Chaos Theory

Zombie Theories #1

by Rich Restucci, Michael Kramer (Narrator)

The world has fallen to a relentless enemy beyond reason or mercy. With no remorse they rend the planet with tooth and nail. One man stands against the scourge of death that consumes all. Teamed with a genius survivalist and a teenage girl, he must flee the teeming dead, the evils of humans left unchecked, and those that would seek to use him. His best weapon to stave off the horrors of this new world? His wit.

Genres: Zombies, Horror, Fiction, Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Action

Audio CD

First published October 5, 2015

Reviews

[Dodger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was determined to finish, but the writing came across as if a teenage boy wrote it while giggling at all the naughty parts. I'm glad it has a good overall rating, so my little dislike will not bring a great deal of pain for the author, since authors are people too!

[Leo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my type of a zombie story

[Joy Killar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich Restucci has done it again. He has written a novel that is at once as visceral as it is entertaining. Chaos Theory: A Zombie Novel introduces us to a motley group of characters whose lives cross paths during extreme apocalyptic duress. The three main protagonists are immensely likable, and there is no doubt you will be cheering them on as they try to survive. Rich Restucci has the uncanny ability to blend horror and humor in ways that keep me coming back for more. His amazing perspective of what life might be like when humanity meets its greatest challenge- the zombie plague, will certainly have both fans of the genre and newcomers alike hooked on his writing. Chaos Theory: A Zombie Novel by Rich Restucci is a must read and will make an excellent addition to every horror fan’s bookcase.

[Arthur · Rating 1 out of 5]

A 7 hour unabridged audiobook. First in a series, will the others be worth listening to as well?
Short answer- No. This was a slog and not worth the time of actually paying attention to.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Journal Details
Book: by Rich Restucci
Format Read:
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5/5)

Quick Take
Fast, witty, and blood-spattered fun. A zombie romp that's more lightning strike than slow burn, but it never really breaks free from the crowd.

Full Review
Some apocalypse stories brood. This one runs, screams, and throws sarcastic one-liners while doing it.

Rich Restucci's Chaos Theory doesn't waste a single second. The world's gone sideways, the dead are hungry, and one nameless survivor is just trying to keep his head attached. He's joined by a convict, a teenage girl, and a mountain of a man who could probably wrestle a grizzly bear for sport. Told through journal entries that feel part confession, part war log, the story moves fast and doesn't let up.

Think of it as The Walking Dead's caffeine-addicted cousin who keeps shouting the punchline before the setup.

The real MVP here is Michael Kramer's narration. He turns every wisecrack, gunshot, and gut-punch into something cinematic. His delivery is that perfect chef's kiss mix of timing and grit that makes even the most familiar zombie beats feel lively. The dark humor lands. The pacing never slows. It's the kind of audiobook that flies by before you even realize how much time has passed.

What tripped me up a little was the mystery around the main character. We never learn his name, and since he's a semi-ex-con, it left me wondering what landed him behind bars to start with. The secrecy added curiosity at first, but by the end it felt like a wall between me and him. The book also keeps things small in scope, which works for the journal format but limits how big the story can feel.
It had a bit of a telescope feel—wide on one end, narrow on the other. And while I appreciated not having to memorize twenty zombie rules, it also leaned hard on familiar tropes instead of breaking out uniquely. Good pacing can't always hide the déjà vu.

Still, I had fun with it. It's quick, gritty, and sharp-tongued. I'm not sure if I'll read the next installment per se, but I can't say I regret reading it either. Not unforgettable, but undeniably fun.
Like a perfectly timed headshot in audiobook form.

Features & Vibes
😏 Snarky, nameless protagonist
🧠 Brains, bullets, and banter
🧟 Familiar zombie tropes; easy to digest
📓 Apocalypse confessional vibes
⚡ Relentless breakneck pacing

[Bookish Barbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s his name?!?

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I don’t know the MCs name but here I am wondering who’s talking to me. I’m hooked on the characters and the humorous way the book is written. Definitely a different type of Zombie book. It’s refreshing and has left me running to get the next book in the series. Will I find out his name? Will I know why he is different? Will I find out why the Zombies are different? Hope I find out soon.

[Camille]

Apparently I tried reading this a few years ago and quit. If I had realized that, I wouldn’t have tried again. It’s unusual for me to give up on an audiobook simply because it takes so little effort to just keep going. And I did like the voice of this one. But it was too much like past tense telling. That sort of takes away from the excitement when it’s told like that.

[Kit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read: April 29, 2022
Rating: 2 Stars (DNF)

So.. I started this the 24th and despite it being pretty short I just can't seem to finish.

This seems to be a trend for me as of late with zombie books, where I abandon them because either they're misogynistic, homophobic, racist etc. Or simply because it feels too juvenile for my tastes.

This book falls into the last category for me, since the humour here was not my kind of funny and just made me roll my eyes at it repeatedly so sadly, I won't be finishing this because I just can't make myself continue on.

I read about 60%.

[Christopher Artinian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. It was a really great read, and packed with action, humour, horror and wonderfully developed characters. The style was fresh, the story was absorbing and there were some really interesting twists that I would never have foreseen. Restucci is a class act!

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 2nd zombie book I've read from this author and once again I wasn't disappointed. A great mix of horror, humor & action. I'm definitely looking forward to the 2nd book in this series.

[Michael Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A virus is causing people to rise from the dead as smelly cannibals roaming the Earth, hungry.

The main character of the story is an escaped convict who left the prison as it was being overrun by ferocious, animalistic cannibals with no regard for their own well-being. Most had horrible wounds - bites mostly - some terribly torn apart with missing limbs, gaping cavities where their organs had been torn from them. They didn't seem to notice how badly hurt they were, only paying attention to living, breathing flesh. Where it came from is unknown, but it is sweeping through large cities like a storm! I don't know the name of the lead character, the story is told first person, from his view point and I don't remember anyone calling him by name, but he quickly latches onto one of the first living people he runs into. No, he didn't bite him. His new friend is a mute who stands nearly 7 feet tall and weighs in near 400 pounds. He communicates by writing in a tablet, or anything handy. Dr. Ship Parish is a highly educated in Physics, among other post-graduate studies. He and the convict get along well until he sees the bite mark on his leg. Just before Ship can pull the trigger on him, he explains he was bitten a week earlier, got sick for a couple days and was all better! He is immune to the zombie virus.
Well written, well edited, and well conceived, this story is, as a character driven tale, strong on characters. The zombies are the theme, but the storyline is about the convict and Ship. These two characters drive the storyline as they amble through the end of the world. There are even girls and women in the zompoc and our characters don't ignore them, even allowing some into their close circle! There might even be some smoochin' going on! But the convict being immune brings strong reactions from some of their acquaintances. The storyline is tangled enough to keep you honest, easy enough to follow and isn't particularly easy on our main protagonists. And the author knows how to tell a story! This is a good read.

[Mike Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding and action packed zombie apocalypse Series

This is an outstanding zombie apocalypse series. A spectacular cast of characters and an entertaining storyline. We have one main character who is a prisoner released from prison with some prison guards and other prisoners trying to survive after the zombie outbreak. Another main character is a very large man with a unique set of skills and then there is a teenage girl that arrives at some point. That is all the spoilers you get. You must read on to see what happens but it is action packed and fast paced and extraordinarily entertaining. you will enjoy the characters and find plenty of them to like and even a few of them to hate. As with every zombie apocalypse and post apocalyptic story some will make it and some will not. Also you always have some piece of crap of humanity that just has to run it for the rest of us. Beware of everything and everyone. Read on and enjoy.

[Hessah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Zombie Apocalypse novel with dark comedy undertones.

As I enjoy Zombie novels, I’m used to certain formula so I was hesitant to pick this novel. Surprisingly, as I read through its fast paced chapters, I’m glad I read it.

Unlike Zombie trilogies, Zombie Theories start differently. Mr. Restucci omitted the sudden onset of the Zombies epidemic, as he started his novel with a group of individuals who consists of prisons wardens and released inmates escaping the zombie infested prison to safety. Our Anti Hero is a convict who didn’t compete his sentence who was abandoned by his prison cell mates and its warden when a zombie bit him.
The story follows the ex convict as he befriends an intelligent mute man and a young girl who lost her family to the zombies.

We follow them across different settlements and encounters that illogically took us across, land, sky, and the sea in a span of 6 months. In the middle of this new and dangerous world, our protagonist who narrates the novel didn’t lose his wit which added a comic relief to this dark world.

Looking forward to the second installment

[Lyndsey-ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chaos Theory by Rich Restucci 7.5/10

We are thrown into the action straight away so he knows his craft and is aware that the author must grab the reader’s attention from the start. It written in a rushed and hurried tone appropriate to the high adrenaline situation the narrator finds himself in and much of it comes out in a jumble. The reader is left disoriented much as our narrator is who has found himself in the middle of a situation with no idea how to handle it.
It does come at the cost of characterization. Of SHIP it is made very clear what he looks like and it’s easy to picture him but when it comes to our hero, I have no idea what he looks like, I don’t recall a physical description or how old he is and, I must be mistaken I’m sure but I cannot find any mention of his name. It did take me some time to, as we say, get into the book and it wasn’t until the half way point that I became really engaged.
He does several things well. Firstly, with so much zombie death it can be hard to think of interesting ways to make them permanently dead but the author manages this. “Ventilated his cranium” and having a “lead headache” were my favourites. Secondly, humour isn’t always easy to write in a book but he does this well and I found myself chuckling frequently. When the author gets us to remember our school science teacher and then tells us that he was nothing like that, I was in stitches and “Let’s get the duck out of fodge” is something I’ve actually found myself saying once or twice recently.
I thought it was very brave to write a mute character. What they say and how they say it is so much a part of getting us to like them. SHIP is great and his silent personality fills the page.
The scene where they bug out of Keesler base was action packed and made me feel like I was right in the middle of a scene from war of the Worlds and I have to agree with our hero on the subject of coffee. It really is nasty stuff lol.
The author raises a very good point about a lack of breath means no smell so how do they sense outsiders. It’s such a fundamental point yet it’s not something I’ve seen mentioned in other books of the same genre and I was astonished it hadn’t occurred to me before. It really made me think. I eventually came up with the theory of possibly being able to sense electrical impulses much as a shark senses prey. All speculation of course.
There are however some confusing story choices made by the author and strange decisions made by the characters that do leave us the reader with unanswered questions. Questions such as why were a bunch a prisoners being driven about after the apocalypse was known to be underway? Did it really happen so quickly that the guards weren’t aware and carried on their job as normal? The implication is not as those attacking the bus at the start had already formed enough of a collective to band together and attack others.
Where does the zombie outbreak come from? It’s just there, it just happens. While I appreciate the need to keep exposition to a minimum is what writers are generally ‘told’ to do so to speak, a bit of background information is necessary. Government experiment, new virus, weird new drug, alien meteorite whatever. It also needs grounding in reality. Where and when are we? We need some hint because otherwise we just feel like a boat without a rudder flapping round with no idea what is going on.
It’s also confusing as to how they become ‘zombies’ so to speak because reference is made in the beginning to some people lying down ad dying but not staying dead and then getting up to kill everyone. There is no mention of bites at this point only bullets so my first thought is that it’s a ‘Walking Dead’ style of resurrection where the dead come back to life whether bitten or not but in short order it turns into the ‘turning through biting’ scenario and the former is forgotten.
At one point they kill a bunch of hillbillies then escape on a snowmobile and drive west “for a long time”. Now while I can just about go with their trail being followed despite the fact that it’s dark, I can’t figure how the other bad guys caught up with them if both Ship and aforementioned bad guys are travelling at top speeds on their respective snowmobiles and how does the all-knowing Lynch seems to have magical abilities to trace them know matter where they go with no explanation as to how.
Finally, there is a hint of sexism in the main character that is quite off-putting. Yes he’s been in a prison a bit so one might argue that justifies him viewing them as pieces of meat nevertheless, constantly calling women, and others at times, fat, I counted ten incidences of this in the first few chapters before I stopped counting, or “New Hampshire heifers and “cannibal heifers” got a bit annoying and referring to the rig’s doctor as his “doctor hottie” and “twenty-something chickie” who seems to giggle at his attentions made me wonder why our so-called hero is incapable of treating her with the respect her position is due. She’s a doctor not a simpering school girl. It was very off-putting. And telling us about his ‘nuts’ and that he has ‘big ones’. Too much information!
The book improves immensely from the halfway point. The zompoc genre is very easy to do badly and it can be hard for an author to stand out amongst the crowd. The author manages to keep the action going, our interest held and aforementioned gripes aside, was a good read which has the potential to be far better. It ends on a suitable cliffhanger leaving the reader eager for the sequel. Without a big name publisher to polish a book within an inch of its life, the first book in a new series is often where a self-published author finds his or her style and rhythm. I’m certain the sequel will be even better.

[Liz Mandeville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaged from the first chapter. Our unnamed hero, and the main narrator of this story, is a convict being transported when the bus he’s in is attacked and he is bitten. The other cons and guards who fight off the attackers together, decide to leave our antihero behind and he finds his way to an airstream trailer where he gets sick. Instead of turning into a zombie, he finds himself immune to the zombie virus, or whatever it is that causes people to become cannibalistic monsters.

Thus begins a very entertaining saga filled with likable characters, startling plot twists and tons of gore.

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

I loved the characters! They were lovable and relatable. I like that Kat was written in a believable way as well, that she wasn't some scaredy cat girl who couldn't tie her shoes or an overpowered badass that can't even be injured. She was based in reality where she got scared appropriately, but had talents and used those talents. I like that there was a disabled main character as well and that he was just as important to the story as the main character. I most definitely will be finishing this series.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't know how I missed this one...

I love zombie books. I don't know how I missed this series but I'm glad I found it.
Our hero is immune. Of course the government is after him hoping he can provide a cure. I love the characters in this book. Ship, Kat and others are well written. Lots of action, humor, and thousands of zombies.
It is enjoyable and well worth the time to read.
Mr. Restucci you have joined my short list of favorite authors.

[Paul-Baptiste · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale in the vein of Mark Tufo's Zombie Fallout, but with an antagonist not as likeable as Talbot, this definitely becomes more enjoyable after the first half. I'm not sure if this because it gets better or you just get used to the unnamed protagonist being a complete ass. There is solid character development, good world building, lots and lots of zombies, and humour aplenty - the 'good guy' just isn't very good. But it works.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoy q good zombie book and this definitely had elements but I got really annoyed with the main narrator. To be honest, the brief time we had with Ship as the narrator was my favourite in terms of actually liking the main narrator.

Probably won't continue with the series but if you don't mind fatphobic, homophobic, and gendered slurs you'll be fine. (If there were less of them I would have been less annoyed by the narrator, but there is a lot)

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun zombie tale that focuses on the characters rather than a ton a zombie gore (ok it as a bit of that too). The voice in which this story is told in his journal is great with a bit of humor mixed in. The story moves along at a good clip and keeps the reader wanting more. Overall the book was fun and I can’t wait to move along in the series.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it was the delivery of the narrator or if it was just all the sarcasm that made me tired of listening to this one. Don't get me wrong I am full of sarcasm. Some would say more than others, but this book was just one run on sentence of sarcasm to me.
I might try the second book as an ebook and not an audiobook to see if it is any better.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun!

Snarky, funny and full of mayhem , death and ZOMBIES! Chaos Theory is a fresh and welcome addition to my Zompoc library! It starts off at a million miles an hour and doesn't let up until the last sentence .... And then leaves you wanting more! Excellent, everything you look for in a good read!

[Marcin W · Rating 3 out of 5]

after doing all 4 off audible...:
The 1st book is somewhat funny if you like guy humor by 1 wise-ass character quips. Fairly usual take on zombies, but the humor made me want to continue. B2+ has no humor, & just finished it out of habit not enjoyment.

TLDR: As long as your expectations are low & in mood for zombies & nothing great do B1 & stop there.

[Wayne Pickrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comedy, Zombies, action, blood and bullets. I love this series. The hero is immune to the zombie virus, an escaped prisoner but a good guy all the same. He gets himself into some right predicaments, which are frightening, yet the author combines a certain amount humour making it a comedy too. I'm on book 3 already and I must say that if you don't enjoy these books you mustn't have a funny bone.

[David Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing journey

It's the tale of an every day man who happens to be immune from the zombie virus. It's a road trip book with their flight starting in the Northeast and ending up in the deep South.

[HiddenDork · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fast paced zombie thriller with a lot of zombie action and sarcastic humor. I found it obnoxious and while I appreciated weaving humor in with the horror the actual sarcasm and humor became too juvenile for me.

[Caroline 'relaxing with my rescue dogs' · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going through a binge listen of this author and this story this worked really well for me, it was quite fun and I did enjoy it - went straight onto the next one.
The joys of audio plus categlouge works

[NormaCenva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dunno guy's... I think it is not as good as "Run" but still very readable. Will try my luck with book 2 now.

[Sandra Oldfather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narration in ‘Chaos Theory’ is way too ‘cutesy’ but the action sequences are well-written and the characters well developed—especially the non-speaker.

[Renee Lindemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Humor and Horror, my cup of tea!