Review: Good Read for Fans of Horror/Apocalypse Genres
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2013
“Omega Zero” is a fast-paced horror novel that presents a very real (and terrifying) possibility: What if a strain of virus is so strong, so virulent, that it almost wipes out the human race, leaving a handful of immunes and those who aren’t immune but who are either beyond its reaches in remote locations or have the technology to protect themselves?The novel’s hero, Trent, is an ex-Marine—and also sells drugs for a powerful man named Eight Ball. When Trent is busted by an undercover cop, he flees into the woods to hide out for a while, using Eight Ball’s drug money to buy survival gear. His hope is that, when he emerges, the search for him (both on the police’s behalf and Eight Ball’s) will have blown over.However, what greets him when he emerges is a transformed America—abandoned buildings, men with guns, dead and rotting bodies littering the streets. He pieces together that a virus has devastated the country, but it’s not until he meets a fellow survivor—Emily—that he learns the full extent of the virus’s sweep. Soon the pair are on the run from men trying to collect the survivors to study them (though there’s a plot twist there I didn’t see coming), and as their relationship deepens the tension and suspense heightens.I read a lot of horror novels (Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Whitley Streiber, etc.) and this one holds up to the best of them. It did, in fact, remind of “The Stand”—though instead of tackling an epic battle between good and evil, this author instead chooses to focus on two people, both lonely and with sadness in their lives. This makes the story more effective, in my opinion, and more realistic--if a deadly virus did hit, it would probably not be because a Randall Flagg figure is wreaking havoc on the Devil’s behalf; it would unfold simply because that’s how viruses work, and the results would leave tiny pockets of survivors who don’t know about each other and just struggle to survive.Part of the strength of this book was how the author makes you care about Trent and Emily; though Trent starts out as a drug dealer, he soon becomes a hero you root for, a strong man who will do what he has to both to survive and to protect Emily. Emily, though more emotionally fragile, has her own kind of strength, one that allows her to carry on in solitude after her own family dies. I wanted them both to survive and find happiness in some way, even though the chances of that seemed slim.In sum, “Omega Zero” is an effective horror novel that should appeal to readers of apocalypse novels. It has strong characters, a fast-moving plotline, and just the right mix of human emotion and terror to keep the reader engaged.