While the Apocalypse is
ravaging the world in the form of a mysterious disease, Kyle and some of
the other guards from the Nuclear plant arrived at Fort Macon. The
Civil War fort, offering them security from the horrors on their
doorstep in the form of walls and a moat, doesn't come fully stocked.
Short on food and ammo, Kyle plans to split the survivors in order
scavenge.
Kyle has to get creative, using his knowledge of history, to fight the undead. He just needs a few supplies to build them. Two
groups leave Fort Macon, one looking for ammo and the other food.
Little do they know that they will set up a chain of events that will
lead to a confrontation they're ill prepared to meet.
Meanwhile,
Kyle's self appointed nemesis and former colleague Neil, has moved to
the far side of the island after his failed ambush and is making plans
to bring justice to Kyle. Neither war or zombies will keep Neil from
punishing Kyle for leaving his post.
My Review:
In this second book in the series, we follow Kyle's group at the Fort as they rescue more people and go scavenging for vital supplies. There is a supermarket beside the nearby town and Abe is leading a group to it when they come into contact with a biker gang who offer to help them. Kyle wants to check out the coastguard station along the coast for supplies and uses that to draw the zombies away from his brother-right down to where Neil is setting up his people. We also follow Neil who is still obsessed with taking revenge on Kyle, even more so when the zombies are being drawn to his position.
I was a bit disappointed with this book compared to the first one. First of all we hardly see the beagles and I don't even recall us being told their names, which is a bit shameful! Dogs should always star in the books if you mention them as being important to a character!
We focus a lot on Kyle in this book which is fine when he is the leader, but instead of focusing on his leadership in the apocalypse and their survival, we were instead dragged into romance drama as he becomes attracted to Grace who they find at the coastguard station. So the whole 'lets go there for supplies' plot vanishes when the beautiful vision of Grace and her green eyes appears. He sulks when Grace talks to James and gets as jealous as a spoiled child not getting what he wants. For the rest of the book Kyle is mooning after Grace and there is no chemistry at all between them. I found the addition of this story quite annoying as it was shoved in, not developed very well and unnecessary to the plot. The romance was actually bland and uninteresting as nothing happens between them so what was the point of it?
We also see plenty of Neil, delving into several unnecessary flashbacks into his former life. We do find out why he was so angry at Kyle breaking rules and leaving his post but we didn't need pages and pages of Neil arriving in his first army warzone, the guys he met, the camp set up and all that. It was details we didn't need that could've been covered in two paragraphs instead of wasting all the time delving into it. Neil is setting up his camp outside the town at a motel which unluckily for him is where Kyle leads the dead to, in order to clear zombies away from Abe's group.
I find some of the decisions taken by Kyle to be quite staggering. His brother Abe is so scared of zombies that he can't actually function when he sees one and can't remember how to use a weapon of any kind of them. So why in the hell would you have him in the supermarket raiding team? They were likely to find zombies inside and outside the supermarket and everyone there had to be capable of dealing with them. He is a danger to everyone on the raid. We see several occasions where others have to step in to save Abe. He is a liability and should have been left back at the Fort or used only as a lookout from a safe position. Why the others looked to Abe over the question of inviting the bikers to the Fort is beyond me. And for me his actions back at the Fort later were not in character and even dumber.
I just felt that the plot was very confused at times. Early in the book, everyone had to push on the big door to force it shut during a zombie attack yet when Kyle returned from his own raid, he was able to push it open himself enough to squueze through. That doesn't seem consistant and no mention was made about any modifications to the door. The whole point of opening the door was to save civilians...who we barely see in the rest of the book and we aren't told all their names so what was the point? Out of everyone rescued, Grace is the only one who gets any page time. The big ship shooting at the Fort seemed a bit pointless even when the reasons were explained later. I don't feel that it really added anything to the story.
The big attack on the Fort was very confusing. I'm sure the author could see it all unfolding clearly in his head but I found it all too confusing to imagine what was actually going on. It talks in terms of bottlenecks and big mounds of bodies, shooting in certain directions and trying to make bodies fall in particular ways but I just didn't get it. I just don't feel it was described as well as it could be. In the end I gave up trying to imagine the scene and just read on to get it finished.
The one thing that kept the story functioning for me were the characters. Patrick, James, Jasmine, Old Ben, Edmund, Eric...the interactions between them were the best thing about the book. I liked them but just felt the plot had slipped in this book compared to the first one.
Read March 2017.
2.5 stars.
After realizing his
dream of teaching history in college, Kyle Small gets laid off and takes
a job as a heavily armed security guard. He's just returning from his
Thanksgiving holiday in which his brother Abe has visited him, when an
epidemic strikes the plant that he works at
Kyle must get back
to his brother and then find refuge in a old Civil War fort for
protection. Along the way they collect others and face the rising
problems as they take the road to Macon.
My Review:
Instead
of spending the last day of his brother's holiday with him, Kyle has to
work on Sunday at the plant where he is a security guard. An intruder
on site seems exciting until he tries to eat another guard Brian. When
Brian then attacks the doctor, Kyle phones Abe and tells him to get
supplies ready to leave when Kyle gets there. Now Kyle and his friends
need to escape the overrun plant and get to Abe before they are all
bitten.
Kyle is pretty quick to understand what is going on and
what needs to be done, which I like in zombie books. I hate watching
people in denial for half the story before agreeing that it is a zombie
virus or something similar. I liked his character. Abe isn't sure if
this is one of Kyle's jokes but eventually gets himself organised just
in case, allowing trouble to sneak up on him as well. The plot switches
between the brothers as they face different issues though most of the
action is at the plant. There is plenty tension as the characters try to
avoid the infected and do what they can to help others before deciding
that it is time to save themselves and get away.
The side
characters are also pretty good in the book. There is Yolanda, the tough
female who I instantly liked and who is capable and cool under
pressure. Eric decides to collect his uncle and his own beloved beagles
before joining the escape. Patrick the Star Wars fan and his long
suffering wife Jasmine add the comic relief to the story-and a bit of
realism. There is also the bad guy in the senior guy left alive at the
plant who is determined to stop his workers from leaving, and tries to
screw up their escape plans at every turn. I really despised the guy.
There
is enough zombie action to keep people happy as the plant and Kyle's
house become overrun. I liked the way there was a good mix of tension
and action, and it certainly kept me reading. I admit that although it
is great to see my favourite dog breed in the book, I know I will be
worried that something will happen to the poor beagles! I worry more
about dogs in zombie books than most of the humans!
So the group
are set on heading out to Macon where there is an old Civil War fort
that might offer them great protection from the zombies until a better
plan presents itself. Will they manage to get there safely? Well I know
the answer but you'll have to read this novella yourself to find out! I
recommend this to traditional zombie fans.
Eight months after the
destruction the Zeus Plague unleashed on humanity, the infected started
to die allowing the survivors to venture into the world again. This
false sense of safety was met with deadly consequence. The vestiges of
humanity must now struggle to survive not only encounters with each
other, but an infected threat that is fast, can strategize, and maneuver
around defenses.
In this emotional conclusion to the best-selling;
The LAST BLADE of GRASS, the story continues with the ranch survivors
trapped in southern Oregon by a possible new foe and introduces the
struggles of Eddie's father as he attempts a harrowing journey from New
Orleans in a bid to discover if his son has survived.
Will the last
of mankind band together and stop this new zombie threat or will old
animosities allow the human race to be plucked out of existence like the
last blade of grass, leaving only barren fields?
My Review:
This book follows two groups of survivors through the zombie apocalypse.
The first are Eddie and his group of survivors at the ranch and the
second group features Eddie's father Keith and their friends in New
Orleans.
George is out fishing and oblivious to the apocalypse
until he gets a call from Maggie, the dying wife of his friend Keith,
asking for help in getting out of the city which is falling apart around
them. George arrives just as things are getting out of control and gets
them to safety on an oil rig out in the Gulf where they meet up with
employees Frank and Jack. It might be safe from zombies and raiders but
they are worried about what to do if New Orlean's nuclear reactor goes
into meltdown. As they are planning to head to George's prepped house in
Mexico, the radiation sirens start to go off and panic starts...
Eddie
has his problems too when Isaac and Jeremiah arrive at the store to
rescue the hostages. He has had dealings with them when the brothers
once trained at his ranch and did not like finding out that it was being
run by an atheist. It takes hours to convince Isaac that Eddie is
immune, that the zombies are infected by an illness and not demon
possession and that Eddie has rescued the Stick People. Jeremiah is not
convinced by rational discussions and Eddie does not like the idea of
Isaac's group being anywhere near his ranch when they ask for sanctuary.
Eddie's people are unhappy at the mass of new people being taken to the
ranch but Eddie feels that he is being given no choice and that without
help, they will all die.
The zombies are changing too, to their
alarm. Runners are becoming more frequent and more dangerous, travelling
in mass groups and learning how to work together to solve problems like
opening car doors to get at the food inside. They are hunting down
animals to stay alive with human victims dwindling and it is getting
dangerous to travel with them on the roads between the store and the
ranch. But with extra people to look after it is becoming necessary to
scavenge for more supplies, putting their people in danger on a daily
basis. These newer zombies are pretty scary and harder to kill because
of their speed and cunning so there are exciting encounters through the
book.
We have a good mixture of characters in this book. I can't
tell you how much I enjoy seeing a mature, capable and level headed
twelve year old girl in Hannah, instead of the dumb pouting teen
drooling after every teenage boy in sight. Yes Hannah has an unofficial
boyfriend but there is no focus on teen angst, only the two working
together for mutual survival. I liked that the younger characters were
not involved in tons of pointless teen angst. This is a proper survival
story not a zombie version of Twilight. The women like Simone are strong
and she is the guiding light that keeps Eddie on the right path and I
liked her a lot. I liked following Keith and their friends on the
journey to find safety too. It was nice to see the Mexican people in the
book being portayed in a positive light as well.
Again there is a
lot of tension in this book as the situation with Jeremiah reaches a
critical point and the man starts to lose all sanity, attempting to turn
everyone against Eddie so that Isaac can take control of the ranch. But
Isaac is not interested in overthrowing Eddie, and Eddie himself is
setting his own plans in motion to stop the religious fanatics from
destroying everything that he has fought for. The survivors are turning
on each other while the zombie enemy becomes a lot more dangerous than
what they have seen before.
I liked this book and it kept a good
standard moving on from the first book. I also liked the way the author
was able to bring the story to a satisfactory and realistic conclusion. I
would look out for other books by this author.
Read March 2017.
Eddie Keeper and his
wife prepared for the fall of society. They outfitted their ranch for
survival, built up defenses and stockpiled years worth of supplies. When
the collapse arrives as an engineered plague instead of a monetary
collapse, their plans of hunkering down and hiding until order is
restored are thrown out the window. Instead they work to save people
from the fast moving illness and to maintain a small safe zone around
their home.
But in this new world, survivors will kill for
supplies, criminals have free reign and all the others are zombies that
hunt the uninfected. Eddie struggles to maintain his sense of right and
wrong in this post-apocalyptic landscape where the safest course of
action is to kill anyone you meet rather than speak with them. His
actions and decisions make his friends, family and even himself question
where the real evil resides, at the ranch or outside of it.
My Review:
Eddie and Simone are preppers with a survival store in town and a ranch
to move to nearby if things get bad where he previously has run free
survival classes to teach others from miles around the skills they need.
Now he gets word of a zombie plague being caused by faulty injections
given to military personnel at their bases and it is spreading out of
control. It's time to tell friends and family to pack everything and get
to the safety of his ranch before the zombies start showing up in town.
Can
I say again how much I HATE having a dramatic spoiler in the prologue
concerning events to come? I hate knowing something important in advance
then waiting all through the book for events to get to that point. It
totally spoils my enjoyment of the book and I always demote a star for
it. Just tell the story in order and stop messing about! It gives a
confused beginning to the story that could have put me off reading on
with it. I don't like time jumping plot device much. I'm not going to
say what happens in the spoiler as I don't want to ruin things for other
readers, unlike the author.
Anyway after we jump back 8 months
in time to the start of the disaster the story finally flows and starts
to make sense. Eddie is shutting up the store and only letting his
regular customers in to make final purchases before he moves everything
to his ranch. He is trying one last time to warn his friends how bad
things will get and persuade them to take precautions or move to the
ranch with him. Eddie is a complete anti-hero. He has no time for
religious fanatics, being an atheist himself, or those who refuse to see
the big picture and get ready to deal with it. He is abrasive and rude
at times but he is capable and willing to do whatever it takes to save
the people he loves. He has faults but for the most part I liked him. I
would want an invite to his ranch!
I did find it interesting that
people who were calling Eddie a prepper nut including a sneering local
journalist were all lined up to buy from his shop when they saw that
trouble might be coming! Isn't that so typical. First it's Eddie is a
nutter, then they are crying out for his help and not liking the fact
that he is no longer prepared to help outsiders-it's time to use those
things to protect family and friends. Now he is being accused of being
unfeeling for not pandering to them. Gah, I'm with Eddie on this one! Go
home the lot of you!
There is a lot of good action in the book.
We get the tension of everyone heading to collect family members in town
and then going out to the ranch, with a few zombie encounters on the
way. Then we get the attacks on the ranch, first by the zombies and then
by an armed gang which are really well written and full of action and
tension. There are the raids into the town and out to the surrounding
areas for supplies. Then Eddie hears about hostages being taken and
abused by armed men in a nearby town and he decides that something needs
to be done about it. So there is plenty of zombie and other action to
enjoy along the way.
Eddie's anti-religion rants do get a bit
much sometimes and readers with strong religious leanings might not like
him much as a character. You get the impression through Eddie that the
author is not much of a believer. Eddie manages to upset his friends
with rants about God not existing but at the same time they are also
preaching religion to him and trying to convince him that they are right
and he is wrong. There are strong religious themes in both books in the
series. Eddie is always lecturing those around them but a lot of the
time it is because they seem really stupid. Some of them don't even have
the brains to drive AWAY from the zombies without Eddie instructing
them!
Overall I did like this book. I had small niggles with
Eddie at times but I think you are meant to see him as a flawed
character, and I did like the way he starts to throw morality out of the
way for the safety of the group. I liked that he turns no nonsense as
the book progresses. I did like the plot and it was interesting to see
the ways the zombies were evolving as the book continued. I have since
finished the second book in the series and would be interested in other
apocalypse books by the author if he chooses to write them.
Read January 2017.
4 stars.
Welcome to Chuckles Chat where great
blogging minds unite to discuss the topics of the day mainly in the book
and blogging world. I'll be sharing my thoughts on a topic and then
inviting you all to share your thoughts. It's ok to disagree but PLEASE
be respectful of each other's views! All of the comments on my blog are
moderated and offensive posts ie racist, bigoted will not be published!
This week: Mobile Phones
A couple of years back I came across a woman in a shopping mall car park who was freaking out in front of her kids because her phone battery had run out. She was weeping as if someone had killed her kids and screeching in our direction 'what do I do NOW???' I wanted to say to her, get a grip, stop freaking out your kids, drive home and charge your battery up there! It wasn't a big deal or the end of the bloody world but you'd have thought she had witnessed the start of the zombie apocalypse or something!
I do not get the obsession with mobile phones. I owned one back in 1999 when I was working. A plain phone, no camera or anything and I used it purely for contacting family if I was to be late home or organising someone to pick me up, or checking a friend was in to see later. My bills were a couple of pounds a month maximum. If I wanted to chat to friends I went to their house or they came to mine. My phone was only for important stuff, not chatting. Others obviously used them in other ways. By the time I stopped work in 2003, I had ditched the phone.
So here is the shocking news people...I don't own a mobile phone! I don't have a smart phone! I don't text EVER! Shocking huh! Well you guys might not find it shocking but generally when I tell people I don't have a mobile they look at me as if I'm an alien! 'OMG how do you SURVIVE!' they scream in utter horror and I want to say 'I eat, drink, heat my home, get plenty sleep...' but I'd get even blanker looks for that...but yes, I manage perfectly fine without one thank you very much!
Why don't I have one? Simple, don't need it. I have my computer at home for all my internet needs. 'But what if you want to check emails!' they wail. Um, I do it when I get home. 'What if you want to buy an ebook!' I'll do it later. If I'm on holiday for a week I'll catch up on everything when I get home so I can enjoy the holiday without interruptions. If I'm out for a day with my dad I want to be talkiing to him, not sitting with my nose on a phone! I'm fine with waiting till I get in and relax by the computer. For my life, there is nothing vitally important that can't wait until I get home! My dad has one which he uses for emergencies. He takes it in the car in case of a breakdown or if he needs to call home about something while I'm in the house. That's about all we need one for. My uncle has a mobile phone which he can't operate so we can never get in touch with him, so that kind of defeats the point!
I'm not saying phones are bad or anything! They are useful in a hundred different ways for people who are interested in apps and stuff. I'm not having a go at the ordinary phone user or anything. But I am disturbed by how reliant people have got on them and the way they can't function if it goes on the fritz for a few hours. You see them freaking out on Twitter when Blackberry stopped working for a day or a network was down for a few hours. It's insane. It's as if they literally forget how to do anything without their phone. Can you imagine what would happen if electricity went out for a whole week? None of these freakers would be able to function! Think about what they would do if power was out for months like in these apocalypse books I enjoy!
Then there are the ones on buses who feel the need to phone everyone in their address book.The ones who ignore the no phones signs in hospitals and GP waiting rooms. The ones who start taking calls in the quiet train carriage. And they wonder why some of us want whole areas of planes to be gadget free so we can get some peace???
This is meant as a bit of a fun post about obsessed mobile users. But there is a bit of a serious side to it. When my mum collected me at primary school she'd take my hand and listen to me chat about my dad and show off my stunning artwork. Now I see kids running behind their parents trying to get their attention and waving their pictures while the parent grunts and checks their phone-and I find that sad. People are so busy walking and texting that they just barge right into you and don't care to say sorry. Parents walking kids home are too busy texting to notice their kid has been flattened by a car on the main road. My dad nearly knocked down a kid a couple of weeks ago at the local shops. Mummy was on her phone and the two year old toddled out in front of him. He didn't half give her a serving on her parenting skills!
Are you a mega obsessed user? Could you cope without a phone in the apocalypse? Do you want to hurt certain types of mobile users?
