Review: A fresh take on the zombie apocalypse!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2013
A.R. Wise presents a very realistic look at what would happen during the zombie apocalypse in this first novel in the Deadlocked series.I'd be lying if I said 100 percent without a doubt I would survive the zombie apocalypse. I'd like to think I would at least have a fighting chance, while I'm not overly athletic I do make a point to work out, but working an office job in the city and possessing no weapons training whatsoever--minus what I've learned in video games--probably means I'd have a snowball's chance in hell at surviving.While I enjoy watching movies like Zombieland, Land of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, or Resident Evil I don't watch those types of movies and automatically think, 'I could totally do that,' because I couldn't. The characters are either freakishly skilled in every kind of weapon or combat training imaginable or they're some sort of super-powered science experiment. Even if a character is supposedly an average joe, after their initial terror wears off they always winds up fighting like a superhero two kills in.That's what really drew me into this novella. It's hard not to like Dave. You can't really hate a guy who's just trying to get back home to his family during the zombie apocalypse.I also enjoyed that Wise doesn't come out immediately and tell you how the virus started. There's some initial hinting at bioterrorism and of course there's the rumors about gas pump handles with needles, but we only know as much as Dave knows.This novel has everything that makes a really great, attention grabbing series: action, adventure, likable characters and zombies.Unfortunately, as much as I would like to give this novel five stars, the beginning was a bit rough around the edges. Some of this might be because this is a novella and so it doesn't lend itself to really descriptive language, which is fine, but some parts toward the beginning almost seem choppy. However, the writing eventually smooths out.I am definitely looking forward to reading the next books in the series and seeing more from A.R. Wise.