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The Undead. The First Seven Days (The Undead Series) Paperback – February 24, 2013

by R R Haywood (Author)

4.5 3,527 ratings

Book 1 of 13: The Undead Series

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The Undead. The First Seven Days Compilation Edition.The UK's #1 horror series.A deadly infection spreads across Europe.The Undead Series: A terrifying account of one man desperately struggling to survive this harrowing event.rrhaywood.com

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (February 24, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 800 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1481010484
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1481010481
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.81 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,757,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,658 in Occult Fiction
- #14,925 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 3,527 ratings

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RR Haywood

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OUT NOW! The Undead 26 "Rye"

Episode One of Season Five, The Rain. Eight new Undead episodes coming spring / summer 2024

"One of the most original voices of our time." Richard Moriarty, The Sun.

"Whether it's gritty horror, spectacular sci-fi, or insane comedy, RR Haywood delivers in style." Chris Riches, Daily Express.

A Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon and Audible bestselling author with more than 3 million books sold and over 25 Kindle Bestsellers. RR Haywood is one of the most downloaded indie authors in the UK and the creator of the worldwide global smash-hit EXTRACTED. THE CODE TRILOGY narrated by Colin Morgan. The phenomenal UNDEAD Series. The blockbuster DELIO. PHASE ONE, and A TOWN CALLED DISCOVERY which topped the charts for more than 20 weeks.

FICTION LAND (narrated by Game Of Thrones star Gethin Anthony), is already described as "an outrageously funny tour de force."

A former police officer, Haywood now lives with his dogs on the north coast of the Isle of Wight where he also releases writing tips on TikTok, and The Not A Podcast Podcast on YouTube.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

3,527 global ratings

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Guy Covey

a new to me approach to zombies!

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is a new and unique approach to zombies that I have not read yet! Fresh and authentic twist to the zombie genre! Very interesting and fun… kept me reading till the end!!

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Amazon Customer

Strong plot, character development, and fast paced story!

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

I loved the book and the rate of story telling. All characters, and I mean ALL, added something to the story. I loved the growth and different perspectives seen. However, I will say that the grammar is a bit messy in places, making it difficult to follow in some places. Highly recommend reading.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Wow

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024

Verified Purchase

Great read. I enjoyed it very much. Fast paced, non stop action. Great characters that you can feel for. Lots of zombies. Can't wait till the next book.

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wolves2010

First 70 page’s awesome

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2024

Verified Purchase

Great Zombie Apocalypse book. Interesting take as it is based in England. Started fast and hasn’t slowed down!

One person found this helpful

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Nickel and Dime

great series

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

Well written, I really am tired of the zombie storyline, but love this author, so I decided to give it a try. Very good story, engaging and slightly different take on the subject

One person found this helpful

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Cynthia A. Spruiell

Valhalla

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2023

Verified Purchase

Howie is the manager of a local market in England when the zombie apocalypse breaks out! The story starts out similar to many others. However, somehow, Howie morphs into a bigger than life hero! Quite literally, people he meets just fall in awe of him & are willing to fight to the death to preserve this market manager! From the descriptions in the book, you would think Howie becomes Thor and is invincible! He seems to have a bottomless pit of strength fueled mostly by coffe! I marked numerous unlikely scenarios in this long winded book; it was a passable attempt but I can' t imagine subjecting myself to further episodes of Howie!

2 people found this helpful

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Teresa Schudrowitz

For the Price and Number of Pages Very Well Done

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2021

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Not your typical Zombie story in many ways, but highly entertaining. Author helped you connect with the characters, somewhat believable story line with some questions though, that is why I knocked off a star…….1. Seemingly unlimited amount of ammo for the weapons, just could not have had enough ammo in some of the scenarios. I am no gunsmith, but I would guess with the amount of use depicted that they would have some serious issues with the weapons over 7 days. 2.Spray of blood, which supposedly can infect a person in some portions of the story, seem to never get into the hero’s mouths/eyes/etc. unless it needs to to impact the storyline. 3. A bit wordy, I found myself skipping a few paragraphs where I knew what was coming/going to happen. 4. The two main characters are a bit super heroic for my tastes, but I have read worse. Again, a great story for the price, entertaining, somewhat plausible, a bit of a different take on zombies. Will buy the next portion.

2 people found this helpful

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rena seidler

Phenomenal, original, and addictive!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023

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Having read dozens of authors’ ZA stories, even the good eventually blur together. Not this outstanding tale. The characters sparkle with humor, wit, anger, joy, and pain in a way rarely seen in apocalypse fiction. It’s a great story told through the eyes of characters that invest in from the getgo. I absolutely cannot speak highly enough of this book. Bravo, RR Haywood!

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

OJB

Needa the update editing

Reviewed in Germany on February 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book needs the big update that was made to the single novels.

Tez

The best of its kind

Reviewed in Australia on January 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

This series is by far the best zombie apocalypse story I have ever read. I am not one who generally reads a series more than once but RR Haywoods style of character development is deeply engaging and left me missing the company of the main characters.
The story is a fascinating perspective of the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of regular people fighting for survival. It is full of laugh out loud moments, tears and a story that twists and turns in an unpredictable manner that made putting this story down extremely difficult.
It truly should be made into a movie, it is worth every second of time invested in creating it. And in my humble opinion it has cemented a place as one of my personal favourites. I highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

Chris

Definitely a "Must Read"

Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

Well to coin a phrase from the book....this s "Bloody Brilliant". I was quickly drawn in by the authors' spectacular ability to weave a riveting storyline. So well done the reader can actually "see" the plot played out in the minds eye -much like watching a movie. Well drawn characters, excellent edge of your seat action - this is a definite must read!

Dave

An epic adventure for zombie/apocalypse fans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

My journey of discovering better than average ebooks by amateur writers has been a somewhat hit and miss affair. I've read a fair number of appalling attempts at fiction by people who should stick to only writing birthday card messages. I keep on reading in the hope of finding evidence that some amateur writers can in fact write, and write well enough to keep me turning the page.

When I stumbled across The Undead: The First Seven Days I was intrigued by the title, for me anything undead is worth investigating. I don't read reviews as they're way too misleading for many reasons. But I do scan the first few pages of the "look inside" bit to check if the quality of writing/style/layout etc is worth shelling out a few quid.

I finished this book about 2 weeks ago. I prefer to digest what I've read before writing anything about it so I can get my thoughts in order and provide a well balanced review. It's all well and good to crank out a quick "This is an awesome story!!!! The best ever!!!!!!" or even "Total dross, don't bother, it's rubbish" but it doesn't do a writer or fans of a genre/author any credit for their hard work and effort.

Well rounded, thoughtful and above all constructive feedback is where I prefer to go when it comes to reviews.

Usually I head to the Good Bits and end with the Bad Bits, however, this time I'll hit the bad stuff first because I want this review to end on a high point

Before I get started I will say now that I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its faults. If you're a fan of the zombie/apocalypse genre then you should read this book. Simple as that. There are some spoilers here folks, though nothing hugely important that gives away the plot in any great detail.

What's BAD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:

Point of View: The story starts off with a first person perspective. It's not entirely clear if this is a diary or simply an account, not that it matters much. I enjoy first person stuff - seeing events unfold inside a characters head can make a story tense and gripping. The problem with the POV is that it switches about. A lot. From first person to third person, and back again, then to another character first person and back once again.

I felt R.R Haywood realised he wanted to tell more than what was being seen by the main character, Howie, and needed a quick get-out clause to go off and explore the world beyond Howie. At one point Howie explains to the reader that he will be switching to 3rd person in order to better explain the events around those 7 days. Okay. Weird. I could live with that, just about. The weird thing about the switching is how it was relayed to the reader. When the story flips to 3rd or 1st person of another character, Haywood titled that section as "Extract from Howie's diary" which didn't make sense to me.

How could Howie write about a plague of zombies, zombie rats and cats (a cool twist I thought) when he wasn't actually there to see those characters? When writing a diary based first person POV it doesn't make sense to switch to another 1st person POV and still call that chapter "Howie's diary" because it wasn't him! And cat's, rats, zombies and plague virus's can't write (as far as I know) so having them tell their story didn't make any sense, in the context Haywood laid out for the reader.

I overlooked that quirk because the story told from the plagues POV really did add a nice element to a tried and tested zombie plot.

Personally I wouldn't have had Howie tell the reader he planned to switch at all or used the frequent implausible chapter titles "Extract from Howie's diary." Giving a chapter a number or brief name is enough, and the reader would easily pick up on the fact that the POV has changed.

Details that didn't upset my enjoyment I should add for reasons I'll get to in a bit.

Repetition: Within the first few pages I almost deleted the book from my kindle. When Howie is at home and the zombies are at his front door, he spends a lot of time saying stuff like: "I next go into the lounge" and "I go back to..." and "I run into the..." and "I look around" and "I grab things." And so on. I understand it's going to be a traumatic experience for any sane person to be plagued by zombies but that sort of repetition is very exhausting.

This calmed down after about 10 pages or so. Thankfully. The other form of repetition is the hacking/slashing/whacking/chopping/dicing and slicing action. Zombies are everywhere. It's gross, dirty, horrific work to chop down what used to be human beings, but it felt as if Haywood enjoyed writing every little detail often rather than giving thought to how much was necessary to move the story forward.

Tenses: I don't recall specifics but I'm sure I came across plenty of contradictions in the use of tenses. Like the POV switching the tenses get muddled up in places with present tense and past tense combined. Enough to make me wince at times but again not enough to put me off turning the page.

Dialogue:Some of the dialogue is pretty damn good. The characters come across very well with dialogue alone without the need to add: "...said Howie" after speech. The weird thing I noticed is that Haywood has a knack for writing a lot of dialogue without paying enough attention to how people actually speak.

For example, one character might say "He is dead..." instead of "He's dead..." because it's their personality trait. But when every character speaks like this it doesn't read right. More so in tense, action scenes. In a life or death situation I'd be caught off guard, and likely killed by zombies if I noticed everyone around me said things like: "They have killed him" and "We have got to get out here" and "You do not understand."

Writing is about constantly learning, so I apologise for bashing Haywood over this little thing, but it's an important little thing that often made dialogue stand out as awkward rather than flow like we talk banter with our friends/family etc. Paying attention to dialogue can make a huge difference to a reader feeling a book was okay and easily forgettable rather than fantastic and memorable.

Thankfully there are loads of good points that still make this a memorable one for me.

What's GOOD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:

Get over the bad stuff and it's a cracking story! Initially Haywood wrote it in 7 individual parts so I'm very grateful to have read the entire thing in one go. And I'll be grabbing the next set very soon, I think the story currently goes to day 10 at the time of writing this review.

Howie and Dave: A brilliant partnership and friendship grows between these two. Howie, a supermarket manager and Dave, an ex-special forces guy. Their interactions alone drive the story along, the way they grow to need, respect and protect one another. Their dialogue ranges from witty and smirk raising to sombre and tearful in places.

Their journey is the main highlight for me. There were times when I feared for them, and that doesn't happen very often when I'm reading a book - Dark Tower by Stephen King, the bit with Eddie Dean, if you're a fan, you'll know what I'm talking about - that was tearful and scary.

I found plenty of subtle facets to their friendship that kept me turning page after page until well after my bedtime alarm had gone off.

The Recruits: Slight negative one here - I found the new army recruits (TA I think, perhaps)ability to learn and master weapons and combat techniques a little too easy. That aside there are plenty of interesting characters to get your teeth into, just the right amount of description too. Occasionally I'd find myself flipping back a few pages when a name is mentioned, thinking "er, who's this guy who's just died?" because a few of them don't have much if anything to say.

The banter between them is well paced and flows beautifully (for the most part.) Lots of quick retorts, put-downs etc that build characters in the imagination machine inside your noodle. Aside from the easy ability to master army stuff, the journey of the recruits coming from wet-behind-the-ears lads to an organised and hardened team is thoroughly enjoyable. The impact of this is felt close to the end of the story.

The Plague: The idea of telling parts of a zombie story from the POV of the virus is a stroke of excellence. I don't recall coming across that concept before, though I dare say it's been done before, but then hasn't everything? The plague's journey is every bit as enjoyable and essential as each of the other characters.

It's refreshing to see this side of a zombie story, how a plague thinks, how it uses humans as hosts, how it learns and evolves, creating a hive mind spread across the globe. A nice twist I wasn't expecting, though as mentioned before told in clunky manner.

At times I felt guilty for quietly rooting for the plague because it too wanted to survive. Just once I wanted to see it win, though to be fair that would make for a pessimistic plot twist. However, I suspect not entirely a bad one if done well.

Scale: Zombie apocalypse plots are rooted in a global event of human downfall. Anyone who's read World War Z or seen the movie trailer (yeah, I know, but I'm still going to see it anyway) will expect epic scenes of thousands or millions of undead swarming or shuffling after those few survivors.

Haywood starts small with a handful of creatures in a quiet suburban street. He ups the pace by a few degrees at a time, moving to a supermarket bloodbath, to a country village, city, army barracks, London and more. The size of the zombie hordes increases at a good rate though I was very aware that Howie and his army also increased their skills and abilities to deal with the ever increasing numbers. I felt this was somewhat unrealistic but the alternative was to kill the main characters off quick because they're not Rambo clones but normal people. And that's not a recipe for successful heroic last stands and pitched battles is it?

Last Stand: It goes without saying that many zombie plots need a last stand. Whether that's against a small or large horde. Without giving too much away this one had me reading fast and furious. I'm not joking when I looked at my clock to find it was 3am, groaned because I had to be up at 6 and then kept on reading.

In the end I had to put it down but only after promising myself I'd finish it the moment I got home the next evening. The only gripe I had was the obviousness of a last stand pretty much in the first 20 pages or so, mentioned in a radio broadcast that Howie hears in the car. After that it's obvious that last stand is coming.

In one way that's sort of bad because you know it's going to happen and more or less where. It puts a dull sheen on the "oh man, what the hell's going to happen next?" feeling. On the other hand it sure was something to look forward to and watch to see which character wasn't going to make it there.

Final Thoughts:
Putting aside the bad points, this was a hugely enjoyable read. It's a long one too with lots of action and struggle to get your apocalyptic taste buds into.

I could go on about the good points, but I'll leave it there to preserve the fun for potential readers. I paid £2.98 for The Undead: The First Seven Days - a book Amazon states as having 799 pages. I consider that very good value for money.

What I did notice is that Haywood seems to have matured as a writer during the process of creating this story. The latter parts, days 4 onwards, are considerably better written than the early parts. I like that. Haywood clearly enjoyed writing this story, enough to continue after day 7.

I think if I met him I'd shake his hand and say: "Well done, fella, you had a story to tell and told it very well. Keep writing and I'll keep reading."

And isn't that the essence of a good story teller? The ability to hook the reader and keep them wanting more. I know I do.

25 people found this helpful

Simon Faulkner

Possibly the best characters ever written. EVER.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

I'm updating this as I'm on my second read through. All the below is true, but even more so.

And I'd never ready books like it before. My genre was always sci-fi. But this, just give it a go.

Possibly the best characters ever written. EVER.
This has everything, fully inclusive, hyper realistic, perfect character interaction with amazing dialogue. This series is an absolute gem.. I've now read upto and including book 24 in just three weeks and it just get better. So many unexpected turns, so many undead, so many huge firefights and of course explosions. How the auhor can write with so much accuracy about a plethora of subjects from military tactics and weapons to the intrinsic workings of coffee machines is astounding.
The main characters interact so realistically that you will feel immediately involved in their lives, loves, hopes, dreams and backstory. The dialogue as I have mentioned is brilliantly observed and the author portrays
all social, gender, race expertly.. dealing sensitively and naturally with all walks of life.

The story is gripping. Starting at the outbreak of an unknown world wide infection, with all the chaos and panic, and building the characters and plot into a crescendo that never stops. The battle scenes are written so well, the hand to hand combat and use of weapons is unparalleled and the humour is absolutely infectious.

These books are so more more than the average Zombie you will have read before or seen on the screen. Forget The Walking Dead, World War Z, COD zombies even. The sheer scope and terror of this story is mind-blowing. Twenty four books and each one as addictive as the rest, you may think that's not possible..Think again.

Buy, download read and don't stop.

You'll never walk in a Costas or Starbucks again without imagining you're armed to the teeth covered in gore and have arrived in a armoured personnel carrier...

Trust me.

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