United States of the Dead

White Flag of the Dead #4

by Joseph Talluto

During the Upheaval, city after city fell to the Enillo Virus, filling the streets with ravenous ghouls. Not even the countryside was spared, as millions of the undead flowed over the land. From the mountains of Appalachia to the beaches of the Atlantic, the East Coast was dead. Two groups must enter this nightmare. On one side is John Talon and his small crew, desperate to secure the foundation of a new country. On the other side is Major Thorton, bent on the destruction of the soul of the nation. In a race for the country, John must use all of his skill, determination, and resources to make sure the country does not forever stay the United States of the Dead.

Genres: Zombies, Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2011

Reviews

[Claude's Bookzone · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

Book 10 of my zombie-a-thon! I made it to double figures!

CW: All of them

Well this is a good place to leave this series. I can't say I got particularly attached to any of the people in the story as it was mostly about the act of surviving in a gore filled world rather than character development. I know some of you are thinking, why would you expect otherwise? Some zombie books are about more than running away from moaning and hungry decaying corpses. Some are a bit more of an exploration of human nature and how nations collapse or rise under the onslaught of society levelling events. Don't get me wrong, I love the simple survival ones too but this particular series lacked characters I was rooting for to survive. Just okay for me.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished all the books in the series and my one word review would be 'Disappointing'.
2 dimensional characters and some of the dialogue made me cringe. The author seemed obsessed with different types of guns and left a few plot threads unfinished.
It's a shame, as apart from the characters and dialogue the story was not that bad.

[chucklesthescot · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my review of the last book I noted that I was keen to see what was happening with the men going after Charlie's group at the state park. Now that I'm actually reading about it, the rank stupidity of the decisions taken by seasoned zombie killing veterans just staggers me. I've suspended disbelief in this series for long enough and the rest of this review is spoilers for those few chapters.

SPOILERS
Charlie watches the group of men break up into three groups. One group with 4, the other two groups with three each. Charlie sees two groups going by road and has split his defences accordingly. The first group of three attack where Charlie waits, defending Rebecca who is looking after the injured Dan. He kills two and instead of shooting the third and hauling ass over to help Sarah and the pregnant Angela, he arses about having a nice long macho knife fight then panics hearing shots fired at the other location and hopes he isn't too late. That is just bloody stupid. You kill them quick, move on to the next group. Idiot.

Sarah and Angela are no better. They stop the three men in open ground in front of the building. They have clear shots at all of them but Sarah only takes one out, keen to make smart ass remarks instead, then curses when she realises they shot Angela and split up around the building. There were two gun ports set up. When the three were lined up, Sarah and Angela needed to fire at the same time to take two down, then Sarah needed to shoot the third while they had the element of surprise. Even if Angela wasn't a great shot, shooting one guy in the chest or gut keeps him pinned down until Charlie arrives. You don't shoot one and let the other two scramble to cover! It's even dumber that Sarah then says 'when you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.' Pity she and Angela never bothered to do that huh.

Mike does a better job in killing three of the four men quickly before he falls and loses his gun, then forgets about the stairs and falls down them chasing the fourth. And then we have the hiding place of the kids. We put kids into hiding in a canyon that echoes when then need to be quiet so three year old Jake is doing bird calls to amuse himself while Nicole tries to keep him quiet, alerting the bad guy. Then Nicole manages to stop watching Jake long enough for him to wander away and get taken hostage by the bad guy. Awesome. Enter, as I expected, pet Kitty to the rescue. Honestly this plan only worked because the enemy were dumber.

And then the other survivors along the route. They recognise Thorrton, trade insults with him, kill one of his men and then let him leave even after he threatens to come back and kill them all. Instead of shouting 'here's something to remember us by Thorton' and shooting one of his men and letting the rest leave, why the hell did they not kill Thorton himself during this prolonged exchange??? Seriously dumb. You know who he is and what he is so just kill him already!!!

Seriously all this stupidity in the first 80 pages was more than enough for me. The idea of Thorton's group was fine. Setting him up near John's territory or having him want to take control of the areas John and Nate run, starting a long feud with attacks on each other would've been a great plot. Having Thorton threaten areas in contact with John to get things started, continue it over a few books until a final battle would've worked so well. But this dumb race to DC was just a let down and a waste of a lot of interesting characters. The series started so well but by now it's getting silly and I can't continue.

I'm done with the series now.

[Janice Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful series

I love this series. I will miss the characters once I've read all nine books. I highly recommend this series.

[♥ I’d Rather Be Reading ♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

John, Tommy, Duncan, and Nate go on a road trip to rescue the founding documents from getting into the hands of Major Ken Thorton. While they’re gone, Thorton’s men attack John’s base at Starved Rock.

So in this one John and his cronies go on their ridiculously pointless mission. As they go, John becomes even more arrogant and full of himself.

Along the way Nate also dies (which pissed me off because I liked him).

I did like how absolutely badass Charlie was at the base, but I hated that he wasn’t in most of the book again. He’s really the only character I like in the series, so that was a bummer.

John “defeats” Thorton (maybe) by locking him in the room he took the documents from and then letting some zombies in. This was honestly really stupid. First off, how do we know he died? Rookie mistake! Ken might be a lot of bad things, but he is a survivor and it’s entirely possible for him to get out of such a situation.

I also thought this whole thing was rather anticlimactic and cowardly of John. This major villain really needed to be taken out in more of a dramatic way. And that was disappointing.

In the end we are to assume Thorton died (I guess) and then John is elected new President of the United States by some random people.

So this is where me and this series are parting ways. I’ve never been much of a fan but was giving it a chance because my husband asked me to. But I’ve finally convinced him to let us move on to something else for our shared audiobook read. I just don’t like the characters and the story is pretty lame. I’m not a big fan of zombie books, but even so, I’ve read way better.

[Stiltzkin Vanserine · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Talon for president! Woohoo!

United States of the Dead continues the grand tradition of having the characters travel across large swaths of land, kill zombies with increasingly deadly firearms, save a few buses of survivors, exchange cheesy one-liners, in an attempt to rebuild the nation.

What I particularly like about this installment is that Sarah and Charlie, after being delegated to the retirement home in Starved Rock, finally got a chance to shine. Nate's untimely death is heart-wrenching, and Ken Thornton's demise is a fitting end to his tyranny, though I still think John should have just put a bullet through his skull.

I guess I'll keep following this series.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!

I love this series as it focuses a lot on taking back our country from the Undead. The characters are well developed and make you want to know them. There are really crazy Zombie killings! I really like using real places and I have visited some of them, so it really makes you think of those places in a different light.👍👍

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book twice now and its like reading it for the first time. Love this book and I love the whole series!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story but annoyed by the growing ego of the main character.

[Vikas Jadon · Rating 4 out of 5]

GOOD BOOK IN THIS SERIES

[Robert Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great villian

[Shana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truely Fab book and series 👌🏻 strongly recommend to anyone that loves a zombie apocalypse!

[Gianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

I love the fact we got some Nate and Charlie backstory as well. It’s a lot of symbolism in story which I liked and thoroughly enjoyed.

[AnnA Helms · Rating 5 out of 5]

This instalment is a trip across the country during year 2 of the zombie apocalypse. John is in a race to save the documents of the founding of this country. I have said John's city is the USA but in this installment of the series John begins to protect and formally put the creation of the new country in action.
The human Bad guys in this book are written so that you hate them from the start and I honestly did not think I could handle reading them. So I guess this is a warning to readers who do not like human on human violence and depravity.

[Caralyn Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

John continued on his George Washington complex but worked it out. Not a bad listen. Still happy with the zombie books, yes there is some ‘yah right’ moments but you get that with zombie movies so no complaints from me.

Update: after this book, read the Zombie Wars (#7-9) before going to #5 cause there is gaps between 4 &5 they fill them in.

[PMoslice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the best entry in the White Flag series. After a long journey and epic battle to dispatch "The Major" John Talon realizes the dreams he didn't know he had. Much more thought out and well written.

[Frlobe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very great.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just a continuation of the last book. It picked up right where the last book ended, seeming more like a single book just split in half than two separate books. Again the story was ok. It did seem to drag a little at times... OK, so you ran across another town infested with zombies and got caught while searching for supplies... The two books combined could probably have been shortened by 1/3, with most of that coming out of this book. Just like the previous book, I felt like a lot of time was wasted wandering and exploring when the characters were supposed to be in a race to DC. It took almost the entire book to go from Ohio to DC and then about three pages to get back to Illinois after the climax. With all the little side trips and run-ins they had on their 'race' to get to DC, you'd think something would have happened on the return trip. Not that I minded, I was ready for the book to be over by that time, but it just seemed like there should have been the same urgency to get to DC as there was to get home.

Also, I was really fed up with the ending. After saying 'dead is dead, I don't care who puts a bullet in his head' I was really upset that Talon didn't actually kill Thornton. That's the number one rule in these types of stories. The antagonist isn't dead until you see the dead body. Thorton had proved himself more than capable of surviving great odds. Why leave him wounded (yes, pretty badly, but not necessarily fatally) and hope he doesn't manage to somehow escape the zombies flocking toward him? Talon has done more and more stupid things and gotten extremely lucky throughout this series, but this takes the cake.

However my biggest problem with the book was the quality of the writing. For as many typos, errors, and grammatical mistakes that were in the previous three books, this one had a ton more. I know getting a good editor can sometimes be hard, especially when you are self-publishing, but anyone should have been able to read this and point out the NUMEROUS glaring errors. There were mixed tenses, missing words, sentences that were merged were combined with separate phrasing (just like I did there), and enough typos and mistakes to make me cringe more than the zombies did. There was even conflicting information at times (the number of guys remaining in Thorton's crew was down to 11 and then somehow jumped back up to 13).

I'd give this about 2.5 stars, enough to round up to 3, but that's generous. If I hadn't received book 5 as a birthday gift I'd probably be done with the series at this point.

[Grw · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourth book in the series is a straight continuation from the third with next to nothing to separate the two, meaning that America the Dead had no real ending and this one has no beginning. Quite frankly the two should have been combined, and then edited to take out some of the excess material.

With that in mind, pretty much everything I said in my review of that book still stands. There's still a few too many typos, and guns get a higher billing than almost all the people, especially the women. This time though we also get a bit of a lecture about the only people who survived the zombies will be those who had guns, just in case you hadn't got the point.

Plot wise, the action is still done really well, especially the fight scenes, and the battle across Washington. Done side was the reason for all this, but still I'll live with that.

John is still a good character, although it's easy to see why nearly everyone he rescues chooses not to stick around him for too long. The banter between the leads is good and there's even a couple of shocks in this one. Major Ken, is also less of a cartoon than he was in the previous book and actually has some character in this one.

Hopefully the next book in the series, will do something different but we shall see.

[Michael Alberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

United States of the dead

this series is awesome. the storyline is unique and rich with intrigue. the lead character is likeable and his ragtag group of friends are fun to roll with as the story goes on. I like this series because it does not bury you in gun and special force background. but still conveys the love of guns and ammo.
what really makes my.like the main character is it follows an everyday guy and turns him into a badness. it preys on the hope all people have that they have the ability to fight instead of flight when the world comes to end.
can't wait to get the next book and see what character creep back onto this storyline and make fighting zombies harder than it already is. highly recommend!

[Leighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars - want more, more books, more movies about the books, more movies about the authors and the making of the movie, just more!!!

How I review...
1 star - binned it before half way, please don't write anymore!!!
2 stars - finally binned it after really trying, I mean really trying and I hate to not finishing someth....
3 stars - finished it but boy was that hard work on times, it just about hooked me back in as I was about to dump it
4 stars - great book but it lacked something, something, can't put my finger on it but.... something
5 stars - want more, more books, more movies about the books, more movies about the authors and the making of the movie, just more!!!

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our hero John Talon and his crew continue the fight against Thornton and his aim to destroy The Constitution and The Bill of Rights original documents in Washington D.C.. Of course the zombies complicate everything as you must be on your guard 24/7. Between zombie attacks there was a race to get to the founding documents. I didn't think it was that important, a great loss to be sure, but that important in the scheme of things? Our boys persevered of course, but the tale is far from over. Another 70 survivors were picked up in D.C. and they have to be transported as well as our own folks. On towards home...and book five.

[BJ Haun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zombie novels are a dime a dozen, but the White Flag of the Dead series dares to do something that few other zombie novels do: Have characters that exist to be more than just zombie fodder. It had been some time since I had read the 3rd book the series before I got to United States of the Dead, but I was immediately draw back into the story. A bit predictable and melodramatic, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Frank Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give this book a rating of two. One thing it is very predictable, esp the ending and Second is the fact that the author gives credit to Marines as being the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. A big slap to they 3rd Infantry Regiment out of Ft. Myers. The US Army has guarded the Tomb since 1948.. That tell's me he doesn't know what he is writing about or just doesn't care and thinks his reader's are just as uninformed as he is.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleased this book did not go in the direction I was worried it would go in after reading the previous book in the series. I was worried the plot was going to go in a government conspiracy direction.

I struggled a bit at first with the hero's rational for traveling half way across the country but was forced to conclude the longer I thought about it that the artifacts could be a potent symbol for the survivors of what they could aspire to if they worked together.

[*Suzy (ereaderuser)* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought all the books in this series were good solid zombie reads. The story was mainly about dealing with the worst and best of humanity in the aftermath of the zombie uprising. There was still some good zombie fighting action however. My only real complaint would be the somewhat far-fetched accomplishments of the main characters.

[Lucas Hamasaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second half was much better than the first one. I'm so glad all that Major crap is over, it was such a waste of time. Zombie apocalypse, people doing their best to survive and you leave your own family to go to Washington because of some documents? Sorry, but priorities, man. That said, I am now excited for the next book. It has potential to be great, IMO.

[Rob Falcon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really love this series. Just have to look past the fact that fuel in these books stay good for years sitting in vehicles. But it's small and I would not have thought to much of if not for the JL Bourne books.

[Steven Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant loved it! John talon travels to Washington to to retrieve the Declaration of Independence before the evil self appointed general ken Thornton pedophile rapest and murderer, can get it. Battles and action galore fantastic fictional zombie romp! Can't wait for part 5!

[Angela Coz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy them even though the characters and their interactions are ridiculously gender-roled. The start of this book was a bit more random than the previous books so I found myself rereading just to make sure I didn't blank out and miss something.