This Dying World: The End Begins (Unabridged‪)‬

Excellent book for zombie enthusiast! 

Once upon a time Dan Foster, his brothers and best buds thought a zombie apocalypse might be something to prepare for; little did they know. Living in a row of joined townhouses with his wife and daughter sounded like a good idea – it was!   There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night and discovering a roaring out of control fire zipping from home to home and there are flesh eating zombies outside too!

Dan, Abby and his daughter, Katie must fight their way to their car then to the family farm to escape the deadly monsters roaming, hunting them.  Along the way, they encounter a church filled with zeds and a trio of “scum of the earth” brothers who are bikers.  Now they have to deal with deadliest of humans as well as zeds.  Leaving the cities far behind, they head off to the countryside of Wisconsin to join his brothers and friends.

Faced with decisions that eat away at his humanity, Dan fights for the lives of his wife, daughter, brothers and friends.  No longer able to be the fun-sarcastic-always has a joke; Dan faces life head on becoming the man he must be to keep everyone safe!

James Dean vividly places his listeners in the mind of Dan Foster, showing us how he goes from mild mannered man to deadly protector.  I enjoyed how Abby and Dan was a couple, their playful banter and importantly, how she could calm him during those moments when the deadly protector made his appearance.  Eating beans out of the can was so well described that I won’t be able to see a can of beans without thinking of Dan.  Dean also places his listeners directly in the story through his character and plot development.

The other characters in the book were well developed as well.  You knew right away that Adam was going to be the proverbial thorn that would take everyone out of paradise (well, what passes as paradise in a zombie apocalypse). I thought Dean did an excellent job of coming up with a unique feature of the zombies thus providing some new twists.

Eric Shelman, narrator was able to whip out those sarcastic, fun comments as if they were second nature.  His ability to read the book with enthusiasm and getting caught up in the action was solid and enjoyable.  Shelman voiced all the characters in rich tones that made the reading more enjoyable.  Shelman presented each voice placing them with the right character and was steady in his reading.  He read with confidence and projected the inner strength of each character.

There were no real issues with production although there was an instance or two where it sounded like Shelman was speaking from a tunnel.  It did not take away from the book, it was just something I noticed.

Excellent book for zombie enthusiast!  I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and hearing Shelman – I couldn’t stop listening and made times when I could listen uninterrupted!  I look forward to more books written by James Dean and read by Eric Shelman!

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

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