The Last Mailman

By: Kevin Burke

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Four-year degree in business.Trained in hand-to-hand combat. Works well with zombies. This is the resume of the last mailman on Earth.

It is the near future, and the modern world we knew has been overrun and destroyed by reanimated corpses who hunt humans for food. Mankind has retreated to small pockets of civilization and practically surrendered to these walking dead. But one man routinely leaves behind the safety and comfort of his home in this new world in order to find the people and things we’ve long abandoned. He battles the elements. He battles his own brewing insanity. But mostly, he battles zombies. This is his story.

©2011 Kevin Burke (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Zombies but not as many as expected

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

Yes but only to newbie zombie fans. Simply because it an easy read, short enough not to take to long, amusing in some places and with just enough twists and turns to keep you interested without taking the story to deep.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was true to the rest of the story. Brought a smile and left me thinking I could easily listen to another from this author

What about Marc Vietor’s performance did you like?

Clear, not slow like many narrators

Could you see The Last Mailman being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, but I couldn't help but think of Kevin Costner in 'The Mailman"

Any additional comments?

Not as good as some of the zombie series books going around today but still not bad. I would happily give the author another read!

Interesting

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Kevin Burke's The Last Mailman is a typical zombie story about zombie and apocalyptic survival; in this aspect nothing sets it apart from other zombie books (well except for the Bill and super zombie scenario). His job and the psychological/emotional responses is what makes this book interesting. Nothing deep or profound, just interesting! Main male Character reminded me of a mixture of Clint Eastwood meets Bruce Campbell.

I think I would change who lives and who dies in the book. Cannot say too much about this; I do not want spoil the story for others.

Would you be willing to try another book from Kevin Burke? Why or why not?

Depends on subject

What about Marc Vietor’s performance did you like?

Yes Marc did well

Could you see The Last Mailman being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Oh yes.....and I would love to be the casting agent on this movie!

Another promising book about zombies

Any additional comments?

I chose The Last Mailman: Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Zombies because it was another promising book about zombies. I love zombie books; they tend to be so entertaining. It also has the added intrigue of the thought-provoking title; I mean what do people need with a mailman if the world has been taken over by zombies?

In a world that has been overrun by zombies for the past 4 years, we're introduced to DJ Haddox, the "mailman" of the survivor colony of New York. Haddox's role as mailman is to travel the wastelands to determine what happened to the family and friends the survivors left behind, often times bringing back mementos from the family home. I was disappointed that he only carried out one of these missions. There are a few factual errors of details about weapons and such, which I was able to overlook.

Overall this is a fun story. Lots of action, many twist and turns, lots of interesting characters and situations. I absolutely hated the ending, because to me it seems all gum drops and puppy dogs, happy go lucky ending that zombie books shouldn't have.
Narrator Review

I did not care for Marc Vietor's narration. The rasp of his soft spoken voice made me think that all of the characters were 60 year old smoking men, or a variation there of. While I think he did well for the main character, DJ, but often had trouble figuring out who was speaking.

Not worth a credit

The first part of this book just drags on and on. Then every time it starts to get good, the author makes a real technical blunder, or something happens that no reasonable person would do, given the circumstances. Clearly not enough weapons research was done.
Want a good Zombie story? Read J L Bourne, his Zombie books rule... RIP brother....

Don't waste a credit

A promising premise overshadowed by some of the worst dialogue I have ever encountered. And Kevin, a cross bow is not a repeating rifle.... one of many absurdities in this "story"
Must be part of my "eat the food on your plate" upbringing but I had to force myself to finish this. And after I did? I have learned a valuable lesson. When a storey is this bad, chalk it up to a lesson learned and hit delete.

Misogyny; misleading story summary

The publisher's description is intriguing. And really vague. This book is not what I expected.

The story starts okay, and then the protagonist goes home to a male dominated community where the fertile women are used as breeding stock. And these highly unrealisistic female characters are mostly delighted to whore themself out to their community's equivalent of a rock star--the protagonist.

I listened for as long as I could, hoping that maybe Burke would, like Stieg Larson, show male characters hating women characters in order to bring awareness to the absolute horror of such treatment. Then the story just got stupid, and I couldn't bear to listen any longer.

fast off the line slow to finish in last place

This book seemed like it might be a worthy listen at first, it had some new takes on zombies and life afterwards for survivors. It had action and even a little bit of sex not to far into the book, however from there it fell on its face crash and burn style. The author started killing off characters that he spent many chapters in the book as pivital characters in stupid ways. No heroic or even tragic ways, just stupid an example is as in all zombie type stories if you get bit you will turn into a zombie well in a getaway scene some one gets a scratch not a bite from a zombie just a every day normal scratch the person see's it after getting away from the zombies seeing the scratch and then blowing there own head off to not become a zombie from a scratch. Or another example would be a character is introduced in the 2nd part of the book that has lived in a world that is filled with zombies for 4 years, meaning that they know how to survive and suddenly forgets to shut the door to the warehouse he is staying in and zombies get in over night and he gets eaten in the morning because he is to fat to run from zombies that can not move faster than a slow walking speed. Forgetting to shut a door after 4 years?!? the only entrance or exit between him and zombies.... just flew outta his head. By the 3rd part of the book the author was killing off almost every character, and also made the main character the mailman look completely stupid, incompetent, reckless with other peoples lives, and for lack of a better phrase just a plain old ass. This character describes himself upto that point of the book as a person that you must look at life in a zombie world in a realistic way. You can't take chance always have a plan and a back up plan, 1 mistake and thats it game over. Then he knowingly introduces super zombies into the world, all because he can't do what he has been saying you must do to survive in a zombie filled world for the whole damn book. Also I have to mention that the author must hate women, he uses the angle that in a post zombie world and trying to survive and bringing new generations into a survivors community that women not only are willing to be used as incubators and they don't care who gets them pregnant but they also like it, they suddenly leave there spouses or boyfriends with a smile because they happen to be steril. Then go to a complete strangers room and say k baby lets get me pregnant so we get more people here in our community. All in the name of humanity surviving. Now I understand that there are women out there that actually like being pregnant and having babies, but there isn't a women alive that loves to be treated like a breeding horse. There is actually a line in the book where the main character is telling one of these women " I would love to have sex would you over and over, unless of course you get a bun in the oven. Then I would need to kick you to the curb." and she laughs it off and says "Yeah"
Rape is also common in this book, that however I can't say only happens in this zombie story, sadly its a common thing in many zombie stories because no one is left alive to stop the jerks that survive. But this author places it in his book like its just a way of life. That its a woman's place in life to spread her legs for any guy and like it.

Don't waste your credit on this, look for something else.

good book

Where does The Last Mailman rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

this is good it has some different things not seen in other z-books . it reminds me of gears of war how man is forced into little pockets and have to go out and scavange 2 survive

pretty good book.

This was a good listin. Entertaining, The story was good. Kept me listining. I would reccomend this book.

The Last Mail Man delivers!

Great story from beginning to end. I definitely recommend purchasing and listening! You’ll be happy you did.