Review: Great world-building and story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2014
Imagine that at the time of your favorite cowboy’s movies an epidemic appeared which had changed the infected men in a kind of famished zombies. This is what Eleri Stone offers here. The world is divided between on one side the Reapers (or zombies), and on the other side the humans, themselves separated in several groups: the residents of the mountain cities, who have financial and technical means, the residents of the plains, mainly farmers, and the Rangers, some kind of Cavalry immune to the reaper parasite. I loved that original universe, well thought and well written, which includes cowboys, zombies, airship, and other technology verging on steampunk.I really liked Abby. Even if she’s been a Ranger for several years, she’s not hard and insensitive, quite the opposite. She’s also open-minded enough to end up accepting the world is not in black and white like she thought. In fact we could mainly reproach her for being a little too reckless, even if I thought her reactions could be logical given the context.Jake is a very interesting character too. He fights his parasite to control it; he has remorse about his past acts or his actual decisions. I liked how he feels helpless and disconcerted in front of Abby and the unknown feelings she awakes in him. His wish to find a cure and what he’s ready to undergo for this quest are understandable when we imagine everything he’s lived.You’ll have understood, I was really won over by the universe and I loved the story. Here is a series I can’t wait to read the next volume, even if Reaper’s touch can be read as a standalone, and an author I’ll find out about.