An unorthodox tale in which battling zombies is just one of many tribulations for troubled soldiers.
In Beauchemin’s debut sci-fi thriller, a specialized military unit aims to protect the world from recurring zombie outbreaks.
Military personnel assemble in Texas to take part in a mission whose details are secret—even to them. The group includes the story’s narrator, a U.S. Navy petty officer known only as Fritz, and Armstrong, an Air Force senior airman who can’t pronounce the protagonist’s never-stated French name. The assignment turns out to be a training school for the 1st Joint-Service Counter-Zombie Operations Division; its purpose: to contain undead outbreaks that have been happening worldwide. Head instructor Gunnery Sgt. Gunny Riley takes the trainees through standard zombie fare: zombification is caused by a virus, bites are infectious, and anything other than a head shot is a waste of ammunition. The training consists primarily of simulations involving swarms of “notional zombies”—people wearing rubber masks. These exercises aptly demonstrate what could happen in the field, as the slow-moving living dead are revealed to be highly dangerous en masse. As the typically stoic protagonist gets closer to his fellow soldiers, he starts having anxiety attacks, possibly triggered by the idea of inevitably losing someone. When they go on a real-life mission, mental collapse proves to be just as much of a threat as zombie mastication. Beauchemin’s tale is an engaging interpretation of a familiar subgenre. The focus shifts between the undead and the military unit, and the soldiers deal with issues beyond the zombies, such as a hazing incident that lands some men in trouble. The prose is befitting of a naval officer, with its thorough descriptions of weapons and military engagements. But there’s humor here as well, chiefly in the sarcastic—and generally graphic—dialogue, which even includes a few references to walrus genitalia. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t dig very deep into the personal lives of its protagonist or other division members, giving the later, plentiful deaths little emotional impact. The action, however, does get increasingly more intense, resulting in a final act that’s nothing short of exhilarating.
An unorthodox tale in which battling zombies is just one of many tribulations for troubled soldiers.Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5351-9469-3
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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