Under a Graveyard Sky (Black Tide Rising Book 1)

This story is awesome! Badass Zombie killers, topless babes, guns, and boats! What more could anyone want! Oh yeah, no P.C. Crap! Ringo scores a big win with this one. Can't wait for the next installment.

This book certainly has an interesting take on "zombies". It follows a family of four who are doing their best to survive a global man made plague. The author does a good job explaining how the infection works. And the characters use the term "zombie" because it's the closest term to what is happening to infected people. I won't ruin the details but it's an interesting take on the genre and something I can get behind.

However, the story reads like a right wing survivalists fantasy. Which is all well and good but the cheap shots at "liberals" cause one to cringe. Mostly because when it does come up it's as if the characters are describing only the stereotypes. The author's own prejudices seem to come out in the writing. It's not too bad but it's borderline and unnecessary to the plot.

The characters themselves provided the biggest challenge for me. The father, the mother, and the two daughters are huge Mary Sue's. The few moments when they show any sign of frustration, disappointment, confusion seem heavy handed and forced. Outside these rare occurrence they are magically great at every possible skill one would need in a disaster situation. Every time they face a real challenge it seems to get resolved in moments with almost no effort. I felt like this really took away from the story and I had trouble empathizing with them. Mostly because they seemed like caricatures rather than real people.

That combined with some truly cringe worthy lines such as when the main character proclaims "I will not bow to the zombies!" It drags down what started as an interesting read. I truly enjoyed the author's take on "zombies" and especially on law enforcement's response to the plague. It started out so well but by the middle of the book I found myself losing interest with the pacing and the dialogue.

This book was a discombobulated juvenile mess. I only finished it because it was the only unread thing I had left in my kindle. Part 2 almost makes up for having to slog through this to get to it, but the target audience for this one seems to be thirteen year olds?

the book itself is great, however it was hard to read due to all of the typographical errors. It did detract from the read. (especially where Steve and Tom's names get mixed up.
If you can ignore the typo's the book itself is a fun read

Loved the action -- really well written. So exciting in fact that I read it until the end despite the fact he features two teenage daughter characters who are so gorgeous, buff and great at zombie killing than many grown man declare their desire to "marry" them...which in a pre-zombie world would send them off to prison. I'm a pro writer with over 100 TV credits, if I tried to sell this post apocalyptic jail bait thing, even coked-up Network execs would be horrified.

Didn't know it was a zombie apocalypse novel. Dont care for zombie storys or movies Resident Evil movies the exception. Did like the unique way he brought about the plague. Enough action to keep me interested.

If you like John Ringo and stories about zombies and end of world you will enjoy this book. I know I did and have already put the sequel "To Sail a Darkling Sea" (release date Feb. 4, 2014) on my wish list.

I have read a lot of John Ringo books but between this series and the safehol series I think I am completely done. Made it halfway through the 2nd book of this series before finally giving up. Having 13 & 15 year old girls out bad asking everyone is a stretch along with uncomfortable unnecessary scenes of the 15 year old being observed sun bathing nude and the father contemplating the future dangers of the 13 year old getting so close with her much older partner - wtf? The characters decisions make no sense too often (NY concert for example, daughters off to help in NY to begin with), they are not believable as protagonists and there is no real struggle or hurdles that aren't easily overcome and way too many childish scifi references etc that seem way out of character. This series is more a test of your own endurance to finish but why put yourself through that when there are so many better books to read.

I enjoyed, on the whole, the story. Can't help it - love the zombie books - must be the "all you can eat" aspect.

And, I was pleased to read about a strong family with tough women and awesome girls, but did the 13 year old have to have such a potty mouth? She was worse than the adults. Why is bad language such a norm? Sad.

Not in a bad way as such. This book was a fun read. It started off a bit slow, but soon picked up the pace. There are a few dropped plot threads, but two of the main characters save the whole ball of wax and earned it an extra star.

I would never have thought that I would read and enjoy a "Zombie Apocalypse" story, but Ringo makes it as interesting as anything he has ever written. And after leaving me hanging, I can't wait for books 2 and 3 in the series.

I bought this on the strength of the reviews here on the store. Was really hoping to enjoy the whole series..Unfortunately it's not up to snuff, i could barely slog thru the first 40 pages before putting it down. Amateurish writing with two-dimensional characters talking in wooden dialogues.

John Ringo writes in a manner that prioritizes a feel-good experience over realism or such, closer to a mix of JK Rowling (softcore) and JRR Tolkien (nobody really important dies) than anything close to George RR Martin. There are liberties taken with reality and his characters are very prone to the Mary Sue treatment, but his works are enjoyable regardless. This is to military-esque horror as Harry Potter is to fantasy. Light, protagonist-focused, and all's well that ends well.

John Ringo is the master. He pulls you in the first chapter and then you can't stop reading. I saw some blurbs on his FB page and was intrigued well worth buying. Tempted to go buy in paperback so I can do this again.

I read a summary and was thrilled, I thought this is right up my ally. Then I got the book and have been buried in the explanation of the "virus" page after page after page. And that's just the beginning.

I would never have thought that I would read and enjoy a "Zombie Apocalypse" story, but Ringo makes it as interesting as anything he has ever written. And after leaving me hanging, I can't wait for books 2 and 3 in the series.

I bought this on the strength of the reviews here on the store. Was really hoping to enjoy the whole series..Unfortunately it's not up to snuff, i could barely slog thru the first 40 pages before putting it down. Amateurish writing with two-dimensional characters talking in wooden dialogues.

John Ringo writes in a manner that prioritizes a feel-good experience over realism or such, closer to a mix of JK Rowling (softcore) and JRR Tolkien (nobody really important dies) than anything close to George RR Martin. There are liberties taken with reality and his characters are very prone to the Mary Sue treatment, but his works are enjoyable regardless. This is to military-esque horror as Harry Potter is to fantasy. Light, protagonist-focused, and all's well that ends well.

John Ringo is the master. He pulls you in the first chapter and then you can't stop reading. I saw some blurbs on his FB page and was intrigued well worth buying. Tempted to go buy in paperback so I can do this again.

I read a summary and was thrilled, I thought this is right up my ally. Then I got the book and have been buried in the explanation of the "virus" page after page after page. And that's just the beginning.

I have read most of John Ringo's books and have enjoyed all of them. Unfortunately this book just stops dead at the end with a "To Be Continued". What is this? Have we gone back to the days of yesteryear waiting for the next adventure of the Lone Ranger? Ending the book without any type of resolution is a disservice to his readers. If he is going to do this he should at least named it Part I, or done something to warn readers that this is a serial instead of a complete novel. Most readers expect the books they purchase to have an ending. I certainly do.

fan of John Ringo---his best writing is when he sticks to military and SF. some of his books need two or three readings to get into the story. one three book series have read 6 times, as you can get more story line each time. This story line runs into too many sub plots. Started to read Military /SF since 1955 and will buy this genre before any type. Will try John Ringo's books any time and then decide if multiple reader and keeper for future enjoyment.

Book to read when you're laid up at home with a stomach virus.
A very entertaining read, and if you are a John Ringo fan, like I am, it definitely will not disappoint. (Word of warning: If you're liberal and hate guns, don't even think about reading a Ringo book!)

On second thought, reading a zombie apocalypse novel about people sickening, dying and turning is a bit surreal while being sick yourself, so maybe read this when you're not sick.

Anyway, this is a new favorite, and I can't wait for the next installment!

A really great post-apocalyptic novel. very believable plot and just the right amount of action to keep the story moving. It is one of those books that one you start, it is difficult to put down. I am eagerly looking forward to the sequel.

Two stars might be more accurate, but I gave it it one so that people might actually read this review. Call it 1.5. Where to begin... I've read other John Ringo stuff, and clearly he writes fun pop "beach reading" kind of books, so I don't exactly expect great literature out of him. His style is very informal- which is refreshing in many ways- and this series continues that trend. It's also pretty clear that this series is a "juvenile", in the formal meaning of the word- to whit, it's target audience is pubescent boys. Two major characters are hawt 13- and 15-year old girls, the former of which is also a Certified Badass who gets commissioned as a USMC officer. At age 13. (Muffled laughter.) Very pubescent. And even the adults use copious teen slang. And there is also a hawt Ukrainian-American fashion model who gets orgasmic while firing a .50-caliber machinegun.
None of this is the reason that I dislike it, though the 13-year-old lieutenant is indeed ludicrous. It's essentially Gun Porn, which is to be expected from the ZA genre, I guess. But the problem is that it is Extremely Bad Gun Porn, and that's why I dislike it. Mr. Ringo has been duped by every scrap of misinformation, hyperbole, and rank idiocy to be found on the internet about guns. ALL OF THEM. At once.
You need to hit someone nine times to kill them with an M4? It's in there. Everywhere. Over and over. In fact, a .45ACP pistol is more deadly than an M4? It's in there, too, repetetively. He doesn't even like the M855A1 round, which is objectively lethal. The AK-47 is a Mystical Magical Perfect Weapon? Yup. It's in there. (Go to YouTube and search for "AK47 Mud Test" and "AR Mud Test".) Name an Idiotic Gun Meme, and it's in this book. And repeated every few pages, as if the reader were an idiot.
It's been a long time since I was a "gun guy", but I retain a professional interest in wounding mechanisms (I'm an Army surgeon), and all of the wrongness in this book so messes with my suspension of disbelief that I'm just stopping halfway through the second book. I can't take it any more, and certainly cannot give Ringo any more money for this crap. If the gun stuff wasn't such a prominent focus perhaps it could be tolerated. But it dominates every other chapter.

A simple story, fairly well told, although most of the characters are two-dimensional and sometimes it is difficult to separate one from another. I hope the next episode has a little more complexity than the repetitious killing of "zombies".

20% into the book & still talking lab mumbo jumbo. I truly don't like leaving a bad review but I'll make exception in this case when does the story start? Waste of time. Did anyone beta read or do any editing?

Or, just don't expect a book that's not about an annoying 13-year-old girl who can out-fight and out-shoot just about anyone else in New York City.

I was kind of getting put off by Ringo after the last two volumes of the "Troy Rising" series when the main character shifted to a 20-year-old girl, but stuck with it until the end. After getting a third of the way through this book, I just gave up.

After having served for 27 years in the US Army as an Infantryman (and in the 82nd Airborne Division at the same time as Mr. Ringo) maybe I'm a little chauvinistic (or realistic?) in my reading habits when it comes to combat. Or, maybe the SF reading demographic has shifted to such an extent that the editors are telling these guys to write for a female audience.

Whatever the cause of my dislike for the book (no disrespect intended toward the many readers who apparently liked it based on the average review) I could just not suspend my disbelief enough (even though I get that it's SF) to buy into a female Jack Bauer, much less one that's 13 years' old.

If that's your thing, or you're a die-hard Ringo fan, you'll enjoy it. If you're looking for Mitch Rapp faces the zombie apocalypse - look elsewhere.

I hate leaving books unread. It's like walking out of a movie halfway through, but sometimes you do, because it is just too painful to continue.

Under a Graveyard Sky starts strong, with the main character realizing that a disaster is about to strike mankind, and if he doesn't gather his family and break away from society within the next 24 hours, then he and his entire family are dead. But then they don't die. In fact, very little happens that threatens their safety unless they go and purposefully seek risk. (One of the members of the family decides that she wants to go "zombie hunting" and almost gets killed).

While this is going on, society's reaction is mystifying. There is no panic. There is no run on commodities. Only the government and a large bank (wtf?) seem to take the threat as real. Seriously, there is news that a "zombie plague" is overtaking humanity, and people are still going to work and living their life as if society is not collapsing down around them. "Oh hey, there's Bob, being chased by his naked teenager daughter in the middle of the street with blood streaming out of her eye sockets .... Ooooo! Breaking Bad season 5 is out on DVD!"

I just didn't find the story very gripping, and I just couldn't stand the 13-year old daughter character who is somehow tougher than any Marine or special ops soldier she comes across. Seriously, every time the family meet military personnel, they all have to sit back and be awed about how special this 13-year old teenage girl is. Even to the point that trained military are deferring to the 13-year old girl when trying to figure out how best to manage the "zombie situation". Ridiculous.

So, after muddling through about half of the book, I stopped reading it. Couldn't make myself go further, and time to move on to a new book.

Very disappointing, barely finished it and as I was turned off by the implausibility of the concept and the poorly imagined characters. There's an antidote but no one uses it except family and friends. A 13 year old girl who is apparently the best "zombie-killer" in the world and was "trained for this by her parents? Far fetched does not begin to describe it. Very lazy writing here and a pure money grab at the zombie craze. I was rooting for the zombie's by the end. HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED

The story opens with a bang when a school teacher, Steven Smith, gets a coded message from his brother in New York to warn him of a general emergency. Their plan called for the alert to trigger immediate action: gather his family, "grab the bug-out bag and activate [his] Zombie Plan." It's all fairly dramatic as he walks out of his high school classroom, pulls his daughters out of their schools on the pretext of an auto accident involving his wife, and leaves town with a car and trailer loaded with food, water, supplies, ammo and plenty of firearms. This is a John Ringo novel after all, so the Smith's have plenty of firepower and Steve is a veteran of the Australian paratroopers. His brother is a former Aussie SAS operator.

Most of the story takes place at sea as the Smith's escape the zombie plague. However the danger only increases when they engage in search & rescue operations and Steve Smith forms an ad hoc sea-going militia. I preferred the action in the first half of the book when they travel from Virginia to New York City to rendezvous with the brother, who is head of security for "Bank of Americas." Apparently the bankers don't want to die in a zombie apocalypse or nuclear attack and have prepared accordingly. If true, and I don't have much difficulty in believing it, that militates in favor of emergency preparedness for all of us.

The preparedness message might be diluted by the fact that it really is a zombie story. The victims, infected with the man-made virus (exact origin unknown), eventually have symptoms of "extreme homicidal psychosis with reduced mental capacity."

About a year ago I heard John Ringo discussing at a con the very real danger of a zombie-making virus being purposely released from an underground lab by the bio-warfare equivalent of "script-kiddies" who inflict computer viruses on the civilized world. We live in a world where technological advancements have raced ahead of the moral development of large portions of the world's population (e.g. nuclear warheads in the hands of mullahs firmly attached to an Eighth Century attitude towards killing infidels).

An entire family instantly knows and accepts that the zombie apocalypse is on. Good thing they are all militant preppers who have trained themselves and their children to stand ready for anything.

I listened to it on audio and I thought it was terrible. I will say right up front that I just could not finish it. Sure there is a chance it somehow managed to do a complete 180 and suddenly become amazing halfway through but I really don't think so.

Where do I even start? First of all, the plot was ridiculous even for a zombie book (and that's saying something). I read a lot of ZA books (some of them good and some of them bad) and the scenario that the author set up here was just too hard to swallow. I mean, this whole family knows and instantly accepts that the zombie apocalypse has started even before it's actually started? I not only found this totally lame but also BORING. Who wants to read a story about a family already prepped and ready for the ZA? Maybe you do, but I don't. Where is the fun in that?

The other thing is, I'm a little shocked at how bad the writing is... This is the only book I've ever tried by this guy but I see his stuff all the time and I've always thought it looked fun. It wasn't. Every other line seems to end with "he said" or "she said" which makes the narrative extremely repetitive and painful to listen to on audio. Maybe this is just a poor example of this guy's work (i dunno) but I expect better from someone who's such a prolific writer (then again, some prolific writers just seem to stagnate and I guess this is one of them?). I gave it 2 stars because i have read worse, but that's not saying much.

I'm stunned by all these 5 star reviews (seriously, how does this happen?). I wouldn't have bothered leaving a review (since I can think of nothing nice to say) if not for the fact that all the glowing reviews for this book were the reason I gave it a chance. They had me assuming that it had to be at least a halfway decent book if so many people liked it. I was wrong. I also can't help but notice that anyone who doesn't like this book is majorly down voted, which is just lame.

I just finished the book. I forced myself to just so I could review it here. It finishes in pretty much the same way it starts:

- lots of "finger quotes" and nicknames given to new characters that are never used again
- characters introduced and never seen again - Tom? Weren't there some people in NYC?
- a quickly confusing list of boats in the flotilla
- little character development; too many characters to keep track of and several locations that are poorly fleshed out. There's little contrast to help the reader figure out what the setting is.
- so much contrived dialog and obscure D&D/sci fi references. These are then explained in the form of lengthy personal resumes or dorky dialog. In one action scene, Faith starts into a Hudson-from-Aliens "you want some of this?!" rant. Any sci-fi fan - and by ANY I mean EVERY - instantly knows that dialog. Yet, Ringo had to go and hold our hand and tell us where the reference comes from - give the reader some credit, for crying out loud..
- parents who who seem amused that their daughter is a bloodthirsty killer (of zombies, but come on) and smile and wink at each other when sending her off by herself to kill people. I'm disappointed in Faith's parents for encouraging sociopathic behavior - there was little worry from Steve and Stacey about the welfare of their children. Her parents lacked depth primarily for this reason, in my opinion.
- too many pages devoted to firearms (I love em, but c'mon, it's a story not a shooting magazine)
- Dialogue... is often.... broken up... like.. like this...... whenever somebody.. is having difficulty.... expressing an.. emotion.
- Despite quite a bit of action and a few interesting scenes (diving down to cut the sportfisher loose was a cool scene, but lacked any real tension - there was no doubt in my mind that Steve would succeed), the main characters never seem to be in any real danger. Each boat clearing exercise ends in grossed-out giggly success. There's much talk of possible threats and danger, but we don't get to see it firsthand.
- much of the interesting action is told after the fact in dialog or is viewed as a grisly aftermath.
- almost ALL the action is gun/zombie killing porn in Faith's boat clearing endeavors.

Short of all that, there's no story in this story. There's no real villain, no opposition. The heroes face some gruesome scenes and situations, but they always win. There are several opportunities for villains, but every new chapter is just more boat clearing, blood, feces, and Faith getting dogpiled by 15 zombies, only to come out on top with a few clever one-liners and barely a scratch. What about Isham, the potentially mutinous character? No mutiny. Steve and Faith stick guns in his face (for no real reason than he's a backtalker) and chase him off... only to later give him the captaincy of a superyacht. What about the Russian sub that's hinted at partway through the book? The African security contractors? What about the US Navy? The person(s) who started the plague??? Everybody is on Steve's side, it seems.

I waited in vain for a real, powerful, and intriguing villain to appear. Maybe in the sequel? Could have at least ended this on a cliffhanger instead of just stopping in the middle of more-of-the-same.

If you're looking for a zombie story with a sea-faring twist and don't mind reading about a series of events that don't very much from each other, dive in. Otherwise, I'd recommend giving this one a pass. There's no traditional plot here. World War Z was purposefully written that way and it worked for me. This one doesn't, I'm sorry to say.

The bottom line is that without a compelling conflict for the main characters, reading a book like this becomes an exercise in endurance. There's a reason that books like The Stand, Swan Song, and Lucifer's Hammer become timeless post-apocalypse classics: the reader falls into the story world and gets lost in it, experiencing the struggles of the heroes almost directly in their imagination. Graveyard Sky kept bouncing me out of my suspension of disbelief and it just never went anywhere that I was interested in going. That is to say, it never went anywhere interesting and the main reason was because there was simply no compelling villain (I'm sorry, zombies can't be the only villain, especially when they seem to be so easily dispatched).

I haven't read any of John Ringo's other stuff and I'm not sure I want to if it's all like this. The man's written 33 books (many with other authors) since 2000. That's about 3 a year. I get the feeling that he writes from the seat of his pants and maybe gives the first draft a quick once over and then sends it off. I'm impressed that Ringo has made a career kicking out lazy literature like this, but disappointed with the publishing community for letting it happen.

Lots of words do not a good story make. Sadly, I'm finding that these days being prolific trumps being good in fiction.

Some people choose to read books because of the cover. I picked this one up because at first glance I thought she's an elf on the cover (she's not). I ended up buying it because the pages felt nice. Yup, that's me. Bought a book because I liked the way the pages felt. ...I am such a weird booknerd.

You know in Disney's Aladdin when he's trying to describe how amazing Jasmine Is? That's me with this book.

Where do I even start? OK, so this is a zombie apocalypse novel. I am NOT a gore kinda gal, so I don't partake in much zombie media, though I'm super intrigued by the concept. I love that the focus of this book is more on the science behind and progression of the "Pacific Flu" (as they call it) rather than being all horror/gore/gross-I-can't-read-this. The science was believable (to my little unscientific brain, anyway) without being too confusing - I felt I could actually follow it and it made sense. (Maybe it's totally bogus to someone who actually knows anything about epidemiology and microbiology and all that jazz, but it sounded good to me.) The book starts out with Steve Smith getting a text from his highly-placed security task force brother that there is an apocalyptic event happening. Steve is a total survivalist weirdo and his family has trained for this, which is lucky for humanity because without the Smith family there would likely be a lot less chance for mankind. I'm just sayin'. I also really enjoyed the socio-political aspect of this book. Who is in charge when all our previous structures have gone to pot (or "in the dunny," as our Aussie-born friend Steve would say)? On whose authority? It's interesting to see Steve figure out how to lead with his mix of expert and eventually referent power, and to watch the different types of leaders and types of power at play.

The characters in this book are amazing. The central focus is pretty much the Smith family, Steve and his wife Stacey and their two daughters, Sophie (15) and Faith (13). Sophie is the more science-minded daughter, and Faith is SUPER pumped at the prospect of kicking some zombie ass in the impending zombie apocalypse. Oh man, Faith. Here are some of the quotes about Faith:

“The United States started to go downhill when it changed from a round designed to kill the enemies of our glorious republic to one designed to piss them off," Faith said, shooting a zombie five times, then walking up and shooting the still-thrashing infected in the head. “Seriously, just die, okay?”
“Seriously, it’s legal to marry at fourteen in Arkansas.”
“Fine,” Faith said, double tapping a zombie that had reared up out of the darkness. “If we clear Arkansas by the time I’m fourteen we’ll talk.”

--

Bradburn waved a finger at the periscope repeater.
"COB."
"Sir?"
"Remind me never to piss that young lady off."
"Yes, sir."

--

"She's more worried about losing a sub than her own life," Galloway said. "I am going to cover that girl in medals. So help me God."

I was a little weirded out about all the talk about Sophie (15) and Faith (13) in a quasi-sexual light. Like, at one point Steve talks about trusting his daughters around all these grown-ass men. I know Faith is a total bad-ass, but she is 13! Ew. That being said, I can see why all these Marine bad-ass dudes are quasi in love with her - she is BAMF. I was going to post some of my favorite quotes here, but realized in short order than I was basically just typing out the whole book. So yes, just go read this. It was a little confusing at first with the shifting focus all over the place, but solidifies within a few chapters.

This is the first book in the Black Tide Rising series. There are a total of 4 books, all of which are published. I immediately went and bought the second book, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and I probably should have just caved and bought the rest of the series at the same time. If it were possible to rate a book more than 5 stars, this would get it.

So glad I didn't buy this--I checked out the audiobook from my library, and if I'd paid more attention to the cover art I wouldn't have. I have wasted soooooo much money chasing the zombie high I got from World War Z and the Day by Day Apocalypse series. This book should be listed under "juvenile fiction." It had a promising storyline, especially with the scientific explanation of the zombie virus, but so much of the book is wasted on cutesy, grrrrl power dialogue. Way too much emphasis on the family interaction. I couldn't make it past disk 4. One of the daughters is supposed to be this 13 year-old fearless phenom and I just wanted her to get eaten. I think the author is trying to jump on the young-adult-book-to-tent-pole-movie train, like "Twilight," and "Divergent" I gave it two stars because it is well-written and not rife with malaprops and bad grammar as so many of the self-published zombie novels are. I had never quit on a book before I got into the genre., but at least some of the poorly written made for passable reading because of the "zombie action. " Zombie books are my guilty pleasure, but they need to be frightening. This was just silly. Well written, but geared towards 15 year-olds who are into science.

'Under a Graveyard Sky' by John Ringo is the first book in a series about a family that survives during the zompie apocalypse and it's got some pretty good characters.

When an airborne virus is released, it unleashes a zombie plague. The Smith family is caught in the middle, but thanks to dad, Steven, they are prepared. In the beginning, it would almost seem that they are overprepared, but that turns out not to be the case. With the world falling apart around them, they eventually take to the sea. Since no land is safe, and they need fuel and food to survive, they start salvaging other boats they find. This means clearing out the zombies and helping any survivors they find. With an ever growing fleet of ships, they set out to rescue more people and kill more zombies.

I liked parts of it and parts of it were a bit tough to swallow. Steven is very survivor minded, and so are his family, to the point where his teenage girls are amazing zombie killers. Also, they find a magic bullet along the way that keeps them from getting the infection. So, with protagonists who can't miss their targets and can't be turned into zombies, apparently, there is only so much dramatic tension you can have. This tension comes in the form of people who aren't as prepared, or the few remaining military people out there. And the problem is Steven is right, and everyone else is wrong, even when someone has concerns about him sending his teenage daughter into deadly combat day after day after day. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Baen Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

At the time of this reading, zombie novels have become a dime a dozen. It really takes something more than just "zombie apocalypse" as a story without having an interesting perspective. The best example for this is still Max Brooks' "World War Z". Amazing story telling set inside a zombie world with a hook. The first book in the Black Tide Series has a decent hook and good story telling to make it an interesting entry into the genre.

This first book has a survivor/military aspect where the main characters aren't super soldiers but they aren't your normal civilian who suddenly becomes awesome at surviving. This can sometimes go towards the unbelievable side like where Jerry Ahern's The Survivalist series sometimes gets into. The main characters in this book, the Smith family, sometimes approach the line but too much realism can be boring at time (like the middle seasons of The Walking Dead). Speaking of which, I've seen many reviews complain about the character of Faith being such a good fighter and being so young. Some of the story explains that but you also have characters like Carl from The Walking Dead who no one seems to have a problem with. The action of the book is well paced and has enough detail for those that enjoy the military lingo and tactics to make sense.

Ringo has done his research and has a good amount of medical lingo in it. At times he doesn't have a "dumb character" that needs medical jargon explained to so that the reader can understand. But some of the details aren't really needed to be explained as they would get in the way of continuing the story. There are some medical details that give the books world's zombies some more believably to them. I am still convinced that slow zombies are way scarier and more believable which this book has faster ones.

The biggest hooked that I really enjoyed may not be liked by some but the fact that the destruction of society happens gradually and as a result there are still legal repercussions that are still thought of. Things like police officers going through shooting boards at the beginning of the outbreak or security contractor regulations being enforced in NYC or salvage rules of sea vesicles. I particularly liked the talk about the system of government and operations that occur later in the book. I think this "struggle to stay civilized" lends some boundaries that other zombie stories don't operate with. Where others have society breaking down and all rules of law are dead, Ringo uses this aspect to add another level of tension that was really interesting.

I've read some other military zombie fiction that claimed to be "not like other zombie novels" that were total snoozers (Extinction Horizon). Ringo does a bang up job and creates a world that makes zombies interesting again. I'v already picked up the next book in the series. Final Grade - A

Terrible! It makes it horrific that the author attempts to make his characters survival experts with detailed plans of escape from the end of the World only for them to agree to take their over the top moronic daughter out for dinner and then to a open aired concert in the middle of Central Park during the real start of the zombie collapse. HORRIBLE!

This book is a little slow to start the series. It is mostly the prequal. It discusses the start of the Zombie apocalypse, the attempt to fight back, and the fall of civilization.
I liked the book because it is obvious Ringo recruited some actual scientists on the zombie virus. The virus design and method of spread was clever enough that I enjoyed it (I'm a microbiologist).
While apparently some people who have reviewed the book find the family, especially Faith, to be unbelievable....well... I've met people like this, so I'm fine with the way the characters were written. I will admit it seems like the Smith girls get treated much more like grownups, but then again if you look at their parents and family... that is how those people will be.
I also liked seeing what is, basically, a full and in depth bug-out plan. It helps to put into perspective what is required in disaster situations if you decide to stay or go.
Again, I find Ringo's novel to be both entertaining as well as highly informative.

It took me forever to decide to give this a go. I read the reviews (the really helpful ones, not the one line, "We love John Ringo" ones) and it was a little off-putting. But healthy doses of Walking Dead made me want to listen to a zombie-novel, and so I choose this one.

Listening to it on audiobook, gotta say, this is one of the least exciting books I've ever listened to in a long-time. I am almost done with the book, only about an hour left out of near 14, I think I have a fairly good grasp on the book.

There will be spoilers, so you've been warned.

The good:
-The story centers on a survivalist family. How they prepared compared to others was interesting to listen to.
-The family banter was interesting to listen to.

And.....that's about it.

The so-so:

-There has been a bit of talk on other reviews that the book is very Conservative in nature. While they made some snide comments on Liberals, I found the dad to be kinda liberal himself. Like the fact he has no problem with much older men hitting on his 13 year old daughter (true story, they even have a scene where he thinks about how it's not a problem). There is also the near communistic/pirate aspect of the second half of the book, where everyone shares in the goods. I mean, if John Ringo is trying to promote a conservative political view, he has a funny way of showing it.
-I also found his choice of pop cultural references to be really weird, He could talk about Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, even have the Apple iphone mentioned in it, but when it came to Facebook, he refused to call it that, but Spacebook and even gave Mark Zuckerberg a new name. Which is odd, considering how he named Bush Jr. quiet a bit.
-Not really sure how I feel about the dad, being a civilian, being given control of the entire United States military basically. I understand that he and his family have the experience of fighting zombies argument, but if anything, I would assume that the military in such a situation would basically use them as more of specialists, much like what the Afghans did with the US, giving the US the ability to train their troops, but never fully handing full military control over to them, even if the US basically was in charge.

The bad:

-Frankly, this is one of the least suspenseful books I've ever listened to. There is almost no point in the story where I was biting my nails listening to it because of all the zombies. There is almost no point in the story where even the 13 year is scared about the zombies. This is my first zombie-book on Audible I've listened to, and I really am disappointed.
-Frankly, the family is unbelievable. The word "ubermensch" comes to mind when I think of this family, which is the German word for "supermen". It was used by the Nazis a ton about the Nazi war-machine. And that's what I feel with the family. A dad who is Australian paratrooper which is basically Special Forces, a mom who is more or less an engineering genius, a 15-year old girl who is so bright that she is able to help synthesize very complex anti-virals.....and that mother-effen 13 year old. Oh, let's not forget the uncle who is also Special Ops, and just happens to be on the inside of a major corporation which is tasked with trying to stop the virus, and is even described as a Clark Kent look-a-like.
-I'm not going to get into the 13 year old "She-Wolf"....okay, maybe I will. In fact, even when not geared, she is able to take out hordes of zombie single-handedly without so much as a scratch, except what she gives herself.
-It's almost like Ringo decided to give up entirely on anything original with Faith. If I have to hear ONE MORE "Zombie....zombies....HELLOOOO!" or "Ollie ollie oxen free!" I swear I would kill Faith if she was a real person!
-The second half of the book really drags on and on. It's basically a copy-and-paste job for the most of the entire second half of the book. They find ship, rescue ship. Dad bickers with captain. They find bigger ship, rescue bigger ship. Sisters bicker. They find BIGGER ship, rescue it! Family bickers.
-Some chapters were extremely hard to listen to. I can appreciate going for an authentic feel, but I really have no clue why he would spend entire chapters giving us basically very heavy academic biological lessons that have a ton of words that he didn't go out of his way to simplify. Or using an entire chapter on almost strictly police protocol chatter and having almost no clue what they are talking about because Ringo made no attempt to explain.
-The amount of swearing is nearly out of control. I don't mind the occasional swear word every now and then, but almost from the beginning, the daughters can barely speak a sentence without swearing.

Between a lack of realism with the family, cut-board characters and a lack of any suspense, this book really kinda flops for me. There is a bunch of other stuff that really annoys me with the book. So....I don't believe I'll listen to the rest of the series after this book.

All things considered - and it definitely did have its flaws - Under a Graveyard Sky was probably one of the better apocalyptic tales I've read in a long time, and certainly one of the best zombie tales in recent memory. Rather weak and unbelievable in terms of characters, but very strong in terms of action and plot, John Ringo has pulled together a novel that is sure to please his fans, and potentially win him some new ones.

The book starts on an awkward note, plunging us right into the action, without so much as an introduction to the characters involved. It was so disconcerting that I nearly abandoned it, but the way in which Ringo approached the situation intrigued me. He puts the fate of the world not in the hands of the military or the authorities, but in an investment bank and a well-connected family of 'preppers'. I'm sure there's a socio-political statement there for Ringo, and the bank's resources stretch the bounds of credibility somewhat, but it's an interesting approach that actually makes a lot of sense, once the shock factor wears off.

It's that family which introduces the primary weakness, however, particularly thirteen-year-old Faith the Zombie Slayer. Seriously, you might as well call this girl the next chosen one, except she's all about the high-powered assault weapons instead of the stakes and crossbows. It's ludicrous how well prepared she is, and the ease with which she wades into danger and so gleefully delivers death to the infected is over-the-top and then some. There's actually a point where another character is shot down when he assumes her dad must have been a Buffy fan. She's a likable enough character, and could definitely work in a supernatural setting, this is a book that's deliberately grounded in realism - so much so that Ringo constantly reminds us that the zombies are dangerous, incurable, infected human beings . . . not the living dead.

The zombies themselves are part of what I really liked about the book. There's no supernatural or mystical element here. The zombies are the product of a man-made virus, deliberately designed to be both air-borne and blood-borne for maximum dispersal. It turns its victims into raging, mindless, homicidal maniacs with a hunger for human flesh. There's no cure, and no halting its spread. Although the bank has managed to develop a vaccine by harvesting the spinal cords of living zombies, they are only good for about a dozen doses each.

The first half of the book details the initial spread of the zombie outbreak, with life struggling to continue as normal for as long as possible. We see the police struggle to deal with a situation using tasers and batons, when deadly force is the only real option, while the government limits itself to identifying the source of the plague, rather than curing it. It's a slow descent into madness for civilization, with the first half of the book ending in a brutal bloodbath at a drug-fueled endless rave in Washington Square Park. It's so surreal that it seems plausible, and it makes for fantastic transition to the second, post-apocalyptic half of the novel.

The second half of the book has a far slower pace, and really lacks the sense of urgency that comes from trying to escape impending doom, but it's where the story really develops. Faith and family set out to sea, where they search for other boats and ships to cleanse, rescue, and recover. As if battling zombies weren't tough enough, imagine doing so in the dark, claustrophobic depths of strange ships, adrift at sea. It makes for some great reading, and evolution of their makeshift civilian navy is really interesting to watch develop. Here's where the book is its most political, in discussing how to best organize and implement a new regime, with a lot of dialogue about historical precedent that comes close to being tedious, but is smartly resolved just in time.

That brings us to the final flaw of the novel - basically that it just stops. There is a climactic set-piece to rival the rave in Washington Square Park, appropriately described by one of the characters as Resident Evil: The Cruise Ship, but it doesn't actually resolve anything. The reluctant arrival of the remnants of the US navy is a nice twist, particularly with them unable to do anything more than watch and advise, but all that really does is plant some seeds for the second book - nothing has been accomplished or resolved. There's no cliffhanger either (Ringo manages to avoid that source of reader wrath), but it does feel very much like an unfinished tale.

All things considered, Under a Graveyard Sky was an enjoyable take on the zombie apocalypse. So long as the second book makes some attempt to deal with Faith's impending breakdown, delivers on the promise of multinational intrigue, resolves the 'lost' storyline of Steve's brother and the exodus of investment bankers, and doesn't jump the shark on the zombie infestation, we could be in for a good series.

The story opens with a bang when a school teacher, Steven Smith, gets a coded message from his brother in New York to warn him of a general emergency. Their plan called for the alert to trigger immediate action: gather his family, "grab the bug-out bag and activate [his] Zombie Plan." It's all fairly dramatic as he walks out of his high school classroom, pulls his daughters out of their schools on the pretext of an auto accident involving his wife, and leaves town with a car and trailer loaded with food, water, supplies, ammo and plenty of firearms. This is a John Ringo novel after all, so the Smith's have plenty of firepower and Steve is a veteran of the Australian paratroopers. His brother is a former Aussie SAS operator.

Most of the story takes place at sea as the Smith's escape the zombie plague. However the danger only increases when they engage in search & rescue operations and Steve Smith forms an ad hoc sea-going militia. I preferred the action in the first half of the book when they travel from Virginia to New York City to rendezvous with the brother, who is head of security for "Bank of Americas." Apparently the bankers don't want to die in a zombie apocalypse or nuclear attack and have prepared accordingly. If true, and I don't have much difficulty in believing it, that militates in favor of emergency preparedness for all of us.

The preparedness message might be diluted by the fact that it really is a zombie story. The victims, infected with the man-made virus (exact origin unknown), eventually have symptoms of "extreme homicidal psychosis with reduced mental capacity."

About a year ago I heard John Ringo discussing at a con the very real danger of a zombie-making virus being purposely released from an underground lab by the bio-warfare equivalent of "script-kiddies" who inflict computer viruses on the civilized world. We live in a world where technological advancements have raced ahead of the moral development of large portions of the world's population (e.g. nuclear warheads in the hands of mullahs firmly attached to an Eighth Century attitude towards killing infidels).

An entire family instantly knows and accepts that the zombie apocalypse is on. Good thing they are all militant preppers who have trained themselves and their children to stand ready for anything.

I listened to it on audio and I thought it was terrible. I will say right up front that I just could not finish it. Sure there is a chance it somehow managed to do a complete 180 and suddenly become amazing halfway through but I really don't think so.

Where do I even start? First of all, the plot was ridiculous even for a zombie book (and that's saying something). I read a lot of ZA books (some of them good and some of them bad) and the scenario that the author set up here was just too hard to swallow. I mean, this whole family knows and instantly accepts that the zombie apocalypse has started even before it's actually started? I not only found this totally lame but also BORING. Who wants to read a story about a family already prepped and ready for the ZA? Maybe you do, but I don't. Where is the fun in that?

The other thing is, I'm a little shocked at how bad the writing is... This is the only book I've ever tried by this guy but I see his stuff all the time and I've always thought it looked fun. It wasn't. Every other line seems to end with "he said" or "she said" which makes the narrative extremely repetitive and painful to listen to on audio. Maybe this is just a poor example of this guy's work (i dunno) but I expect better from someone who's such a prolific writer (then again, some prolific writers just seem to stagnate and I guess this is one of them?). I gave it 2 stars because i have read worse, but that's not saying much.

I'm stunned by all these 5 star reviews (seriously, how does this happen?). I wouldn't have bothered leaving a review (since I can think of nothing nice to say) if not for the fact that all the glowing reviews for this book were the reason I gave it a chance. They had me assuming that it had to be at least a halfway decent book if so many people liked it. I was wrong. I also can't help but notice that anyone who doesn't like this book is majorly down voted, which is just lame.

I just finished the book. I forced myself to just so I could review it here. It finishes in pretty much the same way it starts:

- lots of "finger quotes" and nicknames given to new characters that are never used again
- characters introduced and never seen again - Tom? Weren't there some people in NYC?
- a quickly confusing list of boats in the flotilla
- little character development; too many characters to keep track of and several locations that are poorly fleshed out. There's little contrast to help the reader figure out what the setting is.
- so much contrived dialog and obscure D&D/sci fi references. These are then explained in the form of lengthy personal resumes or dorky dialog. In one action scene, Faith starts into a Hudson-from-Aliens "you want some of this?!" rant. Any sci-fi fan - and by ANY I mean EVERY - instantly knows that dialog. Yet, Ringo had to go and hold our hand and tell us where the reference comes from - give the reader some credit, for crying out loud..
- parents who who seem amused that their daughter is a bloodthirsty killer (of zombies, but come on) and smile and wink at each other when sending her off by herself to kill people. I'm disappointed in Faith's parents for encouraging sociopathic behavior - there was little worry from Steve and Stacey about the welfare of their children. Her parents lacked depth primarily for this reason, in my opinion.
- too many pages devoted to firearms (I love em, but c'mon, it's a story not a shooting magazine)
- Dialogue... is often.... broken up... like.. like this...... whenever somebody.. is having difficulty.... expressing an.. emotion.
- Despite quite a bit of action and a few interesting scenes (diving down to cut the sportfisher loose was a cool scene, but lacked any real tension - there was no doubt in my mind that Steve would succeed), the main characters never seem to be in any real danger. Each boat clearing exercise ends in grossed-out giggly success. There's much talk of possible threats and danger, but we don't get to see it firsthand.
- much of the interesting action is told after the fact in dialog or is viewed as a grisly aftermath.
- almost ALL the action is gun/zombie killing porn in Faith's boat clearing endeavors.

Short of all that, there's no story in this story. There's no real villain, no opposition. The heroes face some gruesome scenes and situations, but they always win. There are several opportunities for villains, but every new chapter is just more boat clearing, blood, feces, and Faith getting dogpiled by 15 zombies, only to come out on top with a few clever one-liners and barely a scratch. What about Isham, the potentially mutinous character? No mutiny. Steve and Faith stick guns in his face (for no real reason than he's a backtalker) and chase him off... only to later give him the captaincy of a superyacht. What about the Russian sub that's hinted at partway through the book? The African security contractors? What about the US Navy? The person(s) who started the plague??? Everybody is on Steve's side, it seems.

I waited in vain for a real, powerful, and intriguing villain to appear. Maybe in the sequel? Could have at least ended this on a cliffhanger instead of just stopping in the middle of more-of-the-same.

If you're looking for a zombie story with a sea-faring twist and don't mind reading about a series of events that don't very much from each other, dive in. Otherwise, I'd recommend giving this one a pass. There's no traditional plot here. World War Z was purposefully written that way and it worked for me. This one doesn't, I'm sorry to say.

The bottom line is that without a compelling conflict for the main characters, reading a book like this becomes an exercise in endurance. There's a reason that books like The Stand, Swan Song, and Lucifer's Hammer become timeless post-apocalypse classics: the reader falls into the story world and gets lost in it, experiencing the struggles of the heroes almost directly in their imagination. Graveyard Sky kept bouncing me out of my suspension of disbelief and it just never went anywhere that I was interested in going. That is to say, it never went anywhere interesting and the main reason was because there was simply no compelling villain (I'm sorry, zombies can't be the only villain, especially when they seem to be so easily dispatched).

I haven't read any of John Ringo's other stuff and I'm not sure I want to if it's all like this. The man's written 33 books (many with other authors) since 2000. That's about 3 a year. I get the feeling that he writes from the seat of his pants and maybe gives the first draft a quick once over and then sends it off. I'm impressed that Ringo has made a career kicking out lazy literature like this, but disappointed with the publishing community for letting it happen.

Lots of words do not a good story make. Sadly, I'm finding that these days being prolific trumps being good in fiction.

Some people choose to read books because of the cover. I picked this one up because at first glance I thought she's an elf on the cover (she's not). I ended up buying it because the pages felt nice. Yup, that's me. Bought a book because I liked the way the pages felt. ...I am such a weird booknerd.

You know in Disney's Aladdin when he's trying to describe how amazing Jasmine Is? That's me with this book.

Where do I even start? OK, so this is a zombie apocalypse novel. I am NOT a gore kinda gal, so I don't partake in much zombie media, though I'm super intrigued by the concept. I love that the focus of this book is more on the science behind and progression of the "Pacific Flu" (as they call it) rather than being all horror/gore/gross-I-can't-read-this. The science was believable (to my little unscientific brain, anyway) without being too confusing - I felt I could actually follow it and it made sense. (Maybe it's totally bogus to someone who actually knows anything about epidemiology and microbiology and all that jazz, but it sounded good to me.) The book starts out with Steve Smith getting a text from his highly-placed security task force brother that there is an apocalyptic event happening. Steve is a total survivalist weirdo and his family has trained for this, which is lucky for humanity because without the Smith family there would likely be a lot less chance for mankind. I'm just sayin'. I also really enjoyed the socio-political aspect of this book. Who is in charge when all our previous structures have gone to pot (or "in the dunny," as our Aussie-born friend Steve would say)? On whose authority? It's interesting to see Steve figure out how to lead with his mix of expert and eventually referent power, and to watch the different types of leaders and types of power at play.

The characters in this book are amazing. The central focus is pretty much the Smith family, Steve and his wife Stacey and their two daughters, Sophie (15) and Faith (13). Sophie is the more science-minded daughter, and Faith is SUPER pumped at the prospect of kicking some zombie ass in the impending zombie apocalypse. Oh man, Faith. Here are some of the quotes about Faith:

“The United States started to go downhill when it changed from a round designed to kill the enemies of our glorious republic to one designed to piss them off," Faith said, shooting a zombie five times, then walking up and shooting the still-thrashing infected in the head. “Seriously, just die, okay?”
“Seriously, it’s legal to marry at fourteen in Arkansas.”
“Fine,” Faith said, double tapping a zombie that had reared up out of the darkness. “If we clear Arkansas by the time I’m fourteen we’ll talk.”

--

Bradburn waved a finger at the periscope repeater.
"COB."
"Sir?"
"Remind me never to piss that young lady off."
"Yes, sir."

--

"She's more worried about losing a sub than her own life," Galloway said. "I am going to cover that girl in medals. So help me God."

I was a little weirded out about all the talk about Sophie (15) and Faith (13) in a quasi-sexual light. Like, at one point Steve talks about trusting his daughters around all these grown-ass men. I know Faith is a total bad-ass, but she is 13! Ew. That being said, I can see why all these Marine bad-ass dudes are quasi in love with her - she is BAMF. I was going to post some of my favorite quotes here, but realized in short order than I was basically just typing out the whole book. So yes, just go read this. It was a little confusing at first with the shifting focus all over the place, but solidifies within a few chapters.

This is the first book in the Black Tide Rising series. There are a total of 4 books, all of which are published. I immediately went and bought the second book, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and I probably should have just caved and bought the rest of the series at the same time. If it were possible to rate a book more than 5 stars, this would get it.

So glad I didn't buy this--I checked out the audiobook from my library, and if I'd paid more attention to the cover art I wouldn't have. I have wasted soooooo much money chasing the zombie high I got from World War Z and the Day by Day Apocalypse series. This book should be listed under "juvenile fiction." It had a promising storyline, especially with the scientific explanation of the zombie virus, but so much of the book is wasted on cutesy, grrrrl power dialogue. Way too much emphasis on the family interaction. I couldn't make it past disk 4. One of the daughters is supposed to be this 13 year-old fearless phenom and I just wanted her to get eaten. I think the author is trying to jump on the young-adult-book-to-tent-pole-movie train, like "Twilight," and "Divergent" I gave it two stars because it is well-written and not rife with malaprops and bad grammar as so many of the self-published zombie novels are. I had never quit on a book before I got into the genre., but at least some of the poorly written made for passable reading because of the "zombie action. " Zombie books are my guilty pleasure, but they need to be frightening. This was just silly. Well written, but geared towards 15 year-olds who are into science.

'Under a Graveyard Sky' by John Ringo is the first book in a series about a family that survives during the zompie apocalypse and it's got some pretty good characters.

When an airborne virus is released, it unleashes a zombie plague. The Smith family is caught in the middle, but thanks to dad, Steven, they are prepared. In the beginning, it would almost seem that they are overprepared, but that turns out not to be the case. With the world falling apart around them, they eventually take to the sea. Since no land is safe, and they need fuel and food to survive, they start salvaging other boats they find. This means clearing out the zombies and helping any survivors they find. With an ever growing fleet of ships, they set out to rescue more people and kill more zombies.

I liked parts of it and parts of it were a bit tough to swallow. Steven is very survivor minded, and so are his family, to the point where his teenage girls are amazing zombie killers. Also, they find a magic bullet along the way that keeps them from getting the infection. So, with protagonists who can't miss their targets and can't be turned into zombies, apparently, there is only so much dramatic tension you can have. This tension comes in the form of people who aren't as prepared, or the few remaining military people out there. And the problem is Steven is right, and everyone else is wrong, even when someone has concerns about him sending his teenage daughter into deadly combat day after day after day. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Baen Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

At the time of this reading, zombie novels have become a dime a dozen. It really takes something more than just "zombie apocalypse" as a story without having an interesting perspective. The best example for this is still Max Brooks' "World War Z". Amazing story telling set inside a zombie world with a hook. The first book in the Black Tide Series has a decent hook and good story telling to make it an interesting entry into the genre.

This first book has a survivor/military aspect where the main characters aren't super soldiers but they aren't your normal civilian who suddenly becomes awesome at surviving. This can sometimes go towards the unbelievable side like where Jerry Ahern's The Survivalist series sometimes gets into. The main characters in this book, the Smith family, sometimes approach the line but too much realism can be boring at time (like the middle seasons of The Walking Dead). Speaking of which, I've seen many reviews complain about the character of Faith being such a good fighter and being so young. Some of the story explains that but you also have characters like Carl from The Walking Dead who no one seems to have a problem with. The action of the book is well paced and has enough detail for those that enjoy the military lingo and tactics to make sense.

Ringo has done his research and has a good amount of medical lingo in it. At times he doesn't have a "dumb character" that needs medical jargon explained to so that the reader can understand. But some of the details aren't really needed to be explained as they would get in the way of continuing the story. There are some medical details that give the books world's zombies some more believably to them. I am still convinced that slow zombies are way scarier and more believable which this book has faster ones.

The biggest hooked that I really enjoyed may not be liked by some but the fact that the destruction of society happens gradually and as a result there are still legal repercussions that are still thought of. Things like police officers going through shooting boards at the beginning of the outbreak or security contractor regulations being enforced in NYC or salvage rules of sea vesicles. I particularly liked the talk about the system of government and operations that occur later in the book. I think this "struggle to stay civilized" lends some boundaries that other zombie stories don't operate with. Where others have society breaking down and all rules of law are dead, Ringo uses this aspect to add another level of tension that was really interesting.

I've read some other military zombie fiction that claimed to be "not like other zombie novels" that were total snoozers (Extinction Horizon). Ringo does a bang up job and creates a world that makes zombies interesting again. I'v already picked up the next book in the series. Final Grade - A

Terrible! It makes it horrific that the author attempts to make his characters survival experts with detailed plans of escape from the end of the World only for them to agree to take their over the top moronic daughter out for dinner and then to a open aired concert in the middle of Central Park during the real start of the zombie collapse. HORRIBLE!

This book is a little slow to start the series. It is mostly the prequal. It discusses the start of the Zombie apocalypse, the attempt to fight back, and the fall of civilization.
I liked the book because it is obvious Ringo recruited some actual scientists on the zombie virus. The virus design and method of spread was clever enough that I enjoyed it (I'm a microbiologist).
While apparently some people who have reviewed the book find the family, especially Faith, to be unbelievable....well... I've met people like this, so I'm fine with the way the characters were written. I will admit it seems like the Smith girls get treated much more like grownups, but then again if you look at their parents and family... that is how those people will be.
I also liked seeing what is, basically, a full and in depth bug-out plan. It helps to put into perspective what is required in disaster situations if you decide to stay or go.
Again, I find Ringo's novel to be both entertaining as well as highly informative.

It took me forever to decide to give this a go. I read the reviews (the really helpful ones, not the one line, "We love John Ringo" ones) and it was a little off-putting. But healthy doses of Walking Dead made me want to listen to a zombie-novel, and so I choose this one.

Listening to it on audiobook, gotta say, this is one of the least exciting books I've ever listened to in a long-time. I am almost done with the book, only about an hour left out of near 14, I think I have a fairly good grasp on the book.

There will be spoilers, so you've been warned.

The good:
-The story centers on a survivalist family. How they prepared compared to others was interesting to listen to.
-The family banter was interesting to listen to.

And.....that's about it.

The so-so:

-There has been a bit of talk on other reviews that the book is very Conservative in nature. While they made some snide comments on Liberals, I found the dad to be kinda liberal himself. Like the fact he has no problem with much older men hitting on his 13 year old daughter (true story, they even have a scene where he thinks about how it's not a problem). There is also the near communistic/pirate aspect of the second half of the book, where everyone shares in the goods. I mean, if John Ringo is trying to promote a conservative political view, he has a funny way of showing it.
-I also found his choice of pop cultural references to be really weird, He could talk about Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, even have the Apple iphone mentioned in it, but when it came to Facebook, he refused to call it that, but Spacebook and even gave Mark Zuckerberg a new name. Which is odd, considering how he named Bush Jr. quiet a bit.
-Not really sure how I feel about the dad, being a civilian, being given control of the entire United States military basically. I understand that he and his family have the experience of fighting zombies argument, but if anything, I would assume that the military in such a situation would basically use them as more of specialists, much like what the Afghans did with the US, giving the US the ability to train their troops, but never fully handing full military control over to them, even if the US basically was in charge.

The bad:

-Frankly, this is one of the least suspenseful books I've ever listened to. There is almost no point in the story where I was biting my nails listening to it because of all the zombies. There is almost no point in the story where even the 13 year is scared about the zombies. This is my first zombie-book on Audible I've listened to, and I really am disappointed.
-Frankly, the family is unbelievable. The word "ubermensch" comes to mind when I think of this family, which is the German word for "supermen". It was used by the Nazis a ton about the Nazi war-machine. And that's what I feel with the family. A dad who is Australian paratrooper which is basically Special Forces, a mom who is more or less an engineering genius, a 15-year old girl who is so bright that she is able to help synthesize very complex anti-virals.....and that mother-effen 13 year old. Oh, let's not forget the uncle who is also Special Ops, and just happens to be on the inside of a major corporation which is tasked with trying to stop the virus, and is even described as a Clark Kent look-a-like.
-I'm not going to get into the 13 year old "She-Wolf"....okay, maybe I will. In fact, even when not geared, she is able to take out hordes of zombie single-handedly without so much as a scratch, except what she gives herself.
-It's almost like Ringo decided to give up entirely on anything original with Faith. If I have to hear ONE MORE "Zombie....zombies....HELLOOOO!" or "Ollie ollie oxen free!" I swear I would kill Faith if she was a real person!
-The second half of the book really drags on and on. It's basically a copy-and-paste job for the most of the entire second half of the book. They find ship, rescue ship. Dad bickers with captain. They find bigger ship, rescue bigger ship. Sisters bicker. They find BIGGER ship, rescue it! Family bickers.
-Some chapters were extremely hard to listen to. I can appreciate going for an authentic feel, but I really have no clue why he would spend entire chapters giving us basically very heavy academic biological lessons that have a ton of words that he didn't go out of his way to simplify. Or using an entire chapter on almost strictly police protocol chatter and having almost no clue what they are talking about because Ringo made no attempt to explain.
-The amount of swearing is nearly out of control. I don't mind the occasional swear word every now and then, but almost from the beginning, the daughters can barely speak a sentence without swearing.

Between a lack of realism with the family, cut-board characters and a lack of any suspense, this book really kinda flops for me. There is a bunch of other stuff that really annoys me with the book. So....I don't believe I'll listen to the rest of the series after this book.

All things considered - and it definitely did have its flaws - Under a Graveyard Sky was probably one of the better apocalyptic tales I've read in a long time, and certainly one of the best zombie tales in recent memory. Rather weak and unbelievable in terms of characters, but very strong in terms of action and plot, John Ringo has pulled together a novel that is sure to please his fans, and potentially win him some new ones.

The book starts on an awkward note, plunging us right into the action, without so much as an introduction to the characters involved. It was so disconcerting that I nearly abandoned it, but the way in which Ringo approached the situation intrigued me. He puts the fate of the world not in the hands of the military or the authorities, but in an investment bank and a well-connected family of 'preppers'. I'm sure there's a socio-political statement there for Ringo, and the bank's resources stretch the bounds of credibility somewhat, but it's an interesting approach that actually makes a lot of sense, once the shock factor wears off.

It's that family which introduces the primary weakness, however, particularly thirteen-year-old Faith the Zombie Slayer. Seriously, you might as well call this girl the next chosen one, except she's all about the high-powered assault weapons instead of the stakes and crossbows. It's ludicrous how well prepared she is, and the ease with which she wades into danger and so gleefully delivers death to the infected is over-the-top and then some. There's actually a point where another character is shot down when he assumes her dad must have been a Buffy fan. She's a likable enough character, and could definitely work in a supernatural setting, this is a book that's deliberately grounded in realism - so much so that Ringo constantly reminds us that the zombies are dangerous, incurable, infected human beings . . . not the living dead.

The zombies themselves are part of what I really liked about the book. There's no supernatural or mystical element here. The zombies are the product of a man-made virus, deliberately designed to be both air-borne and blood-borne for maximum dispersal. It turns its victims into raging, mindless, homicidal maniacs with a hunger for human flesh. There's no cure, and no halting its spread. Although the bank has managed to develop a vaccine by harvesting the spinal cords of living zombies, they are only good for about a dozen doses each.

The first half of the book details the initial spread of the zombie outbreak, with life struggling to continue as normal for as long as possible. We see the police struggle to deal with a situation using tasers and batons, when deadly force is the only real option, while the government limits itself to identifying the source of the plague, rather than curing it. It's a slow descent into madness for civilization, with the first half of the book ending in a brutal bloodbath at a drug-fueled endless rave in Washington Square Park. It's so surreal that it seems plausible, and it makes for fantastic transition to the second, post-apocalyptic half of the novel.

The second half of the book has a far slower pace, and really lacks the sense of urgency that comes from trying to escape impending doom, but it's where the story really develops. Faith and family set out to sea, where they search for other boats and ships to cleanse, rescue, and recover. As if battling zombies weren't tough enough, imagine doing so in the dark, claustrophobic depths of strange ships, adrift at sea. It makes for some great reading, and evolution of their makeshift civilian navy is really interesting to watch develop. Here's where the book is its most political, in discussing how to best organize and implement a new regime, with a lot of dialogue about historical precedent that comes close to being tedious, but is smartly resolved just in time.

That brings us to the final flaw of the novel - basically that it just stops. There is a climactic set-piece to rival the rave in Washington Square Park, appropriately described by one of the characters as Resident Evil: The Cruise Ship, but it doesn't actually resolve anything. The reluctant arrival of the remnants of the US navy is a nice twist, particularly with them unable to do anything more than watch and advise, but all that really does is plant some seeds for the second book - nothing has been accomplished or resolved. There's no cliffhanger either (Ringo manages to avoid that source of reader wrath), but it does feel very much like an unfinished tale.

All things considered, Under a Graveyard Sky was an enjoyable take on the zombie apocalypse. So long as the second book makes some attempt to deal with Faith's impending breakdown, delivers on the promise of multinational intrigue, resolves the 'lost' storyline of Steve's brother and the exodus of investment bankers, and doesn't jump the shark on the zombie infestation, we could be in for a good series.

For whoever read and liked the books written by (in no particular oder)...
Jay Allan (sci-fi)
James S.A.Corey (sci-fi)
Charles Stross (sci-fi/horror/fantasy)
Jack Campbell (sci-fi)
Jim Butcher (fantasy)
Tom Holt (in the particular case of "Blonde Bombshell")
John Scalzi (sci-fi)
Richard Kadrey (fantasy)
(a little bit of Iain M. Banks)
....this series is again a MUST.

In the case of John Ringo I like particularly the target-driven but at the same time open-minded and balanced/professional mindset/attitude of the main characters.

In my case this is the series that made first contact with John Ringo.
I remember that after having read the 3rd or 4th book in an almost single shot (I'm a slow reader - had to sleep inbetween), when I was walking towards the shopping mall I kept on looking for potential threats coming from any direction - crazy, but I just could not stop doing it.

In this series I liked A LOT the characters and the positive struggle to make things work - wouldn't most probably be like that in a real world, but this is (again) exactly what I need to detach from my job + to use as a source of personal inspiration for whatever I do (after abstracting :D ).

I really want to give this book 5 stars. If the younger daughter was an 17 - 30yo male, I would have, instead we have a 13yo girl-child. This child, however fit and well-trained, is still going to be a 90 pound female CHILD. She kicks so much butt, you'd think she was a smaller version of the T-1000 from 'The Terminator!' It destroys my suspension of disbelief, something I am pretty adept at stretching for miles. This character, Faith, snaps it, however! Heck, having a young male in top shape and superbly trained do what this girl-child does would require the suspension! If you're able to envision her as a 20yo young man, you'll enjoy this book more.

Under a Graveyard Sky (2013) is the first SF novel in the Black Tide Rising series. It is set in Warrentown, Virginia, New York City and the Atlantic Ocean within the near future.

In this novel, Steven John Smith is married to Stacey and has two teenage daughters, Sophia Lynn and Faith Marie. He was born in Australia, but is now a naturalized American. Steve was an Australian para, but is presently a highschool History teacher.

Thomas Smith is the brother of Steve and is now the head of security for the Bank of the Americas. Tom is unmarried, heterosexual and loves women.

Jason Young is an officer in Warrentown. The local police department is rather small.

David Curry is a virologist. He is a consultant for the Bank of the Americas.

In this story, Tom is attending a conference at the bank on the emergency. After the CEO calls the board to order, Tom gives a brief introduction and asks Curry to explain the technicalities. Curry describes the disease as a two stage virus that has symptoms like influenza, but then becomes a neurological disorder. The word zombie is used.

Steve receives a coded phone message from Tom warning of the possible apocalypse. He takes his backpack and walks out of class. He asks the school secretary to pull Sophia out of class and to call the middle school about Faith. He tells the assistant principal that his wife has been injured at work and was taken to the hospital.

Steve has Sophia drive the car while he calls Stacey and tells her that Sophia was hit by a car in the school parking lot. He then has time to look up the emergency code. It warns of biological warfare. After picking up Faith, he drives the car home.

Sophie is fifteen years old and is looking forward to the coming dance. Faith is two years younger and is looking forward to the Zombie Apocalypse. Both are wondering if the coded message is true.

The Smiths load a trailer with emergency supplies. Steve goes to arrange for the lease of a sailboat and meets the women at a dock behind a foreclosed house. They are loading the boat when a police officer arrives.

Young asks Steve about the family and the boat. Steve is polite and doesn't argue. Stacey says that she is not under coercion and confirms her husband's statement.

Steve tells Young to be wary around naked, incoherent and aggressive subjects. Then Young gets an urgent call from the dispatcher and leaves. He remember Steve's warning and is very cautious when an unclothed teenage girl lands on his hood and tries to bite the window.

This tale provides a plausible rationale for the zombie plague. Apparently someone has designed a dual virus that works in two steps. The flu-like stage has an airborne vector, but the rabies-like stage is transmitted by infected blood. Bites are the most common way to pass the disease.

This story seems to be following the recent trend of zombie films and books. It is similar to Devil's Wake, but has a more plausible basis. It appears that the author decided that he could do a better job of explaining such plagues than most of these works.

As a Ringo fan, I would have preferred a novel in the Posleen or William Weaver series, but one can only read what the author writes. I enjoyed the book, but lost a night of sleep. The next installment in this sequence is To Sail a Darkling Sea. Alas, more lost sleep.

Highly recommended for Ringo fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of weapons of mass destruction, teenage shooters, and a bit of romance. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

If you think the zombie apocalypse will never happen, if you've never been afraid of zombies, you may change your mind after reading Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo. The book is the first of at least two novels about the end of the world as we know it. The author has done considerable research into the subject and it shows. The medical jargon doesn't slow the pacing down but does step up the believability and fear quotient. Ringo makes a sound case for his zombies and the spread of the disease.

The zombies in the novel aren't supernatural in any way. The undead are the result of an infectious disease dumped into civilization by someone whose identity we do not know. In addition to fighting the zombies, the heroes also face an unknown menace that probably isn't finished with attempting to destroy the world. I'm not sure in which direction Ringo is going to take this revelation. Baen is a science fiction publisher, so maybe aliens are ultimately behind this, but I'm betting this is more of a manmade attack. There has been no indication.

The story more or less revolves around the Smith family, which I assume is loosely based on the author and his family. Steve Smith is an Aussie military guy who taught high school history for a time. Stacey, his wife, is an engineer. Sophia, the eldest daughter, is a geek and almost as capable as her mom. Faith, the youngest, is an absolute killing machine - by far the most over-the-top and heroic figure in the book. I went from "no way" to "gimme more," which is what you want a reader to do with a character like that.

Events build slowly in the book at the outset, but you can't stop reading because it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion: inexorable and horrible. And the zombie apocalypse in these pages is so fascinating that you can't stop flipping pages to see what happens next. From the medical background and supposition, to the change in day to day life, everything starts coming apart.

Ringo has a penchant for having fun with his stories, even in the midst of horror. So it's understandable that he takes his readers to the last concert ever in New York City in a world as we know it. There's a lot of dark humor that lightens the tone, but that's a necessary ingredient.

After the final collapse of the world about mid-way through the novel, the focus of the book shifts to the Smiths' struggle to survive at sea. Here, again, Ringo shines as he begins postulating the underpinnings of a new "government" that might - if they all don't get killed - emerge from the ashes. The political talk is as lively and interesting as killing zombies in the hallways of cruise ships while sharks circle in the water.

So if you've never been a zombie fan, or even for a moment wanted to believe something this apocryphal could happen, I'm recommending this one. Whether you want to call it zombies or a medical disaster, Ringo will have you on the ropes awaiting the next installment.

First let me start by saying I am a zombie-holic. Ok to be more appropriate I am an apocalypse addict, but I prefer my apocalypses to include zombies. However any book that includes zombies, whether they bring on the end of the world or not, I will eagerly devour. I enjoy the apocalypse ones though because they deal with how people decide to handle the end of civilization as we know it. How they use the resources they have in new and inventive ways, how they deal with the zombies, other humans, and all that good stuff.
Under a Graveyard Sky is one that would fall under zombie apocalypse. Let me say it was good, really good. It kept me turning the pages and I actually got attached to some of the characters. There were some points that kept it from being 5 stars, but I don't think they should keep someone from reading it.
Let's start with what I liked.
The world Ringo has created is solid. The attention to detail on how the virus started, spread, and how the Smith family is prepared for the impending apocalypse is awesome. Yes there are some things that aren't completely explained, but the author does acknowledge them. For example how the gps system on the boat still works. The characters wonder how it is still working but they just take it as they are lucky and go from there. That's fine; you have to suspend belief in most apocalypse books anyway.
I love the characters, especially Faith. Yes she is a tab bit young to be a super zombie killing machine, but she is funny. I also like how the author doesn't shy away from having his characters dealing with the psychological trauma brought on by having to deal with zombies. Faith's teddy bear doesn't bode well for her future mental stability. However it does show that you can't just go around killing people who once were human and not be affected by it.
What I had issues with. First, while it was uber-detailed, I didn't know what some of the abbreviations meant. Maybe a quick explanation of what they stood for would have helped?
Second the end of the second book became choppy. It just seemed to jump from scene to scene, and while the beginning of the book had a lot of detail, the ending just seems to be missing pieces. Plus the ending is rather abrupt. Lots of questions are left unanswered and it basically ends mid-scene. That's the main reason I'm giving it 4 instead of 5 stars.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and would gladly pick up the next one. There are some interesting questions that are left unanswered and I would really like to see what happens to the Smith family. I definitely recommend picking this one up it looks like the start to an interesting series.

These books are very good reads simply because Ringo paints a very realistic picture of a believable plague (the disease is more "28 Weels Later" than "Walking Dead"), and a believable reaction by in over their heads public officials, and creates very-very likeable characters. The only weakness in the story is that the prepper heroes and their plans and connections seem a bit too pat, a bit too perfectly tailored to setting up the series storyline. The heroes aren't average folks, not even just more prepared than your average preppers, they're perfectly tailored. That said - if like likeable characters and you're looking for a reasonably believable plague of "zombies" and far more very-smart happy warrior action than personal dramas and angst then this book is for you.

4.5 Stars!
Review:

When I saw Under a Graveyard Sky on Netgalley, I immediately clicked the request button. I just can’t get enough of zombie books (you won’t catch me watching zombies shows, though – too gross!), and this sounded intriguing. It takes place right as a plague is decimating the human population, causing chaos and countless, bloody loss of life. The first 15% of the book felt a little draggy, as the author expounded on the science behind the man-made illness that was causing the infected to attack and eat their fellow humans. The biology of it exhausted me, but not to worry! Once things got underway with the out of control sickness, I was hooked, hooked, hooked! I was reading this everywhere – when I was filling the gas tank, standing in line at the store, even making extended visits to the bathroom so I could have a little peace and quiet time away from the puppers so I could find out what happened next!

This is a blast to read. The Smith family has fled to the sea in an attempt to escape the certain death that comes after contracting the virus, which is a modified form of rabies. The Smiths have been training for the end of the world for years, and they are more than prepared for the challenges ahead. What they didn’t really count on was their daughters getting caught up right in the thick of things back on shore. Steve’s brother has promised to keep the girls safe – and occupied – if they are allowed to help back in New York. While this section of the tale didn’t make much sense to me, it did get the action firmly moving forward. Faith, the youngest daughter, seems to have a zombie beacon strapped to her back, because everywhere she turns, there’s another one, ready to bite her face off. The fact that Steve and Stacey allowed their girls to go ashore once they were relatively safe on their boat didn’t seem like a smart idea to me, especially when they decide to go to a concert in the park. In the dark. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse. But no matter, it got my heart racing at the mere thought of being in that much danger, self-inflected or not, and made for very entertaining reading.

Once the family gets back on the water and sets sail for parts unknown, things really get nuts. After rescuing a young girl, the only survivor after her family turns and tries to eat her, from their yacht, Steve has a new mission in life. He isn’t going to take this zombie thing sitting down. No way! Steve is going to save as many people as he can, and take out as many zombies as he can, because there are people out there trapped and starving on boats just like Tina’s. Now, I never stopped to think about what it would be like to be trapped in a cabin with no food or water while my family was locked outside, noisily eating each other. Now that I have, well, I don’t know that being on a ship in the middle of the ocean would be such a good idea after all. Especially if someone was infected, but we didn’t find out until it was too late. What do you do? Try to throw them overboard before they bite your brains out? Not a pleasant thought, any way you contemplate it.

The sea rescues did get a little repetitive, at least until they got to the cruise ship. Then it was Holy Crap, you have GOT to be kidding me! How are a handful of people going to wade through that many zombies? Despite some lags in pacing, I found this a fun, fun read. The challenges faced by the small band of survivors made for compelling reading. I couldn’t put my reader down, and I blew through this book in no time flat. My one, major complaint? Those three dreaded words on the last page – To Be Continued. NO!! Really??? Why couldn’t there be just a teeny tiny bit of closure?! The wait for To Sail a Darkling Sea isn’t THAT bad, but come on! It won’t be out until February of next year!

Grade: B+

I don't normally read Zombie stories, there is too much munching and crunching in them usually and not much of a plot beyond surviving.

This book starts with Steve getting a bug out text from his brother(Tom) and Steve gets the family on a boat that's loaded to the max with materials to survive for a while. Instead of turning this into a 'Zombies are everywhere' book, like so many others, Ringo instead focuses on the Smith family (Mom, Pop, two precocious daughters) and we get to see the build up of how the planet comes tumbling down. Ringo does not bring in a holistic view of what happens, it is built around the Smith family and their interactions with other.

So, back to the story at large. We see the virus spread, we see how Corporate America and the Government respond to the crisis. We also get smaller views on a few folks the Smiths meet and then never intertwine in the story again. All makes for an interesting way to do the story.

Now, we do have what some would consider disturbing in that 13 and 15 year old girls are blasting away as the Zombie crisis and we also see a somewhat Jaded NYC reacting to the crisis. Given Mr. Ringo's mildly 'off' sense of humor, it works quite well. Given that the Zombies eventually overpower most of humanity, PTSD for the girls can be understood, as well as some gallows humor that Mr. Ringo puts in there.

I loved it and am reading the second book now.

Borrowed from library. The heroes are an American former Aussie Para, and his two super daughters, one a combat god at 14, the other a high school age as smart and skilled as a bio/chem post-doc.Some group spreads a virus that is like the flu and turns 99.99 percent of the victims into zombies, who bite people and turn them into zombies...

The writing is very well done, scenes are vivid and engaging, dialog is smart and fun to follow.

There are several issues. If the writing wasn't so good I would have assigned a 3 instead of a 4 overall.

1. Way too much detail on the virus, it stops the story, and this story needs quick action to move along.
2. The super daughters are too much, even given this type of comic book type storyline. Not just too accepting and level headed, but too perfect in every way.
3. The heroes at first have a perfect hide out plan, then they trash it to go to an end of the world concert and zombie infection rally in NY, then back to the hiding.

John Ringo has a gift for fast-paced military action, which I have appreciated in several series. Graveyard Sky is a classic Ringo novel, centered on brave and resourceful protagonists using creativity and firepower to confront terrifying adversaries. If that appeals to you, Ringo delivers with wit and flair; if you prefer introspective characters debating moral dilemmas, look elsewhere.
Graveyard Sky is Ringo's take on the zombie apocalypse, devastation so severe that the survival of human civilization depends on the wisdom and perseverance of a very few survivors. Every life is important, every decision has consequences, and the importance of the virtues that Ringo values (courage, loyalty, imagination, perseverance) is obvious. It is a world in which Westley, Buttercup, Inigo Montoya and Fezzik from the Princess Bride would thrive, but Holden Caulfield would not.
The premise is a highly infectious, modified rabies virus that reduced the vast majority of humanity to brain-damaged cannibals. The "infected" cannot be cured, cannot be appeased, cannot be discouraged, but can be shot, clubbed, stabbed, and strangled. The central characters are a family with a little advance notice and a plan to survive. Two teenage sisters bicker in ways familiar to a parent of daughters, as the family collects and organizes survivors. Their noble quest is painful and seems impossible. Survivors who join the quest add their own stories as well.
If this appeals to you, I recommend Graveyard Sky, and look forward to its sequel, To Sail A Darkling Sea.

The last Ringo I read (a Kildar novel) was a disappointment, but I am glad to see that in this book he is back in top form.

The "zombies" in this novel are of the 28 Days Later variety -- created by biowarfare, they are infected with a virus that turns them into mindless, violent killing machines. They're not of the slow supernatural / undead variety, they are of the fast and strong variety.

As other reviewers have noted, one of the protagonists is really over the top -- a 13-year-old girl who can wear 100lbs of equipment while shooting her way through a zombie horde inside a gigantic ship. When she got dogpiled by the zombies but slashed her way out from underneath it, well, that really was challenging to the suspension of disbelief. Happily the novel was sufficiently entertaining that I could overlook that.

What can I say, if you are a Ringo fan you should like it. It had some definite laugh-out-loud moments.

This is primarily a review of the Audible version of the book.

I love the Walking Dead. This book and series are much more believable. The cause and spread of the disease seem probable. The characters act realistic. The plot is entertaining and I look forward to finding what happens next.

It's not a perfect book. This is my first John Ringo novel. I'm not sure if it's just part of his writing style, but one thing that quirks me and is probably a hundred times more noticeable in the audible version is his habit of frequently describing dialogue situations with the modifiers "he said" or "she said." One could turn this into a drinking game. It is like lipstick on actors in television. Once you start noticing it, you can't stop noticing it.

Another minor quibble is the narration of the book. He does a decent Australian accent, however like any male narrator his female voices need work. Secondly, I do not know if it is the fault of the narrator or whoever edited the audio, but sometimes the "breaks" between scenes are not obvious. Unlike a book where there would be a paragraph break and a few spaces to make it obvious of a scene change, the audio version barely stops. This can lead to some confusion and is really my only complaint about the book that I find truly frustrating.

John's a buddy of mine who helped me get my break in the book writing business so I had to give this book a read/listen.

I got it on Audible for a booktour, and wasn't disappointed, right down to the shout-out he gave my books most of the way in. (It's the halligan talk, if you're curious)

My chief complaint with the book is the time he spends early on talking about the biology of his outbreak. It's VERY technical and I'm sure accurate, but in my mind it threw the pacing off. I also found the Faith character to be a bit over-done, but it is a book, and she was still fun to read.

John's action and military aspects are spot-on and fun to read, ad as always his dialogue is hoot. I'll be picking up the rest of the series to see where the Circus goes.

Recommended.

When they first tested the atomic bomb there was a remote possibility that it would cause a chain reaction and destroy the universe. They went ahead and did it anyway. With scientists usually belonging to that school of thinking and too many people just out to make money or kill their enemies it is entirely possible that something dreadful be created and then get out of hand.

Not if but WHEN.

As science progresses to make nightmares becomes easier. The zombies are a nice touch, a bit used but still nice. I would accuse Ringo of creating too perfect characters but the thing is that to survive the end of the world takes someone special. If they weren't VERY good they wouldn't have made it.

With times as uncertain as ours can become it seems to me a wise thing to get ready for a catastrophe. Just this winter we have had enough trouble to justify building yourself a bunker(or at least stockpiling food and fuel). I see it as Not Being Part of the Problem.

I have a very athletic thirteen year old daughter. She plays sports, rides horses, and is very good with a gun. She has also put on all my firefighting bunker gear while visiting me at the fire station. She could barely move. Add that to the fact that even the small recoil impulse from my AR when fired rapidly, has her grouping all over the paper. This isn't beating up on my daughter, it's just a reality that a thirteen year old girl (even most boys) are not physically capable of carrying 100+ pounds of gear while using semi-auto weapons, and killing zombies in hand-to-hand combat.

I realize this is just a fun zombie story and that I might not be the average reader, but it felt like Ringo was physically jerking me out of my suspension of disbelief about every ten pages. There are so many misguided opinions in this book, and so many misconceptions about hardware. It felt like being smacked in the head with a hammer every time he talked about 5.56, or Siaga 12's or bunker gear, or halligan bars, or ...

I liked some of the characters, and the general premise of the story, but the devil is in the details and the details in this story were very wrong.

I even got halfway through the second book, but that was is it. No more, I cry uncle.

Bought a three-book set on sale at a local bookstore. I was happy with the first book, although the "golden child" syndrome is STRONG with this serries, the quality of the setting makes up for it...at first. By the third book it has turned into nothing but military-porn, and the setting becomes nothing but a thinly veiled excuse for the author's dictatorial social experiment masturbation.

If you want to read about a zompocalypse that has good writing, setting, characters, and DOESN'T make you want to vomit from the mary-sue fingerblasting...go read the "Ex Heroes" serries by Peter Cline. It is SO much better than this pile of crud...which is currently propping up a speaker in my house.

I would echo one of the reviewers. I really wanted to like this book, after I read John Ringo's BRILLIANT Monster Hunter Memoirs. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this story. On the pros side, the science and apocalyptic side of the story is really good. That's why you have reviewers saying this is a wonderful zombie book. On the cons side, there are many characters and they would appear in one chapter, disappear for the next few, and then reappear. The protagonists aren't very interesting and come across as somewhat annoying. After reading 3/4 of the book, I decided I wasn't going to invest my time into the entire series.

This would be an excellent read, save one glaring point. The story line is fast paced, with just enough science to make the causes for the plague believable, distribution methods buyable, story workable. But the main heroine is a 13 year old girl. A 13 year old girl that wears 100 lbs. Of body armor and gear, and regularly engages in melee combat with multiple adult zombies. Gets dog piled in full kit, and fights through it. As someone that has had to wear similar gear. ....I don't freaking think so. She's 13 Mr. Ringo. No way in hell she has the physique to do the things she does in the story. If you can overlook that, it's great so far. But I think that the authors fetish for barely pubescent teen girls is showing again.

I usually like Mr. Ringo's work and especially his Posleen series and The Council War. This one is OK and fans of post-apocalyptic/zombie fiction will enjoy it. A lot of the book is devoted to zombie killing and fans will like that. But I have to ask; does the world really need another zombie apocalypse series? There seems to be an inexhaustible market for this stuff. In this one the standard hero is of course an ex-super soldier (Aussie SAS), expert deep diver, natural leader etc. and so forth. His parenting skills are also amazing since he manages to involve his two teenage daughters in an elaborate pre-disaster plan complete with drills, code words and firearms training. All this without evoking a storm of giggles or them telling all their friends (Hey Susie, wait till you hear what my old man wants us to do! Lameo!). Along comes the plague and off he goes to sea taking his multi-talented family with him - wife and the beautiful, teenage daughters. He organizes other boaters into a scratch squadron (Wolf Squadron) and proceeds to clear various vessels found drifting around, rescuing a few non-bitten survivors.

The clearing is worthwhile in some cases (e.g. the Coast Guard cutter) but in others they seem to risk precious lives just for the sake of killing zombies. In the case of the huge cruise ship this results in a great action scene as the heroes stand off the de rigueur horde of slavering undead. But since the horde was already locked in it would have made more sense to just leave them there to starve.

Problem: the thirteen year old is heavily featured to the point that she becomes the POV character for the last half of the book. That's fine, but except for overusing using the expression "sooo" (as in "that's sooo gross") the beautiful teenage daughters (dad calls `em "hotties") are in effect adults. Both of them talk like boot camp Marines and the thirteen year old (big for her age) is a way better zombie killer than trained adults. She also carries a combat load that would stagger a SWAT team. This gets less and less credible as the book goes along.

The author also goes to some lengths to explain the nature of the plague. It's a nice piece of research but tends to bring the story shuddering to a halt. Some vigorous hand waving would have probably been better since only a limited number of biomedical researchers are likely to read this.

(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This is an oddball to review, and I still don't know what to think of it.

On the one hand, I liked the ideas developed in it. A family already having a plan in case of a zombie apocalypse? Well, why not. They have the right connections to be informed of such things first-hand, and it's not harder to believe in that than in, say, a family during the early Cold War living in fear of, and preparing for, a potential nuclear war. I found it interesting to see them go from "save ourselves" to "let's try to save as many people as we can", with all the problems stemming from organising a whole flotilla: fuel, food, who's going to give the orders, potential dissenters who could become real trouble... Fortunately, the main characters weren't stupid, and I appreciated seeing them not giving weapons to just anyone, and remaining just the right shade of paranoid in that regard.

On the other hand, the pacing of the book really puzzled me. I was expecting it to be more about the survival part, but the first half went much more slowly compared to the second one (the one about gathering survivors and organising a new society at sea). Some of the decisions taken by highers up seemed too crazy to be believable (for instance, who they enlisted to help create a vaccine...), and there were moments when things went like a breeze, not giving much sense of urgency. The concert at the end of part one was another mind-boggling element: fun to read on the moment, but not making that much sense in hindsight. And then we switch to part two, without having actually seen the full unfolding of the apocalypse, going from some zombies in the streets to full already-wiped-out civilisation. I guess I'd have liked to see more of that, and earlier in the story. The transition was too abrupt.

Also, the pacing in that second part felt really weird. It was more a slice-of-life (well, slice-of-killing-zombies-spree) kind of story, with lots of switching between the various characters involved, and after a while, this made the book difficult to go on with, in that it lacked smoothness in its transitions. On top of this, Faith above all was a puzzling character. When and where exactly did she get the training that allowed her to kick ass the way she did? How come she didn't get crazy (there are some bits about that towards the end, but not as well-exploited as they could have been)?

"Under a Graveyard Sky" has a lot of potential, but in the end, it didn't cut it for me. Too bad, because I wish it had.

I have a general military problem with Zombie Apolcaypses - it's always hordes of zombies against troops armed with M-4 assault rifles, who get overrun. As a Panzergrenadier - mechanized infantryman - I constantly wonder what happened to my mech infantry company, not to mention the tanks, artillery and attack helicopters available in a mech or armoured division. The 25 mm chain gun and 7.62 mm MG in just one Bradley could massacre hordes of zombies. In fact, the 27-ton Bradley or 70-ton Abrams could just run them over. The 8-inch howitzer could fire direct-lay. The AH-64 Apache has a 20 mm Gatling gun. The vehicles just button up and the troops are completely protected. If zombie blood is toxic, so what? All these vehicles are designed to operate in an NBC environment and can easily be decontaminated by the division chemical company. So, in this book, four people can clear out about 2,000 zombies on a cruise ship using small arms, while the entire continental US, including about 15 Army and National Guard heavy divisions, is completely overrun?
Any halfway mountainous area, like Appalachia, has a low population density, and the probability that the "Pacific Flu" is going to get to the mountains is disappearingly low, so the zombie hordes are going to have to foot-march from an urban area 50 miles or so to get to the mountains. We're talking overweight and out-of-shape American zombies here. In Appalachia, blocking the choke points is absurdly easy. Then what do the exhausted zombies do - wander off into the hills? Try moving cross-country in Appalachia. And what's waiting for them there is starvation or "Hillbilly Zombie Hunt": the entire hillbilly family (yes, even the 13 year-old girls) is armed to the teeth, knows how to use weapons and has masses of ammo. It'd be like year-round deer season. Any zombie on a road gets run over by a giant pick-up truck.
And all the hillbillies have to do is wait for winter, when the naked zombies die of hypothermia.
I can safely predict that Appalachia will be a Zombie-Free Zone

OK, I've never read a zombie book before but having been a long time fan of john Ringo's books I had to give it a try. Obviously I wasn't disappointed. Great story, great characters and a "scientific" approach to the Zombie genre. I understand it's been done this way before (Viral Zombies as opposed to Undead). It captured the horror, the action, the people, and the struggle that is typical of John RIngo's efforts. I've read the ARC's of both books and on the store I cannot review "To Sail A Darkling Sea" but for those waiting for it to come out for general distribution it picks up smoothly where this book left off.

Both books were sleepless nights for me do I really need to bore you with more words? My writing is nowhere up to the task of doing John's works justice so just this, never mind if you are a zombie fan, if you like science fiction, action, and laughs all rolled into one give this one a go you won't regret it. And girls, two of the main characters are teenage girls that you can't help but love, they are a blast.

Book Info: Genre: Post-apocalyptic (zombies)
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: People who like lots of action without all that distracting character development
Trigger Warnings: killing, rape (reported)

My Thoughts: I have been a fan of John Ringo for several years, and have quite enjoyed most of the books he has written. This was, unfortunately, not one of his better books. There is a lot of action and 'splodies, which is cool, but I would have liked to have seen more character development. The Smith family is just too perfect, the girls are just too good at everything, and we hardly ever even see Stacy. Most of the focus is on Faith, but that's actually good, because she is awesome. She reminds me of a foul-mouthed Buffy.

I was surprised, since this book was put out by Baen, that the editing wasn't better. I noticed a lot of editing errors throughout the book.

Don't misunderstand, I did enjoy the book for what it was. But I know John Ringo can do better than this. Nonetheless, I'll definitely be waiting for the next book in the series, if for no other reason than to see if it is ever disclosed who released the virus. If you like high-action stories, definitely check this one out.

Series Information: Black Tide Rising
Book 1: Under a Graveyard Sky
Book 2: To Sail a Darkling Sea, expected publication 2/4/2014

Disclosure: The author gave me this book when I ran into him at Dragon*Con. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: A family of survivors who fight back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization. Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few marines.

When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family—Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith—take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.

For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.

The premise is good; the pace is good, but the writing structure, the switching between character viewpoints, is spontaneous and unorganized. For fans of the zombie apocalypse, this could be appealing. I see other reviews have praised it. I could not finish it. I do like that the author has included a playlist for the novel; I like some of the bands, and the book cover is cool-looking.

So far, this is the only zombie crazed item I have liked. I don't want to watch it on TV or any other screen, for that matter. But John Ringo puts a lot of thought into this world of his and I have always admired how well he depicts action, character development, and how even one family can make a huge difference in the face of disaster. Well done. I recommend it to those who especially like military science fiction. I will reread this with pleasure, and that is always my ultimate test of a good book: will I want to reread this? Yes, indeed.

So those of you complaining about the daughters being unbelievable, but say you rate his Posleen series highly ... you find his Posleen series heroines more believable? As I recall Cally was around 8 when she killed her first man.

I do admit some of Ringo's series are getting formulaic - two daughters w/a brainy one & a commando whiz & their extended families attempt to clear the world apocalypse - but I still read some of them.

I was disappointed by this book. The writing is short, choppy, and doesn’t immerse you in the feel of a zombie apocalypse. The narration is brief, if present at all, and the characters were unlikeable. The political stances and discussions were pretty obvious (gotta tell off those snowflakes!) and unnecessary for the story. Overall this is a book i wanted to like, and seemed interesting, but just fell flat for me. I’m not sure why it has such a high rating, by for me, this was a disappointment.

I've never read anything by Ringo that I disliked. One or two I'd call "not bad," and the rest range upward to "outstanding" in my estimation. This one is right up there. He even makes the ZA plausible, and his handling of the aftermath makes sense too. On top of those background elements, the storyline rocks, with some truly great lines. I'm starting the second book in the series as soon as I finish this review.

Under a Graveyard Sky was my introduction to the author, John Ringo. It is not great literature, but it is an entertaining action-adventure novel. The hero is an improbable (to me) 13-year old with the skills of a well trained, heavily experienced Special Forces operative. Ringo has a definite POV, and it's not progressive. Nevertheless, the action and plot are fun, and the story is an interesting take on a deadly virus that seems to turn its victims into zombies. As you would expect, there's a lot of violence and gore.

Have to commend Ringo for again taking the science and moving it only slightly (hopefully) to encapsulate the story and the effects. Especially with the changes in the world and the healthy paranoia that exists with WMD these days. A really well done believable zombie story - no coming to back from the dead, only the adjustment by a really nasty infection. Yes Ringos characters are frightfully competent but that's why it's a great story - very reminiscent of Gemmells fantasy heroes. Well done Mr. Ringo - can't wait for the next chapter.

With the exception of a thirteen year old that reads more like a thirty year old, I have to say that this book is a great read. I tore through it WAY too quickly. If you like Zombie Apocalypse novels, I think you're going to be in for a real treat.

Great start for a zombie apocalypse book series. A lot of sub-plots written in this book and it will be interesting to see if they are all closed out during the series. Using the ocean to endure a zombie apocalypse is the smartest move.

I'm reminded of how my father explained the California Energy Crisis of the 90's to me as a teenager. He said, "Son, it was the unfortunate result of republicans trying to be nice like democrats."

So. This story in a similar vein, is what happens when an obviously conservative, military writer tries to tell a story of feminist empowerment.

This story can be summed up as, "This is about a 13 year old girl and how she rises to the occasion in the face of adversity of the highest order: A Zombie Apocalypse."

I'm not one to deconstruct books in the academic tradition, given my distaste for fancy message heavy literature. But. There is a line. When more of the book focuses on a 13 year old girl turned zombie killer and how all the male characters are in awe of her, and want her to have their babies... You just kind of scratch your head and think/say "WTF?!"

I like this author. I have enjoyed many of his previous books. I cannot for the life of me figure out what he was doing writing this story. It started out well, it ended in a train-wreck.

Great set up for the end of the world, with a believable underlying story on what is turning people into zombies. And the action is fast paced and drew me right it. Looking forward to the next installment.

Bad guy or guys create a zombie virus, then proceed to spread it. World goes to hell in a hand basket, enter Faith and Sophia, antics and zombie fighting ensue. Hard to put down! The details are good and there is some solid science thrown in as well. I cannot wait for the next in the series.

What is it with Ringo and bloodthirsty the store's? Besides the fact that it works? This was an enjoyable read on every level. When I saw it was a "zombie" story I cringed, but because it was Ringo I bought it anyway. It is actually a compelling post apocalyptic story that actually has a believable premise. Thanks John for another great one!

I wanted to like this book - I really did. It brought a new take to the zombie franchise, a zombie outbreak with not-zombies and a rather plausible explanation for the BEYOND the standard contrivance we all accept that 'Zombies are here, now the story' The first few sequences with the lab and the CDC were actually quite interesting. But oh my god, what this book does wrong, it does wrong badly.

The needless glorification of the prepper lifestyle (a new 'movement' of people who really think the apocalypse is right around the corner) makes the main cast of this series largely unbelievable, unrelatable, and worse, unsympathetic to the average book reader, except the die hard anti-government types who can't wait for anarchy. This family NEVER goes through any struggle in this book, I just want to point out that out; the capstone of any great literary piece is rising action (struggle/uncertainty/peril/perseverance) and then a climax. This story does not have that. Not only are they 100% prepared for EVERYTHING that happens, even when they make serious mistakes there are not consequences. I don't want to call this a blatant self insert wank off piece for the author to get his shill off making himself into this badass lone survivor character beating the odds type deal, but that's honestly what it feels like. Don't believe me? Explain the protagonist's tough as nails 13 year old daughter who is even more badass and less shell shocked then actual service men, to the point where the survivors of the US government are ready to pin her head to toe with medals and declare her the equivalent of a Navy SEAL with what amounts to a rubber stamp. Terrible character.

I think the worst thing about this book though (I mean, aside from the rather poorly structured story, and lack of empathetic characters) was the fact this author obviously cannot keep his politics to himself. I have read many great books by conservatives and never guessed until after the fact, this was not the case. J. Ringo obviously feels the need to use his book to soap box, because there are CONSTANT political snipes towards the left and left leaning groups, all of which contributed nothing to the story except to make it loud and clear that liberals are a bunch of window licking morons who're obviously not going to make it in the imminent zombie apocalypse.

Under A Graveyard Sky
John Ringo
Baen, Sep 3 2013, $25.00
ISBN: 9781451639193

In New York City, at an emergency meeting of Bank of the Americas' top brass, virologist David Curry describes a horrible viral plague released by bioterrorists. The disease starts off like any airborne flu, but turns into a neurological disorder transmitted by bites from sick victims acting like zombies. Attendee security chief Thomas Smith sends a coded text to his brother Steven in West Virginia warning him of the potential for a global pandemic disease.

A high school history teacher, the Australian born Steve tells the assistant principal that his wife Stacey was in an accident; he leaves with his daughter Sophia and picks up his other child Faith at middle school. After Stacey joins them, Steve rents a boat when Warrenton, West Virginia Police Officer Jason Young arrives to insure there is no abduction. Satisfied, Jason leaves, but Steve warns him to be careful of crazed naked assailants; which the cop soon encounters as insane nudes try to bite anything including squad cars that move. Meanwhile the Smith family and others sail the Atlantic with Steve heading to New York to pick up his sibling.

The key to the fabulous first Black Tide Rising apocalypse thriller is the biological weapon of mass destruction seems plausible though excess humor detracts from the horror of the pandemic assault. Fast-paced and loaded with action, readers will enjoy this engaging zombie tale as civilization takes to the sea to escape the madness on land.

Harriet Klausner

Too many reviews complaining that the characters, especially Faith (13 year old girl hero marine), are unbelievable. It's a zombie apocalypse story, why did you expect realism. Yes, Faith is too good to be true and not believable, e.g. going into combat with 100 lbs of gear. So what? It's a fun story. I bought the first ebook on Thursday night and finished the third on Sunday afternoon. That's how much I liked it.

And a note to John Ringo. If you go George RR Martin on us and kill off Faith, you better have a damn good hiding place. :)

One my favorite authors and could not finish the book. So disappointing. Have enjoyed all his other works and was very excited to see him enter this genre. I might try to pick it up again and give another since he has been such a enjoyable read in the past.

I’m sated with Zombie tales, but I do like John Ringo. In Under a Graveyard Sky (hard from Baen) nasty types from the genetic hacker society created a two-pronged zombie virus. The first is a simple flu that gestates for two weeks until turning its victims into mindless, naked people who just want to bite. The bite quickly turns the victim into a zombie. In the first part, the heroes work with one of the largest banks to develop a vaccine from the spines of infected victims. In the second they’re in the Bermuda triangle rescuing survivors from ships filled with zombies after most of civilization. Like a certain television show, this is about survival and restarting civilization. And is filled with the usual Rohn Ringo love of guns and the military. I would have liked it better if medical people had turned the tide before civilization fell..
Review printed in the Philadelphia Weekly Press

The book was very well done kind of a slow start though. I did have a hard time accepting his 13 year old daughter as a person that could "clear" ships, and that same (white) 13 year old is clearly falling for a black man in his 30s and he for her... I can see where this is going between these two and it is going down sideways for me. I realize that the selection is now limited but I as a father of two daughters would not go for that at all...

I'm not such a big fan of all the zombie books out there but I have to say this one was great! It was a whole new take on zombies. Making it all happen on the water was a smart and interesting change of pace. The only negative I have (and it's a small one) is I wish the grils were a little older. It's somewhat hard to believe that the girls, mostly Faith, Is mentally and physically strong enough for their part in the books. I've read the first and second books and can't Wait till the last two. Good job John Ringo!!

I really enjoyed this book. It's fast-paced, and the story draws you in from the first page. We've seen a billion-and-one zombie stories, but John Ringo's characters (awesome family, awesome daughters) draw you in immediately. The science-based zombie "twist" and convincing speculation as to exactly what people would do if this awful apocalypse occurred are stand-out elements. Of course it ends on a "cliffhanger" note so on to the next story!

I really liked this book because the angle of how the zombie apocalypse came about was rather fetching and I'm one with a biochemistry masters. The tale of the Smith family and their efforts to organize a semblance of civilization on the high seas was thoroughly enjoyable.

I usually enjoy Ringo and I LOVE when he teams with David Weber but this book sucked. The family protagonists are unbelievable. They just breeze through all their problems literally WITHOUT a scratch. Faith is the worst. To quote another comment (they nailed it), Thirteen year old Faith makes Rambo look like, well, a thirteen year old girl. The fact that the family were survivalists BEFORE the zombie apocalypse, they then take their daughter to an outdoor rave concert in a park, while zombies are attacking ??? And a 13 year old girl who can fight zombies wearing a 100 lbs. of armor, gear and ammo ??? Stuff like that left me feeling a little insulted. That I was supposed to believe in those points.

Let's see, pair of daughters, younger hellion, older more conservative, with younger forced to confront heavy-duty trauma at 13. What alien universe have we seen that template before?

I suspect the next plug-and-play will change the children to boys....

After reading all the rave reviews for this book I had high hopes.unfortunately the book quickly let me down.The characters are all supermen capable of the most amazing feats and nothing ever seems to even faze them.A thirteen year old girl who makes rambo seem like a well...thirteen year old girl in comparison., really.? Dont waste your time purchasing this drivel