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Ex-Heroes cover art

Ex-Heroes

By: Peter Clines
Narrated by: Jay Snyder, Khristine Hvam
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Summary

Stealth. Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. The Mighty Dragon. They were heroes. Vigilantes. Crusaders for justice, using their superhuman abilites to make Los Angeles a better place. Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Despite the best efforts of the superheroes, the police, and the military, the hungry corpses rose up and overwhelmed the country. The population was decimated, heroes fell, and the city of angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland like so many others. Now, a year later, the Mighty Dragon and his companions must overcome their differences and recover from their own scars to protect the thousands of survivors sheltered in their film studio-turned-fortress, the Mount. The heroes lead teams out to scavenge supplies, keep the peace within the walls of their home, and try to be the symbols the survivors so desperately need. For while the ex-humans walk the streets night and day, they are not the only threat left in the world, and the people of the Mount are not the only survivors left in Los Angeles. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power. And they are not heroes.

©2010 Peter Clines (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Ex-Heroes

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Ex-citing, Ex-traordinary, Ex-tremely entertaining

If you like the Zombie genre, are open to super heroes and alternative universes this is the book for you.
I loved it, the Super heroes are well thought out and have all the classic powers, and a few that are rather different. The zombie issue has more imagination than most zombie novels making it more realistic and has a great final origin twist.
Ex-Heroes is well paced and full of action with just the right amount of humor. Mr Clines has written a well thought out, entertaining tale, combining two great genres of modern day writing.
Then getting Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam, to take you to Clines besieged Hollywood Lot and infected LA with their remarkable acting and story telling techniques is a stroke of genius. All of Clines exciting characters spring to life from the speaker. St George (Brilliant idea,) is voiced so you know he's a cool hero and a nice guy. With Stealth a sexy mysterious genius leader and Lady Bee leaving a mans blood pressure up. The whole narration of this brilliant novel leaves you with a desire to hear more, more, more.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

The title says it all. I was really intrigued by the concept of this, as someone who grew up watching Romero zombie movies while also being a Marvel fan, it should be a no-brainer (no pun intended) that I would enjoy the idea of putting them together.

But this book is just incredibly disappointing. It goes between exaggerated charicatures, both super and non-super characters, written to fulfill tropes and progress plot with no actual thought or depth put into them. Then backs that up with hyper-fixation on characters breasts and hips. The scene where it describes the blood dripping down and emphasizing the blonde zombies 'tiny breasts' says far too much to me about the quality I should have expected about the writing from then on.

A small thing that annoyed me was that superhero monikers change between timelines without a clear explanation that character X changed their name at some point. (Specifically St George and The Mighty Dragon in this case.) Which made it a bit hard to follow why I should care about certain characters backstories.

And that's all from only listening to the first 3 hours. I really don't think it deserved any more than that. From a quick Google I can see a character dies in a later book after getting a blowjob from Zombie Jessica Alba, so clearly the low bar doesn't get cleared as it goes further in the series.

I suspect that Jay Snyder may be a good narrator in other books, but in this case his booming narrator movie trailer voice just felt comical and really emphasized for me the tits, ass, gore and violence that made up the book.

If you're a 12-15 year old male, or have the mental disposition of one, this is the book for you. Otherwise, avoid it and get something better.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I hate myself for liking this book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I certainly would but not it's not for everyone. However if you like super powers zombies and a certain childish but endearing slant on sex and sexuality, this is the book/series for you.

What three words best describe Jay Snyder and Khristine Hvam ’s voice?

Hmmm I'm not sure. I really wasn't a big fan of having two narrators in this format. Although either would have been fine on their own, the dialogue between the two was obviously recorded at different times so the interplay seems more suited to a bad soap opera.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely. I made the mistake of listening to the first ten minutes inn a lunch break then spent the rest of the day irritated that I couldn't hear more.

Any additional comments?

Although the dialogue between the male and female narrators is stilted, it is only a minor annoyance and I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who likes the fantasy/horror/sci-fi genre. If on the other hand you are more fond of the works of Jane Austin, Emily Bronte or indeed anything which requires even the slightest use of the brain or higher emotions, then this may not be the best choice for you.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good and enjoyable

Granted you like like superheroes and/or zombies you'll like this release. It's quite humorous at times and a nice mixture of genres. The characters have interesting backgrounds (how they got their superpowers etc) and the narrative works really well and the obligatory final battle contains an interesting twist or two.

The two narrators are also doing a very good job. All in all a good buy, if you ask me.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

different take on the zombie world

As I do do a lot of travelling , audio-books are an essential part of my travel kit. its nice occasionally to hear something a little bit different and slightly off centre . mixing two genres is difficult at best but is done with skill and with obvious affection for the leading characters, enjoyed this and the follow up immensely.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting spin on the zombie genre

I really liked this take on a zombie apocalypse with heroes thrown in, and interesting powers apart from the usual super strength etc.

There were things about it I didn't love. I saw one reviewer say that it was almost a dramatisation and that is a fair assessment, but it doesn't work as jumping from Snyder to Hvam to play the female voices is jarring. The women mostly sound like bimbos, with the exception of Stealth, and there is a lot of time spent on describing the ladies’ skin tight costumes, breasts, etc, which is fine to an extent but I felt it goes a bit overboard making it just a book for the boys.

The reluctance of the Heroes to immediately eliminate their friends that have turned for sentimental reasons is utterly ridiculous. Who needs a super powered zombie?

There is a scene early in the book where the truck is stranded and night is falling and they start shooting exes coming their way, having established that noise attracts them, but also they will shamble off if you turn them around and stay quiet. Surely it would make more sense to lay low and quietly kill them, especially when they had two heroes that could tear them apart by hand.

This happens time and again and the fights seem to be a lot harder than they should be which becomes frustrating.

Once again I appreciate the direction this took and some new powers to think about but don’t think I’d be continuing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

been a fan for ages

read this series a few years ago and absolutely loved it, I've read it three times since then and thought why not try the audible, so far so good, the narration is stellar and really brought the characters to life.
great job all involved

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bit if an odd listen!

I found this quite hard to listen to because it couldn't decide if it wanted to be an audiobook or an audio drama so fell somewhere in between. As a result some of the performances were a bit clunky and a struggle to understand who was speaking or what was going on.
The story was interesting but it didn't quite meet its potential, and waaaaaay to much time was spent describing each fight section in minute by munite detail. The author clearly loves anything like that!
Not sure I liked it enough to listen to the sequel but it was an entertaining, if not fully gripping, listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Predictable and unexciting

If you have read The Mountain Man then don’t bother with this. This is far below it.

Got this on 2for1 deal but not interested to get the second book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Peter Clines is my new favourite author, after listening to 14 and now Ex-Heroes. This is the 1st book in a series, and I can't wait to get stuck into the next!

Not only has LA been taken over by zombies, but a while before, people started to discover superpowers. These new superheroes are now helping to protect a group of humans from the zombies, and a nasty gang.

The heroes are all brand new, and well thought out, and as the book progresses we get to know a lot more about them, as well as how the 'zombie invasion' came about.

The writing is clear and easy to follow, and it's so easy to picture this as a film or mini-series. In fact, I'm amazed it's not been snapped up already!

A note about the narration - some of the chapters give the backstory of a female character, and these are read by a female narrator. In other chapters though, the bulk is read by the male narrator, with the female speaking just female line. This is a little unusual at first, but soon sounds quite natural - if you find it off-putting, give it time.

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1 person found this helpful