Z Heist

A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

By: George S. Mahaffey Jr.

Narrated by: Gary Bennett

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Fast and the Furious Meets World War Z!

On the eve of a military pullback from the front lines of a zombie war, John “Even” Keel, a cynical, battle-hardened helicopter pilot, hears about the location of a downed Treasury Department airplane purportedly containing a billion dollars in cash. The only problem? The plane’s located on the top of a skyscraper in the middle of a city overrun by zombies. Convinced by a group of shady mercenaries to team up and go after the plane, John and his crew - a ragtag collection of civilian contractors - plan a dangerous heist, only to discover that the living dead are the least of their worries.

Come check out Z Heist, Book One, an action-packed, adrenaline-fueled post-apocalyptic thriller!

©2020 George S Mahaffey (P)2020 George S. Mahaffey Jr.

Unique zombie tale! Entertaining, fun!

Entertaining listen and story. A good unique kind of zombie tale – a heist set during a zombie apocalypse – great balance of comedy and action, strong characters and narration was on point.

Action-packed Mayhem Through Zombie Wasteland

Billed as "Fast and the Furious meets World War Z" I knew I had to read this. Z Heist by George S. Mahaffey Jr was a lot of fun, although I'm not sure how much F&F I would say that I saw in it. Action-packed though? Sure was!

World-building was solid, and a different take on Zombies in a world that has collapsed after the outbreak. The story launches us into the wastelands quickly from the opening, introducing basically everywhere we need to know about as well as a bit of history of what happened.

The characters while somewhat stock gave this a sense of movie nostalgia - The tough, older guy leader. The crazy one (aptly named Gonzo). The newbie. The sense that this could easily be adapted as a movie was palpable though, with plenty of action, blood, gore, and zombies at every turn.

The whole "heist" scenario left me wanting more though. Given it's right there in the title, and the main trigger for the protagonists to go chasing the billion-dollar payday in the first place, the whole heist part was over rather quickly, and what followed was then the fallout. And to be honest, the "heist" was more just "stealing", albeit they had to get through a zombie wasteland battling fire-tornados and such.

I'm a fan of heist movies (eg Oceans Eleven and the like) so I guess I had pictured a more intricate plot than what was delivered. But beyond that, what came next was fun. More characters, all a little left of normal; understandable after what they've been through.

The new breed of zombies gave this an extra kick that upped the stakes for the cast of characters. In the end, the threads of the plot were wrapped up where they needed to be and gave us a glimpse into what was to come in the series future. I'll certainly be looking out for the next one, because... well, you'll find out why when you reach the end.

The narration was solid but a tiny bit one-note. Gary Bennett did a good job, without any issues I could detect, but overall I found the characterisation not overly memorable. Nothing bad, per se, but not outstanding. Certainly not enough to put me off getting the next one if he's also reading it.

I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I have not let this gift affect nor influence my opinions of this audiobook and have left an honest review.

Suprised the scifi channel didn't do it

The novel is what it says it is with some airwolf mixed in and covered with Resident Evil evoulation of zombies. The chacthers where diverse in everything that it gave something new to discover and fill with the chacthers when they die or live. There was many things I liked do the plot devices for were abit meh has times I wondered why if the zombies could figure out how to build walls and play dead dead on the ground why did non of them try to use cars or guns was weried. A secound problem I saw the survivors growing lots of weed should have cost lots of water and electricity to power lamps for them that I don't see how they could lay trying yo survive years in the abandon city. Over all I truly like this novel more then I disliked it at times with 6/10 craziness, 8/10 action, and 3/10 originality