Review: "The Island - Part 2"... a terrific story... well written
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2012
The Island - Part 2 is the second book in the horror/thriller series, 'Fallen Earth' by author Michael Stark. This Kindle e-book was a 353 Kb download (approx. 98 printed pages) and was free at the time of writing this review.Spoilers (general theme)It was called 'The Fever' and it struck hard and fast, going from a few isolated cases to a world wide pandemic in a matter of weeks. There was no cure as the entity causing the infection mutated faster than vaccines could be developed.William Hill, our hero, decides to take his boat to an island off the North Carolina coast with the hope of surviving as long as he could and maybe, just maybe still be alive if the disease ever burnt itself out. There he meets several other stranded people.But the island he chose turns out to be as deadly as the infection they are now all trying to escape.End SpoilersSome thoughts on  "The Island" Part 2...The Pros:1.) a tense and exciting apocalyptic horror story... well written and deftly told.2.) further character development of the people stranded on the island along with descriptions of their surroundings is expertly done... without making it read like 'fill'. There is an art to making the quiet moments almost as interesting to read as the action events.3.) a couple of extremely tense and well done scenes that detail our hero's first encounter with some of the 'unpleasantries' that await our group of naive survivors. Chilling and goose-bump material!The Cons: (a couple of picky items)1.a) cover art... I still can't make out what is in the water behind the flying creature. Driving me nuts.1.b) cover art... each book has the same cover. Might have been nice to have a bit of variation on the cover theme to individualize them.2.) one character (Elsie) continues to call William Hill (our hero), Hill William. Not sure if it's just stubbornness on her part or an immature show of defiance... but what ever, it's starting to wear thin.Impression:A terrific Part 2 in this apocalyptic thriller.Well written with a superb sense of pace and timing.The tension in the main horror scene is palpable.5 Stars.Ray Nicholsonraynicholsonsreviews@hotmail.com