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Book Review: Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback created by Stephen Jones

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
zombie-apocalypse-fightback-book-cover Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback is the sequel to Zombie Apocalypse! I was disappointed with Zombie Apocalypse!, but I still picked up Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback and was pleasantly surprised.

First let me explain the premise of Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback. Following the breakout of the Human Reanimation Virus (HRV) at All Hallows Church in south London; the book tells the story of Thomas Moreby (patient zero & leader of the zombies) and that of the human struggle for survival across the world.

The book uses a range of mediums to tell the story: emails, eye witness accounts, news paper articles, reports, diaries, photos, stills of video, twitter feeds and there’s even a poem. I love this idea and although Jones et al isn’t the first write in this way, they probably are the first to use the idea in a zombie story.

The plot was acceptably fascinating and well interwoven, especially considering the number of different writers. The pacing was good and kept the story moving along at a suitable pace. But the editing could have been better. It wasn’t that there were typos; but that there was a fair amount of padding that made the story feel like it could have been told in less words. There was a lot of telling and more could have been shown to the reader.

The characters changed too often and lacked depth. The closest the book came to depth was the two brothers at the camp/caravan site, which ended far too prematurely. I would like to have read much more of their story.

The ‘Twitter pages’ were the worst as they went on for far too long (I actually skipped a number of these pages) and felt completely unbelievable. The characters description of events in tweets didn’t feel right. The whole concept that he would be on twitter, when he was being hunted in a dark museum by monsters failed to be remotely believable.

Overall Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback was a gigantic improvement on Zombie Apocalypse!, but still needs more work. Anybody that likes a zombie read will enjoy it, but it will not be a reader’s favourite in the zombie story genre.

Review soon,

Antony



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Book Review: Zombie Apocalypse! by Stephen Jones

By Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
zombie-apocalypse-stephen-jones After enjoying reading about flesh-eating zombies in The Fear by Charlie Higson (see Book Review: The Fear by Charlie Higson), while in my local supermarket I saw Zombie Apocalypse! by Stephen Jones. With the stereotypical title “Zombie Apocalypse!” and front cover (depicting London is ruins in the background and zombies with bloody mouths in the forefront) I nearly put it back on the shelf. But then I read the back and it revealed the story would be told through the medium of eyewitness narratives through text messages, official reports, blogs, letters, diaries, etc. It looked interesting so I picked it up.

The opening chapter was long and dull but I read on hoping it would get better. The general storyline is that the New Festival of Britain is taking place in South London. In order to create a festival site they choose to dig up the graves at All Hallows Church. In one of the crypts fleas from the bubonic plague are released causing the reanimation virus. The storyline feels a bit disjointed and that’s because various authors wrote different chapters. It appears Steve Jones was just the person that put the chapters together.

As the story continues we are introduced to groups of characters, some of which are killed off or become zombies. The problem with this book was that the characters constantly change meaning you can’t make a connection with any of them. The characters changing is part of the story as the reanimation virus spreads from London to Mexico and various other places around the world. Apart from the odd good chapter I found this book boring in all honesty. Indeed at times I had to force myself to read on.

Towards the end of the book they find a treatment for the reanimation virus however the future of humanity remains unsure with a letter from the Zombiefied Queen of Great Britain.

I was utterly disappointed with the book. Remembering to my gut feeling in response to the cover I shouldn’t have picked it up. Next time I will make sure that I follow my gut feeling.

Write soon,

Antony

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