Suzanne Robb

My full Z-Boat audiobook review can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

If you do not already know this, this is a zombies on a submarine story, makes you think of Snakes on a Plane, right? Also the planet earth has finally been decimated by humans in every imaginable way. Z-Boat had the backbone to be really entertaining and a standalone in the genre.

However, it did not come off that way to me. Starting out very slow with character development that I found myself not caring about after awhile. The plot too was very slow to develop into something that was lackluster and left me with a melancholy taste in my mouth. I kept telling myself that it will get better, there will be action, there will be zombies (the title promised it), there will be horror. Well there was some but only after trudging through more than half and realistically, sorry didn't actually keep track, three quarters of the story was gone.

I wish there was more emphasis on the destruction of the world. More infected occurrences. More action, more intensity. If you are looking for something to fill your undead craving Z-Boat might quench it. I think Robb has promise and will be looking for more from her.

Audiobook purchased by reviewer.… (altro)

Zombies on a submarine, a small, confined space, thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface – can it be any scarier than this?

Z-Boat opens with a quick recap on the state of the world, overpopulation has taken its toll, resulting in undrinkable water, overly-genetically modified food that has lost its nutritional value, and of course, the fuel is running out. The superpowers have been taken over by military regimes and dictators – education in Russia is far to superior to that of the American educational system, and spies are rife.

The action on the Betty Lou begins with a recap of all the characters – which I really appreciated as the list of characters is quite long, and all of them are introduced into the story right from the beginning. Z-Boat reads like a movie – the first movie that it brought to my mind was Deep Blue Sea – which fits perfectly with the story.

The characters are a mish-mash of different personalities, skills and motives, and part of the mystery is trying to work out who is working with whom, who they are working for, and who they are working against.

I know nothing about submarines, but the explanation of the workings of the sub and the equipment are well written and add to the story – with just enough content to keep it interesting without being bogged down by an overload of information.

There are a few negatives for me in this book – the story takes place over several days, but reads like it is happening all at once, for example there are no references I can remember that refer to the characters sleeping or eating a regular meal. At times the action is a little slow, and other times too fast which made it hard to keep up with what was happening.

This is a good, solid Zombie book – the setting is unique, the characters (although there are many) are easily distinguishable from each other, there is a strong mystery element and the writing is good. Zombies don’t appear in force until the second-half of the book which normally would disappoint me, but in Z-Boat the build-up was worthwhile. With a few touch-ups this could be an excellent book.… (altro)