Review: Move over Tufo, Crawford has arrived!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
I have to admit that I absolutely had to give Blood Soaked and Contagious a listen as soon as humanly possible, just from reading the summary. Smart zombies are always an intriguing concept and if done right could be very entertaining. Usually I enjoy those zombie apocalypse stories that offer something more than the Romero style, slow, dumb, constantly after you zombies. Hoping as always that I can enjoy and not have too high of expectations.Zombie Fallout fans or Mark Tufo fans in general, there is now another player on the zombie apocalypse front and his name is James Crawford. Crawford has created his own unique variety of walking dead, faster, stronger, meaner than the humans they once were, with one important note, they are no smarter that they once were. Along with that there is the protagonist Frank, a zombie killer for hire that is an amazing mix of Micheal Talbot and Rambo. With his ultra macho demeanor and non-stop sarcastic thoughts and comments that on more than one occasion made me spontaneously laugh out loud, really I didn't even know it was happening until it was. I got more than a few "looks" from my wife and coworkers.Often times I find that zombie audiobooks try to take themselves so seriously that they miss the connection with the listener. That was not so with Blood Soaked and Contagious: Blood Soaked, Book 1, Crawford doesn't seem to take the whole zombie apocalypse very seriously and that is what made it so much fun. Non stop drama, inappropriate situations and comments,  and as the title suggests, blood soaked and disturbing action scenes that kept me engaged and wanting more. I have already gone and purchased book 2 to the series and wish I didn't have other books in the queue right now.This was my first experience listening to David Stifel ,and after washing all of the blood out of my ears find myself wondering, "Where have you been" and "Why have I not found you sooner". I do have to admit that I was not too keen on him at first, mostly because he sounded like he was trying to sound like Sean Runnette. Then I realized that he just sounded similar and it was really the combination of him with the writing style of Crawford that made a special little marriage in my head. Stifel did not miss a beat, going from being full of seriousness to well timed inappropriate sarcasm. While his characterization was not the best, I didn't care. I was transfixed. With audiobooks it really comes down to the narration, for me, and without a good narrator a great story can be turned into just ok. Or in the case of Blood Soaked and Contagious: Blood Soaked, Book 1, a pretty good story was turned into amazing and left me wanting so much more.Review by Paul Stokes, Audio Bibliophile for [...]