Review: Stalling...Stalling...stalled...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 24, 2013
The first half of this book was pretty typical. There's a genius doctor, an outbreak of a viral weapon, chaos across the nation, dead begin to rise and eat their friends and family in gloriously disgusting fashion. All while the populace can't seem to comprehend what is going on around them. Characters in books such as these seem to have never even heard of such a thing as a zombie. They must not because they always make up their own cunning moniker for them.The title, "Provenance (The Extinction Diaries)",  wasn't the best choice in my opinion. The only person truly writing a diary was Brennan, the best bet for a main character. He narrates the majority of the first half in the form of journal entries chronicling the beginning of the war that precedes the viral outbreak and then all the madness that ensued thereafter. He and his wife Ann and their dog Chewbacca FINALLY leave their home in San Francisco to seek refugee in South Dakota with their family. I thought that the city would be burning all around them before they left! It's only an Apocalypse, by all means take your time! Geez.This first part was the best. The rest leaves you hanging as to what is going on with Brennan and his crew. It goes on into short snapshots of about a dozen different characters. Some have been mentioned before and some haven't. It was reminiscent of Stephan King 's "The Stand" . I was only interested in a few of them attend skimmed over the rest. Don't get me wrong, there were a few little interesting tidbits that filled in some details to the story, but not enough for half a freaking book!I was pretty disappointed in this book since it could have amounted to something with the proper guidance. The first few characters were great. I would love to find out what happened to them. Would I pay for that privilege? No! Get me another free one and Yeah, maybe I'd think about it. ;)