Plague of the Dead cover art

Plague of the Dead

Morningstar Strain

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Plague of the Dead

By: Z. A. Recht
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.71

Buy Now for £15.71

About this listen

 The end begins with a viral outbreak unlike anything mankind has ever encountered before. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, a dramatic increase in violent behavior, and a one-hundred percent mortality rate. Death. But it doesn't end there. The victims return from death to walk the earth.

When a massive military operation fails to contain the plague of the living dead it escalates into a global pandemic. In one fell swoop, the necessities of life become much more basic. Gone are petty everyday concerns. Gone are the amenities of civilized life. Yet a single law of nature remains: Live, or die. Kill, or be killed. On one side of the world, a battle-hardened General surveys the remnants of his command: a young medic, a veteran photographer, a brash Private, and dozens of refugees, all are his responsibility-all thousands of miles from home. Back in the United States, an Army Colonel discovers the darker side of Morningstar virus and begins to collaborate with a well-known journalist to leak the information to the public...The Morningstar Saga has begun.

©2006 Z.A. Recht (P)2009 Audible, Inc. Fiction Horror Science Fiction Scary Zombie

Continue the series
Thunder and Ashes cover art
Thunder and Ashes By: Z. A. Recht
Survivors cover art
Survivors By: Z. A. Recht, and others
Healers cover art
Healers By: Brad Munson
Hunters cover art
Hunters By: Dawn Peers
Heroes cover art
Heroes By: Dawn Peers, and others
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed this book. It was neither original nor ground-breaking but it does the most important thing a good zombie story should and keeps you interested by building decent characters and making you care about them . . . while of course putting them through various stages of hell one earth!

Even then it's not perfect, the early part uses e-mail exchanges to build the background which would be a neat idea if not for the long repetition of the e-mail addresses etc that accompanied each such interlude. I'd also believe that not all stressed American soldiers sound like Shaggy out of Scooby Doo either.

Those things aside though this is a fine audiobook, the narrator does do a good job with it such that characters are easily distinguished for the most part and the story moves long at a good pace.

If you like good stories with zombies then this is as good a book to spend your credits on as most in the genre.

Original no. Good story nonetheless . . . Yes!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
While I enjoyed the performance and parts of the story most of it fell off againest tired charater types and forgettable set pieces.
Liked the two part infection felt it was under utilised and enjoyed the idea of large scale qurantine efforts.
Disliked most of the characters particularly Brewster.
I don't think I would follow the rest of the series and the wait his book closes didn't leave me wanting more.

slightly above average zombie story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An excellent story, a bit different from the normal zombie genre and really entertaining. characters I could get invested in, in fact Brewter literally drove me mad.
all in all great yarn and im looking forward to the next volume

Excellent Story Telling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As another reviewer has already mentioned, 'Plague of the Dead' is not exactly original. Put simply, if you've seen any of George Romero's zombie movies, there is nothing in Recht's novel that will surprise you.
That said, what's here is well done. Recht creates some interesting (if cliched) characters, and describes some wonderful scenes of set-piece combat.
This novel outlines the origins of a global pandemic, detailing how the world's military forces attempt - and fail - to contain it. Recht charts the decline of the military, focussing in particular on one American unit commanded by a General Sherman. After losing numerous people at Suez, the unit returns to the States and deserts, preferring to see to their own survival rather than trusting in the chain of command.
Recht does a good job of highlighting their desperate search for supplies, so that rather than just unleashing an endless hail of unlimited bullets at their undead opponents, the soldiers actually have to think more tactically than this. This allows Recht to describe some genuinely tense scenes, in which the soldiers try and sneak around zombies and, when this fails, have to be rather miserly with their bullets.
It's not all action, however. Recht spends quite some time looking at the emotional consequences of the pandemic on the survivors, whose safe and ordered world is disintegrating around them.
I happily award this novel 4 stars - it would have been 5 had Recht just come up with some original new twist on the standard zombie tale. The narration is wonderful and, although nothing in here will surprise you, you will have quite a few happy hours listening to this audiobook. Highly recommended.

Unoriginal, but exciting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliant follow up to the fist part! This literally is a page turner, I find myself counting down the hours till I can listen again! If you like Zombies this book is for you! Alternatively if you like survival stories this is for you.

Excellent!

Excellent - highly recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews