The Mountains Are Calling

Crawlerz, Book 3

By: R S Merritt

Narrated by: Elliott Bales

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The nights grow longer with winter's coming.

With more time to roam, the infectious menace of the crawlerz continues to spread to every corner of the continent. It won't be long until nowhere is really safe. With their strange powers and superhuman strength growing daily, the crawlerz are poised to completely annihilate the human race—if not in this lifetime, then certainly in the dwindling of future generations. Huddled in wretched little holes. Terrified to venture out into the world once the sun sets. Picking away at the slowly shrinking mountains of MREs and canned spam, humanity will eventually cease to exist.

Unless they stand up now to the tyrannical cowards supposedly charged with protecting the people there may not be a people left for the corrupt politicians to exploit. Drew, Yue, and LeBron are confronted with impossible choices in this third release in the crawlerz series. Do they choose the easy path, or take the one through the mountain pass where the slightest misstep could leave them buried in an avalanche?

Join their journey to see.

This is the third book in the crawlerz series.

©2021 Randall Merritt (P)2022 Randall Merritt

Good series so far...

I’m enjoying this series, for the most part. A couple things stick out for me though:

But first I need to say this: Elliott Bales is a terrific narrator. Full stop.

I've only found one area that seems to be where Mr. Bale's weakness lies, which is the skill to create distinct voices for each of the characters. I realize this is a very difficult task, made especially hard due to the score of characters in the series. I’m also cognizant that the book's format - single-person narrative - makes that task tremendously challenging.

In some respects, the narrator can only be as good as the writing...

And the writing is only satisfactory. It often takes on a conversational style, which makes some sense as the POV interchanges among the main characters, although sometimes we get the POV of a minor/secondary character. Essentially, we are supposed to be privy to the innermost thoughts of the characters we're meant to care about, and yet...

Unfortunately, their thoughts tend to lean towards the simplistic and/or the obvious. We don't get any deep, intense thoughts or feelings, no important secrets or embarrassing insecurities. There's no introspective musings going on in any of their brains. Sure, sometimes they think about the past, and the things and people they've lost (I think mom and dad are only mentioned once in this book). It's usually said in passing though, with no genuine feelings expressed. Even as one of the survivors is unemotionally describing for the listener their 'new-normal 'fashion' accessories' (my phrasing, not from the book), consisting of various and multiple knives and guns, they don't fully pause to process what they've become. They almost seem dispassionate about the end of the world/apocalypse 😐🥱😴.

One last concern regarding the writing:

The author *always* only lets us know who just spoke AFTER the character has spoken. This means that the listener very often has no clue which character is speaking until the end of the conversation. It's not a deal breaker, but it does truly pull me 'out of' that crucial state of 'suspension of disbelief'. So instead of seamlessly 'seeing' the story in my head, I often wonder, 'Who's speaking...?', trying to consider who it might be (remember...? Mr. Bale's skill for distinct voices needs some practice 🤭), which means not paying attention to what's being read, which means needing to catch up to the story, which means constantly rewinding 30 seconds at a time 🤦🏽‍♀️. #ADHD

Of course I can only speak for myself, so I have no clue if other listeners feel the same way. But if you struggle to "stay" with a story like I do, (#ADHD) then this might be something you might want to take into consideration.

Other than that, I'm still enjoying the series, and I'll be using another credit tonight to get the 4th book!

Favorite book so far in the series

I’m really loving all of the new characters — I especially like Harley and even Jeff. I love how action packed this book was and love the different scenarios the characters were placed in. I also really enjoyed all the sarcastic banter in this book and the apologies the author used to describe the scenes. So far it’s been my favorite in the series and I’m excited to read/listen to more!

good fun ride. Krazy zombie stuff.

the military uses M-4 s ARs are civilians guns. armor lite brand rifles, not assault rifle.

Good book

It’s a nice book to listen to while working voice actor is loud enough to be heard over my air hose’s

Not bad

Love the series and this book but sometimes it feels like just a guy reading a story. Not enough personality in the reading but still one of my favorite series.

Theyre all over!

Honestly the story is good. But it gets quickly tiring how the main characters have this aamaazing plot armor and everyone else dies. Especially how the main characters are constantly doing the most stupid mistakes and getting others killed. i dont understand how people actually decide to follow the characters when they havent done anything to deserve that leadership position. And one of the characters is supposed to be a genius but he never makes any actual contributions other than getting others killed and never speaking up when he has to. And the author writes too many lines where he is trying to be like a teenager and it shows that he isnt. A for effort though. Otherwise, the zombies and overall plot of the series is good. And I like hearing the narrator so it aint all bad.

amazing story telling.

a wonderfully woven series that will keep you on the edge of your seat! Certainly an author to keep your eyes on.

love

really loved it hope that the series continues a lot of deaths for sure it's not like other series where you think that all these people are going to survive but this author does not care he kills everybody.

This audiobook series is as it gets

Amazing story and narration. 10 out of 10 I love this series. This author is incredible. I’m going to listen his other series as soon as I’m done with
#4 in this one.

Loved it - just like the others!

This was another fantastic installment in the series. Loved it. I’m going to keep going now to crawlers 4.