Double Dead by Chuck Wendig

Coburn’s been dead now for close to a century, but seeing as how he’s a vampire and all, it doesn’t much bother him. Or at least it didn’t, not until he awoke from a forced five year slumber to discover that most of human civilisation was now dead - but not dead like, oh no..

I wanted to read DD as soon as I got wind of the concept: a vampire in waking up during the zombie apocalypse and discovering that his food is now an endangered species. Coburn is the vampire in question, and it’s immediately clear that he’s not someone used to being denied.

DD opens with Coburn’s awakening, an unexpected trickle of blood reaching his withered, blood-starved body. It’s a peach of an opening chapter and does a fine job of hooking you and setting the tone for what’s to come.

It’s a fair assumption that most people will be familiar with the parameters of a post zompocalyptic world, particularly in the wake of The Walking Dead, and Wendig doesn’t waste any words setting up the basics, letting him get on with fleshing out Coburn. By turns violent, arrogant and sarcastic, Coburn is nonetheless a witty and likeable character, which is quite an accomplishment. Later on, when pieces of the story of his life before his enforced slumber start to emerge, it rounds off his character quite neatly.

It’s not an easy transition for Coburn, going from a supremely confident and borderline smug predator to having to shepherd his food to somewhere safe and secure, while being inexorably dragged into the messy personal histories and interactions of the living.. and the unpleasant realisation that in order to survive he’s going to have to think about more than his appetite. Particularly when the zombies who’ve mutated after coming into contact with his blood finally close in. It's handled very well, and while Coburn is changed by what's he's experiencing, it's a gradual and believably messy process in keeping with the rest of the story, rather than any kind of sudden, fairy godmother like epiphany.

Fast and bloody good fun, Double Dead delivers everything you’re expecting it to and then some. I finished it in a day, and enjoyed it thoroughly (particularly the cannibal barbecue- brilliant!). It’s a fresh perspective on a favourite theme with lashings of dark humour and a charismatic main character I’d really like to see more of.



You can visit Chuck's website here.

The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell

God is a slick god. Temple knows. She knows because of all the crackerjack miracles still to be seen on this ruined globe...

Older than her years and completely alone, Temple is just trying to live one day at a time in a post-apocalyptic world, where the undead roam endlessly, and the remnant of mankind who have survived, at times, seem to retain little humanity themselves.

This is the world she was born into. Temple has known nothing else. Her journey takes her to far-flung places, to people struggling to maintain some semblance of civilization – and to those who have created a new world order for themselves.

When she comes across the helpless Maury, she attempts to set one thing right, if she can just get him back to his family in Texas then maybe it will bring redemption for some of the terrible things she's done in her past. Because Temple has had to fight to survive, has done things that she's not proud of and, along the road, she’s made enemies.

Now one vengeful man is determined that, in a world gone mad, killing her is the one thing that makes sense…

Reapers hit the shelves in September last year, and it’s a veritable crime that it took so long to work its way into my hands.

Set amidst the detritus and crumbling remains of post zombie apocalypse America, Reapers follows the story of a teenage girl named Temple as she meanders across the empty landscape, its dangers both hidden and overt. Temple’s a loner and a survivor though, born into a merciless, dystopian world and hardened by the necessities of survival when the rules of civilization are passing from history into myth.

An encounter with a community of survivors changes the course of her life though when she reacts to a personal attack with the same vicious aplomb that had let her survive this long. She breaks away, and soon thereafter finds herself taking reluctant charge of Maury, a slow but gentle man.

But she knows that the dead man’s brother is sworn to vengeance, bound by his own code as she is by hers. The pursuit plays out against the backdrop of a bleak and unforgiving world, with glimpses of hope and beauty amidst the shambling horrors that lurk in wait for the unwary.

It’s written in an unusual way, but one that you become accustomed to quite quickly and actually helps set the tone of the story. Temple’s a vivid character, brought to life by Bell’s elegant and evocative storytelling and overall Reapers will surprise you, as it did me, in the best possible way whether you’re a fan of dystopian fiction or not.

Zombie Britannica - Thomas Emson

In 2009, Canadian researchers warned that a zombie plague would wipe out civilisation.. unless we were ready. We weren't.

As temperatures reach unprecedented levels, the dead rise- and eath the living. There is no warning. There is no time to prepare. And with tens of thousands dead or infected, another waking nightmare comes to terrorise the survivors- the victims now rise up, a new wave of zombies hungry for human flesh.

As the nation teeters on the edge of extinction, those who survived the onslaught fight for their lives, and for the lives of their loved ones..


When Thomas Emson’s zombie apocalypse hits the UK, sweltering in the hottest summer on record, it hits with a bang. It hits the ground running, the Usain Bolt of apocalyptic visions. By the end of the second page the body count is in the hundreds, and the zombie tide is flowing unchecked through the capital cities, a tsunami of gnashing teeth and spurting fluids.

ZB begins with working mom Carrie’s story as she sets out to make her way back home, where her young daughter is hiding from the dead and her good for nothing father and his newfound hunger for living flesh. Her story is the central theme but it shares ZB with two other windows into the apocalypse.

In Wales, the initially surly and emotionally stunted Vincent, struggling to connect with the girl he fancies, reluctantly shows her around the local castle, unaware that its walls will save their lives long before their first kiss.

On the congested highways outside of Glasgow, a dysfunctional argues their way to the airport, heading for a traffic jam that will see them lose far more than their seat on the ‘plane.

ZB reads at a ferocious pace, reflecting the pace at which the apocalypse spreads. This is no gradual rising; all around the country the dead erupt from the earth, hungry for flesh.

It’s a classic scenario and one that lets Emson explore the effect the psychological trauma of seeing a horde of ragged, decomposing cannibals feasting on the living would have on people; there’s no mistaking the dead for any kind of rampaging drug addicts or mysterious infectees here. As it would, the reaction varies from person to person, from group to group depending on the brand of psychosis hidden deep beneath the skein of their mundane, everyday selves, brought violently to the fore as their minds try to process armageddon. Sure, it calls for you to take a leap of faith on a few points, but if you enjoy this genre then you would most likely understand that civilisation is a veneer, and one that gore encrusted nails would quickly scratch away.

Zombie Britannica is an incredibly easy and more-ish read; fast, edgy and bloody good fun.

By the way, the 2009 study into a zombie attack that the blurb (italics above) refers to can be found here if you're interested.

Plague of the Dead - Z A Recht

The end begins with an unprecedented viral outbreak.

Morningstar. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, violent behaviour... anda one hundred percent mortality rate.

But the end is only the beginning.

The victims return from death to walk the earth. When a massive military operation fails to contain the plague of the living dead, it escalates into a worldwide pandemic.
Now, a single law of Nature dominates the global landscape: Live or die, kill or be killed.
On one side of the world, thousands of miles from home, a battle-hardened general surveys the remnants of his command: a young medic, a veteran photographer, a brash private, and dozens of refugees- all are his responsibility. While in the United States, an army colonel discovers the darker side of Morningstar and collaborates with a well-known journalist to leak the information to the public...

The first thing that drew me to Plague was the cover- the luminescent green skull that dominates the front cover, biohazard symbol in eye, is pretty hard to ignore. The promise of a zombie driven apocalypse sealed the deal and, book in hand, I retreated to the sofa.

It opens with an exchange of emails between two of the principal characters that provides the background for the initial encounter; the first chapter is a clever, atmospheric vehicle to flesh out the premise of the story.

Matters leap on from there to a situation where the outbreaks have spread and the overstretched army (with scant support from either navy or airforce- must be a recession) are trying to contain the epidemic. But they’re not prepared for the scale of it, nor the true nature of the infected, and their quarantine is broken. The infected give them no respite, forcing them onto the back foot and leaving them desperate to disengage and regroup.

The two main plotlines run parallel to each other, and between the two an image of civilisation teetering on the brink of collapse is built up. The stories are slowly woven together, although by the time this happens the dead are ascendant and the characters are facing hard decisions and the bitter reality of life at ground zero as the familiar trappings of modern life are torn away.
I really enjoyed how the nature of Morningstar and how it reacts with the host body was gradually explained; it also sets up an intelligent twist on the fast or slow zombie debate by presenting a plausible scenario for having both types, and it works really well. I’ve no doubt the concept will be borrowed by others in due course.

The characters are a bit ‘thin’ to start off with, and some remain so over the course of things, but I was having too much fun for this or the occasional pinch of salt to bother me. It would have been nice for some of the deaths to have more of an impact, but red shirts and zombies go together like peas and carrots.

Plague’s a blast of zombie fuelled mayhem that injects some interesting new ideas into the mix, and I’m glad it’s being re-released by Simon & Schuster/ Permuted Press. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for ‘Thunder and Ashes’ (due November).

Bloodring by Faith Hunter

Wow, it's been ages since I've posted a review. As much as I would've liked to, I wasn't kidnapped by aliens (hunky space pirate anybody;D), I've been incredibly busy with my new job and moving into my new flat. I was also without internet access for a considerable time. I apologise.

Here is a goal for 2010: I will post a review every Friday (they may just be a little bit on the short side;D)! Well, it will be Friday for me and Saturday for you UK people.

Here is the synopsis of Bloodring from Faith Hunter's website:

In a novel filled with exhilarating action and lush imagery, Faith Hunter portrays a near-future world, caught in the throes of an ambiguous apocalypse, where a woman with everything to hide finds her destiny revealed….

No one thought the apocalypse would be like this. The world didn’t end. And the appearance of seraphs heralded three plagues and a devastating war between the forces of good and evil. Over a hundred years later, the earth has plunged into an ice age, and seraphs and demons fight a never-ending battle while religious strife rages among the surviving humans.

Thorn St. Croix is no ordinary neomage. All the others of her kind, mages who can twist leftover creation energy to their will, were gathered together into Enclaves long ago; and there they live in luxurious confinement, isolated from other humans and exploited for their magic. When her powers nearly drive her insane, she escapes—and now she lives as a fugitive, disguised as a human, channeling her gifts for war into stone-magery and the pacific tasks of jewelry making. But when Thaddeus Bartholomew, a dangerously attractive policeman, shows up on her doorstep and accuses her of kidnapping her ex-husband, she retrieves her weapons and risks revealing her identity to find him. And for Thorn, the punishment for revelation is death….

I've been looking at these books since I walked past a display in the 'World's Biggest Bookshop'. I would walk into the section, read the back and admire the cover, but I kept hesitating because it didn't look like the romance would play such a big part in the book.

Finally, I bought the book and I was right, romance wasn't the driving force behind the story, but there is plenty to keep me glued to the page;D.

Thorn has disguised who she is and her stone mage powers for a decade. When her ex-husband disappears and she becomes the main suspect, Thorn can either run and leave the jewllery store she built with her two best friends behind or investigate on her own and risk being found out. Being an unlicensed Witchy-Woman results in horrific and extended torture, followed by slow death (what can I say, the people of this world are really loving and tolerant).

'Bloodring' had me by the throat from the first page. This post-apocalyptic world Faith Hunter has created is mindblowing. There are some inconsistencies (sugar is rare and expensive but aspirin readily available, the world is in an ice age, major cities are destroyed but the internet still works), but I didn't notice any of that because I was so caught up in the action, creatures and characters.

Thorn is the narrator and she has a wicked sense of humour. Her self-depeciating sarcasm made me laugh out loud more than once. When her powers came online as a teenager, she could suddenly hear the thoughts of every single mage around her; she had to leave her home or go mad. Now, following the clues searching for her ex-husband Lucas, Thorn discovers that Darkness is once again rising in Mineral City and that there may be far more involved than just the kidnapping of one human. And her being here at this point in time may not be an accident.

I really enjoyed the way Hunter describes Thorn using stones and crystals for her magic, the way she mixes fact with fiction. It always felt smoothly weaved into the story and appropriate for the situation. You were never quite sure what would happen next.

Thorn's investigation kept me on the edge of my seat, twisting and turning in directions I did not see coming. Sometimes it became a little too complicated and just one creature too many, but overall, I found the story new and different and Hunter's charaters well developed and intriguing. 'Bloodring' is the first book in a series and I went right back to the store to buy 'Seraphs' and 'Host' and I now cannot wait for the next book in the series.

'Bloodring' is post-apocalyptic fantasy with a certain amount of violence, is published by Roc and Faith Hunter's website can be found here.

Gods End: The Fall, Michael McBride

Michael McBride’s first offering "Gods End: The Fall" has all the boxes ticked to make it a classic apocalyptic novel with clever twists. It’s a clever novel, playing on current events, in the Middle and Far East, the general worry gnawing away at everyone’s minds – what happens if there is a large scale attack, or more scarily, what if it a nuclear attack? Michael McBride is a very clever manipulator, as most authors have to be, weaving fact, fiction, fantasy and religious tones into a very scary novel.

From Michael's Website

The fledgling democratic state of Iraq is invaded by Syria, triggering a series of events leading to the brink of World War III. Unbeknownst to the recently redeployed American troops, the Middle Eastern countries have formed a secret alliance, baiting the armed forces into traps both in the Persian Gulf and the now-defenceless United States. As the world speeds toward its demise, fulfilled prophecies give rise to the physical manifestations of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who usher the earth into its next phase of evolution. Pestilence's mosquitoes and Famine's locusts spread genetic mutations that alter man and animal alike, creating War’s fearsome reptilian army, The Swarm.

Faced with imminent annihilation, those who survive mankind's own extinction agenda must find each other across a rapidly changing landscape to rally their numbers in the face of Death's legion of genocide. Will humanity prove itself worthy of surviving to usher in a new era of life on earth…or will it succumb to God's End?

The novel is written very cinematically. Fantastic descriptions are used, but not flowery prose, I hasten to add. The surviving characters are interesting and well drawn. There are some very vivid and startling scenes that stayed with me after I read them and I would say that if you are a fan of the horror genre, you will be able to pick out the influences immediately. There is definitely Hitchcockian overtones with a bit of Poe and Stephen King mixed in. What is interesting is to follow the group of survivors and see how the author manages to bring them all together and then rudely leave us at the end of the book in a worthy cliff-hanger.

I get the impression that the first book was written in a burst of writerly creativity and it is going to be interesting to see how the story progresses into the next two books. I am pretty certain that he’s honed his style on this one and even though there are a few rough edges, which can be forgiven as it is quite a difficult thing to write, bringing a handful of character successfully together, the next two books in the series will be more slick.

A worthy edition to any horror / sci-fi / futuristic reader’s shelf.