Laid-back Zombie Horror

This really is good value, three books for one credit and the best part of thirty hours audio. Mountain Man takes a fairly laid back approach to the zombie genre and pitches you straight into the post-apocalypse. No creepy prologue, no building of the tension, no panic as the zombies gradually take over the world. Instead we join Gus, the Mountain Man, who has managed a life of relative luxury for himself by post-apocalyptic standards thanks to finding a fortunate location to hole up in. He spends most of his time drunk and isn’t exactly the sophisticated socialite around town . . . so naturally I loved him! There’s very little new here for fans of the genre except perhaps the often more laid back approach to the whole situation.

Don’t be fooled though, these books don’t exactly hold back many punches when it comes to the horror sides of either zombies or the residual humanity. The genuinely evil Tenner will put paid to any doubts about that. You can if you want do a check on horror levels and some of the style of the books by listening to “The Hospital” which is a free, short prequel which goes rather further than I had imagined it would in the maternity ward. If you are okay with that then you should be okay with the rest but note it is as gruesome as most books of this kind. Gus’s attempts at self-dentistry at one point did have me genuinely wincing . . .

The series gets criticised a lot for being repetitive and I can see that. There’s a lot of fight zombies, get drunk, wake up with a hangover in the first couple of books and when a new undead terror emerges it almost seems like the groups of characters take turns to have the same battle against them. That said, the three books included here have very distinctive characters. The first introduces the two main protagonists in Gus and Scott as well as the evil Tenner. The second sees Gus alone doing his “Castaway” thing trying to survive alone and it gets pretty claustrophobic at times in that addled mind of his. The third and longest follows Scott’s story on his mission of revenge. It’s much more a standard post-apocalyptic zombie story with one or two human and added undead horrors thrown in.

The narration, the great RC Bray, possibly not quite as at home with these as say the Arisen series but still excellent nonetheless. In all, three books in one, check out the free short in The Hospital if you have doubts and if you like that these three books for one credit represent a high value proposition. It’s a mix of black humour and plenty of horror / violence. If that’s your thing, these are worth checking out.

29 people found this helpful

Zombies meets Mad Max

Overall the Mountain Man is by no mean the most technical story in the world. The characters are not too complex and the trajectory is not exactly unexpected. The words "easy listening/reading" come to mind. This is particularly true for the first two books, where the last in this omnibus is a bit of a diversion. Having said that, it is no less than what you could ask for from an awesome zombie story.

A previous reviewer comments how it would be a bit of a gruel to listen to all three books continuously. Me and my partner took heed of this advice by splitting it up with others in our library but we'd have to agree that it is most likely much more enjoyable if broken up.

Simply put: we thoroughly enjoyed this omnibus. Keith Blackmore is a great writer, very effective at building a picture but at the same time keeping it lite and flowing. And for R. C. Bray it’s just another awesome reading with great delivery and no stumbles whatsoever – every pronunciation, emphasis and pause is just perfectly placed. Bray seems to get a little better at distinguishing character voices in the later volumes but that’s no bother as there’s fewer characters earlier on anyway.

The second book seems to start introducing some inconsistencies to its own logic that had us on a bit of a “hmm, oh well, this could all fall apart” type thing. But the third book seemed to address this (if only fleetingly) and answered (if I remember correctly) all our questions that popped up. The final book balanced on potentially going a little repetitive with the whole “escaping from zombies” scenario but totally makes up for it by diverting entirely, even poking fun at itself towards the final climax.

Brilliant and well placed humor, soft but dark. Gripping most of the way through but not too full of twists and cliffhangers. And one final note: it is full on BRUTAL. Blackmore turns dead flesh into an art-form. You've just got to hear it to understand.

Totally looking forward to the next book “Well Fed”.

6 people found this helpful

mountain man

loved every second of this book. R.C.Bray is awesome read brilliantly can't wait to read more

6 people found this helpful

Canadian takeaway

There are many, Zombie survival story's out at the present. This is up there as one of the best. New heroes evolve as does the story, it would be interesting to see if there's a forth book in the series to catch up with Gus!
A really interesting read, with the twist of serial killers and canables thrown into the mix!

5 people found this helpful

another virus....

Started listening to this series just as Covid-19 hit, and we all went into lockdown. Complete co-incidence. Made me look at my store cupboard and pantry supplies in a whole new light. I did find myself looking to check I had easy access to my attic if need be though - and I found "staying in" quite easy when my brain morphed the fiction of the story with our weird lockdown reality. It's a typical zombie apocalypse story. Lots of fighting. Lots of bad guys and a few good guys. (why is it that the nutters and psychopaths always seem to be amongst the last people standing in these things?). Well narrated, and an easy listen if the apocalypse genre is what you're into. Personally, I think I need real escapism in the future - this one seemed a little too close to home in the current climate.

3 people found this helpful

Good start, but gets tiresome by 3rd book

Any additional comments?

If I'd reviewed this book after finishing the first book in the series, I'd have given it 5 stars. By the end of the second, I'd started to lose a little interest and lost a lot of any 'connection' with Gus as the protagonist. I'm actually still on the third book and to be honest I'm having trouble finishing it as it's lost it's appeal now. The story of the first book starts great, straight into the situation with no preamble of how the zombie situation began. It has a good pace and the introduction of Scott is well placed and the two characters work well within the context of the story. However this pace falls off in the second book, and Gus starts to become a bit of a sad-case and I began to lose interest in how he would get out of his situation. The story of Gus then simply ends quite abruptly when he is 'rescued'. As others have said, the storyline is very repetitive and while some haven't had a problem with this, I've struggled with it and now by book 3 it's difficult going to the point that I'm not really interested anymore on hearing what happens to Scott. As such I'm sorry to say I can only give it 3 stars, however I would say that the first book is a very enjoyable read, but since you can get the whole 3 books for a single credit, it makes sense to get the entire content and see if you like it. I give it 4 stars overall as the story is very well read and the first book is well worth a read, but its only 3 stars for the story as the second and third books really fall off in my opinion.

3 people found this helpful

Stunning description

Great tale of how life could unfold and characters who may crop up in a nightmare world. A far deeper insight into the daily lives of a few than some in the zombie genre. I loved it.

2 people found this helpful

Getting drunk and killing dead heads

Great reads really enjoyed that last book with tenor... Will say no more good books

2 people found this helpful

A Big Disappointment

Purchased the trilogy and was so bored with it after the first book I struggled through the second. Skipped chapters and didn’t make any difference.

1 person found this helpful

Gus

what beautifully descriptive scenes and then there's the horror! loved all the main characters the good the bad and the ugly. the narrator's "gravelly " voice for the different characters was brilliant. I could have listened to this forever. some really horrific scenes that made my toes curl. loved it

1 person found this helpful