Mordacious by Sarah Lyons Fleming
Narrated by Luke Daniels and Therese Plummer
Series: The City #1
Publisher: Audible Studios
Publication Date: September 13, 2016
Date Read: January 18, 2018
Length: 17 hours 59 minutes
Source: Audible Purchase
★★★★☆
From the universe of the Until the End of the World series. (Note: The City Series can be heard before or after the Until the End of the World series)
Sylvie Rossi has the loner thing down pat, with the exception of her best friend, Grace. But when the two are trapped in a hospital during the last gasp of a dying city, alone time is no longer an option. A nurse’s offer of sanctuary promises Sylvie the supplies she needs to survive the zombies – it’s the coexisting with people that might do her in.
Eric Forrest will do whatever it takes to get into the dead city for his sister, including ending up dead himself. He’s used to taking risks, but with every mile he travels death looks likelier and likelier, and finding his sister may be his only prospect for survival – if he can make it home.
Sylvie doesn’t need more than food, water, and shelter. Eric wants only to find his sister. But sometimes what we think we need isn’t what we need at all, and what we find is more than we expected.
I loved this book! I recently stumbled upon Sarah Lyons Fleming’s Until the End of the World series and couldn’t get enough of it. When I finished the final book in that series, I immediately decided to see what else this talented author had written. I was absolutely delighted to find that she has another series that is set in the same world. The book turned out to be as good as I had hoped it would be and I had pretty high hopes.
This book is told from two points of view. Sylvie has never really felt wanted and works hard to make sure that she never owes anyone anything. She is more of a loner but does have a really good friend in Grace. Sylvie and Grace are together at the hospital when everything starts. Eric is the brother of the main character of the other series set in this world. Eric is a very capable man. He seems to be able to get through a lot of tough situations and others seem to genuinely like him. He is outside of the city when the outbreak begins and his journey has been rather eventful.
Sylvie and Eric eventually become part of a small group working together to survive. The New York City setting was a really interesting place to watch them do this. Everyone left in the city is basically on their own. They have to find safe food and water all while avoiding the ever increasing population of zombies. I liked the group of people that Sylvie and Eric are with. Maria was often mentioned in the companion series that featured her two daughters so it was nice to see how well she handles things. There was only one character in the group that made me want to lock him outside with the zombies but he does come around by the end of the book.
The narration of this book was absolutely fantastic! Luke Daniels and Therese Plummer were the narrators and I do believe that this was my first experience with both of them. They both did such a good job with this book. Luke Daniels narrated all of the chapters from Eric’s point of view with Therese Plummer handled Sylvie’s point of view. One thing that I loved was that both narrators were always around during any conversations. So any male dialogue in the book was read by Luke Daniels and female dialogue was read by Therese Plummer. This really made all of the conversations in the book flow really well and character voices felt very natural. I definitely plan to look for both of these narrators again in the future.
I do recommend this series to others. This was the first book in The City series which is set in the same world as the Until the End of the World series. This new series does stand on its own and you can really start with either series but I enjoyed seeing the same events occur from completely different perspectives. I can’t wait to start reading the next book in this series!
About the Author – Sarah Lyons Fleming
Besides an unhealthy obsession with home-canned food and Bug Out Bag equipment, I love books, making artsy stuff and laughing my arse off. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, I now live in Oregon with my family and, in my opinion, not nearly enough supplies for the zombie apocalypse. But I’m working on it.
I'm planning to look at this world at some point as I've liked your reviews of it. I'm not sure if I can fit it in this year though with all my reads already planned out!
I actually think that this series might be the better starting point for you. Some of the characters at the beginning of the other series got on my nerves at first. The action in this one starts right away.
Oh it looks good and I didn't know about this one. I hope you'll feel the same about the second one!
I do hope that the rest of the series is as good as this one was for me. I really like her take on the end of the world.
Sounds like a really interesting read. I don't think I'm familiar with this series or at least I'm not familiar with this cover. Thanks for sharing such a great review. I'll keep my eye open for this!
I love the world that this author has created. Great characters along with enough zombie action to keep things interesting.
This is a new series to me, and I do like the sounds of it too. Sylvie and Eric sound like a great team too.
They were really great together but also great apart. They were both really strong.
I haven't come across this series before and don't really read that much from this genre but your enthusiasm and review have definitely got me interested. I love Luke Daniels so it sounds like audio is the way to go!
I loved how they did the audio in this one. It was great to have the male and female voices stay the same throughout the book.
going to add this and the other series to my goodreads, don't think I have ever heard of it but ohh this sounds good, maybe a little cringy mostly because zombies
I love a good zombie story!
Oh this does sound good.
It was such a great listen, Mary!
I had someone else mention Luke Daniels recently and loved him, too. I think I would like that narration. I've done a dual but it was a complete switch off so you basically had two voices for the hero and two for the heroine. That wasn't for me. lol
This was my first time listening to Luke Daniels and I loved him. Therese Plummer was awesome too. I liked the way they handled this book and staying consistent with the voices was a big plus.
This looks fun and I love the idea of trying to survive in NYC with zombies all over. Nice that their group was (mostly) likable too. 🙂
Sounds like a great read!
I thought that the city setting was a really good choice.
Coool cover. And wow, 17 is long. I have had it easy lately
Almost 18 hours 🙂 It really didn't feel like it since I enjoyed the story so much.
I haven't tried this author before, but she sounds like a must read. I am glad you enjoyed this one, Carole!
I am really enjoying her work and love the world she has created.
It's so nice when authors include other series in the world that you loved, and it sounds like this one was a pretty good further delve into the world, but that the separate story was just as good! I'm glad you liked listening to these new narrators as well. Audiobooks aren't for me but it's cool that you have this different element to reading.
I was so excited to see some events from the first book from a completely new perspective. I seem to be liking audiobooks more and more.