A fine read for horror fans who think they’ve seen everything in a zombie story.
This sprawling horror debut sees a tight-knit band of Florida natives battle tides of flesh-eating savages.
Dr. Russell Thorn at the Gulf Coast Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Fla., is called into the emergency room to help with an abundance of flu sufferers. When several of them start vomiting black liquid, he calls the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggests a quarantine. The news then reports violence elsewhere in Florida, where people are apparently biting into each other. After chaos erupts at the hospital, the doctor escapes to witness military jets bombing the city. However, this “aggressive containment” can’t stop new victims of Virus X from flying out of Fort Myers’ airport. Soon other states, and Europe, start reporting the arrival of flesh-eating Creepers. In the ensuing panic, regional animosities help unravel civilization quicker than the Creepers alone might have done. Meanwhile, an organized group of people survives in South High School. While patrolling the city in SUVs, they save Thorn’s life and welcome his medical expertise. But they soon realize that the small children and elderly survivors at the school can’t hold out forever. The group decides that Wyoming, with its already low population, could be the safest place in the country. Esposito never uses the word “zombie” but crafts an epic that, at times, rivals hits like Max Brooks’ World War Z (2006). The author’s take on the creatures, for example, is nothing short of glorious: “[A] sick, gurgled scream erupted from his mouth, followed by a stream of black bile.” As he conveys the national scope and consequences of the outbreak, he describes events such as the secession of Texas with compact excellence. He also brings new insights to this familiar tale by portraying his survivors as video gamers; he savvily adds, “In this game, there were no ‘unlimited’ lives, no resets, and no forgiveness.” Frequently, his sharp dialogue gives way to moments of chilling poetry: “[A]n undeniable purpose...pulsed like an electrical stream of frustrated hatred.” Toward the end, however, these descriptive moments stretch into pages, dragging down a tale often filled with incredible twists.
A fine read for horror fans who think they’ve seen everything in a zombie story.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481055833
Page Count: 328
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.
Brown completes his science-fiction trilogy with another intricately plotted and densely populated tome, this one continuing the focus on a rebellion against the imperious Golds.
This last volume is incomprehensible without reference to the first two. Briefly, Darrow of Lykos, aka Reaper, has been “carved” from his status as a Red (the lowest class) into a Gold. This allows him to infiltrate the Gold political infrastructure…but a game’s afoot, and at the beginning of the third volume, Darrow finds himself isolated and imprisoned for his insurgent activities. He longs both for rescue and for revenge, and eventually he gets both. Brown is an expert at creating violent set pieces whose cartoonish aspects (“ ‘Waste ’em,’ Sevro says with a sneer” ) are undermined by the graphic intensity of the savagery, with razors being a favored instrument of combat. Brown creates an alternative universe that is multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth, much as in Frank Herbert’s Dune. This world is vaguely Teutonic/Scandinavian (with characters such as Magnus, Ragnar, and the Valkyrie) and vaguely Roman (Octavia, Romulus, Cassius) but ultimately wholly eclectic. At the center are Darrow, his lover, Mustang, and the political and military action of the Uprising. Loyalties are conflicted, confusing, and malleable. Along the way we see Darrow become more heroic and daring and Mustang, more charismatic and unswerving, both agents of good in a battle against forces of corruption and domination. Among Darrow’s insights as he works his way to a position of ascendancy is that “as we pretend to be brave, we become so.”
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-345-53984-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read...
Marrs’ debut novel traces the stories of five people who find their soul mates—or do they?
Imagine if you could submit to a simple DNA test and then receive your Match in your email. Not just an online date who might be geographically compatible, but a true and unique genetically destined partner. While the potential long-term benefits may seem to outweigh the negative consequences, the system is far from infallible; as any science-fiction fan could tell you, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catastrophe lurking at the other end. Marrs’ novel traces five individuals who meet their Matches under varying circumstances and with widely conflicting outcomes. During the course of their romantic adventures (and misadventures), the entire DNA matching algorithm will prove to be susceptible to hacking, also proving that (gasp!) just because something may be driven by science doesn’t mean that it’s free from the world of human error. The philosophy posed by the novel speaks not just to the power of love and the laws of attraction, but also serves as a commentary on today’s world of genetic exploration. Do these breakthroughs simplify our lives, or do they make us lazy, replacing the idea of “destiny” or “fate” with “science” as a larger power that we don’t need to question? These ideas keep the novel moving along and create a deeper level of interest, since most of the narrative threads are fairly predictable. The two exceptions are the psychopathic serial killer who meets his Match and begins to lose interest in killing and the heterosexual man matched with another man, both of whom must then redefine sexuality and love, commitment and family.
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read all in one sitting.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-00510-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
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