What do you think?
Rate this book
Lanherne Chronicles #1
Six Days with the Dead
No-one used the ’Z’ word, they simply called them the Dead and for the last seven years they have held the world in their bloody grasp. The group of survivors at the Lanherne Convent in Cornwall, did what they could to make the best of life in this brutal world and compared to many their lives were easy. But when Charlie, an ex-soldier, arrives home with a distraught stranger telling of murderous raiders, they know things are about to change. Leaving the safety of the Convent to warn the other nearby outposts, Charlie, Liz and Imran soon learn it’s not only the Dead they have to worry about and before long the very stones of Lanherne are awash with spilt blood and stolen lives.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2013
39 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 1, 2013
One of the best "Un-Dead" books I have read. Did not want to put the book down and when I was finished I actually bought the second book..I rarely buy books so that goes a long way for this author
April 29, 2022
Six days with the dead: by Stephen Charlick
Being a big fan of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, I have avoided these types of books like the plague that infects the zombies! Somehow, I didn’t think they would live up to my high expectations. However, I have to say, that ‘Six Days with the Dead’ was a great read. I enjoyed every minute. The characters were believable, the storyline was good and the situations the survivors found themselves in were, in my opinion, just as good as the tv series.
If you haven’t already found this well-written series of books, and you are a zombie fan, what are you waiting for?
Highly Recommended.
Being a big fan of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, I have avoided these types of books like the plague that infects the zombies! Somehow, I didn’t think they would live up to my high expectations. However, I have to say, that ‘Six Days with the Dead’ was a great read. I enjoyed every minute. The characters were believable, the storyline was good and the situations the survivors found themselves in were, in my opinion, just as good as the tv series.
If you haven’t already found this well-written series of books, and you are a zombie fan, what are you waiting for?
Highly Recommended.
October 22, 2017
Oh excellent!
This was an awesome story. Really well written. The characters were great. So realistic that you really feel for them. A couple you'll really hate though. I look forward to the next book in the series.
This was an awesome story. Really well written. The characters were great. So realistic that you really feel for them. A couple you'll really hate though. I look forward to the next book in the series.
August 25, 2020
Great survival story
When life, as we know it, ends, this is what is left. A small group of people, who are still alive, come together. They live at a convent. If someone dies, they become the living dead.
When life, as we know it, ends, this is what is left. A small group of people, who are still alive, come together. They live at a convent. If someone dies, they become the living dead.
September 11, 2013
Six Days with the Dead by Stephen Charlick is a gritty zombie novel which contrasts the monstrosity of the Dead with the evil of the living.
What this novel does well is explain vividly the state of things. For starters Charlick establishes that difference between wanderers and newly turned zombies is speed. He is also not afraid to limit his characters. They are unable to take on a motorway full of the Dead and see the danger in even tackling a small group of four. Charlick also isn't afraid to describe the zombies as they should be - a real creature of horror. Typically the appearance of zombies is commented on to elicit a reaction from the reader and/or the characters. When there is a zombie child we feel pity and good characters may find they have difficulty killing it or it may make them remember a loved one. Charlick goes beyond this and gruesomely describes their state of decay where necessary. As I'm a fan of horror and gore so I enjoyed this detail. The inclusion of maggots, mould and putrid decay helps to create an even greater sense of repulsion in the reader when characters encounter the Dead. It also adds a greater sense of time to the novel which made it feel more real and reminds the reader that seven years have passed since the first Dead.
I found that I really liked the characters in this book, even those who were minor. I have a particular liking for Jackson. I did notice that in the beginning of the book Liz, the main character, is established seeming to care most for her younger sister, Anne. However, when Liz is out travelling, away from her sister, she doesn't seem to think about her sister as much as I would expect a weary overprotective sister would. This could have been done to avoid the narrative getting a little repetitive, but it felt as though she was simply forgotten for a day or two. Charlick did a good job of making the book seem, dare I say it, realistic. The world is grim, there is no knight in shining armour, even dogs turn on living humans, seeing them as meals and even a small band of 'heroes' can't save the unnamed victim. This is not an action packed hack and slash where the good characters can rescue everyone. Good, innocent people die and as a reader it sometimes feels as frustrating for us as it does for the characters because, given such tragedy, we just want that little slice of Lanherne heaven to grow and become normal. I'm pretty sure if Charlick had tried to create a happy book about rebuilding society it would have been dull. It's the heartbreak in this book which makes it a great read.
Charlick's decision to use the days to separate the book was clever. It meant a sense of solid time was always in place and I really like that. Often in novels the space of a day can feel the same as a few weeks. By reading this book I found that I prefer and appreciate shorter chapters. It means there's a natural break point where I can stop, put down the book, and pick it up later. So these six chapters felt pretty huge. I think this book could have benefitted from being split into days the same way some author's separate their books into books, volumes, or parts. Then having shorter, more manageable chapters, would have been a possibility. Regardless of this, the long chapters work in the sense that the reader feels how long and drawn out each day living in that world is and how much happens.
Unfortunately, I did notice a couple of typos in each chapter. It was a shame, but I'm the sort of reader who knows what the writer means, so I don't often notice typos unless they are glaringly obvious. After seeing the first few, however, I found myself on the lookout for more. This was a little disappointing, but I expected this from books published on Amazon.
The ending was, at times, predictable such as the death of Mohammad (he's the single twin, so he's expendable and I sort of thought this would be the case since he was first introduced) and the death of Charlie (though I had hope it wouldn't happen!). The majority of the ending I didn't see coming. The evil of manically judging children and even throwing a baby straight into a pit of zombies, was truly shocking. I like how, while the evil characters are motivated by religion, Lanherne is a covenant run by Catholic nuns who, despite their religion, accept all newcomers. This helps balance out the religious element in the novel.
Despite the things I have mentioned which I feel hold it back from being a truly polished novel, I really enjoyed this gruesome read and the use of all senses to create an immersive world.
What this novel does well is explain vividly the state of things. For starters Charlick establishes that difference between wanderers and newly turned zombies is speed. He is also not afraid to limit his characters. They are unable to take on a motorway full of the Dead and see the danger in even tackling a small group of four. Charlick also isn't afraid to describe the zombies as they should be - a real creature of horror. Typically the appearance of zombies is commented on to elicit a reaction from the reader and/or the characters. When there is a zombie child we feel pity and good characters may find they have difficulty killing it or it may make them remember a loved one. Charlick goes beyond this and gruesomely describes their state of decay where necessary. As I'm a fan of horror and gore so I enjoyed this detail. The inclusion of maggots, mould and putrid decay helps to create an even greater sense of repulsion in the reader when characters encounter the Dead. It also adds a greater sense of time to the novel which made it feel more real and reminds the reader that seven years have passed since the first Dead.
I found that I really liked the characters in this book, even those who were minor. I have a particular liking for Jackson. I did notice that in the beginning of the book Liz, the main character, is established seeming to care most for her younger sister, Anne. However, when Liz is out travelling, away from her sister, she doesn't seem to think about her sister as much as I would expect a weary overprotective sister would. This could have been done to avoid the narrative getting a little repetitive, but it felt as though she was simply forgotten for a day or two. Charlick did a good job of making the book seem, dare I say it, realistic. The world is grim, there is no knight in shining armour, even dogs turn on living humans, seeing them as meals and even a small band of 'heroes' can't save the unnamed victim. This is not an action packed hack and slash where the good characters can rescue everyone. Good, innocent people die and as a reader it sometimes feels as frustrating for us as it does for the characters because, given such tragedy, we just want that little slice of Lanherne heaven to grow and become normal. I'm pretty sure if Charlick had tried to create a happy book about rebuilding society it would have been dull. It's the heartbreak in this book which makes it a great read.
Charlick's decision to use the days to separate the book was clever. It meant a sense of solid time was always in place and I really like that. Often in novels the space of a day can feel the same as a few weeks. By reading this book I found that I prefer and appreciate shorter chapters. It means there's a natural break point where I can stop, put down the book, and pick it up later. So these six chapters felt pretty huge. I think this book could have benefitted from being split into days the same way some author's separate their books into books, volumes, or parts. Then having shorter, more manageable chapters, would have been a possibility. Regardless of this, the long chapters work in the sense that the reader feels how long and drawn out each day living in that world is and how much happens.
Unfortunately, I did notice a couple of typos in each chapter. It was a shame, but I'm the sort of reader who knows what the writer means, so I don't often notice typos unless they are glaringly obvious. After seeing the first few, however, I found myself on the lookout for more. This was a little disappointing, but I expected this from books published on Amazon.
The ending was, at times, predictable such as the death of Mohammad (he's the single twin, so he's expendable and I sort of thought this would be the case since he was first introduced) and the death of Charlie (though I had hope it wouldn't happen!). The majority of the ending I didn't see coming. The evil of manically judging children and even throwing a baby straight into a pit of zombies, was truly shocking. I like how, while the evil characters are motivated by religion, Lanherne is a covenant run by Catholic nuns who, despite their religion, accept all newcomers. This helps balance out the religious element in the novel.
Despite the things I have mentioned which I feel hold it back from being a truly polished novel, I really enjoyed this gruesome read and the use of all senses to create an immersive world.
February 13, 2017
Awesomely series
Loved the story line. The characters were lovable. The villains were so heartless that it was shocking.. All will love it.
Loved the story line. The characters were lovable. The villains were so heartless that it was shocking.. All will love it.
May 9, 2013
This was a pretty good story to read. The story structure could be compared to The Hobbit. There was lots of traveling, minor occurrences of action during the travels, a big climatic event in the last few pages and then it was done. There was lots of back story of each character but (fortunately) no singing. The copy editor of the Kindle version fell down on the job in the second half of the book. There were about a dozen typographical errors that I noticed.
None of the problems are enough to keep me from reading the next book in the series.
None of the problems are enough to keep me from reading the next book in the series.
May 13, 2013
Nice change of pace for a zombie book. Without ruining anything, story takes place seven years after the fall. This story is a look into the minds of those still standing. Neat ideas for how people adapted places to be settlements. Not a typical running battle, more of a psychological thriller. Great change of pace for the Zombie genre. Bittersweet, if you are a softy grab the Kleenex.
August 13, 2013
AS AN AVID ZOMBIE NOVEL READER, THIS TRILOGY HAS TO BE THE BEST YET. MAKES A CHANGE TO BE SET IN THE UK, WERE I SPENT MANY YEARS ON HOLIDAY AS A KID. I READ ALL THREE BACK TO BACK ON HOLIDAY IN GREECE AND COULD NOT PUT THEM DOWN. FANTASTIC STORIES, GREAT CHARACTERS AND A BRILL CONCLUSION. IF YOU LIKE ZOMBIE OR HORROR, JUST READ READ READ.
February 20, 2013
A good post-zombie-apocalypse story. I don't want to give too much away, but the interesting part is the 'bad humans' are not former government, military, or gang members. But it got me saying, 'mmm, yay I can see it'. And the Zombie warning posts were a nice touch.
October 22, 2013
Started and finished reading this book yesterday and really enjoyed it. Great group of characters and a great plot. Was saddened by the death of one character though. I did cheer out loud when certain other ones were taken out. All in all, a very good novel.
March 21, 2013
I enjoyed this book. It's a zombie apocalypse with a Little House on the Prairie vibe.
Thanks to the author for putting it as a free Amazon download!
Thanks to the author for putting it as a free Amazon download!
August 31, 2013
I LOVED this book. It had romance, intrigue, drama...comedy. It was all in there. It was a hard book to put down. I really want to read the next two in the series!
April 17, 2014
Extremely slow to get into, although it picked up in the end. I like the way it ended so will likely read the sequel.
November 18, 2014
This was such a good book that I don't know where to start. It grabs you from the start, keeps rolling along with a few twists and turns, and by the end you're breathless!
July 22, 2016
Great book.
I could not put it down. Now I have to read the entire series. Very well written book with great characters!
I could not put it down. Now I have to read the entire series. Very well written book with great characters!
Want to read
May 9, 2013posivite attitude books reading
September 7, 2015
WoW! Mycket bra bok i Z-genren!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews