Twilight of the Dead Review

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(More customer reviews)As a fan of all-things-zombie for over twenty years I had never experienced "zombie fiction" before, and eagerly scoured the Amazon reviews of probably the exact same books you have already looked at. After reading the glowing reviews of this book I discounted the amateurish cover art and immediately ordered it.
Upon arrival the first thing I noticed once I began perusing the first few pages was the size of the font. I'm sure I'm being nit-picky but it seemed to me that a larger size font was chosen to maximize the number of pages - slim still at just over 200 pages. This, coupled with the actual dimensions of the book and the heretofore cited simplistic cover art just gave me the feeling I was holding something aimed at a much younger audience. Don't get me wrong, I fully realize this is a book about the Zombie Apocalypse, but I guess I expected something a little more literary after seeing reviews calling it the "best book I ever read" and throwing out phrases like "metaphysical subjectivism." I have to wonder what other "books" these reviewers tend to read.
As for the story, I will admit it is enjoyable for what it offers. However, some things had me wondering "wait, didn't they just say.." and "that doesn't seem right, wouldn't they have..." a little too often. I felt like I was reading a second or third draft where the plot hadn't been cemented nor the holes filled in. And my god, please use a proofreader in future. I can forgive an overlooked comma but there were too many instances where something that should have been caught actually took me out of the story wondering if maybe I had read it wrong. The biggest offender being a cliffhanger-type situation closing out a chapter - "But he had been bitten!" instead was printed "But he had bitten!" which made no sense in the context of the scene and really ruined the tension of the moment.
Character-wise it was refreshing to have a female protagonist, but I was struck by the fact that seemingly every male in her life, excluding her father, either wanted to have sex with her or already had. Seemed a bit banal to me. I found myself rolling my eyes every time another newly introduced male character threw out a clichéd come-on or uttered a moronic innuendo. Enough.
Bottom line: it's a fairly enjoyable read if you can get past the overall unpolished feeling and glaring editorial oversights.
I just glanced down at the next part of this review form, where it says "I am over the age of 13." A very applicable phrase with which to end this .

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Courtney Colvin was nearing the end of her teenage years when the undead apocalypse began. She survived, forsaking her youth and innocence, and five years later she continues to exist--albeit lonely--in the fortified town of Eastpointe. Nightmares and the unwelcome advances of Leon Wolfe are the worst things she's dealing with now in her otherwise mundane life. But when a newcomer arrives in town and claims to know the location of the antidote to the zombie plague, it sends Eastpointe into an uproar. To retrieve this cure, she and a group of other survivors must venture outside the relative safety of the compound's walls and into a world ruled and dominated by the flesh-eating undead. Twilight of the Dead puts a new spin on the zombie genre, yet remains true to the classic rules that have already been set forth. A sure-fire reading pleasure for anyone who loves character-driven horror. This Special Edition contains an Introduction by David Moody and three bonus short stories detailing important moments in the lives of other survivors

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The Undead: Zombie Anthology Review

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(More customer reviews)The Undead certainly spans a wide gamut of zombie fiction, with tales ranging from the sick and twisted to the intriguing and humorous, from well known authors and those just planting their feet inside the door. This anthology takes it's reader into space, back in time to the high seas of the late 1700's, out to deserted islands, and back to the streets of present day, showing just how versatile this genre of horror fiction can be. Some of my favorites include:
"Pale Moonlight" by D.L. Snell - Nathan seems stuck in a house quickly being overrun by the undead, but he has a surprise of his own for them once the full moon comes into view.
"Home" by David Moody - Anyone who has read any of David Moody's Autumn books can easily see how this stand-alone short story could fit into that same vision. However, this tale contains an intriguing twist.
"Only Begotten" by Rebecca Lloyd - A child with a bite only a mother could love.
"Hell and Back" by Vince Churchill - A very ill father tries to protect his children in the wake of the Romero flu that has swept the globe.
"The Dead Life" by Mike Watt - Bernice Dobbs has a zombie infestation in the basement that needs to be cleared up before the women's auxiliary shows up. An odd pair of exterminators show up to handle the problem.
"Cold as He Wishes" by C.M. Shevlin - A boy uses a trick taught to him by his grandfather to obtain any girl he desires, as long as she's among the recently deceased.
"Graveyard Slot" by Cavan Scott - A gruesome reality show goes horribly awry when an unwitting and unwilling participant gets thrown into the mix.
Most anthologies contain several "hits" as well as several "misses." However, each and every tale within The Undead is as interesting as the one before it. This anthology should not be passed up by anyone who is a fan of zombie fiction, or good horror fiction in general. A sequel to this amazing anthology has already been announced, and I intend to snatch it up as soon as it is released!

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"The Undead" is a stunning collection of 23 tales of the living dead by zombie fan favorites and up-and-coming authors."The Undead" includes classic tales of survival in a world populated by the living dead as well as an array of unique takes on the zombie genre: zombies as reality entertainment, glimpses from inside the "life" of the undead, intergalactic war withhumanity's own dead turned against us, and everything in between."The Undead" will leave zombie fans hungry for more!

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Allison Hewitt Is Trapped: A Zombie Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This is such a fun book on so many levels! This is what literary fiction should be. It gives you so much to think about. . . how would I react in a similar survivalist situation? The zombies were almost just placeholders for me. You could replace zombies with almost any disaster. The hidden message for me was, "Who is the real enemy?" I absolutely loved how the mother issue was dealt with, very realistic and so beautiful. It's the kind of book that gives you research too if one is so inclined. Each chapter is the name of a classic book. OK, this was just a wonderful adventure story too! I read this book in 24 hours and wish I could pick up the sequel right now! This book is better than the "Twilight" series which I must admit I liked a lot too. This is an author to watch. Good stuff!

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The Devil Next Door Review

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(More customer reviews)that would make even Ruggero Deodato nauseas.
What would happen if 6,000 years of human evolution reversed themselves in the blink of an eye? Thats the interesting premise in this novel from the always interesting mind of Tim Curran. This book kicks like a mule from almost page 1 and doesn't let go to the end. As an aside, that's what I enjoy about this novel, as well as Curran's Biohazard and Resurrection (which I'm currently reading), he doesn't futz around and pushes you immediately into the thick of things; he knows he has a cool premise and runs with it.His novels instantly grab you and have you compulsively turning the pages long into the night.
The book is amazingly savage (pun intended). This is possibly the most graphically and realistically violent novel I've ever read. Not a limb or innard goes unmolested or uneviscerated. If you can bear the literally unrelenting brutality on display here you'll find an incredibly interesting work about the nature of humanity and how we're really not as far from the animals as we like to think we are. It's a truly entertaining and original take on the apocalypse. I don't know how Mr. Curran does it but I've loved everything I've read by him and kudos to Severed Press for publishing such an utterly awesome writer.

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Cannibalism. Murder. Rape. Absolute brutality.When civilizations ends...when the human race begins to revert to ancient, predatory savagery...when the world descends into a bloodthirsty hell...there is only survival.But for one man and one woman, survival means becoming something less than human.Something from the primeval dawn of the race."Shocking and brutal, The Devil Next Door will hit you like a baseball bat to the face.Curran seems to have it in for the world ... and he's ending it as horrifyingly as he can." - Tim Lebbon, author of Bar None"The Devil Next Door is dynamite! Visceral, violent, and disturbing!." Brian Keene, author of Castaways and Dark Hollow

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Tooth And Nail Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a fan of both the military fiction and zombie tale genres and DiLouie's Tooth and Nail delivers both in spades.
Here's what is so cool about this novel:
1. Very realistic -- this may be about zombies, but it's not some supernatural gore-dripper -- it's about soldiers and a very scary what-if...
2. Non-stop action -- this book will never make Oprah's Book of the Month club, but I would like to name a roller coaster after it -- from the get-go, the action and tension are unrelenting and the doggone book feels glued to your hands. (NOTE: Thanks, Mr. DiLouie -- on my first reading, I finally finished your book at 4 am with sweaty palms and had trouble getting to work on time the next day -- on the second reading, I still couldn't take my time and finished it again in one marathon Saturday reading session.)
3. Better & better -- I've read some of DiLouie's past work and this is by far his best work -- the writing is tight, descriptive without being florid & puffy, and believable -- again, not a book that will draw people together on a Tuesday evening for white wine and canapes, but a kick-ass story that is well-written and doesn't stop til you get back in the station and the lap-bars retract as you put the book down for the final time.
Rock on, DiLouie -- hope you've got more in the pipeline!

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This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, not with a whimper, but a slaughter.As a new plague related to the rabies virus infects millions, America recalls its military forces from around the world to safeguard hospitals and other vital buildings. Many of the victims become rabid and violent but are easily controlled-that is, until so many are infected that they begin to run amok, spreading slaughter and disease. Lieutenant Todd Bowman got his unit through the horrors of combat in Iraq. Now he must lead his men across New York through a storm of violence to secure a research facility that may hold a cure. To succeed in this mission to help save what's left, the men of Charlie Company will face a terrifying battle of survival against the very people they have sworn to protect-people turned into a fearless, endless horde armed solely with tooth and nail.For the boys of Charlie Company, the zombie apocalypse will give a whole new meaning to the proverb WAR IS HELL.

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Santa Olivia Review

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(More customer reviews)_Santa Olivia_ is a coming-of-age story; it's a story about being a misfit; it's a story about an underdog up against towering odds; it's a love story; and it's a hero(ine)'s journey story.
_Santa Olivia_ is set in southern Texas in a bleak, plague-ravaged near future. The military has taken over the area, supposedly to protect the citizens from a shadowy external threat. Poverty and crime are rampant. Into this setting comes Loup, who rises from humble beginnings to become a symbol of hope and freedom for the downtrodden people of the town of Santa Olivia. Caution: you may find yourself cheering aloud! Despite the very different settings, I was sometimes reminded of Donna Gillespie's The Light Bearer as I read Santa Olivia; the two books brought out the same pumping-my-fist-in-the-air impulse in me.
Fans of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel novels will not be surprised that the love story in Santa Olivia is sensual, touching, and bittersweet. Loup and her lover are painfully "real" to me in their trials and tribulations. Both characters have made very specific plans for the future, and both find that their relationship complicates those plans more than they ever imagined.
I should also mention that Carey sets herself a hard task and does it well. One of Loup's special qualities is that she does not feel fear. It can't have been easy to write almost all of the novel from the perspective of someone who simply isn't ever afraid (even when the reader is nailbiting on her behalf)!
I could not put Santa Olivia down, and I highly recommend it. It had me on the edge of my seat, and while I was already a Jacqueline Carey fan, it has given me even more respect for her abilities. This is completely different from anything she's done before, and it's darn good.

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Soft Apocalypse Review

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(More customer reviews)Jasper and his tribe of formerly middle class Americans describe themselves as nomadic rather than homeless: they travel around the Southeastern U.S., scraping together the bare minimum to survive by spreading out solar blankets or placing small windmills by the highway to collect energy from passing cars, then trading the filled fuel cells for food. Fewer and fewer people want to deal with the "gypsies" who use up dwindling resources, and often they meet with indifference or even violence. Jasper was a sociology major, but those skills are no longer in demand in 2023, about ten years after an economic depression set off the Great Decline and society as we know it gradually began to fall apart. So begins Will McIntosh's excellent debut novel, Soft Apocalypse.
One of the most interesting aspects of Soft Apocalypse, and something I've rarely seen done so well in a dystopian novel, is the fact that it shows society in the early stages of dissolution. Many post-apocalyptic stories show a finished end product, an established dystopia in which the Earth has already been torn apart and people are trying to survive the aftermath. Other stories show the events right before and during the actual earthquake/meteor strike/plague, with people trying to make it through the disaster as it happens. Soft Apocalypse instead happens during a period of gradual but inexorable decline: as the back cover says, the world ends "with a whimper instead of a bang." If Robert Charles Wilson's excellent Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd America is set in post-collapse U.S.A., when enough time has passed for society to fall back into established structures and classes, Soft Apocalypse could almost be set in the same world, but a couple of centuries earlier and during the gradual collapse of the previous system.
"Gradual" is the key here: Soft Apocalypse shows normal people clinging to the shreds of life as they knew it, while things slowly go from bad to worse. Many still hope that the economy will pick up and life will go back to what it used to be. Even though the streets are filled with homeless people and unemployment stands at 40%, others can still drive a car to work. Walmart still operates its stores, even if they raise prices to extortion-like levels whenever there are reports of a new attack or designer virus. When they can afford the electricity, people still watch cable news to find out about wars and disasters abroad, and even if there's a developing pattern of widespread war, it's all distant enough to seem unreal--until it starts getting closer and closer.
Soft Apocalypse consists of ten chapters and covers about ten years, with anywhere from a few years to a few months passing between chapters. Jasper narrates the story in the first person, dividing his attention between his struggle for survival in the slowly disintegrating society and his attempts to find love--because even during a slow apocalypse, people still crave romance, improvising dates and respecting the social niceties. When it comes to his love life, Jasper sometimes reminded me of a less music-obsessed version of High Fidelity's Rob Gordon: a generally nice, sensitive and intelligent guy who isn't aware of how clueless he occasionally acts when it comes to women. Throughout the novel, Jasper tries to find love while doing his best to survive the dangers of the collapsing society around him.
Negatives? Very few, if any, and definitely all qualified with a solid "but." Early on, the novel feels more like a collection of connected short stories because so much time passes between the chapters, but Jasper and a well-drawn cast of side-characters pull everything together until a plot emerges, and even before that happens, the story is hard to put down because of the gorgeous but bleak descriptions of life during societal collapse. Also, "bleak" may be too mild a term for some of the horrors that Jasper and his friends encounter: there were a few times I just didn't expect Will McIntosh to push things that far, but at the same time, you have to admire him for not shying away from scenes that would surely be cut from the Hollywood version. The plot sometimes seems driven by random, often violent events, but then again, life in this novel's environment would probably be full of random, violent events. More importantly, even though it may not seem that way early on, all of them have a meaningful impact on Jasper's personality, leading to an ambivalent ending that I'm still coming to terms with.
Soft Apocalypse, while not perfect, is a great achievement for a debut. It took me by surprise early on and never let go. It's a short, effective dystopian novel that should go down well with people who enjoyed the aforementioned Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd America by Robert Charles Wilson or even The Rift by Walter Jon Williams. (Maybe not coincidentally, Will McIntosh participated in Williams' Taos ToolBox workshop in 2008.) The real sadness of Soft Apocalypse is seeing normal people operating under the illusion that life will still go back to what it used to be. They try to hold down a job or complete a post-grad degree, and even though the world falls apart around them, the changes are too gradual for them to lose hope completely. It's like watching rats in a maze, unaware that their paths are slowly being closed off around them and the maze is starting to catch fire at the edges. A soft apocalypse, indeed.

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Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead Review

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(More customer reviews)Name 5 ways we're all going to die. Do it! Right now! Before reading this book I knew of maybe three ways: asteroid, war, or plague. Wait, four--global warming. Robert Brockway details, like, 20, and each one scares you more than the last. I've learned way more about killer volcanos, super hurricanes, and killer robots than I ever actually wanted to know, but at least all this fear-mongering put a smile on my face. So buy the book, get informed of all ways everything and everybody wants you dead, and come join me in my bunker. I have nachos!

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Just when you thought you'd accepted your own mortality . . . Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody is bringing panic back. Twenty illustrated, hilariously fear-inducing 
essays reveal the chilling and very real experiments, dangerous emerging technologies, and terrifying natural disasters that soon could—or very nearly already did—bring about the end of humanity. In short, everything in here will kill you and everyone you love. At any moment. And nobody's told you about it—until now: • Experiments in green energy like the HiPER, which uses massive lasers to create a tiny "contained" sun; it's an idea that could save the world if it doesn't consume us all in a fiery fusion reaction first. • Global disasters like the hypercane—a hurricane so large it could cover all of North America and shoot trailer parks into space!• Terrifying new developments in robotics like the EATR, which powers itself on meat—an invention in the running for "Worst Decision Made by Anybody."

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Motel of the Mysteries Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was actually a gift from my Mother who knows I enjoy things archaeological and historical. Since she`s more than a trifle eccentric and has a marvelous sense of the absurd, I've a sneaking suspicion she was poking a little fun at me--which is something I probably need once in a while for my own good.
The Motel of the Mysteries is a wonderful send up of the fields of archaeology and history. It's aim is doubtless to entertain, at which it's vastly successful, but over and above that the book makes quite clear what archaeology legitimately can and cannot do. I think it also points out that what is taken as "The Reality" of the past is often as much a function of current cultural biases and of the personal motives of individual researchers as it is of what actually occurred in the past. (This was made quite clear to me when I saw Knossos on Crete for the first time and realized that a great deal of imagination had gone into the reconstruction of the "Minoan" buildings there).
My favorite parts of Motel were Archaeologist Carson's interpretation of the hotel bathroom as the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the subsequent depiction of his assistant--ala Heinrich Schliemann with the Trojan treasure and Leonard Wooley with the Ur III treasure--wearing bathroom accoutrements as religious paraphernalia.
The author also pokes fun at museums and at all of us, when he includes a collection of "Souvenirs and Quality Reproductions" available for sale at the end of the book. My favorite is the coffee set based on the "sacred urn" (toilet). Goodness knows I've purchased my fair share of quality reproductions on my travels throughout the world!
This should be suggested reading for every college history and archeology major and required for those seeking degrees over BA in these fields!

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It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

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Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of the Undead Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a huge fan of all things zombie, and to be honest, this has sometimes made me fall prey to less than well written, self-published, needs-actual-editing, type of novels. Lacking depth and, at times, imagination, these books left me feeling a little brain dead myself upon their completion. FINALLY I found the Kenemore! I have been a fan of his humor books from the beginning (starting with The Zen of Zombie), these books are pro-zombie and very tongue in cheek type of humor (comparing Jesus to a zombie, oh my!) And while these are humor books, I have always found them very thoughtful and well written. I have also read some other Scott Kenemore work which was published in the Kenyon Review a while back, and it wasn't a zombie story at all, but about a man tattooing a dead body. Scott Kenmore's a writer capable of many layers, and I believe he especially proves his mastery of the horror genre itself in his latest, and first, full length novel. Zombie, Ohio is a rip roaring fun, tearing up the country side with my zombie horde at my back, in this ultimate "I was raised from the dead and I can still think" adventure type of novel! Wow, that was really a mouth full!
Zombie, Ohio had me chuckling with it's asides to HP Lovecraft (where was the meteor reported?) And it's knowledge of everything from local folk lore (Wild Black Turkeys representing some type of witch?) to the intimate layout of the Ohio countryside. This book was well thought out and planned in three parts. I believe you could actually make a study of some the additional symbolism that Kenemore uses in the book, but you also would need to be aware of his allusions to Zombies in pop culture (movie references throughout also). . again, this is a novel with many layers, on the basic level it is a book about a sad, alcoholic professor who loses his life in a zombie outbreak and finds himself a lucid zombie. But on another level, it is about a man who finds himself ineffectively prepared to live courageously until he becomes one of the undead, and then, we find he is not only effective but indestructible and fearless! Scott Kenmore's novel is also the first "pro-people" Zombie novel I have read, where the people keep it together and adjust and fight the zombies back, another statement of social commentary? And that's not the only example throughout the book of social commentary, and no it is not all positive either.
I would also like to give a big nod and a chuckle to the "first time" scene. . ahh Kenemore says, you never forget your first time. Stinking hilarious! Also, because I am also a baseball fan, the reference to the minor league ball team "The Kernels" was very well received by me! Again, this book had many layers, including it's final part labeled "redemption" which ends without such a thing, if you ask my opinion (I will not give it away, this is a MUST READ, not only if you like zombies but if you enjoy horror at all!) left me very thoughtful and also feeling like Mr. Kenmore was making a statement without ever saying a word. . perhaps, in the end, there is no redemption for any of us, except in death? hmmm. . . ?
This is it guys and gals, the Zombie novel you have been waiting for and craving. . . with BRAINS!!!!!

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Into the Forest: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a big fan of post holocaust fiction. I've read hundreds of stories over the past 40 years about Life after Doomsday. This is absolutely one of the best. It avoids the common assumptions of the genre. There is no sudden and dramatic change in the lives of the two young protagonists. There isn't an immediate awareness on the part of the community that something awful and terrifying is occurring. People don't suddenly go berserk. Marauding gangs of psychopaths don't appear out of nowhere to prey upon the vulnerability of their fellow citizens. Every character, every behavior, every reaction is believable and easily explained within the context of known human behavior. Everyone initially clings desperately to the belief that things haven't really changed, that the situation isn't that bad, that tomorrow, things will all return to normal. It's just a matter of holding on and continuing with their daily routines.
Hegland's placing of Nell and her sister Eva in a forest, far from the nearest town, was a brilliant device on many levels. Normally, doomsday writers place their protagonists right in the thick of things. They trap them in cities or situations where they can inflict upon them every supposedly predictable terror of life after the collapse, showing us clearly frightened people in clearly frightening times.
But Nell and Eva live in a quiet forest. The forest isn't just a location here. It's not there just to show us the girls' gardening skills or how to live a self-sufficient life. The forest is a major, living, breathing protagonist. Hegland renders it's character brilliantly. It is both serene and tumultuous, comforting and menancing, fiercely protective and neglectful. Placing Nell and her sister in this quiet, slow environment creates a constant sense of dread and tension in the story - what unknowable things are going on outside this ageless, unjudgmental sanctuary? What horrors are taking place? Are cities burning? Has the law of the jungle replaced the fragile contracts between people? Is inescapable death slowing overtaking mankind? Are all the horrors imaginable about to invade this oasis of calm, and when and how will they come? The little intrusions of the outside world that do occur are more terrifying as a result. The forest doesn't protect Nell and Eva from evil. It wreaks no havoc on transgressors, it passes no judgments, it doesn't change or adapt. "Bring it on" it seems to say. "I will not be changed. I will simply out last you, neutralize you with my steadfastness, absord your impact and accept it as part of my nature."
The forest is a sort of allegory for the the human spirit. Primieval, indestructable and unchanging, it survives despite the modern mistakes of humankind.
I disagree strongly with the reviewer who says this is not an inspirational story. It is a story filled with hope and promise. Strip away the false values, the intellectualism, the materialism and the intolerance that are so much a part of the modern human's psyche, and you are left with what got us this far to begin with, and what will save us in the end - a sense of beauty, perseverance, tolerance and acceptance of the world as it is.
It's a beautiful, poetically written story, and well worth a place on anyone's bookshelf.


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Shatter (Deep Winter) Review

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(More customer reviews)This series makes you think and re evaluate some stuff we take for granted every day.
If you like alternative history mixed with some red dawn and some good ole common sense and no Mutant Zombie Bikers then you will really enjoy these books.
Once it gets you hooked its hard to put it down.

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A continuation of the story begun in 'Deep Winter', finding the Drummond family and their friends adapting to the radically altered world they now find themselves in.

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Deep Winter Review

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(More customer reviews)I really wanted to like this book. I tried so very hard to like this book. Honest, I did. I'm a dystopia/utopia, post-apocalyptic, world is collapsing literature fan like no other. So to have a book being written by someone who is actually a person who understands preparedness that is not just a how-to was an exciting prospect.
Unfortunately, there is no amount of force that can make me like this book.
The story premise is good enough to have made a great book. The Drummonds, a family of 4, are hit by a massive earthquake in the PNW. While this may seem a local disaster, it is quickly followed by the rapid crash of the United States like a large house of cards. Financial messes of the past catch up with us and bank failures domino into a lack of imports without cash, insufficient coverages on debt and personal disasters as corporations fall. The Drummonds and most of the remaining members of their small community are left essentially alone without the massive aid that our country has sent to disaster areas in the past.
Without fuel, electricity and even structurally sound homes, they make do with what they have in creative ways. The community rallies, at least the good guys do, and through much they persevere and turn lawns into farms and spare parts into power.
Sounds good, right? I thought so too. But then I read the first page and my heart sunk. The editing in this book is so bad as to be non-existent. While I understand this is a self-published book, the author is on enough of the same message boards as I am to know that he had a vast resource at his fingertips just to check grammar if he so chose. The run on sentences, bad grammar, repetitive word choice and poor writing habits are obvious and distracting. But I can forgive that, after all, it is self published and like many others in the genre, like Lights Out, there is no rule that says he can't re-write.
But then you have to deal with the brand name bonanza. One of the worst habits that post-apocalyptic or SHTF (S*.^ hit the fan) novels or stories fall into is the incessant listing of brands and model numbers. Every single thing is listed out by brand. The hero doesn't just pull on some boots to go outside. No, he pulls on his Cabela Model XYZ that he got three years ago and show only approximately 30% wear, boots to go outside. ARGH...that is such a bad habit! It is even worse in that it immediately dates the book and makes it irrelevant when models change in a year or two. Enough said about that.
There is also the problem of believability and scale. We don't find out the size of the property the Drummonds live on for over 200 pages, yet we are walked from place to place into a large number of buildings containing an infinite array of stuff. Yet we also know his place is in a subdivision where he can see his neighbors. It is a distracting gap and one that makes it seem like he didn't map out his own setting. It turns out the place is rather small and yet he has more outbuildings than I've seen on a crowded looking 10 acre farmette. And the sheer quantities he talks about of various items, from tractors to generators to large food caches, leaves a mental image of the home of a hoarder in the OCD sense of the word.
And, of course, there is the issue of the man who has everything, knows everything and even more unbelievable, knows where it all is. This might not sound like it would be a major point, but we're not talking about your home workshop here. We're talking such a vast amount of equipment and parts from big to tiny that you would need a warehouse for it all. All this is jumbled up in shaken outbuildings and a half collapsed home. Yet never once does he falter or need directions.
And then there is the attitude. In Deep Winter and Shatter I counted over 800 instances of rank sexism and non-Christian hatemongering. After a second reading, in which I took notes and did the counting, I realized that this book didn't so much remind me of a good down-home family surviving the crash of the modern world but instead a clan of Christian-Identity members relishing the crash. I know that sounds harsh, but there it is. There is no personality at all in any female in the book. And often they are just referred to as a subordinate group such as saying "the women" did this or "the females" went to do that. In this book, the idea of the Christian male who controls all activities and has the last word in all matters with the surrendered female is laid out in all its sickening splendor. This isn't to say that I disapprove of anyone's religion since I certainly don't even if I don't share it. But having it simply laid out repeatedly as established fact that anyone who isn't Christian deserves what is happening and those not sharing his religious belief simply get a lower priority in saving or helping isn't pretty.
As if all that weren't enough, there is the lack of emotion. Any person, even abnormal ones, are going to have some reaction to big traumatic happenings. In one instance just after the quake and while the world is still going along, their best friends show up. While attending a high school sports activity, the place basically collapses and kills a couple of hundred folks right in front of them and their kids. Now, if you showed up at a friend's house and relayed that story, what do you suppose the reaction would be? Shock, maybe horror and certainly concern for how those kids are, right? Nope. These folks actually sat in their car right outside the death scene, simply assuming everyone was dead, until light then drove straight over for tea and cookies with the Drummonds. And after going from sports to massacre, they immediately transition to small talk and jokes around a cozy wood stove. This is just one of a great many instances in which this story winds up as purely mechanical and has no emotional resonance with charcters that behave more like hard drives.
My bottom line on this book is that it is a great story premise with much potential. It needs a serious edit for mechanical problems. It really needs to be reconsidered in his obvious biases and intolerance for other religons and vastly improve his characterizations for all the characters he personally doesn't see himself in such as the female characters. For those who like to read about the minutiae of how to make a generator out of a spare small engine and want recommendations on which jacket lasts in adverse conditions, this might strike just the right chord.

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From a relatively normal American life to a survival situation in moments, this story follows the Drummond family as they learn to adapt to a now, very different community. . .and world. Beginning on a bitter cold January night, the story begins with a seri

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Fallout New Vegas: Prima Official Game Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)First off, the guide is pretty good, as in it does what most previous guides have done with the expectations we generally have. There is a lot of information that is packed into it.
However, there are a couple of problems with the guide that have bothered me since buying it, and I was a big fan of the guide they created for Fallout 3. Unlike Fallout 3, the makers of this guide decided to go cheap and developed a guide that didn't have zone maps included in it. Usually, the huge map is broken up into 9 major sectors, and you have a copy of that sector in the book itself. Instead, they decided to include one large map, and you are expected to refer to the map in order to figure out where anything is. This is massively impractical for anyone who buys a strategy guide, because most people aren't going to want to keep unfolding out this huge map every time they want to figure out where something is. And if you decide to hang the map on the wall (which is a two-sided map, so you end up only able to look at one half of the included map, meaning it's impractical for hanging up unless you're a moron or have too much money and decide to buy two strategy guides just so you can look at the content by hanging it up on the wall). Usually, I like to have the strategy guide right next to me while I'm playing, but a huge fold out map is ridiculous whenever I want to look up where I am in the game. Honestly, going the cheap route was the wrong way to go with this product.
Several bits of the information are just wrong. Not sure why, unless they made changes after the strategy guide was developed, but it just feels sloppy.
With all that said, it's still a pretty extensive map. Just don't allow your in game life to rely on it because you might be looking for refuge and suddenly discover it's just not there.

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• Super-detailed Mojave Wasteland map poster shows all 200+ Primary Locations and dozens more secondary areas, so you'll never be lost in Sin City!• Don't miss anything! We reveal every collectible, unique item, major ammunition and health cache, and much more!• Fully equipped adventuring! All the Crafting techniques are covered, plus every Campfire, Reloading Bench, Workbench, Caravan Player, Trader, Merchant, Healer, and Dealer is located!• How S.P.E.C.I.A.L. are you? Learn when and how to use all the new Perks, Traits, and Skills, and how to upgrade every Follower!• Ready to carve out an independent New Vegas, or act on behalf of a Faction overlord? Complete strategies, including all major Skill, Perk, and Faction decisions, for every Main Quest, Side Quest, and Challenge!• Optimize your upgrades! Learn how to modify your weapons, where all the components are located, and compare your armaments using our detailed statistics charts. Tactics for manual aiming and new Unarmed attacks are also revealed.• Character Archetypes, based on hundreds of hours of playtesting, are revealed so you know where to spend your Skill points, and the best attributes and items to seek out• 100+ fully-detailed maps of all major settlements guide you instantly and easily to collectible locations!

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The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar is the story of an alternate world history for humans here on Earth. Vampires roam freely, mercilessly killing, maiming, torturing, and taking hold of every inch of land available. Those few humans that did survive are either enslaved or have fled to the relative safety of the South. Now, in a world dominated by various cunning and intense Vampire Empires, the world conquests are fought between vampires, rather than men, and Adele, heir to Equatoria, is about to meet the mysterious and complex Greyfriar.
Wow! Ok, when I received The Greyfriar for review, I wasn't expecting too much because, frankly, I've never heard anything about it before, and vampires usually bore the crap heck out of me. Finally! It was so nice to read about non-glittering vampires who stay true to their nature! Using rich prose, an incredibly steampunk atmosphere and a blooming and contagious romance, husband and wife author duo, Susan and Clay Griffith have created an incredible masterpiece of a story that is intense, exhilarating, and completely delicious.
There are too many high points in The Greyfriar for me to name them all, so I'll be general. The characterization was enthralling. Adele and the Greyfriar were so clearly defined, their actions and motives so well-pronounced, that it is impossible not to fall in love with their story as their relationship blooms. The amazing mythology that creeps its way into every aspect of the story heightens the sinister nature of the vampires and makes the story all that more gripping and enticing. Honestly, I'm surprised this book was as slim as it was because the story was well-rounded and truly captivating to read.
I give The Greyfriar a 5 out of 5, hands down. In fact, I'd probably give it more if I could. I recommend that everyone buy this book as soon as it releases (I believe on November 18th) because it is a definite must-read. I would recommend this book to fans of YA and adult fiction, particularly those who enjoy steampunk, vampires, fantasy, and mythology. Due to the violence, I do think an upper YA audience is probably best.

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The Dark and Hollow Places (Forest of Hands and Teeth, Book 3) Review

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(More customer reviews)Every now and then you might get a bit sad when you come to the end of a series that you loved so much, this is how I felt after reading The Dark and Hollow Places. I fell in love with this series unintentionally, I started reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth thanks to the high recommendations from book friends. Of course at the time they didn't know that I had a huge phobia about anything zombie related and well by reading the synopsis I wasn't aware that it would be about zombies because they are called the Unconsecrated. After reading a few chapters and even after figuring out that there were zombies in the book I couldn't force myself to give it up, it was too late for me, I was invested in these characters because this series was about so much more than just the creepy flesh eating undead, it was about survival, hope and love and I was in it for good.
In the Dark and Hollow Places we get taken to the Dark City, and see the story unfold through the eyes of Annah, the other twin. At first I was a bit sad that we wouldn't get to see it from Gabry's point of view, I wanted to know more about her and what happened after the end of The Dead Tossed Waves but I quickly got over that once I got to know Annah and her story. I really admired Annah for her courage and will to live, I mean this girl spends most of her time and spent pretty much years on her own waiting for Elias and she's still not willing to give up. I would've been freaking out in some of these scenes in the book and locked myself in a closet shaking with fear waiting for death, yeah, I'm a wuss. Not Annah, she was willing to fight her way to survive and sacrifice herself for her loved ones if she had to, the fact that she never gives up throughout the whole book is why I admire her so much.
In The Dark and Hollow Places Gabry, Annah, Elias and Catcher come together and we get to find out what happened to Catcher and Gabry after the end of The Dead Tossed Waves and also to Elias. In this one they struggle for survival through most of the story but not only against the unconsecrated but also against the people in charge of the city that are suppose to be protecting them but have become corrupted and are pretty much worst than the zombies.
The Dark and Hollow Places gives us a bit more of a closer look at what the world may have seemed like after the return, it is chaotic through most of it. We get a huge amount of up close encounters with the unconsecrated, and it was so much creepier that I got goosebumps and was at the edge of my seat through most of the story. It was so thrilling and intense that I was chewing my nails through most of this novel without even realizing it. I loved every minute of it, even if I couldn't read it at night and I would gladly take three more of these novels. I'm not ready to say goodbye to it yet, I loved Catcher and Annah and I want more.

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There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on hersister's face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Handsand Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life.But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left herfor the Recruiters.Annah's world stopped that day and she's been waiting for him tocome home ever since. Without him, her life doesn't feel much differentfrom that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then shemeets Catcher and everything feels alive again.Except, Catcher has his own secrets -- dark, terrifying truths thatlink him to a past Annah's longed to forget, and to a future too deadlyto consider. And now it's up to Annah -- can she continue to live in aworld drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escapefrom the Return's destruction?

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The Compound Review

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(More customer reviews)I absolutely was amazed by this book. Being a librarian that's obsessed with books, I couldn't help picking this book up in the store. The cover alone got me hooked. It was well paced and packed with amazing things. The story revolving around Eli. His family is dysfunctional, living in a compound under the ground after the world went kaboom.
When the story starts out he's pretty self absorbed, but as the plot starts to thicken he isn't so absorbed and starts to wonder about a few things that are going on. One of which is their food supply is starting to run low. His mother is pregnant, his sister isn't as much of a pain as he thinks, and his father is a complete... nutcase?!
This story was so intriguing that I found myself reading till all hours of the night. I loved it! It was an exceptional story about possibilities that sometimes we ignore. I hope to add this to our library collection.
I can't wait till her next book comes out... The Gardener...

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