The Rising Dead

By: Devan Sagliani

Narrated by: Michael Pauley

Chaos breaks out when a virulent new strain of biological warfare is unwittingly released into the general population, causing all who are infected with it to turn into flesh-hungry monsters driven by a hive mind that yearns to feed.

Gunner, a paranoid war veteran and the head of security at the Biotech lab where the designer virus was created, knew this day would eventually come. That's why he spent nearly every day since his return from Iraq preparing for the end of the world. It's up to him to save the residents of Thunderdome, a run down apartment complex in Northern Las Vegas.

Max hosts a live show as Asphyxia Stardust, a semi-nude cosplayer with a love of all things horror who is hosting the city's first ZombieCon.

Travis is a computer nerd-slash-borderline stalker obsessed with zombies and Gemma, a misunderstood party girl everyone thinks is a tease. His roommate Parker is a star athlete gone bad who spends his days partying and chasing skirts.

Holt is a stereotypical frat boy who finds new meaning in the apocalypse as a warrior for God with a crowbar sent to kill demons from the pit of hell. Together this unlikely band of college students and burnouts fight their way through a zombie horde in search of somewhere safe to take refuge, encountering every horror imaginable along the way.

Is this an inescapable global pandemic or can they find a safe zone outside of Sin City and away from the endless sea of rotting monsters with razor-sharp teeth trying to infect and kill them?

©2012 Devan Sagliani (P)2015 Devan Sagliani

Gripping tale! Hang on for your life!

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

action-packed, effective, fulfilling

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

He is an excellent reader!

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

How will you stay alive among the Rising Dead?

Any additional comments?

A solid story that lends itself as well to the audio format as it surely will to video (hopefully soon!).

People Caught Between Zombies and the Government

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author for an honest review.

I am pretty new to the whole zombie genre but, somehow, I’ve become hooked. I also like to get audiobooks so that I can listen to them instead of the radio in the car, so when Devan Sagliani asked me to review his audiobook, I jumped at the chance.

A lot of The Rising Dead is the typical zombie fighting, etc., but this one was a little gorier than the previous audiobooks I’ve listened to. Luckily, I’ve been in the process of watching The Walking Dead marathon so it didn’t bother me as much as it could have. How sad is it that we get used to all that gore and violence?

The Rising Dead just covers the very beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and in Vegas of all places. I’ve been there a few times for conferences and I thought how scary it would to be there when it happened. I couldn’t decide if I liked the end of the book or not. It’s not your typical ending but that kind of intrigued me.

The primary characters are mostly college kids except for Gunner, who is a security guard and a veteran. All the kids have always made fun of him because he’s actually prepared, he hopes, for just such a situation. There wasn’t much depth to the characters so at least I didn’t cry when one of them was killed.

The story was full of action and, even with so many characters, it was easy to follow which I always think is a big accomplishment by an author. It’s so difficult to get into a book when you have to keep going back to figure out who is who. The narrator also did a good job at distinguishing between the different voices enough so that I could usually tell who was speaking.

If you like zombies, you should read this book, but be warned: you may not like the ending.

Solid Character Driven Zombie Story

What did you love best about The Rising Dead?

I liked the varied characters (some of them) and the fast moving pace.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the focus on the quick development of the crisis.

What about Michael Pauley’s performance did you like?

The narrator was very good, his female voices were fair, but easy to tell characters apart.

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

An Odd Group vs zombies!

Any additional comments?

I really disliked the Max characters. I do get moderately annoyed with the "super sassy and bitchy for no reason hot girl", but the characters were varied and the story was always moving forward. This book was an easy listen and flowed nicely.

I found it just "OK"

The first few chapters is about a campy scene with a couple on holiday near the wilderness somewhere and it actually scared me. The sound effect was a surprise, just breathing, but it terrified me. I was listening while cross training at the gym and hope nobody saw me grimacing.

Unfortunately I think that was the best part of the entire story. We then get taken on a ride with many different characters with too much background story. Parker is like the main character in the story, but he is so annoying, constantly complaining on Gunnar who saves his life all the time while Parker himself is useless. Then there are just a lot of weird bits in the story and doing of weird things. Holt was completely weird and inexplicable. Holy warrior; what? Sewer civilization; really?

There are some recording issues; the volume seems to go up and down. It was generally too low. Even on max volume it could be difficult to hear when I am out and about or at the gym and then it would suddenly switch to a higher level, or the sound effect would be much higher. At one place the recording abruptly cut off and even repeated. Sometimes the sound effects were appropriate, sometimes it felt it was too much. The actual narration on the other hand was very good.

<3 Great Zombie book cant wait for book 2

Love the story had lots great zombie auction and gore . I was not sure on the sound affects some times it went on to long and it took about from the reading of the story. But even with that it was a wonder full story and i would listen to it again and have already recommend to friends Had a few twist and some different take on the normal story

What a ride!

I had previously read this book but wanted to check out the audible version and am so glad that I did. The sound effects are amazing! I am not easily scared, but the excellent narration along with the sound effects had my heart racing. The characters are so well done that I found myself interacting and yelling at them a few times. If you like zombies, this is a must listen.

i'd like to see another

this is a much better story line then the Zombie Attack novels. I enjoy the faster pace in this book. I did have a problem with the background noise. As I continued to listen it added to the story. I want more in the same way.

creepiest sound effects I have ever heard

Here we have another zombie apocalypse story from Devan Sagliani. I have listened to the two published before this one and really enjoyed them. I was expecting more of the same young adult style from him here. To my surprise and joy he did not go that route.

The first couple of chapters focused on a couple on vacation somewhere near the ocean, sorry I can’t remember if it was said where or not. This part was absolutely terrifying because of the addition of some of the creepiest sound effects I have ever heard. Seriously, I couldn’t focus on anything else other than the story. At times I thought it was my heart that I was hearing due to the stress I was under.

Sadly this was, without a doubt, the best part of the whole audiobook. I found the rest to be cluttered with too many characters and too much switching around for me to be able to keep track of everything that was happening. I kept forgetting key character details.

All in all this was an enjoyable romp through the shoot chase run zombie landscape. All the blood, gore and violence you could want. Survivalists, college kids, addicts, and other character types. With a government conspiracy thrown in for good measure. I will likely listen to the next book in the series because I am a fan of Saglini’s work. You will be pleased if you are a fan of the zombie genre.

Michael Pauley went above an beyond with his performance an production of The Rising Dead. This is something akin to a GraphicAudio production because of all of the sound effects and characterizations. Normally I say that extras, like sound effects, are a distraction. I only say this because, unless they are from the aforementioned GraphicAudio, they tend to be done so poorly. I am happy to say Pauly hit this one out of the park. He was able to add so much terror to scenes that would have been scary but they wouldn’t have kept me up at night like this did. I like to listen to audiobooks, instead of reading, to help me fall asleep. There were times that Pauly got me thinking that the footsteps and groans were coming from my house, making my heart race and sweat flowing as I hide under the covers waiting for it all to go away. I will be eagerly awaiting more productions like this from Pauly. Even though there was at least one sentence that was repeated, it wasn’t Pauly repeating himself, it was clearly a post production or editing snafu.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

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

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good book<br />

could do without the oral sex that is not what would be on my mind that soon in to zombies trying to kill me lol

The best one in the series!

Love this author and this series! The story just keeps getting better and better. If Zombies ever take over the world I want Cade and his family by my side! I can not wait for the next book!