Review: Zombies and nuns and guns.........Oh my !!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2012
Whilst I liked most of this book and even grew to appreciate the initial story stopping dead in it's tracks (at a cliffhanger) to follow a back story of one of the main protagonists (Orpheus')son Ethan, which at first I thought a bit of a stumbling block but it worked well in the end (mention this in comments section on J.Fields Jr's review)It unfortunately lost a star from me (as nearer 3 than 4 stars in the end)for a the following reasons.Firstly I found the son of Orpheus (Ethan) just a bit too unbelievable. For a kid to find his calling as a survivalist/leader and I mean survivalist with what really appeared to be far too much knowledge and experience(such as weapons, procedure, routes to take, hard decision making etc.....) for his years. This was supposedly gleaned from dad and I appreciated that, but I somehow found it jarred with me constantly as did his constant mental remarks on how awesome, fearless, kick ass, caring, THE ONE......etc etc his girlfriend was in just about every situation (kind of smacked a bit of a 'teen read').******Possible Spoilers******Secondly (whilst the author makes mention to this in his afterword) I actually like the threat of the numbers and mass of shambling undead as opposed to pioneering new creations with speed etc, but this is a personal thing and whilst I may not like it I did admire what the author did with the new take on this and the fact that the infected (but not turned) characters could walk amongst the zombies was a stretch, but one I could accept. However I'm afraid I did dislike the fact infected characters had the ability to control the zombies from docile to aggressive and also shepherd uninfected people through great swathes of them (again a personal dislike, possibly stemming from the poor Monster Island/Nation/Planet books).******Spoilers Over******Also thought the end was just a bit too twee for me, but again this boils down to preference.Very few grammar and spelling errors make it a nice read, however it does suffer from some serious page alignment issues that would have been an easy fix I would have thought (and kind of adds to my reduction of a star because it seems just a touch lazy for someone not to check).I liked the authors afterword and his betamax (lol) zombie watching thoughts and inspirations and why he tries to deviate from the shambler.It reminded me of when I saw the original King Kong (on TV) and the 70's remake with Jeff Bridges (at the cinema) and as a kid, always wondered why the natives would go to great lengths to build giant walls around their camp, only to then go build a giant monkey size door.I see it's something that Peter Jackson didn't do in the 2005 version, possibly because he thought the same and this is the reason I cut some slack on the authors new slant.All in all a fast paced story with something for everyone, plenty of zombie encounters, guns, nuns with guns, zombie ass kicking, general ass kicking, romantic moments and weepy bits and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who like this genre.Also recommend Rise Again by Ben Tripp which has similar elements to this and is another good read.