Book Review: The Remaining by DJ Molles

In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker 40 feet below the basement level of his house, Captain Lee Harden of the United States Army waits. On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Some day soon, Captain Harden will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his very simple mission: Subvenire Refectus.

To Rescue and Rebuild.

My Review: 
Project Hometown has been set up by the military to ensure that there are 48 trained military people, one in each mainland state, who can start rebuilding society in case of an apocalypse occuring. Lee is one of those people. Whenever there is a possible crisis looming, Lee and his dog Tango are put in The Hole, a sealed bunker complex and is only released when the crisis passes. This time, Lee is surprised when he receives no all-clear from his boss and when the 30 day time limit without orders is up, he has to start his mission. Coming out of the bunker for a quick look around, he is confronted by zombies and quickly realises that the end of the world has occured while he was in the bunker. Now he, and others like him, have to collect supplies and survivors and start to rebuild.

I liked the idea of Project Hometown and I found it interesting to follow Lee and the gorgeous Tango as they lived in the bunker, cut off from the world and wondering what was happening on the surface. The virus that was starting to circulate when Lee was confined to the bunker is a mutated form of Bubonic Plague called FURY. His orders were interesting-take down illegal warlords causing misery, find uninfected survivors and start building up a group with supplies hidden for him by the military. I liked the whole idea of the plan and it sounded like it was going to be exciting as Lee first goes looking for his neighbours to see if anyone survived.

There is certainly plenty going on in the book. I liked the initial scenes in the bunker as Lee is tense about what might be happening out in the world, and his preperations for his mission. There was the trip to his neighbour's house and the run in with the armed gang. There is the attempted rescue at another house, evading armed soldiers who are not being very friendly and the zombie attacks that occur several times. I can't fault the amount of action in the book. 

Lee himself was a bit of an issue for me as for a military guy he isn't very good at following orders. First, he goes outside before the 30 day limit is up, isn't careful enough and gets stabbed by a zombie which is pretty stupid. He isn't infected but that piece of stupidity could have ended his mission before it even began. Despite having protective gear, he decides to take it off while exploring the house that people have died in, which again seems like a very stupid thing to do. After rescuing a young boy and leaving him in the bunker with Tango, it seems he didn't bother showing the boy the room used for Tango's toilet, as the boy took Tango outside to do his business, putting them both in danger. How exactly did the boy get out the locked bunker? He also asks the kid if he wants to kill the men who murdered his father-you don't incite a kid to kill people! You're the adult and military guy so you do it! And sleeping the group in a car with an infected person was totally brain dead!

I also found the story a bit too annoying in places. They introduce a couple of whiny kids who never seem to do what they are told and get the group into trouble yet the one good strong and intelligent character they have is the one who gets infected. Great. Add to that the fact that poor Tango gets infected and killed saving dumb humans and nobody seems to care that much about it! Why do they always kill the bloody dog??? He was my favourite!!! There is also the strange idea that the GPS is what is needed to find the important supplies to look after his growing group-well if the world has ended and governments have fallen, the satellites will, eventually stop working so what happens to your GPS then? With that and the good character infected, I started to get really annoyed with the way things were going and when I finished the book, I had no real urge to go on and read the next one. I just found it full of too many stupid and annoying decisions that frustrated me and killing the dog was just the final straw.

This book had potential but it didn't deliver for me personally.

Read January 2019.
2.5 stars.