The Last Weekend

De: Nick Mamatas

Narrado por: Kevin T. Collins

Vasilis "Billy" Kostopolos is a Bay Area Rust Belt refugee, a failed sci-fi writer, a successful barfly, and, since the exceptionally American zombie apocalypse, an accomplished "driller" of reanimated corpses. There aren't many sane, well-adjusted human beings left in San Francisco, but facing the end of the world, Billy's found his vocation trepanning the undead, peddling his one and only published short story, and drinking himself to death.

Things don't stay static for long. Billy discovers that both his girlfriends turn out to be homicidal revolutionaries. He collides with a gang of Berkeley scientists gone berserker. Finally, the long-awaited "Big One" shakes the foundation of San Francisco to its core, and the crumbled remains of city hall can no longer hide the awful secret lurking deep in the basement. Can Billy unearth the truth behind America's demise and San Francisco's survival - and will he destroy what little's left of it in the process? Is he legend, the last man, or just another sucker on the vine?

Nick Mamatas takes a high-powered drill to the lurching, groaning conventions of zombie dystopias and conspiracy thrillers, sparing no cliché about tortured artists, alcoholic "genius", noir action heroes, survivalist dogma, or starry-eyed California dreaming. Starting in booze-soaked but very clear-eyed cynicism and ending in gloriously uncozy catastrophe, The Last Weekend is merciless, uncomfortably perceptive, and bleakly hilarious.

©2014 Nick Mamatas; First Night Shade Books edition 2016 (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

The narrator

The narrator saved this book. I love the zombie genre, but this was more a whining writer than a great book. Had I been reading it, I doubt I would have made it past chapter one.

Bypass if you're looking for a zombie book

This is not, ABSOLUTELY NOT, a zombie book until the last hour of the book. This is more like a comedy/tragedy set during a zombie post/apocalypse. The main character isn't very likeable, though he does have character development by the end.

However the plot is very very hard to follow. Half the time they're just drinking in the bar with tons of
background character descriptions that add nothing to the story or he's pining for a drink, and the other time you're in flashbacks about his life before the dead walked. There is very little tieing the plot together.

It's good for listening as background noise. The narrator does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life. Unfortunately, that's really the only thing going for this audiobook. It was free so i didnt lose much getting it, but probably won't listen again.

Disappointing

My hopes started out high and steadily declined from there.Not worth it.I love apocalypse style stories but this was sorely lacking

eye roll

are you serious? I havent even finished yet. This writer must be a perpetual creative writing student, uncel and raging alcoholic. most likely depends on their word of the day calendar. My eyes have rolled so many time so far that I have a headache.

A more cerebral zombie story than you might expect

I haven't read much by Mamatas but what I have read has been interesting. Stuff that has made me think and examine life. There were parts of the book where I felt that if I wanted the full effect, I would need to sit and analyze different elements. The kind of writing that just screams "dissect my symbolism!"

The story here focuses on Billy as he tries to survive a post-apocalyptic but still functioning world. Zombies have disrupted the United Stated but not destroyed it. City government is still functioning and hiring drillers to finish any zombies that appear, a job for which Billy is newly hired. We follow Billy as he performs and excels at his job but then at the same time suffers with the other aspects of life: relationships and his heart's desire of being a writer.

There are a lot of elements to Billy's life that readers get to consider: conspiracy theories, letting the world impact your life, the starving artist. I found the novel fit into a Venn Diagram of Enjoyment, Literature, and Cliche. The starving artist cliche became a bit much and was borderline annoying before I found myself back in Enjoyment which would morph into Literature. Some of the symbolic portions left me realizing there was more depth to the novel than expected; other portions had me knowing that something was there but that I was missing something. Overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more stuff by Mamatas. At the same time, I understand many of the more frustrated reviews.

Great story, bad reader.

Great story, but the narrator feels rushed. Most bad reviews seem related to the second chapter and out of context reactive outrage. As a gay white man with a black boyfriend, I kinda feel like I should mention that both of us very much enjoyed laughing at the obvious absurdity of the writer. If you got mad at his message, you didn't understand it.

Funny. Raunchy. Alcoholic.

Not the usual Z or PA novel at all. Fast paced. Hilarious. Irreverent. Raunchy. Drunken. Somewhat of an unrequited love story. The ending lacks depth but the ride is worth a listen for sure. You will definitely laugh out loud.

a more literary ride through zombie-town

The Last Weekend, by Nick Mamatas, is billed as a novel of “zombies, booze, and power tools,” which may be the truthiest bit of truth in advertising that ever was. This sucker is chock full of all three, and each are at the core of Billy Kostopolos’s world and, to a degree, his identity.

The Last Weekend is told in first-person, so we get to know Billy pretty well (whether we like it or not). Billy is a haughty writer and alcoholic who hides his many insecurities behind choice phrases he has memorized from literature, lobbing out quotes from Shakespeare and Charles Bukowski in an effort to impress and/or alienate those around him. To put it simply, Billy’s pretty much a jackass. After being scorned by his girlfriend, he’s fled west to San Francisco without much in the way of advanced planning beyond drinking himself to death. He just so happens to wake up hungover one morning in the midst of the zombie apocalypse and decides to become a particular brand of city employee known as a driller. With supplies short, drillers are equipped with, naturally enough, power drills to destroy the brains of the infected. Even though he’s mostly waiting to die, Billy is still a writer first-and-foremost, and he chases experiences in order to give his words weight, and there’s not much weightier in the world anymore than running a drill bit through some old lady’s brain pan.

Like all really good zombie stories, this book is not about the zombies per se. True, the zombies provide plenty of impetus for action and reaction, but they’re largely set dressing to gussy up the plot. The real story here is Billy and the society he lives in, as people are forced to reconnect and survive in a post-apocalyptic world of sorts (America, we learn early on, is the only country affected by this plague of the undead). Mamatas has lots to say about the nature and struggles of being a writer, as well as alcoholism and depression. This all gets wrapped up in a dark sheen of cynical, black humor, occasional bouts of wicked violence, and an interesting detour through the history of the 49ers gold rush, SanFran cemeteries and burial rites.

Narrator Kevin T. Collins delivers a terrific performance with his narration, hitting all the right alternating beats of insecure and sanctimonious to bring Billy to life. Billy may not always be the ideal protagonist to spend eight hours with, but Collins makes this an easily enjoyable listen and serves Mamatas’s material quite well. The production quality is top-notch, and the audio is clean.

The Last Weekend is an easy book to recommend for horror fans looking for a more literary ride through zombie-town, or maybe just for those who thought Leaving Las Vegas needed a good dose of the undead and power tools. I suspect, though, that if there are any other authors giving this a listen, some of the material may hit uncomfortably close. Now, if you’ll excuse me, after having spent a few days in the company of one Billy Kostopolos, I think I need a drink.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

this book is ahead of its time or behind

this book is ahead of its time or behind i cant figure it out.

Lost in Las Vegas meets Zombies????

Literary genius with no character development. Listened to 3 books inbetween the beginning and end of this book.

not my taste but well executed

the story is not for me, the voice actor is on point for the character and the story was not bad exactly, but i found it hard to want to listen to it.