Review: possibly the best zombie apocalypse/military mash-up
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2014
- An incredulous LaMOE: "So... there's someone left out there?"- Sgt. Maj. Handon: "Britain. It stood when everyplace else fell."The penny-pinching tip of the day: Just you go ahead and get Arisen, Omnibus One because you'll end up getting all the volumes, anyway. So save some $. The omnibus comprises the first three books - Fortress Britain, Mogadishu of the Dead, & Three Parts Dead - in Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs' terrifying, rip-roaring, unputdownable zombie apocalypse series. Courtesy of the popularity of The Walking Dead and the advent of eBooks, there's a proliferation - dare I say, an outbreak? - of zombie lit, and so it's hard to keep pace. But I've never lied to you. So do this - have a band-aid at hand. I promise you'll turn the pages so fast there's real risk of paper cuts.The premise: That usual craptastic daisy chain. Two years ago came the zombie apocalypse and, promptly after, the global collapse of civilization. The swerve is Fortress Britain, tiny island nation that just in time sealed itself off from the outbreak. Today, its 50 million inhabitants constitute what's left of humanity, not counting the stray LaMOEs (Last Man On Earth), them isolated survivors holed up elsewhere on the planet. Team Alpha deploys out of the SAS barracks at Hereford, and it's them that we imprint on. Team Alpha is one of Fortress Britain's off-site scavengers and the go-to unit for suicide missions. Alpha is crewed by eight supreme hardcases, eight elite operators culled from the likes of Delta Force, Seal Team Six, and SAS Increment.The volumes tend to be more novellas than novels, so they're these really satisfying rapid-fire reads. What separates them from other zombie yarns is the insane propulsive storytelling that thoroughly immerses the reader. From what I understand, the allocation of the writing responsibilities goes like so: Fuchs is the military expert; James punches up the horror elements. It's a seamless collab. The impressive minutiae that detail aspects of military life lend believability to the frenzied plotting. It's the strongest marriage yet of the zombie apocalypse and the military thriller. The "zulus" (military alphabet designation for zombies) in these pages are straight-up terrifying, not only combining the slowpoke Romero lurchers with the 28 Days Later runners, but also introducing the super-fast Foxtrot Novembers (for "f------ nightmares").No sooner returned to base after the latest European scavenging than Team Alpha is charged with carrying out Operation Secunda Mortem, dubbed the last, best, and only hope for humanity. The commandos must cross the Atlantic onboard the world's last surviving aircraft carrier, parachute into the deadlands of America (re: Chicago), procure lab data that may or may not contain THE cure, and then battle their way on foot through a city infested with 3 million ravenous flesh-eaters. Meanwhile, other plot threads spin away to track knuckle-gnawing hardships on that super-carrier and back home in Fortress Britain. As usual, it's man's lapses that end up compromising everyone, everywhere. Just another day in the Zulu Alpha (the Z.A., savvy?).I've read - and recommended - W.J. Lundy's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Vol 1 (Escaping the Dead)), Timothy W. Long's Z-Risen stories (Z-Risen: Outbreak), and Craig DiLouie'sTooth and Nail. James & Fuchs' Arisen novellas kick those others to the curb in terms of nail-biting suspense, of making you absorb the stakes on a visceral level, of the rooting interest in the characters. And you will root hard for the hardcases of Team Alpha. The writers work hard to humanize them. My favorite is Ali, the cool-headed ex-Delta Force sniper and a hell of a swordswoman. If you crave sick zombie kills and kickass commando skills, and if you've a yen for a smidge of in-theater romance and also for salty (and frequently very funny) military jargon, then this is your huckleberry. I've ended up memorizing some of these pithy, colorful observations, such as "When you have to eat a sh-- sandwich, bite the corner where it's mostly bread." Heh. Me, I benefited from boarding the Arisen train late in the game in that I was able to read Volumes 1-6, as well as the Genesis prequel, back-to-back-to-back. So, no waities for me.Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs' Arisen Series in Order:- Arisen, Book One - Fortress Britain- Arisen, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead- Arisen, Book Three - Three Parts Dead-Arisen, Book Four - Maximum Violence-Arisen, Book Five - EXODUS-Arisen, Book Six - The Horizon-Arisen : Genesis- Arisen: Omnibus One (Books 1-3)