Review: Not impressed
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2013
**SPOILERS AHEAD**What is this?Self-proclaimed 'Zombie Author' K. Bartholomew presents us with a short story set in the UK, post 2012 at least, that's on the brim of the apocalypse. A woman stereotypically is bitten by an animal and boom! zombie apocalypse within forty-eight hours. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom leads its country into doom and then short story is over.The story seems more of a chance for Bartholomew to vent about his political views than a true zombie fiction. 'Zombie Takeover' focuses on Zacharias Sterling, the Prime Minister and his reaction to the riots and cannibalism that is in fact the start of the zombie apocalypse. Sterling is more concerned with the upcoming election, the impending break with Scotland and scoring points with the public to boost his image. In fact, he's playing basketball with the American President and some inner city children, a scheduled event, when the first riots occur. Sterling's opponent is always talking to the media and seems to be one step ahead of him. And Sterling concludes, like most politicians, that if his rival agrees with it than he has to come up with a different plan of action. This of course leads to action coming too little too late. In the end, Sterling, along with the Royal family escape the country to safety and leave the citizens of the UK to fend for themselves. This, of course, is what would happen if any country went through a massive disaster or invasion.The characters are all a bit one-sided. It's a bit disappointing. Sterling only cares about gaining popular favor. Warburton, the PM's political rival seems on the surface to care about the safety of the UK while poking a jab at Sterling. The various cabinet members are eager to please the Prime Minister but know he's not quite up to the job. The news reporters are always shocked by the zombies and yell 'Oh God!' a lot. Then there's the refreshing General Wall, who's urging the PM to do what the reader wanted to do in the first place: kick some zombie butt. There is a glimmer, however. There is a brief scene where Sterling comes home dinner, abet very late and he and his wife talk. It was a nice scene and we get to see this difference side, a little life of the Prime Minister besides the politician. I wish the author had expanded on this.The ending just sort of happens. There's rioting, rioting, rioting aka the middle of the story. Then we have meeting where Sterling announces that he'll leave the country if the takeover gets too bad. And here we are at the end with a FOX news broadcast of the final battle of Britain, with the news anchors joking about the oncoming zombie apocalypse. How appropriate.What bothers me the most about 'Zombie Takeover' is the flow or the presentation of the story. I couldn't tell very well between the news articles, the video news reports and the daily conversations with the PM. Everything flowed together with little or no break. This lack of break and distinction between scenes makes it a little hard to read.This story ends at 75% on my Kindle. After that it's mostly previews of Bartholomew's other books.I'd recommend this to people who are interested in fictional political satire. It is a quick read, so despite the fact that I really didn't like it, you can give it a shot.