This was an enjoyable read; it had to be for me to read more than one in the series. I found myself unable to put them down at times and stayed up way too late reading. I love a good post apocalyptic story, and the background info on the characters made for a feeling of 'real people.' The storyline flowed rather smoothly, so it was easy to stay interested. ( )

I found this story interesting. I would term it zombie related. I liked the author's view of the beginning of the apocalypse. I found his idea of how it happened to be believable. I could see things happening in that form. Call me paranoid but I don't have a lot of faith in government these days. That a random group could have begun it isn't far fetched to me. (I have no idea just how far this stretches to know who all is involved). The boxed set contains books zero through three. I believe the series contains seven with an eighth book that looks like it is related. There were situations that some people will say are unbelievable. That is not an issue for me. When I read a fantasy book I tend to suspend what is believable and what isn't. If I want reality I would choose non-fiction. I cared about the characters. Really cared. The way it is written you meet a couple characters and read their story. Then you meet other survivors and read their story. Then they are together, then they separate. It might not sound like it works but it does. There is violence, gore, heartbreak, tension and lots of action. There is also love, (family type), friendship, bonds formed and hope. You see man at his worst but also the best of man. I don't care if some situations aren't likely to have happened the way they do. The story contains all the elements that I look for in a book. The suspense, the not knowing of who will fall victim and who will survive, the wondering of what is ahead and will the survivors meet up again are rock solid for me. I was entertained. I stayed up later than I should have to read just a bit more, (only to find a couple hours rapidly past by ), and had to deal with lack of sleep the next day. The book moves along at a good pace, (I ended up reading slower due to illness). I would recommend it to those who like books about the infected. I will be moving on to the other books in the series as too much was left hanging for me. I need to know what happened to the other survivors.

I read this book during #SciFiSummerJune, a Readathon I joined on Goodreads . Michelle of the Seasons of Reading is the host of this, (and other), annual Readathons. I chose the book because I liked the blurb. It didn't let me down. ( )

Dark tale of survival as the world is taken by a terrible sickness that turns people into evil fighting things. ( )

ABR's full Contamination Boxed Set (Books 0-3) audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Book zero starts and the reader is looking into the life of Dan, a police officer, who wants nothing more than to get home to his family. Little does he know that he and the rest of the town are in for a really big ordeal.

The audio for book one was amazing. The narrator was perfect and paced his words with enough pauses so my mind could wrap around the imagery. As I listened to Dan discovering his wife, just sitting in a chair, neither talking or averting her eyes, I knew something serious was going to happen, I just didn’t know when. Fortunately for Dan, he had his spidey skills working and knew something was amiss. Unfortunately for Dan he did not know his wife was about to go all crazy up in their dining room. She did have the presence of mind to lock their daughter into her bedroom before she went all crazy zombie (not zombie though, just crazy). The narration was seriously spot on for this. There was enough intensity but enough curiosity in Troy Duran’s voice that it was like watching a movie. You know something is going to happen by all the dang clues but you don’t know how or when!

What’s weird is I really do not know what these people are. We do find out that it’s an experiment on the town and how it is happening but not why. Book one ends on a massive cliff hanger, but not before lots of people get their guts ripped out. I only know that the people behind this “experiment” must be sadistic bastards because this was intense!

Book two starts with some new characters. Same great narration and audio. Story lacks a bit of something that book one had. Maybe the intensity and the introduction is now over so it’s missing something. Still fantastic. I’m curious if the characters from book one are going to show up somewhere later in the series. I’m really hoping readers aren’t introduced to characters that mean nothing to the overall story, but this is horror so it would not surprise me. Overall this one didn’t have enough oomph but still solid for a beginning to the story.

Definitely do not read book three, Crossroads, without the others. You need the beginning character set ups to understand what is going on. Not much set up is in this because the characters are already explained in the previous books, in detail. The overall pacing has picked up, and there were already parts where it was crazy! There are some slower portions where the characters catch their breath before they have yet another issue to deal with!

Overall the stories are amazing. I’m very glad I got to listen to the first few one after another. Made for a great read.

If you don’t like “zombies” that run, this may not be for you. I pictured this like that Crazies movie. Again, narration and audio was spot on!

Audiobook provided for review by the author. ( )

I enjoyed T.W. Piperbrook's "Contamination Boxed Set". After completing this series, which costs $.99, I immediately purchased book 4 to see how the story continues. Other viewers are correct in their assessment that the plot lacks completeness and authenticity with typos throughout, but nevertheless, this series kept my interest and allowed me to escape into Fantasy Land for a few nights.

Unlike other zombie books, this is a man-made virus which is added to food and water, contaminating the supply within a certain geographical region of the U.S., It is designed to be ingested by humans, and within days, changes them into roaming, hungry zombies who's sole purpose is to seek out, destroy and eat living beings. Unlike other zombie books, victims do not turn after a bite or scratch, instead, they become "food" for the ghouls nearby. Handfuls of living beings are not affected by the virus, these survivors band together in their search for a safe haven - unaware that highly trained teams of gunmen are on the prowl and also trying to kill them.

A mad scientist develops a scheme to take over and rule the world; this first "attack" on mankind is an experiment to gauge his probability of success. He has amassed a large following to do his biding, acquired tons of weapons and ammunition, uncontaminated supplies and a large control center for his campaign. In this plan, all zombies are expected to die within a couple of weeks...all survivors must be killed!

While battling both zombies and these storm troopers, the survivors learn about the mad scientist and of his plan. Two of the survivors in the group decide to leave their current sanctuary and head out to find this scientist and save humanity. Do they succeed?

The chapters are short with cliff hangers at the end - causing readers to continue reading instead of closing the story for the night. The suspense is edge of your seat thrilling, at times, making me think like one of my favorite characters finally ran out of luck and was going to take his final bow. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. For a buck, it's a chance to visit never-never land and become immersed within the imagination of this author. Looking forward to the book in the series.

John Podlaski, author
Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel ( )