The Rot by Paul Kane

The Rot Reviews

• 
  Chris Berko

  2.5 actually. Absolutely nothing new here. Typical zombie-esque end of world scenario that is predictable at best. Kinda boring and somewhat disappointing overall.
• 
  Angela Crawford

  I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is in no way reflected in my opinion of this story.
  
  The Rot is the tale of one man trying to survive the end of life as we know it. Paul Kane has deftly combined elements of The Road and The Crazies to create a desolate world where nothing can be trusted. The Rot is bleak, there is no other way to describe it. This story had me hooked from the start. Told as a series of recorded journal entries made by Adam as he travels across an ever changing landscape, trying to survive the crazed people and animals. Adam is slightly sarcastic and likeable, I kept hoping that he would make it to a safe place and find other survivors, or even the slightest glimmer of hope for a happy ending. I highly recommend this hopelessly grim 4 star read.
• 
  Monica

  Let’s be real, there isn’t a lot of variation between zombie stories. They have slightly different causes, but the monsters are generally the same. In this story, the disease referred to as “the rot” turns people into zombies but also causes everything in existence to deteriorate. New cars rust away in record time. Buildings lose structural integrity. Weapons become non functional. The main character, Adam, survives as long as he does because he is wearing an experimental environmental suit at the time of the collapse of society.
  
  I found this to be bleaker than most zombie stories. This is a true end of humanity scenario and I am here for it. It is well written and the narrator is great. I devoured this audiobook in one sitting.
• 
  Leanne Pert

  I received my copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an HONEST review.
  
  Can you imagine how a dead body rots ? Now think of everything around you rotting, cars,buildings, foid, machines, water, literally everything. How could you survive and could revolutionary SKIN protect you ?
  
  I love the format of this book, its very cleverly written like a journal voiced into a dictaphone, the stopping and starting, its like you can actually feel the despair of the characters involved.
  
  I wojld most definatly reccommend this book to any fan of apocalyptic horror. I will be looking out for more by paul kane.
• 
  BookLoversLife

  This is going to be a hard book to review as I don't want to spoil things. The story is centered on Adam. He is testing a revolutionary new suit, called a Skin. From what I gathered, it recycles your waste, sweat etc and makes it so that you don't need to eat or drink etc. While in the suit, some event happens that causes everything to start rotting, I mean everything!! Adam seems to be the only person immune to it because of the suit. Is he it? Is there hope for him and his future?
  
  While I liked the concept and originality of the plot, it felt rushed at times. I know it's a relatively short read, but I do think that the overall world building suffered because of it. I wanted to know more about how the Rot came about and about the suit.
  
  Same way with the character development. We never really got a sense of who Adam really was. He goes through a lot during the Rot, but he never seems to grow. Again, I know it's hard to have all the elements in a short book, he still could have grown a little.
  
  My thoughts seem all doom and gloom about the book, but it's not all bad. The overall story was good and I liked it, I just wanted more from it! I will check out more from this author though, as he has a wonderful imagination!!
  
  Narrator Chris Barnes did a great job with this book. It's told in a format of recordings from the main character and the narrator really knew how to bring him to life. He captured the hopelessness, the sense of lose from the character perfectly and gave a brilliant performance. I've listened to quite a few of the books he has narrated and never once has it been a less than stellar performance!!
  
  *I received a free copy of this but voluntarily reviewed it. This in no way affected or influenced my thoughts.*
• 
  Kenneth Skaldebø

  I received my copy of The Rot as an eBook from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Ok, first things first. Horrific tales publishing is becoming one of my favourite publishing companies, this is the third book from them I have had the pleasure of reading this year, and they all have appealed to me in one way or another and entertained me greatly.
  
  Secondly, the book itself. I do enjoy a good apocalypse story, and this book is it. It’s been a while since I have read something that is this bleak, in most end of the world stories there is always a sliver of hope, not so much in this. In this book everything rots and crumble, people, houses, the earth one walks on, the oceans and with it hope.
  So it’s a good read. Paul Kane is a talented author that I will be reading more of from now. Reminds me of I am legend by Richard Matheson and Nod by Adrian Barnes, a bit too short, the first 2/3 of the story is pacing nicely and you get a feel for the apocalypse and the main character, and then it ends too quickly, satisfyingly but quickly.
  
• 
  AudioBookReviewer

  My original
  The Rot audiobook review and many others can be found at
  Audiobook Reviewer.
  
  Adam is a fighter pilot chosen to test a self-sustaining skin suit.  It recirculates all his water and waste so the wearer doesn’t need to eat or drink.  It was meant only to be worn for one week, but when the world falls apart, it is the only think keeping Adam from the rot that is infecting the world.
  
  Some contagion has entered the world, turning men and women into mindless and ultra-violent mandmen.  But it isn’t just the people, it’s all things.  Buildings and machines are decaying, even the very ground is disintegrating.  Adam may be the only man left untouched, protected by his suit.  The cause is unknown and he may be the only one left to find a stop to the destruction, if he can survive.
  
  There is a feeling of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.  The bleak separateness of the landscape and everyone out to kill him.   Has the world simply evolved and now Adam is the outsider, trying to hold onto the past.  The listener doesn’t know.
  
  One might be tempted to call this a zombie novel, but the infected people are not dead, just maddened by the disease, though they do act like them.  The dark hopelessness of the novel is quite compelling and fits a certain genre.  It is a quick listen, but feels full, the world well described and Adam well developed as the reluctant last man on Earth.
  
  The novel is performed by Chris Barnes.  He does an excellent job, catching Adams moods and intense loneliness.  He does more than simply read the book, he acts, and it is well done.  There are few other character voices, but they are done well and easily differentiated.  Excellent.
  
  The Rot fits into several categories at once: Zombie, Sci-Fi, Horror and Dystopia.  It is a dark novel with literary overtones and will appeal to this audience well.  An excellent book that leaves the listener thinking about it long after its completion.  Recommended.
  
  Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.
• 
  odedo1 Audio book worm.

  A rotting world !
  
  
  
  Some kind of a chemical attack out of nowhere hits the town causing everything to rot starting with the softest tissue like brain matter which drive people crazy and moving on to the rest of the world including whole cities.
  
  Paul Kane wrote this more as a journal than a book which is a nice idea especially for a audiobook, new for me.
  Adam Keller a test pilot crashes a helicopter, after surgery he looses his pilot license, in the mean time a new self sustaining body suit was invented and he agreed to be the one that will test it, feels like silicone but it’s much more because it’s self sustaining using a self repairing nanotechnology and it recycles everything that the body needs so food or water are pretty much not needed.
  The real question is what is the cause of the rotting?
  No answer for that.
  Chris Barnes narrated this one really good, it only took a bit to get used to his strong Irish / Scottish or British accent.
  
  My
  recommendations !!!
  
  Oded Ostfeld.
  
  
• 
  David Watkins

  A superbly crafted tale of the apocalypse. Kane has written many, many books and it is apparent in his writing. Sentences flow easily, characters are well defined and relatable, even if they don't have much screen time.
  
  This story is about the experiences of a soldier who is testing a new substance called a SKIN and then he's thrown headlong into the end of the world. The story is told entirely from his perspective and so we go through the full range of emotions with him from confusion, through terror through.... well that would be a spoiler!
  
  In short this is an excellent story, superbly written by Kane. I listened to the Audible version and the narration by Chris Barnes was also excellent. Highly, highly recommended.
• 
  Stephen Ormsby

  This was so good. A world where the rot takes over everything and one man’s journey through it makes for captivating listening. A great listen.
• 
  BookzBookzBookz

  The Rot is the story of the world's end. Adam is a test subject. After volunteering to sport a phenomenal environment suit, that recycles your sweat, urine and fecal matter to ensure your survival rate, the world went to pot. Ha!- that was a pun; you catch it? It takes everything in Adam to survive the effects of some sort of plague that turns every day people into raving, brainless lunatics. With society totally abandoned, he has to find a way to continue on, and find someone to extend the human race's deadline.
  
  I liked The Rot for a couple of reasons. First off, the narrator, Scottish Chris Barnes, has an excellent voice and accent. Had it been baby babble, with a few words here and there, I'd have listened! His voice made it for me. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story too, but it's like the book was made for him. Secondly, the story was an interesting concept.
  
  How many times have people tried to come up with a story on a body suit that's made to be a second skin? It extends his life and makes you wonder, what happens when they think the plague, disease or whatever goes away? Can he get out of it? What about his body and functions?
  
  *Full review available (April 24th, 2017)
  The Rot, audiobook
  Paul Kane
  Horrific Tales Publishing
  ​September 24, 2016
• 
  Steve

  Bloody hell, this is the first time in ages I have been so wrapped in a book that I have completely devoured it and finished it in a day. It's a novella, not a long book, but I ripped through it in an afternoon, completely unable to put it own.
  
  Synopsis - RAF test pilot is brought in to test drive a protective suit which keeps him alive when a 28 days-later-esque virus causes everyone and everything to start rotting and falling apart - turning people into rabid psychos and everything else into cancerous decay.
  
  The story is an emotional roller coaster; a sense of mission turns to despondency, hope turns to ash turns to hope, turns to bitter, stomach churning despair. The ending, almost a bleak sense of predetermined termination. There is no feel good hero cult here, only a very British sense of this is what it is, a sense of how false the Hollywood portrayal of the post apocalyptic world would be.
  
  Kane does a great job of taking a first person POV tale of the end of the world and making it feel quite raw.
• 
  Joseph

  A grim tale of a man *existing* in a decaying world at the mercy of a corrupting bioagent that literally rots and decays all matter, saved from the grim plight by being the lucky/unlucky guinea pig of a military experiment to seal a volunteer's body behind an impenetrable, self sustaining, healing second skin. Written in the first person via a series of tape recordings, we follow our everyman character as watches his world fall apart around him.
  The novella introduces several enormous cliches of the genre, then skillfully, grimly subverts them all.
  A good, quick, grim read.
• 
  Stewart Horn

  
  I'm reluctant to tell you anything at all about this book, because it's so much fun to find out for yourself.
  
  It's a post-apocalyptic not-quite-zombie novella about a lone survivor and his adventures, and it's a terrific read.
  
  The protagonist is an engagingly real character, whose first person narration is a nice blend of humour and brutal emotional honesty.
  
  THE SKIN is a brilliant creation and the situation manages somehow to both surreal and quite believable.
  
  Recommended.
• 
  Debbi Smith

  I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
  Paul Kane has definitely written a bleak dystopian novel. Written in the first-person,journal style,it will keep you hoping for everyone in the book.
  Don't expect a happy ending.