Review: A "Variant" on the zombie tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 17, 2012
Taylor has done the near impossible. That it to come up with a new spin on the venerable walking dead, zombie schtick.So this book is worth slogging through for that reason alone, if zombie fare is your cup of tea (strip o skin? sorry Taylor if you read this).Anyway this is a workman-like tale following  alcoholic, burned out retired police Captain Borland, who is called back to battle a new threat from the "Skin eaters". It is a bit gory, so if that puts you off... well heck you're into zombie tales so you will get exactly what you are expecting. In the story we meet many of Borlands' old compatriots, none of whom are glad to see him and some who have real axes to grind. Ex- Hyde, who lost his skin and daughter to an event resulting from Borlands ineptitude. His anger is a constant through out the story and provides a lot of its driving force.The originality comes from the fact that not all the " zombies" are affected the same way, or to the same extent. You have what I will call " sleeper zombies" who can mask their conditon and appear as normal people. Then you have the full-blown zombie skin eaters who crave human skin- including their own. Also Taylor has altered the standard- experiment gone wrong turns the world into zombies into an accumulation in the environment and unknown side effect of a legal drug (Varion). This also is a refreshing approach to this story.I am giving this 4 stars for originality and contributions to the genre. The characters are actually weakly drawn and this detracts a little from the book as I found myself just clicking to get to the end. A lot of the verbiage gets a little repetitive and you struggle to hold interest.Overall this is a worthwhile read and I plan to DL more of Taylors stuff.