Best Len Levinson Audiobooks

The best Len Levinson audiobooks — 16 titles ranked by listening experience across Historical Fiction, averaging 3.74 ABR stars.

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Len Levinson is the king of gritty WWII pulp, and The Rat Bastards series is his masterpiece — a relentless, mud-caked chronicle of soldiers too broken or dangerous for any other unit. Titles like Meat Grinder Hill and Hit The Beach aren't just evocative; they deliver exactly what they promise: combat writing stripped of sentiment, propulsive and visceral, with enough dark humor to keep you turning pages through the carnage. Levinson writes battle the way it probably felt — chaotic, exhausting, brutal — and his characters earn their ruthlessness. There's no glory here, just survival and the grim camaraderie of men who've stopped pretending otherwise. Readers who love war fiction with real teeth, who find most military novels too sanitized, will find Levinson hits harder and pulls fewer punches than almost anyone in the genre.

Len Levinson's highest-rated audiobook in our collection is Hit The Beach, narrated by Ray Porter (3.81 ABR stars). Performed by Ray Porter. Rankings here weight the listening experience — narrator performance and Audible ratings factor alongside reader scores.

  1. 1
    Hit The Beach cover

    Hit The Beach

    The Rat Bastards • Book 1

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.81 ABR Score (247 ratings)
    ★ 4.13 Goodreads (119) ★ 4.44 Audible (128)
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    An insane sergeant leads bank robbers, racketeers, and lunatics into WWII combat as the ultimate killing machine known as the Rat Bastards.

  2. 2
    River Of Blood cover

    River Of Blood

    The Rat Bastards • Book 3

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.83 ABR Score (129 ratings)
    ★ 4.31 Goodreads (54) ★ 4.69 Audible (75)
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    Ray Porter commands this tale of misfit soldiers who fight enemies and each other with equal ferocity. His gruff narration matches the Rat Bastards' brutal efficiency in jungle warfare.

  3. 3
    Death Squad cover

    Death Squad

    The Rat Bastards • Book 2

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.83 ABR Score (137 ratings)
    ★ 4.21 Goodreads (66) ★ 4.69 Audible (71)
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    The Rat Bastards are too blood-hungry for their own army and too dangerous for any enemy in the malaria-soaked jungle. Porter's delivery matches this pulp war fiction's relentless pace as the platoon tears through friend and foe alike on their rampage.

  4. 4
    Down and Dirty cover

    Down and Dirty

    The Rat Bastards • Book 5

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.77 ABR Score (86 ratings)
    ★ 4.04 Goodreads (45) ★ 4.78 Audible (41)
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    Jungle warfare pulp where the Rat Bastards face enemies in every shadow, prison breaks, and constant combat across the Pacific theater.

  5. 5
    Meat Grinder Hill cover

    Meat Grinder Hill

    The Rat Bastards • Book 4

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.74 ABR Score (101 ratings)
    ★ 4.14 Goodreads (50) ★ 4.45 Audible (51)
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    The Rat Bastards assault a fortified enemy position with their signature blend of chaos and lethality. Ray Porter channels the squad's bloodthirsty enthusiasm as they turn a quiet jungle into a killing field.

  6. 6
    Too Mean To Die cover

    Too Mean To Die

    The Rat Bastards • Book 7

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.74 ABR Score (78 ratings)
    ★ 4.08 Goodreads (36) ★ 4.57 Audible (42)
    More about this pick

    Ray Porter captures every bit of grit in this WWII band of misfits struggling to stay unified between bloody Pacific battles.

  7. 7
    Green Hell cover

    Green Hell

    The Rat Bastards • Book 6

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.75 ABR Score (64 ratings)
    ★ 4.03 Goodreads (30) ★ 4.82 Audible (34)
    More about this pick

    Ray Porter voices the Pacific War's toughest unit as they crawl through impossible terrain with a single obsession: kill or die trying.

  8. 8
    Hot Lead and Cold Steel cover

    Hot Lead and Cold Steel

    The Rat Bastards • Book 8

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.75 ABR Score (63 ratings)
    ★ 4.1 Goodreads (30) ★ 4.85 Audible (33)
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    The Rat Bastards slash through jungle warfare and underground tomb battles in this WWII Pacific theater adventure where death is just another sick joke.

  9. 9
    Do or Die cover

    Do or Die

    The Rat Bastards • Book 9

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.73 ABR Score (60 ratings)
    ★ 3.93 Goodreads (27) ★ 4.76 Audible (33)
    More about this pick

    The Rat Bastards—stuntman, gangster, Indian, and bum—form history's most effective killing team as they stand between Japanese forces and Pacific island domination. Ray Porter's gritty performance matches the squad's ruthless pragmatism.

  10. 10
    Kill Crazy cover

    Kill Crazy

    The Rat Bastards • Book 10

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.73 ABR Score (60 ratings)
    ★ 4.15 Goodreads (27) ★ 4.67 Audible (33)
    More about this pick

    Ray Porter's gravelly delivery matches this blood-soaked WWII pulp perfectly—jungle warfare, malaria, and the psychological toll of killing become viscerally real.

  11. 11
    Suicide River cover

    Suicide River

    The Rat Bastards • Book 14

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.71 ABR Score (48 ratings)
    ★ 4 Goodreads (21) ★ 4.74 Audible (27)
    More about this pick

    Japanese surprise attacks meet Rat Bastards counter-intelligence as the battle for New Guinea's strategic control reaches its bloodiest peak.

  12. 12
    Nightmare Alley cover

    Nightmare Alley

    The Rat Bastards • Book 11

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.71 ABR Score (54 ratings)
    ★ 4.12 Goodreads (26) ★ 4.68 Audible (28)
    More about this pick

    The Rat Bastards transform from leave-wrecking losers into the Pacific's most lethal fighting force when duty calls them to their bloodiest mission yet. Ray Porter emphasizes the squad's Jekyll-and-Hyde nature between chaos and deadly efficiency.

  13. 13
    Go Down Fighting cover

    Go Down Fighting

    The Rat Bastards • Book 16

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.69 ABR Score (53 ratings)
    ★ 4 Goodreads (23) ★ 4.53 Audible (30)
    More about this pick

    The Rat Bastards meet their deadliest opponents yet as desperate Japanese kamikaze forces launch final suicide attacks in the war's closing days.

  14. 14
    Go For Broke cover

    Go For Broke

    The Rat Bastards • Book 12

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.68 ABR Score (51 ratings)
    ★ 4.08 Goodreads (24) ★ 4.48 Audible (27)
    More about this pick

    Raw WWII Pacific theater action follows the Rat Bastards through brutal hand-to-hand combat and daring truck hijacking missions across New Guinea.

  15. 15
    Tough Guys Die Hard cover

    Tough Guys Die Hard

    The Rat Bastards • Book 13

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.68 ABR Score (46 ratings)
    ★ 4.05 Goodreads (21) ★ 4.56 Audible (25)
    More about this pick

    New misfit recruits join the battle-hardened Rat Bastards as they continue their jungle warfare rampage across multiple Pacific theater hellscapes.

  16. 16
    Satan's Cage cover

    Satan's Cage

    The Rat Bastards • Book 15

    by Len Levinson, John Mackie

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    3.69 ABR Score (42 ratings)
    ★ 3.95 Goodreads (20) ★ 4.73 Audible (22)
    More about this pick

    The Rat Bastards fight for pure survival in New Guinea's blood-soaked jungles, where victory offers no spoils — only another day alive.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →