The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1

By: Luke Duffy

Narrated by: Andrew B. Wehrlen

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

As the flames of war threaten to engulf the globe, a new threat emerges. A deadly flu, the like of which no one has ever seen or imagined, relentlessly spreads, gripping the world by the throat and slowly squeezing the life from humanity. Eight soldiers, accustomed to operating below the radar, carrying out the dirty work of a modern democracy, become trapped within the carnage of a new and terrifying world. Deniable and completely expendable. That is how their government considers them, and as the dead begin to walk, Stan and his men must fight to survive.

©2014 Luke Duffy (P)2015 Luke Duffy

A zombie apocalypse meets Special OPS

A zombie apocalypse meets Special OPS.  An intriguing tale of eight Special Military OPS who operate off the grid with no family or loved ones and whose relationship are cemented in their ability to protect one another’s six.  Their need to know status and undercover work prevents them from realizing what they see on an assignment in the Middle East thus sealing the fate of the world.  A flu-like plaque takes the living and kills them, and then takes the dead and brings them back to walk.

These snipers must attempt to rescue a Duke and his family but their attempt keeps them from catching the last plane out of England.  Now they are trapped and must fend for themselves but the kindhearted souls they are, they rescue a small family in a brutal fashion – driving home that life is no longer easy and carefree but full of choices – deadly ones.

I found Bull’s tryst with the walking dead in the hospital restroom funny – nothing I’ve ever read before – and can’t help but visualize a hulking man lying on a severely flattened zombie across the water pipes (he does this to keep from cooking or freezing his flesh).  Who in their right mind would think of this? Then the toilet humor – well, I could have done without that but it was so right somehow.

I found the book action packed and while the first book left a huge cliff-hanger, I would love to read/listen to the next one.  Luke Duffy did an excellent job of creating the characters and building the plot.  It was interesting and accurate military wise.

Andrew Wehrlen did a good job, he’s not my favorite narrator but he did ok.  I think someone with a better English accent would have done better.  He repeated a sentence or two but other than that, he was fine.

No issues with production.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher.

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

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DON'T DO IT,!

Terrible on so many fronts, not worth anymore of my time. Maybe I should have given it more than three chapters, but I couldn't.

Thoroughly satisfied!

I loved this book. The author did an excellent job with the descriptions in this story. I am a very visual and imaginative person, so with the author's descriptive prowess I felt as if I was watching a movie. I can't wait for volume two. My only negative is the way volume one ended. it just dropped off. The attempt at making it a cliffhanger wasn't welldone. Other than that, this was a great listen.

The narrator did a good job of bringing the individual characters to life. Coupled with the authors descriptiveness, the narrator allowed me to see and hear each character and their individual qualities and traits. I would imagine the narrator has played the 'Call of Duty modern warfare series' as his voices put me in the mindset of 'Soap' McTavish and his lot.

Zombie outbreak in England with special ops.

This books starts out 9 years after the outbreak, but luckily it quickly goes back and tells the beginning. It's basically the story of a special ops team and what they do during the zombie outbreak. If you've heard one military focused zombie outbreak audiobook, you've heard them all.

Good story, stilted narration.

Any additional comments?

I have seen some glowing reviews of this on Goodreads and thought it sounded amazing so eagerly plugged in my headphones to listen. Maybe I should of read it because I think I would of enjoyed it more. The narrator was only OK. It sounded like, to me anyway, he was very stilted and up tight. I felt like all he did was read the lines given to him, he didn't preform nor give any life to the book. He seemed to stop for a second after every sentence which is why it felt so stilted and it came across as a monotone and unremarkable story.

As I said, I might of enjoyed this more if I had read it, but since I listened to it here are my thoughts on the story itself.

An elite team of soldiers are on a covert mission in the Middle East, their objective is to assassinate the head of a known terrorist group. Their mission goes successfully but on their way to their extraction point, they come across a village that has been destroyed, bodies of men, women and children are strewn everywhere. Straight off they see that something isn't right because there seems to be survivours among the dead, but these people seem different. The way they hold themselves and walk are off. As they get closer they start to see impossible things, people with devastating injuries are walking about aimlessly, that is until they see the soldiers. Suddenly they surge towards them and despite the soldiers firing, they keep coming. The soldiers soon learn that only head shots will stop them. They finally destroy the remaining people and head home. They soon learn that what they fought were the walking dead, and the disease is spreading through out the world. Their life is about to become much more difficult and the job a lot harder! Can they all survive?

Sounds great right? Well in one sense it totally was. The story itself was fairly fast paced and intense and I became invested in finding out what happens the team, but in another sense, I felt it was lacking. Maybe I missed it, but I never got the answer to how the disease came about!! I know I zoned out a lot while listening because of the narration, but I honestly couldn't say how the zombies came to be. We also never get a feel for who the characters are. We are thrown into the thick of things with them, but you don't really find out why they are the way they are. I would of liked a little back story on each.

Character wise, I did like them all. The comradeship between the team was amazing and I loved that part. I also loved how good they worked together and how much each of them valued the other. It really brought across the bond they have. I just wanted a little more character development.

In all, I think I may have to go buy the ebook and read this. The story itself was really good but I think I may have missed things because I didn't enjoy the narration and zoned out a bit. It's definitely a book that's still worth the read but maybe the book instead of the audio.

*I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

What kind of accent is that?

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The story was acceptable for the zombie genre, nothing too special about it. The story line was moderately entertaining.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator either needs to learn to speak with an English accent or just read it without. His accents are just plain horrible. At times, you can't tell what type of accent he is trying to speak with. For me it ruined the storyline.

Could you see The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1 being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

Find a narrator who can in effect read the story with a believable accent.

Fire the narrator!

What would have made The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1 better?

A better narrator!

One; Ever wanted a zombie book read to you by William Shatner? Nope, no one does. This guy ends every other sentence as it were a question. His pace is off too, slow and fast on the wrong story developments

Two; ALL of the characters are British, so why have an American doing British accents?!?

What did you like best about this story?

Good characters and accurate military info and jargon

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Andrew B. Wehrlen?

R.C. Bray or Tim Bruce

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

Anger and disappointment. I liked the story and tried to push past the horrible narration, but I can't do it. Every time he ends a sentence like Shatner reading bad poetry, I get more frustrated and angry. Finally, British characters with an American doing British accents, wth Audible?

Any additional comments?

Please, please re-publish with a new narrator

great story

I like the story and the characters it was interesting a bunch of guys in a world that is falling apart

Good start

This was a decent start to the series. I enjoyed the other books more though. Loved the characters, the character building was great. Very vivid world created. The story tended to drag at times. All in all a good start to the series.

Decent narrator. He is not good at accents however.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Terrible

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the plot was interesting and if the narrator could pull off an Irish, British, Welsh and Scottish accent then MAYBE it would be worth it.

Has The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1 turned you off from other books in this genre?

Almost killed my interest in this genre but the Arisen series keeps me captivated.

Would you be willing to try another one of Andrew B. Wehrlen’s performances?

Hell no. It sounds like he is a 33 rpm record being played at 45 rpm and his attempts at anything other than an American accent are a total bust. I mean not even close. And yes, I grew up both in the US and in Ireland so vey used to accents.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1?

The worst scene is while the team are sequestered in quarantine and Bull decided to rub his genitalia on the two way glass FOR TEN MINUTES?! TEN?! So the highly trained operator who passed Selection and a variety of training venues and situations is so stressed out he rubs his junk against a two way mirror like a San Francisco junkie FOR ten minutes while his team sits there kind of like, "Oh that's normal." Tell you what. If that were a team mate of mine, I would never be near him again while he was armed because that indicates a severe mental problem. I think most professionals would stay away from a dude like that.

Any additional comments?

Save your credit/money and stay away unless one of your favorite activities is chewing gum while humming.

it was alright...but only alright

What did you like best about The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1? What did you like least?

If Luke Duffy says 'their fingers silently depressed their triggers to the first position' once he said it a thousand times!!

Would you be willing to try another book from Luke Duffy? Why or why not?

I'm afraid not.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I don't know where to begin! his accents were laugh out loud funny - the worst accents I have ever EVER heard - seriously hilarious!!

☺

I like this audio book got to give it 5 out of 5. 100 %

Shame about the very poor regional accents

What did you like best about The Dead Walk the Earth, Volume 1? What did you like least?

Its about Zombies

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Concept of people Isolated.

How could the performance have been better?

Narrator attempts regional accents that he can not do.They seem to be speeded up in some cases. Just stick to naming charicters without the accents.

awful english accent

good storyline but spoilef by reader who CANNOT do an English accent. spoiled book for me.

Gripping story

Great story, with loads of threads weaving in and out.
For me though it was let down by the narrator, which is a shame. Got to be some of the worst English accents I've ever heard.
Sorry to put a downer in it. But you get past that and your be happy with the writhing ...

The Undead in the UK

A good start to the series and paves the way for next few books. A group of elite soldiers are part of the fight against the zombie apocalypse in the UK. Great book just not sure why they have an American narrator.

Great

Genuinely one of my favourite zombie books, listened to this series at least 6 times. Now my 7th.
Some parts CAN be unbelievable and there are other parts I wish for more attention but overall a genuinely amazing series along with a fantastic narrator who does well to distinguish between characters, so much so Andrew B. Has become one of my favourite narrators. He really does this series and the characters justice.
I appreciate the slow build up at first to the zombie outbreak, really interesting to explore.

Fantastic book

Gritty and perfect zombie book,
So realistic and by far the most realistic zombie series going

Gruesomely entertaining

I really enjoyed this book, it was highly entertaining in a gruesome way, action packed with likeable characters that just made me want to keep reading. I definately want to read the next book, and can't wait to start. I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Really great story

I have really enjoyed this story - fab writing

I liked the camaraderie between the team - the action in several places and many character stories to get swept along with.

Its a great zombie book, and at first I thought it was US based because of the narrator but soon realised it was UK - this was the one downfall - the narrator is good, but for a British based story a narrator with a better collection of English accents or a British narrator would be better, especially as I assume Taffy is Welsh and yet he spoke perfect American!

This is not going to put me off listening to the next three books but is was why my star dropped in the overall score