordinary people, not heavily armed, special forces types. I hope other authors will follow Ms. Frater's lead.

Love, love, love

I felt so much a part of this book. I’m listening on my way to work and home I’m yelling and crying and I’m way to involved. Loved every book was devastated when I finished.

REALLY!!! Does it have to end? :(

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

Yes I would recommend the book and the series for all die hard Zombie fans. I have been listening to this series along with Zombie Fallout and the main difference is this series does not have a comic relief team such as Mike and BT.... BUT Frater does a EXCELLENT job on character development and developing realistic situations that sucks you in and will not let you go. There are very little happy endings but Frater resolves the good and the bad and I walked away satisfied with the series. This series is a nail biter with non stop brutal action including a tragic love story. In the third installment several main characters sacrifice their lives for those around them....the readers are introduced to the government (or whats left of them), "karma" makes her rounds to those that need a good a** kicking, and the fort gets quite a few new members.

Fell short

Hard to finish. Poorly written and although the writer lives in Texas certainly is clueless about the geography of the state

Too bad it didn't get better

By the third book my opinion is probably outnumbered here, but the series was good enough for me to want to follow it trough. The series ends up being an average rated zombie tale with the twist being the strong female/alternative sexuality angle but it actually gets worse because now I have to listen about a gay male swooning over other males too. Luckily for me it just skimmed the surface and had a funny gay humor theme about it. I very much like the compound setting of the series, but it was way too comfy in this story and I hope another author picks this theme up. Or Rhiannon continues this story, but only after taking to heart my reviews :).

I didn't find the plot particularly convincing, rather cliché actually, the evil US govt wants to come in and ruin things. But it was actually just some stupid power hungry senator who had to be put in her place by Katie while Travis the man with no gonads follows like a whipped dog.

Rather than coming up with some clever plan (Like playing along until everyone moved to the fort the first, what they gonna do outnumbered?), they just go and tell the senator exactly what they want to do.

So every thing is supposed to be resolved because Katie talked tough but of course they haven't learned their lesson in leaving disgruntled people the freedom to ruin everything. Disaster strikes and someone important dies, which was actually rather sad and upsetting. Dying should be left to the "red-shirts". I found the zombie horde and ending rather anti-climatic too. Not to mention the silly ghosts everywhere. Yeah, ghosts.

I just found most of the story a load of phooey and in need of some aggressive resolution and problem solving, whether it be from a male or a female character, preferably both! Too bad Nerit didn't feature more in the story.

If a 4th book comes out, I'd probably by it, muttering to myself about all the changes I would make in it.