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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
