Screaming Eagles

By: Timothy W. Long, David Moody, Craig DiLouie

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Private Franklin Grillo is a fresh-faced infantryman in the 101st Airborne. He's been dispatched to the Ardennes Forest outside of Bastogne to assist Baker Company against a surprise attack by the Germans. Outgunned, low on ammo, food, and supplies, the men along the new front are up against an army 10 times their size.

Barely able to hold out the 101st now face a new threat. German soldiers who take massive amounts of damage but keep on attacking.

©2016 Timothy W. Long (P)2016 Timothy W. Long

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

THEY HAD TO DIE
A good concept is one thing, putting it on paper or audio another. The first time I saw this, I said I got to have it. Nazi's and Zombies, are my two favorite monsters. Alas, the writing was just not there. I had enjoyed SUFFER THE CHILDREN by DiLouie, so I took a chance, even though I am always leery of collaborations. Matter of fact this is the second collaboration, DiLouie has tricked me into buying.

Cliché
I think the authors were having a contest on who could insert the most amount of war clichés in this book. That would not have been that bad or that unrealistic. My father is close to that generation, (Korean War) and so was my Father in law. Both were in the Navy and in real life, they had a tendency to speak in clichés. These authors missed the boat on not having enough Mad Nazi Scientist stuff. This could have been so much more, but wasn't. Meh, Meh, Meh.

Narrator had a great voice for this type of book. I would not want him to read Little House on The Prairie, but this was right up his alley.

93 of 114 people found this review helpful

the backstories were the saving grace

I picked this story for a couple of reasons: I wanted and fairly short read, as a filler between some new releases to which I was looking forward, and, well, zombies. Reading the summary and seeing the cover, I expected epic battles between American soldiers and German Nazi zombies, and honestly, not much else; I was wrong.

It's the height of World War II and a German Sergeant and his men are ordered to take an experimental drug that will give them extra strength, and even keep them from feeling pain. Meanwhile, American soldiers are hunkered down in fox holes dodging mortars. Low on ammunition, outnumbered, and with little reinforcements, they feared the worst. No matter how many Nazis they took out, two more seemed to take their place. Things go from bad to worse as the Nazis seem to be going crazy, displaying baffling tactics, and forcing some unlikely yet necessary alliances.

This was not a very exciting book. As I said, I was expecting a face-paced, action-packed zombie battle. Instead, the story developed rather slowly and almost lost my interest. It's saving grace was the authors addition of backstories to the main characters. There are several character points-of-view in this book, and the author added some depth to them with background of their past, or who they're hoping to come home to, etc. Character development is a big deal for me; I am much less concerned with what the characters are doing than I am why they are doing it. So, while some of the soldiers' stories were somewhat cliche, they humanized the men, making me care about what happened to them, and helping the rather dull plot become interesting.

Narration duties were done by Todd Menesses, who didn't seem to enjoy the book much. I've heard his narration on another book and was not disappointed but his reading as the narrator of the tale was not very enthusiastic, and somewhat dull in itself. I feel he read at too slow of a pace, and trailed off at the end of each sentence as if it were the end of a chapter with a cliffhanger. His voice is great, though, and his character voices were awesome and unique to one-another, making it easy to differentiate between the each one.

While I enjoyed Screaming Eagles, it is not a book aimed at multiple markets. It's for zombie fans, maybe the adventurous historical fiction enthusiast. The production quality was very good and, even with his unenthusiastic reading as the narrator, his performance as the soldiers was very good.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.

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

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

9 of 12 people found this review helpful

They thought they understood their enemy…

World War II — being in the trenches and fighting off the German soldiers was bad enough. What would happen if the SS/Nazi’s came up with a new drug that made their soldiers almost unstoppable? This is a story about that.

Todd Menesses narrates this story and absolutely crushes it. He has an awesome history channel-like voice that really brings this story alive. His performance (and yes, it truly was a performance) was perfect — voicing different characters from different areas in perfect dialects. Menesses will definitely be a narrator that I will be looking for when I’m buying my next audiobook.

I’m a big history buff, I love studying the different wars and different time periods to figure out what life was like or what battle could have felt like. I feel like Screaming Eagles really pulls off the feeling of “being there” in the trenches of World War II. Granted there is a lot more going on than actually happened during the war, but that makes it an even better story.

Knowing that the SS were experimenting with drugs during this time makes this story even more believable. There were a couple times that I actually wondered if something similar to this actually happened.

The pacing of the story was awesome, the reader is thrown from person to person and story to story throughout the book. As soon as you feel comfortable it changes to someone else — giving the story a multi-faceted look from many different points of view.

Screaming Eagles was a hell of a book — told like a true story during WWII — it was so realistic I felt like I was really there with these men. I will definitely be looking forward to the next books in this series and I really hope that Menesses narrates those as well.

Did you find this review helpful -- please vote for it! If you want to see more like it, check out BriansBookBlog DOT com

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

The Front of the Apocalypse

i enjoyed the story. Fast paced and i was engrossed by the WW2 setting. i wasnt thrilled with the narration of the audiobook. it was ok, but boring at times. still looking forward to the next book I the series.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Edge-of-your-seat exciting

This was a really exciting book. I wasn't sure I was going to like it when I learned of the zombie aspect of the book, as that is not typically what I enjoy reading about. But this book was really well-written, so it seemed totally plausible (Nazi experiment). I listened to the Audible audio version of this book narrated by Todd Menesses, and I was really impressed with his ability to get such distinct and unique voices to each of the characters. His capacity for different accents was really impressive. I don't normally listen to audio books more than once, but I would actually listen to this one again just because it moves so quickly and is filled with excitement. I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

It's is fun and it's like nazi zombies

Are you going to make next book can it be in paperback. I like ww2 books

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Love the history feel of it!

Would you listen to Screaming Eagles again? Why?

Yes it felt like it was a documentary story!

What did you like best about this story?

The way it changed perspectives from soldier to soldier and the fact that history shows the Nazi's were working on stimulant drugs for troops to make them better makes it really feel like a documentary tale.

What does Todd Menesses bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Love the way he give the regional accents to each of the soldiers, you get the feel that there are many different people voicing them. Also thought the subdued narration helped in giving it that History channel feel.

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

Yes, kept wanting to see how it would turn out can't waif for the next one!

Any additional comments?

Hopefully the next one will be out soon this one ended and left me wanting for more.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Nazi Zombies at Bastogne

Imagine the last 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" were stretched to five hours... and you added Zombies. That's pretty much the sum total of "Screaming Eagles." There's really no character development (although there are a lot of characters) and little suspense. There is nonstop fighting though. Did I mention that? The narration is gritty and okay, but could've benefited from some pronounciation help. Some pronounciations even changed from wrong to write to wrong as the book progressed.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Avoid

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who is more interested in the authors story than the voice actors performance

What was most disappointing about the authors’s story?

story was ok, a bit unimaginative

Would you be willing to try another one of Todd Menesses’s performances?

no

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

boredom and disinterest

1 of 4 people found this review helpful

Just can't do it.

I've forced myself to listen and I'm up to chapter 8. I can't take it anymore. the narrator is doing the best he can with what he's working with but I can't give it more time. Maybe it will pick up later I don't know. Definitely not worth what I paid and it was on sale for half price.

1 of 4 people found this review helpful