Dead Trees

By: Eli Constant

Narrated by: Pamela Lorence

Subterranean humanoids, existing since the dawn of man, arose from the belly of the planet. Humanity was unprepared. The undergrounders came with nails and claws and speed to kill people in the night, dragging bodies downward into dark tunnels teeming with rabid life. Civilization is now a ghost of yesterday and the remaining humans fight for survival.

One thing's for sure—a scientist mommy battling beasties better be handy with a scalpel.

Elise Swanson is a widow and mother. She fights and prays that she can keep her little, broken family safe. She drives and drives, day after day, trying to escape a threat that seems…inescapable. Her hope fades, food is scarce, and she watches her eldest daughter's attempts to soothe the younger babe. Then she meets Jason—a father mourning the loss of his son, masking his pain with bravado and charm. He's strong, despite his sadness, and love re-grows within him. Weeks pass, and Jason's singular desire becomes the continued safety of Elise and her daughters.

Bloody fights with beasties define the survival-road the companions travel. Even a few moments of safety and relaxation elude the group; time and time again, Elise must kiss her children good-bye, just in case tomorrow never arrives.

Against all odds, they reach a government safe zone. Even there, Elise finds that there's no rest for the weary.

Doctors O'Toole and Peters have been studying the beasties under lock and key, trying to find an answer, but the doctors aren't interested in saving humanity. Forced to lead two lives, Elise assists the good doctors in their pursuits while working secretly in sublevel lab 8 with her own team, Nick and Jamie. Their combined knowledge may be the key—the only hope humanity has of reclaiming the planet from the beasties. As long as they can keep their research secret, safe from O'Toole and Peters, they might discover the way home, the formula to click Dorothy's sparkling red shoes three times and begin to recreate Earth as it was…before the humanoids came out to play on the surface.

What will happen when Elise, a neural engineer, Jamie, a medical researcher, and Nick, a computer wizard, are humanity's best hope? The answer might be surprising. Wrapped up in all the uncertainty, violence, science lingo and beasties, they will find a strange solution to a new Earth.

And her name is Margaret.

©2012, 2013 Eli Constant (P)2023 Eli Constant; Bone Orchard Books

Good premise that stays safe

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, pretty predictable with odd perspective and not very believable. Characters do stupid things that earlier they cautioned against.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Immortality by Kevin Bohacz

What three words best describe Pamela Lorence’s performance?

No edge to the performance. Doesn't fit with the character although the character was pretty erratic in behavior and thought processes.

Did Dead Trees inspire you to do anything?

Delete it.

Dead Trees

If you could sum up Dead Trees in three words, what would they be?

Morlocks are real

Who was your favorite character and why?

Eliise,she was strong thru it all

What does Pamela Lorence bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A great voice for every character

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Beasties are us!

Any additional comments?

I listened to the Audible edition of this book and LOVED it.It's quite a page turner!The characters are actually people you can care about.The story is good.A nice twist on the planet being invaded.I enjoyed the narrator a lot.Her voice covered a lot of ground.I know the sequel is out there.I hope it comes to Audible soon!

Chilling to the end

What did you love best about Dead Trees?

It is nice to get a strong female protagonist in the many post-apocalyptic tales on the market today.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dead Trees?

How a woman's view can change over time, even when dealing with monsters.

Have you listened to any of Pamela Lorence’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I adore Pamela Lorence. I do have another series that she narrates and listen to it everyfew months for a chuckle and a reminder before embarking on the next book in that series.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Death from BELOW!

Any additional comments?

This is a fantastic story and well worth a listen.

Great audiobook.

Any additional comments?

When I started listening this not knowing how exciting and suspenseful it was going to be! I'm really not into the sci fy genre but I listened the first half in one night! Eli Constant has a way of capturing listener's attention in such a way that your imagination goes wild. I was on the edge of my seat and not wanting to finish it because I didn't want it to end.

A Unique Apocalypse

Dead Trees provides a unique apocalypse. Rather than zombies or plagues we have more or a HG Wells Jules Verne style underground humanoids rising up. The book doesn't really cover the fall itself, and I personally feel the scenario was not very plausible (eg the military not making a better stand against unarmed creatures), but just like zombie apocalypse books, you do have to "take things on faith". That was the authors imagination, and I'll go with it and enjoy. The story more or less starts post apocalypse (barring a secondary characters brief intro story), when humanity is nearly wiped out. Starting from this point, the tale is excellent. The main character, Elise, was a strong, resourceful, and caring character. You really got to like her. Initially it starts with her on the road with her daughters, surviving, and her party grows, and then they are "rescued" by the military remnants, and the story switches from survival to using brains to solve the problem, and you find Elise is a scientist with some ideas that turn out to be very useful indeed. Life in the military complex is somewhat strained, with some scientists forming some rather unorthodox experiments, and Elise working (for the greater good outcome) from several angles.

The narration is very good, and I found the dialogue for characters all distinct. However, the author had written the book in a multiple first person perspective, which works better in written form than in spoken (unless you have multiple narrators). In audio format, character switches just aren't as clearly demarked, and I admit the first time a switch occurred I had to restart the chapter as I was getting confused, thinking I was still listening to the same character and then wondering what I was listening too. Obviously for a narrator, even if you can do voices well, it is just too much to expect a narrator to say carry on a gruff male voice for an entire chapter. Once I got used to listening for point of view changes though, I got used to it.

The story was very enjoyable, and I'd most definitely listen to more from this author and narrator.

Great Story!

Would you listen to Dead Trees again? Why?

If my daughter or husband had an interest, I would relisten with them. Otherwise, I'll be reading book 2!

What other book might you compare Dead Trees to and why?

Well, it's an apocalyptic, dystopia book, and there are a lot of those out there, but not one quite like this that I've read. The beasties make it unique.

What does Pamela Lorence bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Pamela had a wonderful performance and really brought Elise to life. I thought she didn't an excellent job.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the cave....

Sorry, I'm not good at taglines!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book and immediately bought the second one for my kindle so I could continue the story. Can't wait to find out how this story ends!

good book on a long drive

I started listening to this book on the way home from work and I actually had to stop listening, it was getting dark and I was on a quiet country road. This book had a very thrilling beginning.
I also loved how the book transitioned it a pretty good SCIFI in the end. I will be definitely be looking for Eli Constant books in the future!

An evolution apocalypse

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dead Trees?

This book drew me in from the beginning. Elise is a mother of two young girls just trying to survive. You can't stay in one place long, and you definitely never stop at night. As the mother of a five year old I could really identify with her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened in two days, but found I was sitting in my car waiting to get to a good stopping point before I would go in. I just had to find out what was going to happen next.

Any additional comments?

This is an excellent apocalypse story, very different from the zombies that I love- but almost scarier. The beasties could think and learn and adapt. That makes your enemy even more dangerous. I will definitely be picking up the second book to see what happens next.