The Rising

By: Brian Keene

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Since its 2003 debut, Brian Keene's The Rising is one of the best-selling zombie novels of all-time. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, inspired the works of other authors and filmmakers, and has become a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of horror fans.

The Rising is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man.

©2003 Brian Keene (P)2017 David N. Wilson

Different type of zombie story

This is an unusual, action packed and somewhat disturbing story. Yes, like in the usual zombie tales, the dead do rise but they are not the shambling, mindless zombies that normally occur in this type of story. The dead, both human and animal, are just vessels for something more sinister and deadly. I must admit though, that the thought of a zombie fish did make me laugh and yet somehow it seemed to fit ok in that section of the story. No, this story wasn't perfect and it lacked detail in some places, but the multiple stories of different individuals do interweave to form a picture of desperation, strength, survival, immorality, loss and love. The narration in this newly released (07/2017) audiobook is great. The narrator lets you feel the horror and loss; the cold hatred of the risen dead, the guilt and responsibility Baker feels, the depravity of the meat wagon and the anguish as Jim desperately tries to reach his son. Overall I enjoyed this story but I did find the ending rather abrupt and somewhat frustrating

7 people found this helpful

Demonic Zombies!

Excellent post-apocalyptic book with a different spin on zombies! Demons are possessing the bodies of dead humans and animals! I love when an author can put a spin on the classic zombie and make it different than every other zombie book out there. I loved 99% of this book. I want to give the one fingered salute to the author for the ending! The whole book is Jim's story of survival on his way to rescue his son. He makes friends and enemies along the way and fights demonic zombies. It is very emotional and heart wrenching at times and very action packed! SPOILER.... Once he finally makes it to his destination, you never actually find out the results of the moment the whole book has been leading up to. You can make a good assumption, but you don't know for sure. Ultimate cliffhanger! It's a little upsetting! Amazing narration by Joe Hempel! He did an outstanding job! Despite the ending, I still would recommend this book!

4 people found this helpful

The Rising Part I

As everyone else has mentioned this is a different take on zombies which is quite refreshing. Even if you remove the zombies from the story, the plot, although familiar, is enjoyable. The different style zombies adds a uniqueness to the story and I am sure the second and third book will only get better as we learn more about them. There were a few aspects of the book I didn’t care for, namely getting invested in characters only to have them die.
This isn’t a standalone book and I wasn’t aware of that until the very end. Really looking forward to the next one because this book ends like the season of your favorite tv show, incomplete and forcing you to wait eagerly for the next one.
Joe Hempel as always did a fantastic job and at this point if his name is on the book I know that I will enjoy it.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

7 people found this helpful

Unique.

I always try to make my own synopsis when writing a review, but with this one I would probably spoil something, so I think the synopsis of the book says it all....... "THE RISING is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town, facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes, and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man."

I wasn't too sure what to expect going into this because there are some pretty negative reviews for it, but thank goodness it was better than I hoped. One thing that stands out the most is the Zombies. I loved the spin the author put on them. How they came about is definitely unique!!! Plus they are sentient, can think and plan and can shoot, drive and pretty much do everything. The Zombiness isn't just limited to humans either. Anything that can die will turn into one, so we have Zombie goldfish which is something I've never ever read before!!!

if you suspend disbelief, then the plot is good!! I liked how focused Jim is on finding his son and his journey there was filled with a lot of danger. I liked reading about the other characters and their journeys and I enjoyed seeing how they meet, but it was hard to connect with them all, as I thought they weren't fleshed out enough. I just didn't really care too much about them.

In all, this was a very different take on the Zombie books I usually read. It was a good read and the ending left me wanting to read the next book in the series. I'm hoping they bring it to audio soon!!

Joe Hempel is a narrator I find myself listening to more and more because he knows how to tell a good story. He has an array of tones and voices and always knows how to amp up the tension when needed. I hope he narrates the next one!!

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

6 people found this helpful

Really good ZomPoc book

What can you say about Brian Keene except that he is a really good writer. This story is emotional and has some aspects of zompoc that are unique. Anxious to see what happens in the sequel.

2 people found this helpful

this books the best zombie story I've come across

Brian Keene is my favorite author every horror fan should read his books !

2 people found this helpful

A solid story

Pretty good story, narrator stays mostly out of the way. I would check out the sequel.

2 people found this helpful

Can't believe I missed this one in print!

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Can't believe I missed this one in print. I'm a huge zombie genre fan and thought I had exhausted pretty much all of the greats. I thought this was a great spin on the genre, though fast zombies a FAR scarier than the traditional shambling undead. Add to that zombie animals and it makes this one truly unique. The narrator was great and the story was well written and engaging. A must have for any Zombie Apocalypse fan.

2 people found this helpful

Not your basic zombie book

Would you listen to The Rising again? Why?

Yes I most certainly will. It's not your same old basic zombie story with mindless zombies who just become background to the real living human threat.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Rising?

I loved the scene at the car dealer ship when the zombie was trying to sell them a car.

Have you listened to any of Joe Hempel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't but I'm looking forward too.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, there were lots of scenes that made you laugh and one that made me choke up a little.

2 people found this helpful

Not your Average Zombie Apocalypse!

This is not your average Zombie Apocalypse. If you are looking for the standard Zombie stuff this is not the story for you. But if your looking for a story that will hook you in with great characters and a new take on The Zombie Apocalypse stick around. These Zombies are the result of some brilliant Government Scientist playing with a particle accelerator. Something old and evil found its way back to our universe. The New Zombies only gut Not kill you or eat your brains you so that it can take over the body when it dies and the soul leaves.
One of the characters in this huge cast is Jim he has survived for the first 3 months but is separated from his son. He gets a phone call and the boy is in danger at his mothers and step dads home hundreds of miles away. And so begins the horror adventure. There are many other characters and stories lines but Jim's was my favorite. I highly recommend this excellent audio book. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and highly entertained.

The narration was done by Joe Hempel. Mr Hempel brings depth and passion to all the characters in the grand cast with a high quality, professional performance with great emotion and variation for each character.

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom.

2 people found this helpful

1st Book in a series.

For reasons I won't go into I stopped reading books back in the late 1990's and resumed reading them in 2017, the stresses of life during those twenty-seven or so years giving me little time to sit back and disappear into a book.

When I did start reading again (after buying one of those little eletronic book-type thingies) I started researching on what I had missed, and this I did by the obligatory internet seach-engines with something like “the best horror novels of the 90's”.

Eventually I came across a writer called Brian Keene, apparently a famous fella, and I selected a book pretty much at random from the cheaper end of the e-book spectrum; which turned out to be called “The Rising”, later I found the book in an audio format (narrated by Joe Hempel) and took the plunge.

Okay. I thought, lets give it a go; and so I did.

Now I'm a horror fan, and I have been since a nine year old me watching zombie movies and a ten year old me watched slahser flicks. By the time I was fifteen I had thousands of videocassettes (remember those?) and I have probably seen a fair few hundred zombie movies, so I'm pretty much zombied-out; or at least I thought I was.

The Rising sets the walking dead amidst a decidedly religious themed apocalypse that effectively changes all the rules we've been used to regarding the living dead.

Which for me was a welcome change.

These zombies talk and drive, work in teams and hatch plans that hint at an even darker truth behind it all that our heroes can barely guess at. Through this story we follow pockets of survivors, each with thier own mission, as they gradually converge on a rogue military base and the mad commander that runs it.

Theres a good amount of action on-hand and more than a little gore that spurs the reader on into a densely packed world that moves at an enviable pace across half of middle America; but thankfully we are in good hands with Joe Hempel as our narrator, who keeps things snappy and does not impede the books pacing.

As I hit the final minutes of the book I was already seaching for the second book in the series, purchasing it and downloading it as the final seconds of the first story rolled by and I'm certain that this sequel, City of the Dead, will not be the last Brian Keene book I'll be working through over the coming months.

Even if you're zombied-out as I was, this one might just make you revisit those lovable cadavers and their overly enthusiatic hickey's; really, all they want is some affection.