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35th out of 187 books
—
133 voters
The Walk
by
Lee Goldberg (Goodreads Author)
It's one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fa...more
Kindle Edition, 181 pages
Published
May 31st 2009
by Five Star
(first published 2004)
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Full review on my blog: http://theaussiezombie.blogspot.com
Natural disasters are the things that every PA fan’s dreams are made of. They’re realistic and possible and we’ve all imagined how we would survive ‘The Big One’ in whatever shape or form. And we’ve all seen The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and Independence Day at least once.
The Walk is the story of a normal, average guy, trying to make it home to his wife after his The Big One hits – an earthquake in LA. Marty thinks he’s got it all planned...more
Natural disasters are the things that every PA fan’s dreams are made of. They’re realistic and possible and we’ve all imagined how we would survive ‘The Big One’ in whatever shape or form. And we’ve all seen The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and Independence Day at least once.
The Walk is the story of a normal, average guy, trying to make it home to his wife after his The Big One hits – an earthquake in LA. Marty thinks he’s got it all planned...more
At the beginning of this novel, I pretty much hated the protagonist, Marty Slack. He was timid, shallow and self-involved and pretty much a stereotype of everything annoying about Corporate America types. As time went on, he began to grow on me as he wandered around the city. By the time Marty's plot twist revelation was revealed, I had already figured it out but it still worked in context of the story.
The book itself was an interesting snapshot of the aftermath of a major disaster and how peopl...more
The book itself was an interesting snapshot of the aftermath of a major disaster and how peopl...more
Actually, I read the ePub edition from Kobobooks, but I assume it's the same text!
The Walk chronicles Marty Slack's journey through a hellish land of earthquakes, explosions, floods, more earthquakes and various other disasters. It's a fast-paced, episodic read, often profane and violent and funny. The pacing and the spare prose remind me of a TV movie, which suits the story perfectly.
Martin Slack is a television executive, so right away (if you have any experience with television executives) yo...more
The Walk chronicles Marty Slack's journey through a hellish land of earthquakes, explosions, floods, more earthquakes and various other disasters. It's a fast-paced, episodic read, often profane and violent and funny. The pacing and the spare prose remind me of a TV movie, which suits the story perfectly.
Martin Slack is a television executive, so right away (if you have any experience with television executives) yo...more
Let me say that I enjoyed the first book of Lee's Dead Man series. This is a stand-alone story not connected to that series of books at all. I wasn't too impressed with it.
The story is about Marty, an average low-end TV executive that dreams of being a real writer someday. Marty is in Los Angeles when a huge earthquake hits and he has to walk through the wreckage and dangers to get to his wife, Beth in the suburbs.
Marty is accompanied on his quest by an obnoxious meathead called Buck, who's a g...more
The story is about Marty, an average low-end TV executive that dreams of being a real writer someday. Marty is in Los Angeles when a huge earthquake hits and he has to walk through the wreckage and dangers to get to his wife, Beth in the suburbs.
Marty is accompanied on his quest by an obnoxious meathead called Buck, who's a g...more
Lee Goldberg's "The Walk" was a quick, fun read. Goldberg takes the term in media res to heart, and starts the book roughly one minute after a massive earthquake--the Big One--destroys a good part of the west coast. The story follows the protagonist, Martin Slack, as he walks across Los Angeles on his way home to be reunited with his wife, Beth.
(I feel like there's a ripe opportunity for a Fred Sanford joke to be made here, what with the Big One and Martin comin' to join [Eliza]Beth)
"The Walk" i...more
(I feel like there's a ripe opportunity for a Fred Sanford joke to be made here, what with the Big One and Martin comin' to join [Eliza]Beth)
"The Walk" i...more
The Walk is about one man's journey through the destroyed city of LA.
Marty is a tv network executive and not very likeable to boot. The book opens with him cowering underneath his car as the BIG ONE rips through the city. Once the main quake is over, Marty decides he needs to walk home to get to his wife. This story is about that walk.
I don't want to get any further into the plot, but I will say that this book reads like a TV show or miniseries. It is very easy to picture in your mind as the au...more
Marty is a tv network executive and not very likeable to boot. The book opens with him cowering underneath his car as the BIG ONE rips through the city. Once the main quake is over, Marty decides he needs to walk home to get to his wife. This story is about that walk.
I don't want to get any further into the plot, but I will say that this book reads like a TV show or miniseries. It is very easy to picture in your mind as the au...more
So what happens when "the big one" hits southern California. A somewhat shallow TV executive struggles against all odds to return to his wife. An interesting character development and a very fast read. Not a very deep book but the main character Marty did develop nicely by the end. A somewhat surprise ending although there were hints and I had some suspicion that all was not as it was portrayed. If you like escapism with a touch of reality give it a read.
I found that the situations he found himself in were just too unbelievable. Yes, I understand that after "the big one" there will be utter chaos, but all the things that were happening to him personally were just...unbelievable. And the ending was a surprise to me, but after learning said surprise it made me question things that happened along the journey that don't fit if the ending were true (trying really hard to not spoil here, but it's hard to explain). Oh well. Here is where I will spoil t...more
What would you do if there was an earthquake and you were separated from the ones you love by several miles? How would the experience change you? How would you find the courage to do everything you needed to do to return home safely? Those are the central questions to Lee Golberg's The Walk.
The book is at times serious and dramatic, often tense and thrilling, biting and satirical, and even out-right funny. It is about Marty, a TV network executive who finds himself in central L.A. when the city...more
The book is at times serious and dramatic, often tense and thrilling, biting and satirical, and even out-right funny. It is about Marty, a TV network executive who finds himself in central L.A. when the city...more
Marty is stuck in ruins after a deadly earthquake and finds himself in the longest journey to walk home & try to get to his wife. Along the way he encounters endless dead bodies, destroyed aftermath. A woman barely alive in her car on his journey gives him a picture of her daughter & wants him to take care of her if she doesn't make it. While getting up he notices thBe car will soon explode & runs from it. Hue has many encounters with Buck, who turns out to be his hallucinating alter...more
A massive earthquake strikes the heart of Los Angeles and TV Executive Martin Slack must walk through 30 miles of carnage to get to his wife in Calabasas. Along the way he'll encounter various conflicts. This is a fairly basic survival story that skips the more familiar group ensemble story a la Irwin Allen (who is mentioned a couple times in the story). It moves fairly rapidly, save for some flashbacks exploring the relationship between Martin and his wife. There is one pretty good surprise at...more
This was a freebie on the Kindle Store over at Amazon. This Lee Goldberg writes scripts for tv shows (Monk is one of them I think). He has a nice style of writing and this book was really very imaginative and well written. Sometimes with some of these indie writers you can just tell they are going to go places with their writing and this guy I think will.
The story takes place in one of my favorite places that I have NEVER been which is L.A. There is a huge event that leaves everyone devastated....more
The story takes place in one of my favorite places that I have NEVER been which is L.A. There is a huge event that leaves everyone devastated....more
The Walk is an easy-to-read, fast-paced story following one man's journey to get home to his wife after The Big One has obliterated LA. The depictions of a post-disaster metropolis were fantastic, and there was some personal drama woven in with the gradual revelations of Marty's less-than-perfect home life. I actually liked Marty for all his flaws; he was just a guy trying to do what he thought was right. Buck was also a fun character - (view spoiler)...more
This was a kindle freebie.. Kept my attention. Lee Goldberg writes screenplays, and this reads like it in that the timing and coincidences are quite a bit over the top. Marty just happens to be in the right place at the right time, and manages to just barely escape from quite a few extreme situations, as he walks from Los Angeles to Calabasas in his effort to be reunited with his wife. I was born and raised in and around the suburbs of LA and enjoyed the frequent references to his location as he...more
A thoroughly enjoyable read despite the typos!
I'd never read anything by this author before but after The Walk I'll certainly be reading more by Lee Goldberg.
Great dialogue, great characters - an all-round fun book to read!
I'd never read anything by this author before but after The Walk I'll certainly be reading more by Lee Goldberg.
Great dialogue, great characters - an all-round fun book to read!
I really enjoyed this book. It was short compared to what I normally read, but it packed a lot into it. While I don't think he'll win any awards for post-apocalyptic realism, it was an enjoyable read with a good ending.
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I started reading this book and I was sort of meh. Although other reviewers didn't seem to like Marty, I did almost from the beginning. The one I didn't like was Buck. What an annoying character. But as the book went on I got liking Buck's character more and more. I also liked how Buck made Marty evaluate himself. I bought all in about halfway through. I then was looking forward to how the relationship would be between Buck and Marty and where would the author leave it. I'd give 5 stars to the f...more
This book hit a little close to home. Living in the greater LA area most of my life, working on one side, in Organe county and living on the other, Ventura county, the thought of "the big one" happening while I'm at work or on the drive to/from is one I have from time to time. Sure I have a Red Cross 3 Day bag in the trunk with a pair of walking shoes, etc, but the thought of walking the 70 miles home is pretty... well... scary.
Now this book, being fiction, is over the edge, but it was still a g...more
Now this book, being fiction, is over the edge, but it was still a g...more
Post-apocalyptic stories form a special kind of escapist fantasy within science fiction. No matter what particular catastrophe brought civilization crashing down, the unspoken assumption in many such stories seems to be that humanity is somehow better for it. Depending on the author’s philosophical bent, the characters have rediscovered the meaning of self-sufficiency, learned to live in harmony with Nature, or finally accepted that the only polite society in armed one. In any case, the reader i...more
Getting this post started was a tough one for me. I received an opportunity to read a novel by Lee Goldberg that he had penned a few moons ago, how many I am not sure. I think most good novels are not like bread and don’t have a shelf life and get stale and moldy after a certain date. The Walk was originally printed in January 2004; mine was printed August 25, 2010. The new technology is amazing. But I digress yet again.
The Walk is not an Adrian Monk novel so I didn’t know what to expect. Here i...more
The Walk is not an Adrian Monk novel so I didn’t know what to expect. Here i...more
Not the worst thing I've ever tried to read but certainly no masterpiece either. The characters were underdeveloped and shallow. At the end of the book we learn why one of them was perhaps deliberately that way. Nothing in the story caught me by surprise, nothing moved me. I'm not at all sure in a year's time that I will remember at all having read or even heard of this book.
The earthquake destruction was realistically written and seemed well researched. Goldberg came across with some credibili...more
The earthquake destruction was realistically written and seemed well researched. Goldberg came across with some credibili...more
Holy crap, this book was awful. I kept reading it expecting to to live up to some of the great reviews it was given, but it never happened. The whole thing read like some sort of eighth grader's creative writing final paper. It had one-dimensional characters, an all-too-obvious "plot twist" and far too many instances of the writer simply telling the reader something (ie: the damage was catastrophic) rather than showing the reader something. Toss in a number of typos and grammatical errors and it...more
The Walk was a good, fun read. The plot is really good and Goldberg has a great way of writing that really puts you into his characters' shoes. Those characters are very well written and deep.
There is a surprise ending but it is very easy to figure out. So, it is not that much of a surprise. The only downside of the book is that there is a pretty large stretch where not a lot happens. That being said it is still a good, fun read.
There is a surprise ending but it is very easy to figure out. So, it is not that much of a surprise. The only downside of the book is that there is a pretty large stretch where not a lot happens. That being said it is still a good, fun read.
The big one hits California...and all this man wants to do is get home to his wife..so he has to walk. It isn't easy, and there are more than a few odd adventures.
Are these things possible?? Oh yes they are. Are they probable? That too, is affirmative.
I liked the fact that there was not a lot of time spent on all the ugly tragedies of the disaster. They are in there, but the focus is on Martin getting home.
Are these things possible?? Oh yes they are. Are they probable? That too, is affirmative.
I liked the fact that there was not a lot of time spent on all the ugly tragedies of the disaster. They are in there, but the focus is on Martin getting home.
Enjoyed this book. The protagonist grew much more likable as the book went on. And a couple of surprising twists. Seems like most of the Kindle books in the post-apoc/zombie/dystopian genre are either written by a third grader with no access to a spell checker and who parrots mommy and daddy's political views, whether it fits in or not. This book was NOT one of those. So Lee Goldberg convinced me to keep trying....
Extremely enjoyable short story that tells the story of a Hollywood Producer who attempts to walk home after being caught out when "The Big One" hits California. I definitely recommend this one. This was one of the first books I bought for my Kindle when I first bought it a few years ago, and it's still one of my very favorite stories in the hundreds of stories I've read since.
I loved this story. The main character, Martin Slack, is just a normal guy who is unhappy in his marriage and not thrilled with his line of work. Following the quake that levels LA Martin is forced to trek across the destroyed city and it's multitude of horrors in an effort to be reunited with his wife. Along the way he is tested and pushed further than he ever imagined he could handle and is joined by a professional bounty hunter named Buck who seems to exist only to needle and torment Martin.
In retrospect this is a beach book. The plot is oh so simple and the writing moves you along like those people movers at the airport. I got very caught up in the story - when I wasn't reading it, I caught myself worrying about the characters and wondering how they were doing. And I was disappointed when I got to the end that it was over. I'm not sure you can ask much more than that out of a novel.
Jun 11, 2011
Joseph D'Agnese
added it
Loved it. A prick network exec turns into a human being on a long, dangerous walk home through earthquake-ravaged LA. I don't like giving stars but I'd be tempted to give this 4 or 5. Think of The Road for beach readers. Minor typos in this author-published work.
After a major earthquake hits a guy walks home to his wife. He experiences all sorts of trials and tribulations along the way as one might expect after a devastating and destructive earthquake. the writing was ok, the story I found to be somewhat predictable and even slightly boring.
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Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar Award nominee whose many TV writing and/or producing credits include "Martial Law," "SeaQuest," "Diagnosis Murder," "The Cosby Mysteries," "Hunter," "Spenser: For Hire," "Nero Wolfe," "Missing." "Monk" and "The Glades." He's also the author of "The Walk," "Watch Me Die," "King City," the "Dead Man" series, as well as the "Diagnosis Murder" and "Monk" series of orig...more
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