Review: A filler book in the series
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2014
"Book" 5 is my least favorite of the series. Let me enumerate the reasons why.***SPOILER WARNING**** It didn't feel like the story had a beginning, middle and an end. We got a few more adventures with Zed & Murphy but I had no real sense for where this was going. This book was just another "episode" in the overall Slow Burn series. I know there is a larger overall story arc here somewhere but I didn't feel this advanced us much.* The Nico sub-plot was obvious from the first moment. When first reading that chapter, I started highlighting all of the *obvious* clues that he killed and ate Mr. Mays.  Dragging that out for another half of the book felt condescending to the readers. Also, turning him into a pedophile was pretty surprising. I can see from the previous book how it might fit, but then adding in his new stuttering speech and this Nico was a completely different Nico from the earlier books. Yes, his temperature went up but I still didn't buy it.* It felt like such a cheat that Mandi & Amy got killed on the boat when it went ashore. They had half a dozen boats tied up to it that they could have used to make their escape just like the others escaped. It didn't make sense that they were left behind and killed. IMO, It only happened so that Murphy could be focused on helping Zed hunt down Smart Ones in the next book.* The Smart Ones hunt should have started in this book. It's been clear for the last two that they should be targeted. Delaying the hunt this long just feels like padding it out.* I read this book in about 6 hours. Paying $3 per novella is getting a bit rich (this was *not* a full length novel). I see this trend of soaking readers with lots of short entries in never-ending series by a lot of the authors who specialize in post-apocalyptic stories and I don't like it.What I liked:* I liked the little bit of Steph & Dalhover. They are good characters but unfortunately they didn't get much to do this go around.* Making the Whites lose the higher frequency band of their hearing is a neat way to allow for suppressed weapons. The explanation was neat and tidy.* I'm glad that some Whites are *not afraid* of the water. The two who were fishing give me hope that water won't be a stand-in for kryptonite going forward.* Zed's deteriorating cognitive ability, poor marksmanship and rising temp add a sense of urgency that the story has been lacking. (Yes, I know Steph said his temp isn't rising but I believe she is lying.) We need to be reminded that Zed is a ticking time bomb (same with Murphy). We need him to go out hunting Smart Ones with a final battle against Mark just as Zed's temperature skyrockets and he completely turns.