Not even entertaining

That’s it

The story itself is worth 4 stars, but the language that the author uses is really triggering for me. This is just me personally, so please give it a shot!

Good first attempt at a novel. It’s read by the author. There’s a bit of language when he’s trying to show battered warriors. Remember this is supposed to be after the apocalypse so these are the survivors. The ones that were fighting in the trenches so to speak. Now they’ve returned to quote civilization on a knife blade. Over all enjoyable read.

Full of derogatory language... even for 2006-2008

I really love this book and think it’s worth 5 stars

Many reviews mention poor voice acting. This is an audio book, read by the author. This is a solid story and outstanding for 2009! Others compare this to We’re Alive which is an audio drama and significantly different with numerous voice actors. Zombie Chronicles is definitely worthwhile and heck, it is a free download! Support smaller independent ventures, small businesses make the world go round!

This guy did a good job especially with his narration. I saw this is from 2008-09 and hope that some where there are more of these books. Bro if you ever read these reviews and haven’t wrote part two yet... get on it bro.

This was a very good listen. I was on the search for a second book and found nothing. Hope he Writes another. Good work.

Excellent read and riveting storyline, I like it!

Production value is good but the story and the characters are pretty awful. Save your time and skip this.

This trash is FULL of foul language.

Great story. Many twists and turns. Just a bit too fast. It's a good story. Could have been a bit slower and still good.

I like the first person POC. It has some bumps but a great twist at the end it keeps you entertained.

The voice acting is sub par at best, as the author/narrator can not do the accents he is attempting to do. Some of the accents and descriptions of other ethnic groups are very stereotypical as well, I can see how someone could get offended by the portrayal of Jose, as well as the taxi driver. The writing is also very choppy and not engaging in the least. I'm sure it's right for someone. But that person may never pe found. Long story short, don't bother.

This is meh but listen to were alive a zombie told story of survival. You will love better than this cheesey crap

Racial and homophobic slurs make an already poor product unacceptable. The profanity doesn't add anything to the characters' dialogue; it just makes them sound like middle school students trying to act tough. If you can get past these things, you'll be wasting your time. The story is not worth hearing.

It was a great and addicting to listen to.

Great voice too. A bit long and drawn out but sped up and liked the ending!

This is a cheesy zombie spy thriller, and with that in mind it is a great story. Go into this open minded and ready to laugh and you will enjoy it very much.

Very interesting premise, and I like the narration! Cannot wait for the next in the series. If some of the reviewers can do better, get to writing and I will read and review!

Not for me. I have to agree that having the author do the reading was not a good idea.

Only 5 episodes in and I'm already tired of the constant similes, metaphors, and hyperbole. Not sure if I'm going to slog through the rest.

This is absolutely awful! How an "author" can read his own work and make it sound like he's seeing it for the first time is beyond me. I couldn't get past the first episode. Awful writing, awful reading...

Bad writing, bad narration. Just bad.

He should listen to " we're alive" and try again. 7th grade reading level with this one.

Made it to the 3 and stopped very childish sounds like a teen wrote it not worth my time sorry

Not worth it. Started out as a cool premise, then turned into boring and shallow characters. He sure is in love with his own voice though.

Oh my gosh where to begin. I have never heard so many poorly placed similes in the worst constructed story line about anything, much lest a zombie story. I don't know if the writer/narrator just wanted to roller every cliche and genre he had ever heard into one storyline or if he just has no idea how to write but said what the hell and did it anyway!!! His narration is just like my titles suggest, pauses, rushed in spots, awful voices and poor tempo. I was so embarrassed to be listening to the story in my car that I turned off the sound when I was stopped at an intersection for fear of the neighboring driver overhearing the story and immediately declaring me a moron for listening to such tripe, and the light was only about 15 seconds long. Why did I listen till the end...? In the hopes that if you read this review, you would not have to do the same. Trust me, it doesn't get better, only worse.

Sorry, I was only able to get 15 mins into it. B level movie material at best. But not the fun entertaining kind.

First off, the story was beyond weak. Our so-called protagonist went from one clone rescue to saving the world WITH just one clone rescue! The reading is way too fast, kinda like a continuous run-on sentence. There was WAY TOO MUCH PROFANITY and the author's voice is just not narrative friendly. He made me bored in between feelings of irritability, due to his not being able to relay a tale without the "F-Bomb" in fluid dropping! I couldn't get past the awful audio and quit with chapter three! NOT GOOD.

yeah, i have to agree. my biggest problem with the story is that it's too outrageous. it seems to me that the author decided to take a weak story and beef it up with major topics, government conspiracy, zombies, aliens, etc. maybe if he stayed on one specific topic and re-worked it.

Nice

Good time passer

I see this story much like a popcorn summer-flick, light on substance but fun enough. This is the audiobook equivalent of a Transformers 2, not a Black Swan or Kings Speech. My biggest issue with Melzer is that he habitually uses cliche moments. For instance some of the chapter ends remind me of the corny ending on sitcom's where somebody says something stupid (that's supposed to be funny) and they all laugh. In fact he uses that exact scenario at least once if you can believe that. I think he's Canadian, as some people have commented previously, he has that "aboot" accent. Aside from that, his delivery on voice acting is inconsistent, usually it's good enough to get the job done, but not always. Better than amateur, but not professional quality either. Storywise, I enjoyed it overall, just don't try thinking too deep on it. The ending "reveal" was kind of weak, but leaves me curious as to where he's going to go in the next book.

Great free story. Always love zombie stories. Where is second story?

The level of profanity is so extensive that I could never enjoy whatever story might be beyond the cursing and narrator's negative attitude.

I'm okay with swearing in books if it makes sense and is part of the dialogue, but this was like listening to your uneducated foul mouth friend, whom you can only stand to hang out with for so long, tell a story.

I enjoyed James Melzer's "Escape" and appreciated the clever twist on this genre of horror and suspense. The story does hold together and grips the listener. It seems like a first attempt at writing a substantial novel and the author increases his complexity with the production effort of a podcast. I listened to this story while traveling on long stretches of dull road between Maryland and Virginia, late at night. James was a worthy companion and I will seek out his future work. Regards, ~Donna

Loved it! One of the best things I've downloaded from podiobooks. Can't wait for the next one... Seriously... It's killing me!! Someone told me to check out " we're alive", said it was cool too, figured I'd help out and pass the word for anyone out there jonesing like me.

This is a great story and it's pretty original. I don't understand how people complain about a free podcast. I loved it and I would recommend it to anyone who likes anything zombie.

This started off pretty good. I sure love anything zombie, but just a little ways in the lead character starts making racial slurs & homophobic comments. This is done unsympathetically and without a sense of irony, so he is meant to be correct in saying these things. Also, it doesn't play a part in the story (yet. I stopped around chapter 18. ) and it happens kind of abruptly. It's as though he just couldn't wait to say, "wet-back." It looks bad for the writer and his opinions.

A. Its fiction so dates don't have to be anything. B. Its a good story C. If you don like the first few chapters then stop listening to it idiot. I don't push myself to read the gay vampire book twilight even though I think it's a stupid story. Overall I like it.

Okay, a few things here after the first few chapters. The biggie was the lack of accuracy regarding some of the historical events referenced as background (e.g., the blackout of 2003, which the author thought happened in 2004). If the author couldn't get the little things right, it becomes obvious that he didn't put much effort into the story. Two, while some of the mental imagery was amusing, the amount of swearing was a bit much. The author was going for something with that stuff, but it distracts from the story when you overuse/misuse that kind of stuff. Three, the author narrates his own work... and it shows. He's not a voice actor and lack of storytelling skills, mic technique, and emotion do more harm to the podcast than anything else. If you need a quick zombie fix, this'll do, but it doesn't take much to find better zombie-themed podcasts out there.

I'm not too picky especially with undead fiction but getting through the 1st few chapters was a chore. Bad writing and worse peforming make this not worth the free download:(

Cheesy writing. Terrible audio rendition.

I am a huge fan of the zombie genre, but this was a real let down. I didn't even finish the book. The totally unbelievable fight sequences and equally stupid actions of the of the bad guys really put me off. It is hard to believe the agents of the remnants of the U.S. government could be that dumb.

This was the first "zombie" audio book I listened to here on itunes. As a precurser let me say that I enjoy schlock/cheesy/and sometimes just out right bad movies. Though this is a podcast I found plenty of things upsetting about the story and the author. The author is the one that reads the book to you, which was probably the first mistake made. He does seem to have difficulties with pacing and gramatically following his own writing. The story is a bit lack luster, however that wasn't my major gripe. Being that the author is reading all the character's lines, it felt like he was trying to differentiate the character's by giving them all accents. Which ended up being really offensive. I didn't seem to understand why all the character's of color had to have an accent. As I mentioned earlier I wasn't sure if this was the case only because he was reading his work out loud, maybe this wouldn't have translated as it did to me had I just read it as a book. Their were even times when he would be reading the lines from a "Latin" character, but stumble and sound like he was mimicing an "Indian" person's accent(not knowing the difference?). At the end of the day, the story was mediocre but tolerable. The character's "accents", ended up being nothing more than a caricature of ethnic people... Much like the others that have commented here, I have listened to the "We're Alive podcast" and that is really spectacular, please take the time to check them out, for a quality audio drama!!!

Dont listen to the 1 stars. Im sure if they dont get a exactly 23 chocolate sprinkles on the no fat goat milk latte they call the manager and complain. This is a great story. Nice twist on zombies, kept me going to the end. I look forward to the next book

Just great.