Rise Again Audiobook By Ben Tripp cover art

Rise Again

A Zombie Thriller

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Rise Again

By: Ben Tripp
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $26.03

Buy for $26.03

Forest Peak, California. Fourth of July. Sheriff Danielle Adelman, a troubled war veteran, thinks she has all the problems she can handle in this all-American town after her kid sister runs away from home. But when a disease-stricken horde of panicked refugees fleeing the fall of Los Angeles swarms her small mountain community, Danny realizes her problems have only just begun—starting with what might very well be the end of the world. Danny thought she had seen humanity at its worst in war-torn Iraq, but nothing could prepare her for the remorseless struggle to survive in a dying world being overrun by the reanimated dead and men turned monster. Obsessed with finding her missing sister against all odds, Danny’s epic and dangerous journey across the California desert will challenge her spirit... and bring her to the precipice of sanity itself.

Filled with adventurous human drama—and shocking inhuman horror—Rise Again marks a vivid and powerful fiction debut.

©2011 Ben Tripp (P)2012 Tantor Post-Apocalyptic Suspense Horror Scary Fiction Thriller Thriller & Suspense Science Fiction Genre Fiction

Critic reviews

"Danny's journey through a land of death to find [her sister] Kelley makes for a remarkable character-driven story, and the final sentence takes it to another level." ( Library Journal)

Continue the series
Rise Again Below Zero Audiobook By Ben Tripp cover art
Rise Again Below Zero By: Ben Tripp
Strong Character Development • Unique Zombie Evolution • Strong Female Protagonist • Engaging Plot Twists • Flawed Hero

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
I'm a fan of zombie fiction, but Rise Again is not particularly well written. The first half is an absolute slog, with a meandering narrative full of non-events and plodding character busywork. I only kept listening out of obligation to the credit I spent.

The main character, for example, spends a lot of time ruminating about her sister or her opinions about things, but her thoughts are generally repetitive and dull. In fact, here's something I noticed while listening: Main character Danielle often "loses interest" in the topic at hand or the person she's talking to, right in the middle of the conversation. Once you notice it, you'll realize that Danielle loses interest in things over and over again throughout the entire book. The author seems to think that Danielle's lack of interest empowers her, but all it tells me is that if she's not interested in what's going on, then it's a fair bet that we aren't interested either.

Which brings me to my main gripe with the book. The author's writing style - and the story itself - lacks imagination. The story is serviceable, but I was never riveted. I never found myself hanging on the narrator's every word. The characters and locations and situations are not particularly creative or nuanced as written. The writing style gets the job done - and if you like zombies then there are plenty of zombies here - but that's about all Rise Again has going for it. Utilitarian writing and … zombies.

As for the main character, she doesn't have to be likable, but she should be at least be interesting. Danielle is rather dull. And she makes some ridiculous decisions in the story (at one point, with absolutely no proof, she tries to forcefully arrest a guy for murder in the middle of a zombie apocalypse). The author slants the narrative because he wants us to side with Danielle in these situations, but her actions are sometimes so silly that it's impossible. The result is an uneven main character that we never care much about.

The book comes in two downloadable parts. If you're going to listen, I would actually recommend skipping the first part entirely. You're not going to miss much, and though doing ths is not enough to save the story, the book only starts to realize its potential during the second half.

Dead on the Page

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Rise Again: A Zombie Thriller is a modern novel about a zombie plague spreadig across the land.

Set mainly in California and Nevada, I appreciated the numerous descriptions of terrain, flora and fauna, urban and rural buildings, roadways, and masses of braindead uncommunicative zombies travelling about. The author seemed to have a knack for describing mundane details in way as to make the details less mundane and more part of the action of each scene. Certainly, any way to render entertaining and interesting the everyday things that are seen thousands to millions of times could make the world a more scenic place, and story settings more developed.

The characters were fairly stereotypical propaganda types from modern society, and the plotline was violent and grotesque. Although the action and scenarios the characters found themselves in were far from average. Battles for survival during economic scarcity, struggles against hungry herds of monsters, and group dynamics of betrayal and thievery made for very thoughtful character interactions. Unlike many of the happy main character stories, these characters were often wounded, shot, blown up, eaten, and otherwise mutilated.

A gruesome and tragic zombie survival story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I would have given this book 5-stars across the board, but it was such a slow and soft start to the book that I though I was gonna be bored during the whole book. After I got past the beginning, it picked up. I was very vested in Dani as a character. Like most of us, her mind wondered when it shouldn't, she made stupid mistakes, but she is an excellent heroine. I found myself loathing the villains and engrossed by the main characters. The action eventually became well paced and the story kept my attention. If you asked me after the first 40 minutes or so of listening, I would have told you that there is no way I'd buy the second book, but by the end, there was no way I wouldn't buy the second book. If like me, you find the beginning to be monotonous, don't give up on the book, it's worth listening to the whole thing.

It's a 4.5-star, so I rounded up

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
By the end of the first part I was so glad I had kept listening. The characters have a good enough back story to keep things moving until the first Zombie appeared. I was pleased that the author developed the zombie characters past the initial shuffler types into beings who gave living folks a real run for their money.

This book is well worth the listening time and I Kirsten Potter, the Narrator was excellent at providing voice to each character and there was no mistaking one charactor for another. When you hear Dani, you will know what I mean.

I really enjoyed this book and will be watching for more books by Ben Tripp.

Regards, m

Story started pretty slow but ended well worth it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took me a little bit to get into it but by the end I HAD to get the second book. It's slightly different than your topical zombie story, but I really enjoyed it.

I'd listen if you like Zombie stuff

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews