Posts Tagged ‘zombie’

A Shrouded World – Whistlers : A Jack Walker & Michael Talbot Adventure

Posted: February 13, 2015 in Book reviews
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Shrouded World bookThis is a collaboration between Mark Tufo and John O’Brien.

As you know I’ve been a big fan of Mark Tufo books for a while, especially the Zombie Fallout series, so when I saw this I thought I’d better give it a read.

It was quite an odd start. The chapters of the book are split into the story from each character. So one chapter would be Mike and the next chapter would be Jack. Actually it seemed odd at first, but worked really well. Talbot was an old friend, but Jack was some new interloper, so this brought him into ‘my’ story quite well and filled in a bit more information about him.

The chapters are pretty much a parallel story of both main characters and how they are dealing with being dropped into this new, strange world – I don’t think I’m creating any spoilers by saying that. Also, I don’t think it’s going to be a spoiler to say that their paths cross?

Oh, how could I omit this from my review? Mike doesn’t just land in this new world, he crashes there with an old Zombie Fallout favourite – John the Tripper. If anything he’s trippier than ever in this book. The way his character progresses in this book kind of reminds me of how Tommy’s character evolved in the early books. Instead of producing Pop Tarts out fo thin air, Tripper seems to be able to produce something a little more intoxicating 🙂 It’s kind of sweet and funny and, yeah a but weird. But we like weird, eh?

There are elements from both the character’s original worlds, but also some new frightening elements that they need to work out. I don’t want to give too much away but there are zombies and there all also night runners, and a something else…

I really liked the storyline and love how the characters interacted.  Both are very strong characters but it seemd to work very well. The authors clearly had a good time writing this collaboration and it shines through. I loved it and as it was left with a cliffhanger, I would imagine that there will be a sequel? I hope so as I’ll have it on my Kindle within seconds of the release!

As a footnote, this book prompted me to check out John O’brien’s series – I finished them all one after the other. Although not strictly zombies, I’ll write up a review shortly…

Book review – Sawkill Stories by Matt Fitzgerald

Posted: September 12, 2013 in Book reviews
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Sawkill StoriesThis review includes Sawkill, The Silver Tower and Cora. The Silver Tower and Cora are both short, standalone books.

The main character, Jessie, is working away from home and he misses calls from his wife Mauri. Jessie is 300 miles away in New Jersey from his wife in Massachusetts.

It transpires that an infection has started in Manhattan and during the 9 hours that Jessie has had his phone turned off, events have escalated. The virus hasn’t been contained and the system has completely broken down. Jessie needs to get back to his wife and kids, and there are hordes of zombies in the way, not to mention the US government wanting to cleanse te infected areas by dropping bombs… not an easy trip then?

I found myself not really liking Jessie. He’s some sort of Jason Bourne type character who seems perfectly at ease in killing anyone that gets in his way. He’s supposed to be the good guy in the book but acts more like the bad guy. I guess the writer is trying to show that he’s a guy that stepped up when needed, but he comes across as a bit of a sociopath.

Anyway, I won’t give any spoilers, which I’m sorry kind of leaves a shorter review. It’s certainly a rollercoaster of action, some of which sometimes seems a little convenient, but it is a page turner. If you like a fast-paced action kind of book, this could be for you.

Now the Silver Tower is a twisted little story. It’s standalone but happens to be the same zombie apocalypse. Again delving too much into the story would give away too many spoilers. The Silver Tower is an exclusive high-rise condo where key staff pull down the shutter as the chaos outside starts to escalate. Let’s just say, it’s a short story to devour…

Cora is a more like a taster than a short story. It’s a about a man and his daughter. Again standalone but not too bad.

All in all, not a bad set of books. They are quite often on Amazon Prime, so well worth a read. Watch out for a few typos though. I also think there is a new book coming out.

The Reanimation of Edward Schuett – Derek J. Goodman

Posted: July 31, 2013 in Book reviews
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Reanimation of Edward ShuettAnother book from the Zombie Book of the Month list. I’d never come across it, but the blurb online sounded quite unusual so I thought I’d give it a go.

Wow, I’m so glad I did. What a great book and a more unusual take on a zombie novel.

The book starts off 50 years on from the Zombie Uprising. The USA has started to recover well and the cities are thriving again. Outside of the cities it’s still a different story. In 50 years, the zombies haven’t died, they have continued to mill around. Some of these small towns still collect zombies and have their own local zombie games. Edward is rounded up by a couple of these ‘collectors’.

The last thing Edwards remembers is a BBQ on the 4th of July and a zombie attack on his family. He has no memories of the last 50 years, but he can now think and talk and feel.

Some people react to him with horror, after all, he is still a zombies and a talking zombie is even more scary. Some want to capture him and experiment on him and try to turn him into a weapon. Whereas some people are simply curious and can see the human behind the zombie.

It really is a well-written story with well-rounded and interesting characters. As the book progresses, Edward’s story unfolds and he build relationships with many of the key characters. There’s also plenty of action, as there is a race across country when he goes on the run.

If you are a bit bored with the plethora of run of the mill zombies books and want something a little bit different, then this is the book for you – enjoy!

World War Z (zed or zee?)

Posted: June 18, 2013 in Film reviews, News
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World War ZI’ve just realised that I haven’t posted a review of one of my favourite books – World War Z. This isn’t just one of my favourite zombie books, but actually one of my favourite books.

I must post my book review 🙂

So, as you can probably guess, I have been beside myself waiting for this new movie to come out. Last year I was scouring the internet for trailers and the trailer really grabs you and make you want to watch the film. Here’s the official trailer –

Now this year there has been more information out about the film and it appears that it doesn’t really follow the book that well. The reviews have also started to come out now and they seem a bit mixed, although I’d say they are probably more towards positive rather than negative.

I’m terrible – if I’ve read the book and liked the book then I’m usually disappointed with the film. I love the World War Z trailers and I love the way the zombies are seen racing along like cockroaches. I really hope I like the film too.

I was all set for going and watching it on opening night here in the UK but just realised to due to other commitments I won’t be able to go and see it until next week. Can I hold out that long???

Book review – the Sovereign Spirit Saga (Voyage of the Dead) by David Forsyth

Posted: June 5, 2013 in Book reviews
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Voyage of the DeadThis review cover all 3 books currently in the series:

  • Voyage of the Dead
  • Flotilla of the Dead
  • Deluge of the Dead

This is a series that I’ve had on my Kindle wish list fr ages and ages and just not got around to downloading. When the Zombie Book of the Month club chose a book I’d already read, I though this was a good opportunity to download this trilogy and give it a read.

It’s the usual sort of zombie book but with the twist of the main character being on a luxury boat when the outbreak happens. The main character, Scott, won the lottery a little while ago and bought this boat and had it kitted out in luxury and with a whole load of ‘boys toys’ so that he could sail around the world with family and close friends. The outbreak occurred just as they were heading back to the USA.

Flotilla of the DeadEverything happens pretty quickly in the book and the guys on the Sovereign of the Seas are pretty far removed from the horror happening around the world. They encounter zombies when they go to rescue friends and family trapped on the mainland.

The books read really well, and through the three books they encounter more survivors including miliary, FBI, police, mayors and the press. Scott always seems one step ahead of everyone else and makes full use of all his boys toys stashed n the boat. In some case I found him a bit too clever and well-equipped. He always seemed to have just the right piece of equipment stashed away in the hold, or just happens to have a marine laboratory to help the scientists come up with a cure for the virus. There’s not enough of the usual struggle that you have in a zombie novel.

However, I really enjoyed the ‘Interlude in Hell’ sections in he first book. Carl is struggling to survive after his wife becomes a zombie. He manages to find his way to a power station and starts to have some good ideas around survival and finds himself leading a band of survivors. This is much more like the usual story of survival when all the odds are stacked against you.

Deluge of the DeadLater in the books, Carl meets up with Scott and they join forces. There’s a build up to them both getting together, so you know that it will eventually happen. To be honest, I thought Carl had made a pretty good base at the power station and had picked up groups of survivors along the way. I wasn’t sure he needed Scott.

The books are good read. They move at quite a pace. Some of the storyline can be anticipated but there are a few twists and surprises, especially with some of the characters that do die along the way.

The way the third book ended, it looks like the will be a fourth book coming along at some point, which I will definitely read!

Book review – Allison Hewitt is trapped by Madeleine Roux

Posted: April 20, 2013 in Book reviews
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Allison Hewitt is TrappedThis is a cracking book!

It cropped up in my suggested read on Amazon and the title of the book really pulled me in to have a read of the blurb and the reviews. I do love a quirky title!

I normally try and seek out the unpublished authors and quite like a bargain on price. Well this wasn’t on offer or anything but something about it just made me want to grab it. As I said on the opening sentence, it’s a cracking book.

The zombie apocalypse happens and completely ordinary Allison ends up trapped in the bookstore where she works part-time. She’s trapped in the employee break room with her boss, some colleagues and some customers. They have security cameras so can see a little of what’s going on outside. They have some food, but all snacks and pop (soda to American readers).

What Allison does have though is power and an internet connection. To hep keep her sanity she starts to blog. The story is written in a series of blogs, which work really well as chapters. Each blog entry also contains comments from her followers which gives an insight into what is happening around the world and outside the confines of Allison’s break room.

Allison is a brilliant character and you find her starting to take control and being the one the decided to venture out for food. She gels with some of the other characters but some of them are still just colleagues.

If I write much more about the storyline then I’ll start to give spoilers and I really don’t want to do that. There does come a point though where they need to look at moving from the safety, and the confines, of the bookstore. Much of the book focusses on this. It develops really well, especially Allison’s character. Things don;t go smoothly and sometimes the good guys don’t make it…..

Allison, hopefully with her beloved axe, is just the perosn I’d want to be trapped with in a zombie apocalypse!

As soon as I finished it, I looked for other books by the author and found Sadie Walker is Stranded, which I downloaded immediately. I’ve already finished it so a review of that will follow shortly….

Book review – After: the Echo by Scott Nicholson

Posted: April 15, 2013 in Book reviews
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After the Shock: EchoThis book picks up exactly where the last book, After: the Shock finished. That’s always a good start in by view!

In the sequel we catch up with one of the characters from the last book and of course meet a few more.

I said this in my review of the first book, that these aren’t zombies as such, they are zapheads. At the end of the last book there are some observations that the zapheads are starting to change. Much of their initial violent behaviour seems to be leaving and they seem to be banding together and starting to work together. This continues in this book.

There are loads happening with Jorge and Franklin and some of the other characters get themselves into trouble. The zapheads are congregating together in groups and doing some quite od things

The book itself romps through. I couldn’t put it down once I’d started, but I do tend to find that with Scott Nicholson books. They are real action books. It flips between the different groups of characters and keeps you on the edge of wanting to know what happens next.

My only gripe is that the book is way too short. I read it in a day. It felt more like a novella. In fact, it finished at 86% on my Kindle and the rest was other books by the author. I would sooner have waited a little longer for a sequel and had something a bit more meaty! If you regularly read my reviews, then you’ll know this is a pet hate of mine…

Anyway, the story clearly hasn’t finished and you are left with a cliffhanger, so I guess there will be another book out soon.

Book review – Dead Stop by Nathan Hilliard

Posted: March 31, 2013 in Book reviews
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Dead StopThis book was shortlisted for the Zombie book for April, but Tankbread got there instead. Well, I’ve already read Tankbread, and enjoyed it, so I started to check out the other books. This one sounded OK and was on Amazon Prime, so I grabbed it.

It’s not exactly what I expected from the blurb on Amazon. I expected another standard zombie adventure, with the usual characters and lots of guns. What I got was something quite refreshing.

It started like a 1950s horror film. Set int the graveyard, with bodies rising form the grave. It really had the atmosphere of something like The Thing, or Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.

Then you jump to the truck stop. Suddenly I felt like I was in a good old 80s film, with a mixed bunch of characters, including a load of just finished high types. I’ve got to admit I did a little internal groan as I wasn’t wondering whether this was going to be an 80s slasher movie… “don’t go into the bathroom on your own”.

I was wrong.

It’s a great book and keeps that interesting mix of feeling like a 50s story crossed with the 80s more graphic story. The monsters don’t stay hidden until the last scene, and there’s plenty of blood and gore!

Great mix of characters too. Lots of people stepping and doing their bit and of course a couple of idiots that you kind of hope might die quite early and quite horribly (I’m trying not to give away any spoilers here). Also as a UK lass, it’s quite refreshing for me to read a zombie book that isn’t packed to the high teeth with guns. These guys have to deal with some pretty fast and strong zombies without the usual US firepower.

Quite cool too that people do get injured and do struggle. In a lot of books the heroes get into all sorts of trouble, but never get any zombie-related injuries. These guys get hurt.

It’s a fab read and I found I couldn’t put it down. I liked the characters and they developed pretty quickly without the usual splurge of back story.

Pick it up and give it a read – it’s a real change from a lot of the books out there!

Book review – Dead America: a Zombie Novel by Luke Keioskie

Posted: March 25, 2013 in Book reviews
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Dead AmericaIn a sentence – Sam Spade meets zombies!

I got a good deal on the this – I got it on the Amazon Lending Library. It had some interesting reviews and was basically my free book for the month.

It reads like a Sam Spade old style crime story, with a smattering of film noir. Crime novels aren’t really my cup of tea but this sort of worked. It’s also a more unusual storyline. The zombies aren’t brain eating, shuffling monsters. They are not much different to the living, except they are dead.

Faraday is a private investigator and an ex-cop. He’s also living. He’s called in to investigate a couple of cases and things start to intertwine and get complicated. He’s a wonderfully cynical character and a little down on his luck. His wife ran off with his best mate and partner and there’s clearly something else that happened and that’s why he left the force.

It’s not a typical zombie story. Like I said earlier, these zombies don’t really behave like your standard zombies. They exist alongside the living, but more like second class citizens. They even have a lower minimum wage as they aren’t deemed to need the same things as the living workers. They do all the jobs no=one else wants to and also they are undercutting the living in other jobs due to that lower minimum wage. SO, as you can expect there a real undercurrent of bad feeling between the living and the dead. That runs through the whole story.

If I went into anymore, then I’d start to give away some spoilers.

Suffice to say, it’s a quirky story and refreshing in that it doesn’t follow the usual standard zombie stereotypes. The characters are also and interesting bunch with bits of back story peppered throughout the pages. There’s are even zombie crime lords. You find yourself piecing everything together as you go along the finale.

It’s well worth the read. And it’s something a little different.

Book review – Ragnorak Rising: the Reckoning by D.A. Roberts

Posted: March 21, 2013 in News
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Ragnrak Rising: the ReckoningAll I can say is wow!

I read the first book a little while ago and my review is here – Ragnorak Rising: the Awakening

I read book one on a recommendation and actually enjoyed it. I’d found it  a bit stilted at the start and thought it had a bit of an obsession with describing guns and ammo, bt there was none of that in this book.

It starts right where the other book left off. Wylie is at the dock with his dog, Odin. He’s surrounded by zombies left over  from the explosion at the end of the last book. He needs to find his way back to the jail and to his family.

Of course his journey isn’t easy and like the first book he meets up with some interesting characters along the way. SOme good and some very bad…

His journey back to the jail is only part of the story though. There is another group in the city, the Freemen, and they don;t want to share. A large part of the book is around the fight with these guys. It’s a little more ‘Mad Max’ with these guys but it works really well. There’s also a few Rambo-syle moment with Wylie. He’s a really good character and grows even more in this book. His relationship with Spec-4 still really works, and stays on that professional/friend level.

I liked the addition of the new characters in this book. They do give this book a different edge to the last book as there are more military personnel in it. I like the fact that strong women characters are still built into the storyline as nothing out of the ordinary. I did find all the extra characters a little confusing though and did get some of them mixed up.  I wasn’t too sure about Wylie’s wife either as he stock position in the book seemed to be not being pleased as he was off on another mission but passively accepting it. Actually that worked well towards the end of the book when she stepped up – don;t worry I’m not going to give you any spoilers!

This time the book ended at a better point. Not the huge cliffhanger that the first one ended on, but still left me thinking there’s more legs in this series.

I think there’s a new one out in the summer – so keep your eyes posted!!

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