Review: Holy cow, a real person masquerading as a protagonist!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2012
A. R. Wise, <strong>Deadlocked</strong> (Aaron Wise, 2011)Even if there were only one thing to recommend <em>Deadlocked</em>, the first in a projected series, it would be a mighty poweful thing indeed: unlike the protagonists of most survival-horror/action-thriller stories, Dave, our main man here, <em>doesn't</em> take a licking and keep on ticking. When he gets hurt, he actually gets hurt. Broken bones, major lacerations, I mean, come on, the guy even has early-stage cancer. He is not at all your typical zombie story hero. And that, to me at least, makes all the difference. Those of us who actually like this sort of thing are always talking about the realism factor for some reason, as if the dead getting up and walking around could actually have anything to do with realism (can't speak for anyone else, but honestly, for me, it's kind of the utopian dream...), and your basically-invincible action-hero types always undercut that sort of thing. Gimme Dave any day. But Dave isn't the only thing to recommend about this story; while Wise is a little too straightforward in his storytelling style (this sometimes reads more like explication than storytelling, but never for too long), he's got a clarity about him that propels the story along, he's got a decent sense of action, and at no point does it feel like he doesn't know exactly where his story is going. Quite likable; I'll be back for the next installment in the series. ***