First off, I have to disclose I got this audiobook as a free review copy from Audiobookboom. However, I already owned the kindle edition of this book, and have purchased many other books by Peter Meredith (including the second book in this series, which I am listening to as I write this review), so getting a review copy is a welcome opportunity.
I love apocalyptic fiction. I must have hundreds in my audiobook collection. However, I have to say I personally prefer the ones covering the fall, where you see everything go to blazes. Ones that start during the apocalypse, or quickly skim over the fall kind of leave me wanting a decent prequel, wanting more. And in a lot of cases I find that the ones covering just the post era devolve quickly into depressing fiction where the problems are no longer the zombies, the disease, etc, but just other people, and the cause of the apocalypse is nearly incidental. One recent completed series I read, the last two books, you could have missed that zombies even existed in the story. They weren't a threat, and they were barely mentioned. It was just people on people,
Apocalypse Crusade serves all my favorite aspects of the genre, and the entire novel starts a few days before the apocalypse, and finishes at the end of the first day, giving a leisurely length but frenetic paced tale covering of the cause and start of the apocalypse. It begins with the lead up to the outbreak, introducing many of the characters.
The narration by Erik Johnson was easy to listen to, well paced, clear, and added to the experience.Looking at my library, this was my first book with this narrator, and I hope to hear more of his work in the future. He does also narrate the sequel to this novel, as well as another Peter Meredith audiobook I own (but haven't listened to yet), The Edge of Hell, another apocalyptic tale.
Also, note that book 3 of this series is actually out in Kindle edition - for some reason at Amazon it isn't listed as being part of the series. There is no audiobook for it yet, but hopefully soon!
In all, a fantastic start to a new series. I look forward to more from both the author and narrator.