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Hissers #3
Fortress of Flesh
After surviving the destruction of their hometown, a hellish journey across the states, and monsters both human and mutant, Connor and Amanita find themselves at one of the last remaining military bases in southern California. Unfortunately, this isn't a safe haven. Death lurks just beyond the razor wire and concrete walls, and it's only a matter of time before their resources run dry. Their only hope of survival is to find a cure for the hissers plague. Problem is, the rest of the world blames America for the outbreak and are gearing up for nuclear war, forcing Connor, Amanita, and the remaining survivors to make a final a stand before humanity becomes a distant memory.
247 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 18, 2021
6 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Ryan C. Thomas
55 books405 followersI am the author of the novels The Summer I Died, Ratings Game, Born to Bleed, Salticidae, Undead World of Oz, Hissers and more. I hope to learn a lot from the readers on this site, and get some good book recs in the process. Thanks!
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is my personal 5 star rating system because I’m too lazy to write a review for every book.
5 stars -> OMFG. I couldn’t stop listening. I was engaged from beginning to end. The story & narrator was amazing. I 100% recommend this book & author. I was able to clearly follow each and every character.
4 stars -> It was pretty good. I would’ve rated 5 stars, But either the ending was lacking, I struggled to keep up with characters, or the story didn’t keep me fully engaged. The narrator was pretty good as well. I’m on the fence about recommending this book, It could go either way.
3 Stars -> It was boring at times & I missed chunks of the story. I most likely struggled to keep up with character developments. The only way I would recommend this book is if it was part of a series. The narrator was most likely average or just couldn’t fix a mediocre book.
2 Stars -> It was pretty horrible. I used it as background noise because I hadn’t had a chance to search for another book. The book either had a bad narrator, The character development was non existent, or the story was hot garbage. I would not recommend this book.
1 Star -> The absolute only reason I listened to this book was because i had no time to search for another one & I needed background noise. It was 1 step up from listening to the radio. I wouldn’t recommend this book to my worst enemy. Everything about this book was terrible. This is only recommended for people on death row and have absolutely nothing else to read.
5 stars -> OMFG. I couldn’t stop listening. I was engaged from beginning to end. The story & narrator was amazing. I 100% recommend this book & author. I was able to clearly follow each and every character.
4 stars -> It was pretty good. I would’ve rated 5 stars, But either the ending was lacking, I struggled to keep up with characters, or the story didn’t keep me fully engaged. The narrator was pretty good as well. I’m on the fence about recommending this book, It could go either way.
3 Stars -> It was boring at times & I missed chunks of the story. I most likely struggled to keep up with character developments. The only way I would recommend this book is if it was part of a series. The narrator was most likely average or just couldn’t fix a mediocre book.
2 Stars -> It was pretty horrible. I used it as background noise because I hadn’t had a chance to search for another book. The book either had a bad narrator, The character development was non existent, or the story was hot garbage. I would not recommend this book.
1 Star -> The absolute only reason I listened to this book was because i had no time to search for another one & I needed background noise. It was 1 step up from listening to the radio. I wouldn’t recommend this book to my worst enemy. Everything about this book was terrible. This is only recommended for people on death row and have absolutely nothing else to read.
November 15, 2021
I am going to admit to some natural bias. I have known Ryan for a few years and Anthony are writing/podcast partners. Anthony and I talked about this novel quite a bit before he started his pass. I didn’t want to know much as I was looking forward to reading it. The first Hissers is one I have thought about a couple of times since I read it. So I was ready to dive back into this story.
Ryan C. Thomas if you are not familiar with is a San Diego author who I met hanging out at books events and author gatherings. His early novel The Summer I died is a bloody classic that is a bit of a survivalist horror. He has expanded it into a trilogy and all of them are entertaining but that first novel is savage. He also set a very high bar for himself.
Hissers on the other hand ejects the realism for gonzo over-the-top insanity but takes the zombie story and evolves it in a way that a novel can uniquely do. I mean maybe now with CGI a movie could but the hissers themselves are nuts. I mean Thomas didn’t have to worry about the effects budget. Zombies that meld together to become multi-limbed spider-like monsters is pretty fun stuff. This review is of the final book in this trilogy lets be honest I am selling you on the trilogy.
Hissers 3 works all by itself but the trilogy but it is a character-based monster mash that balances a new take on zombies with familiar story beats that will give genre purists what they are looking for. These books are not high art, they are written for fun, from time to time the expert storytelling skill elevates moments to make this the novel equivalent of a b-movie that shows hints of the author's skill. If you didn’t care about the characters it would just be a ball of mish-mash craziness.
One thing that separates Hissers (part 1) is how young the characters are. I don't remember a zombie story focused on middle school-aged kids. RCT does a bang-up job getting to the fears and hopes of kids this age and is expressed in a fantastic scene where the kids end hiding for a night in the high school they were dreading going to at the end of the summer.
Yes, there are crazy mutated zombies that grow together like giant spiders but the characters are the underrated tool in the RCT toolbox. The setting of the small fictional southern California town of Castor is very vivid and part of the appeal. So book 2…
Hissers 2: Death March continues the coming-of-age aspects of the novel and pairs the young people with slightly older misfits with a desperate struggle to make it to a military base near San Diego. Through events of the novel, they end up with an important thumb drive.
So why did RCT pick up a co-author for Hissers 3? It was clear the plan was a trilogy from the start. I am having the guys on the podcast to talk about the process. I know Ryan had started the book but felt something was missing.
Look I know Anthony is a smart writer and collaborator so from the start I thought this was a wise move. I know Anthony spent some effort on the Hawk brothers who were very interesting characters I won't spoil. The story itself is set up, but the earlier books so we dive right in. Connor and Amanita from the first two books are our main points of view, but the final stand for humanity is what we are dealing with here. Mirroring the granddaddy of zombie trilogies this part 3 starts at a military base. We have scientists looking for a cure.
Using the geography to the advantage of the story there is a mission to the San Diego Zoo to get a snake to create an anti-venom. Now I love a story built on a mission and I kind of wish the story was built around that, but it was only the first act.
The base seems secure but as the cracks in the defenses start showing they appear in the humans at the same time. Inside the base, the stresses begin to eat at the relationships and the tensions come to a boil. While they search for a cure the rest of the world has given up. The impatient nations of the world want to nuke America to be sure. The clock is ticking.
The challenges become the clock as much as the monsters. Also, we get a little glimpse into the origins of the whole thing. Well-intentioned science has gone bad.
“Well, I don’t think she meant to create anything this bad. She was trying to help wounded soldiers. I think what happened after was just…bad luck.”
These experiments were meant to help wounded soldiers create an inherent reversal that I thought could have been explored deeper but I was happy with this subtle reveal. But perhaps one of the moments with the greatest creep factor happened during an action scene. I was surprised that the Hissers actually learn. Retaining a degree of their humanity.
“…It’s playing with us. Probably saw us drive down the street.”
“They didn’t used to be this smart,” Squid said. “They used to just charge like mindless animals.”
“Now they hunt like real animals…”
This shift is important for adding suspense but writers know how to use tiny moments to build suspense…
“Sweat ran into Romero’s eyes but he didn’t dare rub it away.”
A human moment amid the chaos that helps to color between the lines that real terror is in progress. It is these human moments that are peppered throughout the book that elevates the story beyond a B-movie feeling. I think Hissers 3 is fun. That is all it really needed to be so the moments of social themes and character depth feel like a bonus.
Pick it up!
Ryan C. Thomas if you are not familiar with is a San Diego author who I met hanging out at books events and author gatherings. His early novel The Summer I died is a bloody classic that is a bit of a survivalist horror. He has expanded it into a trilogy and all of them are entertaining but that first novel is savage. He also set a very high bar for himself.
Hissers on the other hand ejects the realism for gonzo over-the-top insanity but takes the zombie story and evolves it in a way that a novel can uniquely do. I mean maybe now with CGI a movie could but the hissers themselves are nuts. I mean Thomas didn’t have to worry about the effects budget. Zombies that meld together to become multi-limbed spider-like monsters is pretty fun stuff. This review is of the final book in this trilogy lets be honest I am selling you on the trilogy.
Hissers 3 works all by itself but the trilogy but it is a character-based monster mash that balances a new take on zombies with familiar story beats that will give genre purists what they are looking for. These books are not high art, they are written for fun, from time to time the expert storytelling skill elevates moments to make this the novel equivalent of a b-movie that shows hints of the author's skill. If you didn’t care about the characters it would just be a ball of mish-mash craziness.
One thing that separates Hissers (part 1) is how young the characters are. I don't remember a zombie story focused on middle school-aged kids. RCT does a bang-up job getting to the fears and hopes of kids this age and is expressed in a fantastic scene where the kids end hiding for a night in the high school they were dreading going to at the end of the summer.
Yes, there are crazy mutated zombies that grow together like giant spiders but the characters are the underrated tool in the RCT toolbox. The setting of the small fictional southern California town of Castor is very vivid and part of the appeal. So book 2…
Hissers 2: Death March continues the coming-of-age aspects of the novel and pairs the young people with slightly older misfits with a desperate struggle to make it to a military base near San Diego. Through events of the novel, they end up with an important thumb drive.
So why did RCT pick up a co-author for Hissers 3? It was clear the plan was a trilogy from the start. I am having the guys on the podcast to talk about the process. I know Ryan had started the book but felt something was missing.
Look I know Anthony is a smart writer and collaborator so from the start I thought this was a wise move. I know Anthony spent some effort on the Hawk brothers who were very interesting characters I won't spoil. The story itself is set up, but the earlier books so we dive right in. Connor and Amanita from the first two books are our main points of view, but the final stand for humanity is what we are dealing with here. Mirroring the granddaddy of zombie trilogies this part 3 starts at a military base. We have scientists looking for a cure.
Using the geography to the advantage of the story there is a mission to the San Diego Zoo to get a snake to create an anti-venom. Now I love a story built on a mission and I kind of wish the story was built around that, but it was only the first act.
The base seems secure but as the cracks in the defenses start showing they appear in the humans at the same time. Inside the base, the stresses begin to eat at the relationships and the tensions come to a boil. While they search for a cure the rest of the world has given up. The impatient nations of the world want to nuke America to be sure. The clock is ticking.
The challenges become the clock as much as the monsters. Also, we get a little glimpse into the origins of the whole thing. Well-intentioned science has gone bad.
“Well, I don’t think she meant to create anything this bad. She was trying to help wounded soldiers. I think what happened after was just…bad luck.”
These experiments were meant to help wounded soldiers create an inherent reversal that I thought could have been explored deeper but I was happy with this subtle reveal. But perhaps one of the moments with the greatest creep factor happened during an action scene. I was surprised that the Hissers actually learn. Retaining a degree of their humanity.
“…It’s playing with us. Probably saw us drive down the street.”
“They didn’t used to be this smart,” Squid said. “They used to just charge like mindless animals.”
“Now they hunt like real animals…”
This shift is important for adding suspense but writers know how to use tiny moments to build suspense…
“Sweat ran into Romero’s eyes but he didn’t dare rub it away.”
A human moment amid the chaos that helps to color between the lines that real terror is in progress. It is these human moments that are peppered throughout the book that elevates the story beyond a B-movie feeling. I think Hissers 3 is fun. That is all it really needed to be so the moments of social themes and character depth feel like a bonus.
Pick it up!
May 25, 2023
Great close out to the series by Ryan Thomas and Anthony Trevino. Eric Priessman does a great job narrating the Audible version. Our young heroes have run all the way to the coast and have their backs against the Pacific Ocean as the Hissers grow in number (and size) and close in on them. Action, danger and sacrifice follow as they pursue the final resolution to the problem of the mutated humans, hungry for their flesh! Exciting read and well worth the time.
September 26, 2023
Not a bad series overall. Just kind of wasn’t my thing. Lots of creepy crawly dead things attacking the human race over and over again. Liked his other series much more…..*fingers crossed* he decides to further it with a fourth book….
January 25, 2023
Rating: B-
January 12, 2025
a coming of age tale at its heart
I couldn’t stop reading this series. Again. RCT does it again. Thanks for the truly addicting read. I need 3 more words. There.
I couldn’t stop reading this series. Again. RCT does it again. Thanks for the truly addicting read. I need 3 more words. There.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews