City of the Dead: Author's Preferred Edition

By: Brian Keene

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

The sequel to one of those most popular zombies of all time in a new, uncut, author's preferred edition!

In this sequel to The Rising, cities are overrun with legions of the undead, intent on destroying what's left of the living. Trapped inside a fortified skyscraper, a handful of survivors prepare to make their last stand against an unstoppable, merciless enemy. With every hour their chances diminish and their numbers dwindle, while the ranks of the dead continue to rise. Because sooner or later, everything dies. And then it comes back, ready to kill.

©2005 Brian Keene (P)2017 David N. Wilson

Grim, Bloody and Unique

This book is a sequel to The Rising. Just had to get that out there so you don't start with this one. You'd probably be fine and there is a lot of back story references.
This book is grim. The zombies are intelligent and shoot back. They are not zombies in the traditional sense, but are an intelligence inhabiting a dead body. They can talk and use weapons to the extent the body allows. Things don't go well for the living.
Long story short, there are no happy endings. The end is particularly abrupt and depressing in a general way.
The book is well written and moves along at a fast pace. The narration is good and performed well across all the characters.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great followup to The Rising

I read this book a while back; it's the followup & conclusion to Brian Keene's brilliant "The Rising" zombie apoc novel. It's a slightly different take on the zombie craze where they aren't all dumb slow moving husks. This was a very good book and ended the series as a duology rather than stretching it out and diluting the series like so many other author's tend to do.

The book is subtitled as the authors preferred edition, it is a little longer than the original I read, has some addition scenes and other extended scenes, but overall it's the same book and story. I must say I enjoyed the additional content, when you like a story and author you want as much as you can have of that.

The book is read by Joe Hempel who has become one of my favourite horror narrators, he excels again here, as he did also with his reading of the first book in the series.


“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Not your everyday Zombie story!

Good story. The beginning seemed pushed and rough but I got through it and ended up enjoying the story.
Definitely worth the listen.
Gave zombies a more realistic perspective to why they are zombies then normal mindless eat brains zombie stories!

Very intense

Listened to this book while I was traveling. It is very intense and kept me wondering what was going to happen next, at times it kept me on the edge of my seat.

A Worthy Sequel to The Rising!

3.5/5 stars!

CITY OF THE DEAD has been on my TBR pile for a year or two, (and on my physical bookshelf), so when I saw it listed on my Audioboom! email, I immediately requested it. I'm glad I did!

This book picks up right where THE RISING left off. Most of the group is now trapped in a house and you can't help but to root for them. The zombies they are fighting are not your normal zombie-they can be fast, use weapons, and drive cars. They are led by Ob, and in this book we learn more about him and his mission on earth.

Fast paced and filled with lots of fun action,(zombie crocs and birds anyone?), there isn't much time to rest here, and why would you want to? There are plenty of gross outs and characters to root for and not of lot of time for quiet moments, fancy prose, or reflection. If this is the type of book you're in the mood for, then CITY OF THE DEAD is the book for you!

I listened to the audio, narrated by Joe Hempel. It took me a while to get into his narrative style, but once I did, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Recommended for those in the mood for bloody, smart-zombie fun!

Thanks to Audioboom! and Joe Hempel for this audio copy in exchange for my honest review. This is it!*