Review: Very Well Crafted and Suspenseful Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2012
If you like zombie novels, but enjoy twists on the genre, look no further than The Variant Effect.Borland and Hyde are well-fleshed out characters who drive the story to it's thrilling conclusion.  Both are extremely flawed, both physically and emotionally, due to their history of fighting the original Variant outbreak.The Variant outbreak, by the way, is a quite terrifying prospect and a very original "cause" agent for a potential collapse of civilization as we know it (as opposed to other zombie-genre books which, although entertaining, offer no new origins for the mayhem).I couldn't wait to get back into this book while reading it in bursts over the course of four days.  And I found myself both rooting for and against the tragically (but understandably) flawed characters who are enlisted to re-engage the new Variant outbreak.The skin-eaters are very frightening creatures and present as more terrifying than zombies, since they are hyper-strong, resilient, and self-mutilating.  More so are the stalkers, which can easily appear to be "normal" - all the while secreting their victims off for "ritual".  Worse still, these altered people don't just tear you apart quickly and go for your brain (as traditional zombies do); skin eaters' victims often die a horrible, lengthy, and extremely painful death.I was very pleased with G. Wells Taylor's book and highly recommend it.  Well written - it even delivers a surprising plot twist toward the end which amps up the terror on a very personal level (I don't want to reveal any more for fear of spoiling the effect).I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from Mr. Taylor.