David A

A Fun Read and a New Take on an overdone Genre

Revisado: 04-04-25

Some Zombie Books are fantastic but they are few and far between after you’ve read the classics. The introduction to this Book along with the ‘Free’ part caught my attention. The Virtual Voice narration however was not much of a selling point. This was the first book I listened to using it and I was pretty wary. Surprising after a few minutes I got used to it. The main story turned out to be fast paced, and the Author added enough originality to the Zombie part of the story to keep me listening. It’s a good solid horror Book.
Since then I have listened to many of Matt Dribble’s other Free, Virtual Voice narrated Books on Audible. Several are quite good. I’ve left a few reviews on his other Books.

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Worth a Look and Free for now at least

Revisado: 04-04-25

Listened to this Triology offered free on Audible narrated by Virtual Voice. It was the Free part and intro Blurb about the story that made me try this. The Books may be free but my time is not. The Story drew me in and although not great at times I liked the characters and went through the Trilogy quickly. These books were read with Virtual Voice. Virtual Voice is by no means as good as talented narrator but after the first 5 minutes you get used to it. I assume the author although having many books on Audible is self publishing or just doesn’t have the money for a professional narrator. The Trilogy was not bad via Virtual Voice and I enjoyed it. No doubt a good narrator would have made it even better. I rated the Trilogy as a 4 but it’s really more of a 3.75. That’s a pretty good Score compared to the majority of horror books I’ve paid for on Audible never mind Free books.
Matt Drabble, the author whom I’ve never heard of before has multiple Horror Books on Audible and I’ve listened to several of them.
They were all decent, some good solid horror, and definitely worth a try.

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Decent Book

Revisado: 04-04-25

The Author has multiple free Books narrated by Virtual Voice on Audible. I liked this one. Virtual Voice was new to me and surprisingly it wasn’t terrible. A good narrator can really enhance the enjoyment of a book. While Virtual Voice doesn’t do this it was not the monotone robotic listen I was expecting. The main story line of this book is not original but the author adds his own original take. It’s not Steven King level but it is solid horror and that’s hard to find. This was free and read by Virtual Voice but I wouldn’t have been upset had I used a credit on it as is.

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Not bad, not his best.

Revisado: 04-04-25

Tried one of the Author’s free Books on Audible narrated by Virtual Voice. He has some good stories. This one was not as good as some of the others but not I listened to the entire book. That’s not something I do with all the books I’ve gotten on Audible even the ones I’ve used a credit on.

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Not just a Review of 12 Battles

Revisado: 02-03-25

Not a Detailed Review of 12 Battles and that’s a good thing. Books with titles like the 10 Biggest, the 17 Most Important, the 13 Most Strategic, etc…. are usually not very enjoyable. Since they are covering Multiple different Battles in one Book they don’t have enough space to really cover anything but a basic narrative Summary of each Battle. A Battle and all that is associated with it is very complex. People have written Multi Volume sets on just One Battle. Trying to tackle a lot of Battles usually from different Time Periods never seems to work out that well (in my opinion) even when written by some of my favorite authors. While this Book says it’s about ‘12 Battles That Changed the Course of Western History’ it is and isn’t. Yes Battles are covered but not in much detail. The Battle is more a stepping off place for the authors views on aspects Battle, War, Society and more. This is much more interesting than just 12 Battle Narratives that you could just get off Wikipedia.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Woke - but readable (Semi Spoiler in review)

Revisado: 09-14-23

I am not a fan, nor am I an opponent, of Woke-ism (not the right word but close enough).
The author however is clearly a fan of the current progressive topic list.
The book covers Bullying, Me too issues, Racism, Gender identity, Anti Police portrayal, Anti Elite/Rich portrayal, Feminism - sort of, and on and on and on.
Even the horror is ‘Green’ based.
It seems like the author had a checklist and wanted make sure she checked every box.
She was very thorough.
That aside the plot was twisting and turning so much that the contrived characters, identifiers, and social justice concerns didn’t get in the way of the most important part - the story itself. It was a good read in the end.

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Decent, had a lot of potential but….

Revisado: 06-05-23

A good “Monsters in the Woods with a group people cut off and trapped in a cabin in the Winter” scenario. It’s been done many times before but this storyline has potential if done right.
The scenario alone made me give this book a chance - and it was on sale.
For the most part the story is good. The buildup is slow. The characters each have intertwined interesting backstories that make the vacation to the cabin and what might happen there interesting in itself. The horror part of the story is slowly inserted. It takes a while for the characters, who are all wrapped up in their own drama to realize something is wrong. Once that happens the horror part of the story takes over.
This part is where the story had some annoying parts.
Once a group of people accepts that Monsters are real and that death is a very real possibility they panic and often make bad choices in the stress of the moment - totally understandable.
This group after some initial loses now know what their up against and luckily they are not in immediate danger yet.
This is the part where they try to figure out how to survive.
Unfortunately this group continues to panic and make ridiculous choices rest of the book. There’s a lot of crying, whining, emotional outbursts, childish behavior and nothing that resembles any plan to try to survive. The characters are young, fit, healthy, and portrayed as smart. They have the strongest of bonds with each other. They are trapped true, but in an extravagant Lodge not an abandoned Cottage. There are plenty of resources to work with to help themselves, they even find a gun.
The Monsters are formidable and numerous but not incredibly bright. Most importantly they are not supernatural - they are flesh and blood and can be killed.
Sadly more mistakes are made. It gets annoying.
That criticism aside the book was better then many adaptions of this plot - just not great. So if you like books with this premise it’s probably worth a try.

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Fresh Approach

Revisado: 02-15-23

Would have given this a rating between a 4-5, say 4.5 but you can’t.
I choose 4 because the book is not perfect but then again no book is.
The Author wrote a very imaginative interesting story.
In addition the writing style itself was exceptional and unique.

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Good Book

Revisado: 02-15-23

A novel approach to the stale and now formulaic zombie genre.
Not that it is necessarily a zombie story but close enough.
A good read that improves even more as the entire story comes together.

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A Career Summary of Hastings’ Work

Revisado: 10-04-22

Excellent book. Be warned this covers some of his life experiences - but most of the book is made of of essays about his previous writing. He goes through his major books in World Chronology order not the order in which the books were written. He covers the major points and themes of each book adding some personal commentary. Each essay is interesting in its own right and it has made me want to re-read some of his books again. Good stand alone book but even more enjoyable for those who have been reading his books all along.

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