It's barely a few months since the shambling dead began to rise.
Now nine people are trapped together in an English country house by the zombie horde outside. There's a journalist, a student, a professor, a surgeon, a housekeeper, a math teacher, a bank clerk, a taciturn Scotswoman, and a celebrity actor. They are strangers to each other. There would be no reason for any of them to harm the others. And yet... before their first night in the house is over, one of them will be dead, and it will be clear to the others that among their number is a murderer.
Set in the universe of the worldwide best-selling app Zombies, Run!, this is a murder mystery like no other. Why would anyone still want to kill a fellow human, even after the zombie apocalypse? And having started, can they be stopped? The desire for vengeance, after all, is the way of all flesh.
Naomi Alderman (born 1974 in London) is a British author and novelist.
Alderman was educated at South Hampstead High School and Lincoln College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then went on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a novelist. She was the lead writer for Perplex City, an Alternate reality game, at Mind Candy from 2004 through June, 2007.[1] Her father is Geoffrey Alderman, an academic who has specialised in Anglo-Jewish history. She and her father were interviewed in The Sunday Times "Relative Values" feature on 11 February 2007.[2]
Her literary debut came in 2006 with Disobedience, a well-received (if controversial) novel about a rabbi's daughter from North London who becomes a lesbian, which won her the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers. Since its publication in the United Kingdom, it has been issued in the USA, Germany, Israel, Holland, Poland and France and is due to be published in Italy, Hungary and Croatia. She wrote the narrative for The Winter House, an online, interactive yet linear short story visualized by Jey Biddulph. The project was commissioned by Booktrust as part of the Story campaign, supported by Arts Council England. [3]
This was nice as an extension of the story told in the Zombies Run game. I really love the app, and therefore enjoyed this story quite a bit, but I am sure that if I wasn't a fan of the world and characters before, I'd have found this one a bit lacking. You can easily understand it without knowledge of the app, but the murder mystery wasn't enough of a puzzle to work through to work like "Columbo" for example, and the zombie side of the story was so little it doesn't work too well as fantasy either.
As usual with the app things get resolved rather quickly, and that works well with the app as it's usually about a 30 minute mission, but as a stand alone story it all felt a bit too easy and too abruptly in the end.
I also didn't think the (luckily not too many) innuendo jokes very funny, they had me rolling my eyes instead. At least there were no detailed sex scenes though, so l'll take that as a plus. ;)
So for my personal enjoyment I'll give it 4*, but I think for someone not familiar with the app it'd be a 3* at best.
I loved this. It was nice hearing from these characters and the story was engrossing and well written. It was super well acted and as always with the Zombies Run products (from apps to races, other things) made me excited to hit the road again and hear more of this world.
I absolutely love the Zombies, Run! app. To me it's one of the most perfect pieces of media: immersive, motivating (it gets me running, so good job), and the world & story building is interesting. Amazing characters. Plot twists. I love it.
The Way of All Flesh is a tie-in audio book... although it's not so much an audio book as it is a podcast/audio drama. No narrator, just on point voice acting. All the more reason for me to love it tbh. Plotwise it's a pretty decent murder mystery, but what does it for me is the A+ audio production and the fact we get to hear some familiar characters.
You'll definitely enjoy it (a lot) more if you're familiar with Zombies, Run!. I recommend playing (you don't have to run! you can walk, or bike, or sit on your couch!) at least a few missions, or even better a season, before picking up this 'audio book'.
I enjoyed this take from the zombie genre. I liked how there were several narrators. It gave it a real feel. I have a affection for black humor so I found parts of it funny. I’d like to hear more.
I came across this as a free download from Audible and thought I'd give it a go. I'd no idea of what it was from originally until I read the reviews after listening.
Fairly enjoyable, but came across quite amateurish in places, especially some of the dialogue.
I've given it three stars but if I'd been into the game before hand I may have appreciated it more.
3.5 Audiobook. Good twist on a Christie-esque murder mystery! A team is stuck in a house by zombies and then one of them turns up dead!
I did enjoy this and I didn't mind that it was short and sweet. The sound effects and audio were good and I didn't think it was predictable. I also think a lot was covered in a short period of time. My only criticisms were that there wasn't as much zombie action as I was hoping and some of the voice actors sounded similar. I also found Jodie's accent a little annoying. I also thought some of the characters were unnecessary. There were quite a few characters, a couple of whom had little to no role, in my opinion. I like that the app did a audio collaboration with Naomi Alderman. Overall, I did enjoy it. I think the creators did well considering how compact it was. I would definitely listen to a sequel, if one was ever released! 3.5 out of 5.
SPOILER: I also really enjoyed how they tied together family dramas, political conspiracies with the creepy old house with secret passages etcetera. Was very inventive!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
As a Zombies Run fan, this is a great audiobook. If you’re not a fan of the running app, you will likely have little interest in this. So my review is from the perspective of a fan.
Overall, this is a fun listen. It’s short, so an easy listen in a day or two. There’s two characters from the running app who serve as main characters, Chris and Jody, so the audiobook is set before the running app Season 1 starts. There’s other snippets that confirm this, but I won’t spoil those bits. As a US listener, it can be difficult at times to understand some of the various accents of the characters, especially when they talk fast or use regional slang. I have to keep the audio speed at 1x or lower (I’m normally listening at a min of 1.25x speed) to make sure I understand what’s being said. That really the main reason I docked this 1 star.
I definitely love this little spinoff of sorts, and I hope they make more in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Does it contribute much to the moan story? No. But was it a fun read to listen to yes yes it 100 was cuz this is such a side quest to the crew.. makes me miss Chris but also wait!?! Jody and Chris ship maybe!?! What!!?! Did not see this maybe happening like what?????? Aaah it was so good I wish the six to start team would do more of this fun little side stories the cast of zombies run are just amazing I love them so much
Side note for this that don’t know zombies run is an app a running app to be precise with a story that’s plays in your ear as your running. Keeps your motivated when you become one of those characters.
Considering the fact that I used the app this is based on to go from couch to 5km I really enjoyed this. That said, I think you would need to have some idea of the story from the app to get the most out of this zompocalypse murder mystery.
If I could give this audio production a 7/5 stars, I would! This is an amazing story. The pacing is good, the inside jokes are good, the characters are vivid and real - this seems like a thing that could actually have happened, and that's fantastic. I LOVE IT.
2.5 stars. This was fun enough. I listened while playing a video game and it was enjoyable if a bit simplistic. I got it for free through Audible series so I can't complain.
I really loved this. Brilliant. Love a good twist at the best of times never mind one that combines my two favourite genres crime and zombies. Brilliant.
Locked room murder mystery complete with a colorful cast of characters...and the ever looming threat of the undead. You'll not need to have played Zombies, Run! at all to follow along, but it just adds to the enjoyment when you recognize a few voices from Abel Township.