The Valley of Shadows

Black Tide Rising, Book 5

By: John Ringo, Mike Massa

Narrated by: Tristan Morris

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

New novel in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising series.

From his corner office on the 44th floor of the Bank of the Americas tower on Wall Street, Tom Smith, global managing director for security, could see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park - and a ravening zombie horde.

Officially, Smith was paid to preserve the lives and fortunes of employees, billionaires, and other clients. And with an implacable virus that turned the infected into ravenous zombies tearing through the city, the country, and the world, his job just got a lot harder.

Good thing Smith, late of the Australian special forces, isn’t a man to give up easily. But saving civilization is going to take more than the traditional banking toolbox of lawyers, guns, and money. Smith needs infected human spinal tissue to formulate a vaccine - and he needs it by the truckload. To get it, he will have to forge a shady alliance with both the politicians of the City of New York and some of its less savory entrepreneurs.

But all of his back-alley dealing may amount to nothing if he can’t stave off the fast-moving disease as it sweeps across the planet, leaving billions dead in its wake. And if he fails, his only fallback is an incomplete plan to move enough personnel to safe havens and prepare to restart civilization.

What’s more, there are others who have similar plans - and believe it or not, they’re even less charitable than a Wall Street investment banker. Sooner or later, Smith will have to deal with them.

But first he has to survive the fall.

A new novel in John Ringo’s best-selling Black Tide Rising zombie apocalypse series.

©2018 John Ringo and Mike Massa (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

what happened to Tom

enjoyed finding out what happened to brother Tom! Good to know he may have a story later.

Another reason a television network should adapt Black Tide Rising

Ringo’s Black Tide Rising series is better “zombie” fiction than “The Walking Dead” because people don’t make stupid decisions.

I very much enjoyed Black Tide Rising, however, my one complaint was that the first half of the book, which dealt with the fall of society seemed rushed. Valley of Shadows answers that. The majority of the book is an extended version of events that were in the background of the first book.

Simply put, if any network (and it would have to be a Cable network because of the nature of what the zombies do when they become zombies) had the notion of adapting the series, the first book and this book mixed together would make for an excellent 16 episode season.

The Zombies Are Coming...Again

This book goes back to the first days of the coming zombie apocalypse to follow the other Smith brother—Tom—who runs global security for the Bank of America and (in book 1) was responsible for producing the anti-zombie vaccine that was so important to his brother Steve (and Steve’s family’s) survival in books 1-4. It is a refreshing read because after spending three books fending off zombies in a gutted world, I had forgotten how tense the situation was as the world first started to fall apart. It makes me want to go back and reread the entire series.

So while the growing threat they pose drives all the action of the book, this is not really a novel about the undead, but about the practical politics necessary to motivate politicians and other influential people to recognize the true extent of the threat and act to save the planet. Most people are simply unable to mentally accept how dangerous and out of control the situation is growing. And then there are those who see this as an opportunity to increase their wealth and power. Add in those driven insane by the apocalypse and you have an incredibly exciting novel.

There is an Easter Egg buried in this book for those who have read others of Ringo’s novels. Ghost from the Paladin of Shadows series is on the edges of this book. I’d love to see Ringo write a novel about how Ghost and the Keldara dealt with the zombie apocalypse.

The saga continues, on a fork of the original.

Excellent fill-in of what happens in NYC as the Smiths depart and Tom covers his responsibilities. Another stellar narration.

Filled in some blanks.

Fills in on what happened to Tom right up to about a month before the Smith family started clearing ships. I'm hoping that this is a trilogy. I loved that the Brewmistress of the Keldara was mentioned. LOL!

Wow! That was great.

I’m really enjoying this series! This book goes back to the beginning,where the bankers, police, and mobsters got together to save . New York. Making vaccines as fast as possible to try and slow the fall down. That is until they started killing each other off.Lots of action while at the end Tom is trying to get out of NY before it’s too late.

Fantastic new installment in the series!

The pairing of Mike Massa and John Ringo is apparently an awesome one. I absolutely loved this book. Definitely lives up to the rest of the series - can’t wait for the next installment!

so happy

Been asking my self i wander what happened to Tom for a long time now we find out

Too soon.

My only disappointment is that it feels like the second half of the story is missing. What happens Next????? I can't wait to find out!

more!

loved this continuation, I only hope we get more! more Tom and his crazy Russian lady friend, and the National guard soldiers. what happens next?