| Title | : | Contamination Boxed Set (Contamination #0-3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 463 |
| Publication | : | First published January 12, 2014 |
*Contamination Zero
*Contamination 1: The Onset
*Contamination 2: Crossroads
*Contamination 3: Wasteland
ABOUT CONTAMINATION: The infection has begun, ravaging the American Southwest and leaving a chaos in its wake. In this new world, there will be no last meal, no dying wish. The only reward left is to survive another day...
Contamination Boxed Set (Contamination #0-3) Reviews
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These first three books (including the Prequel) of author T.W. Piperbrook's Contamination series takes off at breakneck speed right out of the gate and never loses momentum.... Buckle-up....
A contamination has seemingly spread like wildfire all throughout the Southwestern United States. After two groups of survivors intersect in a small southwest community, it is soon realized that the only compensation still remaining - in their new and decadent hell on earth - is surviving to see another tomorrow.
The hordes of infected have been transformed into savage zombie-like creatures - all of whom are in a ceaseless and frenzied hunt for the the flesh and blood of the still living. Adding to their shock and horror, the survivors learn almost as quickly that there is another - if not more terrifying - legion of beings simultaneously hunting them down with the same fervor and determination as the infected. Only these beings are human - and they have been training and planning for the day they would unleash this event on humanity for years...
Narrator Troy Duran is perfection. He literally does not miss a beat.
Next up: 'Escape' (Contamination, #4). -
It was a little hard to get into. I kept wanting to set it down at first. But after a few chapters, I started to enjoy it. The characters and what they go through is hard on your heart. But I love how they come together and then separate in order to try and save the world or at least help it a little. The bad guy is ... just a jerk honestly. I wanted someone to shoot him just for his attitude. Not to mention that he is the bad guy and he is responsible for all the chaos. You know how sometimes you find yourself feeling some soft feeling toward the bad guy??? This will not be one of those times. Nope. All bad and cocky and no good left in there at all.
So, would I recommend it to someone?? Yes. I would. Mostly because I love apocalypse books. This is just basically normal people trying to cope when all hell breaks loose and you can see them make mistakes. It seems more realistic. These are not preppers who have been preparing for this for years. These are normal people with regular troubles who get in the middle of the chaos. -
My rating 3.5
Contamination Boxed Set (Contamination 0-3) by T.W. Piperbrook is a solid horror with the theme of zombies. In the first two parts of the story is very good, but already in the third part of the quality of the story falls. At moments writing is great, and at moments of a story, it was slightly overwhelmed, especially in the third part. But anyway, lovers of the apocalypse and zombie genre might like this box set. -
Not bad, as it's an interesting though totally unrealistic end of the world situation. The s tory is predictable and most situations are unnaturally forced and somewhat irrational. It seems that all firearms can't be reloaded in this world, as not once did a character do so and it was almost always a requirement for the story.
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Yes it's zombies. Yes it's kitschy. Yes there are those damned spellcheck errors that should have been found. It doesn't really matter. The book was exciting the same way Night of the Living Dead is exciting. It won't make you smarter. That's not the point. It's fun.
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Book Zero - Even though I've seen several zombie movies before & religiously watch "The Walking Dead," I've never found myself attracted to zombie books. I actually bought this set on my Nook for less than $1.00, & I think it got me for that as well as my overall interest in "The Walking Dead." This "first" book to this series really captured me, & I burned through the pages so quickly because it's very action-packed, making you feel like you're experiencing everything w/ the characters. I like that the book wasn't strictly from one person's perception because - in a situation like this - everyone reacts & experiences something different.
Book One - I was a little thrown off w/ the story continuing through the perspectives of completely different people, who ironically all get together anyway. Putting the obvious facts together, it's clear as to the source of the contamination, but many other facts remain unclear. However, I'm sure it'll unravel in Book Two because (again, ironically enough) the individuals from this book are heading toward the town of the people in Book Zero.
Book Two - As I suspected, the characters meet up, but I was surprised that the author added in the views of the people on the "bad side." However, it was almost necessary because it shows that not everyone is willing to do the dirty work ... the back story of that character was sad. I also found it interesting in the method of distributing the virus, which is really creepy, but it also reminded me of the movie "The Crazies." I'm not too fond of the decisions made @ the end of this book, but we'll see how that pans out.
Book Three - The story continues on w/ the group splitting up & mainly focuses on Sam & Delta, which I though to be fitting because their goal was more of a rescue / take down mission. I was slightly irked that it didn't include Dan & his daughter but I guess that's what Book four is about. This book was pretty good & had a few intense parts, but it just seemed a little predictable in it's unfolding events. Don't get me wrong, the storyline is interesting & definitely worth more than I bought it for, but I'm not 100% sure if I'll continue on to read Book Four ... if I do, it'll be a while from now. -
A bit of an odd series to be sure. Too many things going on within the same book and none of them particularly exciting. Some sort of government plot to release a virus destroying humanity because we've been bad in a left-wing liberal sort of way. Then there's another group out to kill the survivors for some still unknown reason. Worst of all is the stupidity factor. How many times do you have to tell people "shoot the zombies in the head!" or "don't open your car door to strangers with a lame story and a smile". Too much confusion, lack of direction, and stupid people that never learn. I see no point in continuing this torture.
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That was a lotta book. Book 0 had my attention better than the rest of the series. It was interesting on how people turned. Narrator was good.
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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!
Received from audioboookreviewer.com for an honest review. -
I liked the author's writing style and thought the characters were well fleshed out and believable. It was easy to immerse myself into this story.
However, I did feel that it went a bit long and might have been condensed into 2 books, but that's my own preference for stories that are tighter.
Dan - a local cop - faces an onslaught of zombies (even his own wife) and tries to flee along with his young daughter Quinn.
Along the way, they meet other survivors and all end up trying to stay alive.
I liked most that we found out who the evil perpetrators that started it off were and the reasoning behind it.
A gread read that pulls you in from book one. Very good! -
An entertaining read with an interesting approach to starting a zombie apocalypse. Although the characters are good, their skills are a little over the top, especially when you consider that they had no previous experience.
In terms of openings... that was very good. The way the initial story develops is very exciting. The location, the characters involved in the beginning, the suspense, the unknowing.
When you consider the price of the box set and audiobook, well worth the money. -
Neither the writing or the story was very good, and in fact both seemed to get worse as the series progressed. Or maybe my tolerance wore out. Either way, I will not be continuing this series, and recommend that nobody else bother starting it.
Particular peeves:
1) How on earth was the plot financed?
2) Decisions based on nothing of course being the right choice. "Let's go look all the way over there!" "Why?" "Because it's there!"
3) The super duper soldier agents appear to have zero training. Or common sense. I probably could have done better than most of them at basic surviving-in-a-zombie-apocalypse skills.
4) How can a cascade drip? HOW. They are literally polar opposites. -
There are a few good tense moments early on in Contamination Zero. It then takes on a distinctive Walking Dead vibe, complete with lawman raiding the station for guns and trying to protect his kid. The burgeoning zombie menace is also pretty standard fare, reducing the tension dramatically. There are a few odd details–we quickly find out that the contamination came via some combination of poisoned food supply and water supply. Given the vagaries of who’s eating/drinking what, and how much, and when, how did nearly everyone manage to turn at almost the same time on the same night?
Book one (the second book) picks up with a different group of people. They include the requisite geeky guy whose glasses end up taped together and who seems most concerned with whether or not the young woman is impressed with him. There’s less of a Walking Dead vibe this time around. I was a bit confused, however: there’s a zombie in this installment who seems… calculating. He seems to be less mindless than the others. Yet this never goes anywhere, never gets remarked upon, never leads to any revelations.
Book two introduces us to the bad guys behind the zombie plague. Unfortunately this creates more problems than it solves–and I don’t just mean for our heroes. Apparently the plague is, for the moment, limited to a handful of southwestern states. Vectors include several sources of food (ground beef is mentioned) and local water sources. In the case of food, you wouldn’t be able to guarantee that enough people would eat a given type of food. In the case of water, there would have to be an awful lot of bad guys to treat every water source in several states simultaneously. It just doesn’t add up. Also, if it’s only affecting a chunk of the United States, then where’s the National Guard? Why aren’t there helicopters, planes, convoys of troops, CDC researchers? It’s as though the rest of the world has shrugged and forgotten those states existed.
The bad guys all act like psychotic thugs, making it exceedingly difficult to imagine them being as well-organized and -disciplined as would be required for the setup we’re asked to believe in. They’re going town-by-town to kill off stragglers instead of waiting for the zombies to kill off people for them. They’re also trying not to waste their ammo on the zombies, because the zombies will die off within several weeks. Well that’s great and all, but in doing all of this they’re losing as many of their own people to the zombies as they’re managing to kill off from the survivors. All they’d have to do is hang out on the borders of the contaminated area, tell people they’re there to help, and THEN shoot them.
Which brings us to… why on earth did they try to wipe out the population using a plague that turns people into mindless killing machines for several weeks? How does that make any kind of sense? Wouldn’t it be better to infect or poison them with something that would just kill them outright? Hell, if it were a poison instead of a virus then there wouldn’t be all these immune people, which eliminates one more messy step of a messed-up plan.
In book three we spend some time with the man who’s behind the zombie contamination. Unfortunately he makes no sense whatsoever. He’s a pea-brained narcissistic knife-obsessed thug who spends all of his time working out and pretending to be one of his own minions. And yet we’re supposed to believe he’s masterminded biological warfare against an entire region of the United States, and apparently has enough influence over the government to get them to ignore the whole thing.
There’s some definite bad dialogue, flat, stereotyped characters, and details that make no sense. But I’m not going to spend space on those because they pale next to the plot holes you could drive a truck through.
For a longer review including premise, visit my site:
http://www.errantdreams.com/2014/08/r... -
Note that this review is for the first 4 books (0-3) in the series as I listened to them as one big long story. I will try to avoid spoilers.
The contamination started in the American Southwest, and Book 0 (St. Matthews) opens in a small town (St. Matthews) in Arizona. Dan Lowery is a police officer in this small town and as the contamination spreads, the violence escalates. Pretty soon he feels he must get to his wife and daughter, see them safe, before he can do anything further to help the townspeople. However, there is an organized force working against any would-be rescuers.
Book 1 (The Onset) takes place in New Mexico, some of it in a nearly abandoned village (White Mist) and the rest in places such as Albuquerque. Sam Cooke continues on as the last remaining resident of White Mist when the contamination strikes. Meanwhile, two college kids just finished moving a couple to Albuquerque when they come upon a messy car wreck and the surviving woman, Delta.
In Book 2 (Crossroads), the two bands from the first two books come together at an old junk yard. These folks start to piece together what they know and guess about what they don’t. They also have to make choices about what to do next.
Book 3 (Wasteland) finds that our band has suffered yet more losses. One young man feels the need to see if his family, who live in the Pacific Northwest, are still alive. Meanwhile, Sam and Delta feel they need to track down the rumored source of the contamination in Salt Lake City, UT.
Sam & Delta were my favorite characters in the series (so far). Sam lost his family to a fire and Delta lost her father to prison. Their relationship starts off complex and moves into something close to platonic camaraderie. Also, Delta is the only adult female we get to spend quality time with in the series (there are 2 or 3 other ladies referred to but they die too soon to get to know, and then there is one female kid). Despite her being the token female for the story, she holds her own well, having plenty to offer the reader in character depth. I am hoping that the author chooses to add more ladies to the story as it moves forward as he can clearly write them. I do have to mention that occasionally, our characters were slow to learn, like trusting strangers a little to easily even weeks after the initial outbreak. While these were the weak points in the plot, I was able to forgive them as the stupidity of the characters moved the plot forward.
The plotline had hints of other same-genre books, such as Stephen King’s The Stand. Couple this with the Southwest setting, and I felt right at home from the beginning. It is an easy story to jump into and enjoy. While certain elements were a little predictable, there were other twists (such as the initial relationship between Delta and Sam) that I didn’t see coming at all. It was a good mix. The AZ/NM setting was enough for folks to get an idea of the expanse of the country; however, I felt it lacked the ethnic diversity we have.
Now let me talk about the bad guys. Oh! The baddies! I loved hating on these guys and they were pretty fascinating too. Each was into this organized, purposeful contamination for their own reasons, and several felt they were indeed heroes. I loved the amount of detail that went in to some of them – their reasons, their backstories. It definitely made the plot a bit more grey, gave the reader pause when deciding which team to get behind.
Narration: Troy Duran did a good job with this book. Each of his male characters had a distinct voice and he had a variety of contaminated undead (nearly dead?) voices also (and I would count this a talent). While the ladies were slimly represented, he did a good job with them also. I felt his strongest voices went to the maniacal bad guys when they waxed eloquent about world domination. -
The first few books (0-3) of this boxed set are a horror/thriller/apocalyptic take on the "zombie infection".
Frank is in the drunk tank again, and Dan is extremely relieved to be on the way home from his shift and not have to deal with Frank's drunken raving. A call from his relief brings him back to the station to find Frank dead. His body mutilated and his eyes like no human's eyes should be. On arriving home things are mayhem-his wife sits waiting for him with a butcher's knife and his daughter is missing. What is happening in the town of St Matthews? What is the infection spreading through the townsfolk turning them into killers, and how can it be stopped? So begins the first story in the set about the infection The Agency wants to use to reset the world. Each story tells of a different section of the total and introduces the different characters, how they meet up and what they can do to save humanity.
The tone throughout the book, especially for its genre, was too formal. For instance when Dan is looking for his daughter "He held out hope that she had been able to find assistance", crosses his mind. That seems far too polite for a desperate man searching for his daughter with a band of flesh eating monsters raging around him. As the set progresses the tone drops its formality and the reading flow becomes more comfortable.
The books themselves are rather short and I was able to read the set in one sitting. While a good storyline, Contamination brings nothing new to the "zombie-like" infected eating each other, reasons for zombie viruses being created and how the good guys win, basic plot. Book three doesn't end on a cliff hanger and if you wish to end the series there you can, or continue with book four to pick up a storyline left earlier.
A solid story, no major editing mistakes and an entertaining read. For me it wasn't spectacular and would fall into the run of the mill zombie story. For those expecting proper horror, blood, gore and guts-unfortunately this isn't for you. -
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.
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It is always a difficult prospect when you read the works of your peers. You "know" them and they "know" you through various circles and crossed paths. So, when I picked up T.W. Piperbrook's Contamination Box Set, I did so knowing that I might have to hurt some feelings. Thankfully, that is not the case.
I found this series to be entertaining. Perfect? No. But very little is in the world of zombie fiction. What works for one may not do so for another. My rule is that I have to be honest, despite what might result because of it. (The Indie scene can be a nasty place for those not in the know.)
Here is what REALLY worked for me. For one, this was not standard zombie fare. This had a story as to why, and it was definite and (mostly) plausible. It has some elements of a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. Evil government plot, delusions of grandeur. All that good stuff to make you mistrust the government. The story did not rely heavily on gore, but rather on real(-ish) people who, for the most part (more on that in a sec) act normal and have real feelings and emotions. They were not all "Hey, it's the apocalypse, so we can just switch over to where killing people even if they are bad is an okay thing."
On the down side, the "evil" government types were a mix of ruthless killers with a plan and the Keystone Kops. They fell victim to being a bit cliche and reminded me a little too much of "Rhodes" from the Romero "Day of the Dead". I would have been more impressed if the bad guys won in this one. It reminded me of when I saw "Predator" in the theaters. If Arnold would have died in the end instead of surviving the atomic blast, it would have been an all-time classic instead of just another 80s action flick.
Overall, this story has some great elements and is worth the time to pick up and sink into for a while. -
Book 0 showed promise, but it was pretty much down hill from there. All four books together were probably about the length of an average novel.
**Spoilers**
The head of the bad guys exhibited no signs of charisma, or even much intelligence. How the hell was he supposed to have secretly built up this army, none of whom knew who the hell they were following, that were all bent on ridding the world of weaklings? If they were all expecting to rebuild the world after the weak were all gone, why were there no women in their ranks? If they really believed that only the strong should survive, why did they actively go out of their way to kill everyone strong enough to survive the virus? And are we really supposed to believe that they can produce this virus in such quantities that they could contaminate enough of the water and food supply to infect almost everyone, but the virus wasn't infectious enough to transmit through a bite of fluids?
This doesn't even touch on how the explanation of defeating the US military really just glad over the whole subject. You have these bad guys who are supposedly all so well trained that they can take on anyone, but they apparently become morons when faced with our motley crew of heroes.
There are just too many holes. You can only suspend disbelief so far. -
This book (set) was part of a bundle so I decided to read it. It started of with an intriguing story of a cop in a small town that is best with zombies. The cop, his family, and his co-workers are real people and you start to care for them and feel for them. Sadly this is just a prequel to a story that doesn't really do much. Characters are introduced, backstories are given, they die, and are then forgotten. This repeats throughout each of the 0-3 books, until the "final scene" which is rather lame and disappointing.
I wanted to like this book more as there are many interesting facets that begin, but sadly the all end up with boring ends. I felt almost like the author got bored, or scared of success or just forgot what they were doing. -
I enjoyed it. The story works well as a collection of novellas and it kept my interest. **SPOILERS FOLLOW** The villain was a little too eeevil but the idea of having a privately funded organization instigating a zombie apocalypse is really quite clever. I recommend giving the rest of the stories a wider scope in order to give the reader some sense of how the rest of the country is dealing with the incident. One fault in the plot is that the lack of communication inside the affected zone is never adequately dealt with.
I look forward to the rest of the series. -
This is a great post-apocalyptic series with realistic characters and a unique twist to the usual zombie epidemic. I flew through the four books in this set and wasted no time in purchasing the last book. I highly recommend these novels to fans of zombie fiction. Excellent!
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Really great, solid, quick read. It kept my attention the whole time, great characters, get to see how each plot plays out for each set of characters. Pretty intense and exciting throughout each page. Very happy I picked up this book to check it out!
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Of its type, this was well done and filled with twists and turns. However, I'm not that sold on zombies and found the repetitions of quite revolting deaths a little over the top and the megalomaniac villain rather predictable. I enjoyed the thrill of the escapes and I was held reading to the end.
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Suffers a lot from telling rather than showing, + a number of character decisions that don't make a hell of a lot of sense.
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it didnt suck.
