The Infection

The Infection (The Infection #1)

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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76  ·  rating details  ·  1,042 ratings  ·  87 reviews
A mysterious virus suddenly strikes down millions. Three days later, its victims awake with a single purpose: spread the Infection. As the world lurches toward the apocalypse, some of the Infected continue to change, transforming into horrific monsters.

In one American city, a small group struggles to survive. Sarge, a tank commander hardened by years of fighting in Afghani...more
Kindle Edition, 288 pages
Published January 28th 2011 by Permuted Press
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World War Z by Max BrooksThe Zombie Survival Guide by Max BrooksThe Walking Dead, Vol. 1 by Robert KirkmanFeed by Mira GrantPride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
Zombies!
110th out of 800 books — 2,539 voters
14 by Peter ClinesBeyond Exile by J.L. BourneThe Infection by Craig DiLouieDay by Day Armageddon by J.L. BourneThunder and Ashes by Z.A. Recht
Permuted Press
3rd out of 95 books — 23 voters


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Felicia A
While I am not a big fan of Craig DiLouie's writing "style", he can tell one hell of a story. Infection has a similar feel to Tooth and Nail, but is a different story set in a different book universe.

Others have detailed and recapped the story, so I won't, but I have a few comments. The bonded together survivors from the Bradley work well as a unit, and as a newfound family. I was sorry to see that certain of them didn't make it.

Let's face it, at this point, there's only so much you can do wit...more
Jeffrey Getzin
Even better than World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I had to admit I was a little suspicious of this book. It comes from an indie press, with a cover that looks like it was designed by a very talented amateur instead of a seasoned professional.

But I was hooked within sentences. DiLouie has managed to take a tired genre (sorry, but I'm getting a little bored of the zombie apocalypse) and imbue it with exciting new vitality. He does this in precisely the right way: he focuses on the cha...more
Azn
From the beginning I was underwhelmed, it sounded just like any other zombie apocalypse book (zombie defining elitists can suck my dick): depressed characters, end of the world morality, etc... While it was still a great story, just molded from the same pattern of your typical apocalypse book. Then after the middle it gets interesting when the monsters emerged. Then the end was totally made up for the lackluster beginning. The end was action packed and even tear-jerking.
The best part of the nov...more
Travis
I am on a zombie/spaceship/wasteland binge right now and this is in the top 10%.

DiLouie has a very nice scenario which succeeds in not only suspending your disbelief but also feeding the fantasy of "what would I do if this happened to me?" The characters are distinct and he does a good job of speaking in their unique voice. In doing so he gets to explore some existential questions without slowing the pace of the story.

The story goes from good to very good when you find out there is more to it t...more
Aaron
This is the second of DiLouie's zombie novels that I've read and I have to say I'm coming away really impressed. Both The Infection and the other novel, Tooth and Nail, are good reads with plenty of action and character development, but I liked The Infection somewhat better as he adds a deeper story than just the usual survival drama.

NOTE: The Infection and Tooth and Nail take place in different universes and are completely unrelated works. One does hope we see a sequel to Infection though, at s...more
Jennifer
One day, one out of every 5 or so people falls down screaming in a terrible seizure and three days later they wake up and beging eating people. A band of survivors including a handful of military types, teacher, priest, cop, kid, PTA mother and a few others exist by scavenging from stores and moving from place to place in their armored vehicle. The hole up in an abandoned hospital for a while where they learn that is isn't just zombies they need to worry about...there are now weird mutant monste...more
Beau
If you like reading books about zombie apocalypse like Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne, and then I would highly recommend you to read this book. If you have ever played the game Left for Dead two, the book line is almost identical. You have around five to six people trying to make their way through a massive city trying to survive.
A toxic virus have engulfed and infected the whole city in which anyone that has been infected has been turned into "zombie like creatures." His or her main pur...more
Patrick D'Orazio
The Infection starts out with a brief prologue that introduces the reader to the Screaming that initiates the apocalypse. About 20% of the population starts to scream uncontrollably and then collapse, going into a coma that lasts three days. At the end of that three days, those people who fell down wake up, and their only desire is to spread the infection to everyone else by biting and attacking them. The reader is thrust into the story a few weeks after the initial assault and we are introduced...more
Jessica
When I got the book I picked it up right before I had to go out, I remember standing in the kitchen reading the prologue next thing I knew I was pacing back and forth while reading. All I thought was damn this book is freaking awesome! The prologue gives you this uneasy oh crap how much worse will it get feel.

Many zombie books are hopeful and uplifting. The survivors are the light in the darkness and yes that’s true here. The story is usually a hard and difficult journey for them and this also w...more
Procrastinador Diletante
O The Infection é a segunda obra do autor e neste ele já tentou ser diferente. Para começar a história tem mais coisas em comum com o filme "The Mist", podendo até ser encarado como algo que se passa no mesmo universo. Há zombies, sim, mas mais uma vez não são os tradicionais. A própria estrutura do livro é um bocado diferente do anterior, saltando para trás e para a frente no tempo e acompanhando uma série de personagens - um grupo de sobreviventes, mistura de civis e militares, enfiados num ve...more
Netanella
This is not really a zombie book, although it can and has been shelved with most of the post-apocalyptic, crazy cannibals at the end of civilization fiction that seems to predominate my reading list these days.

This book is truly horrific; the writing intense and immediate. DiLouie uses a present tense writing style intermixed with flashbacks from the lives of the main characters that seems to jerk the reader from one visceral scene to the next.

I enjoyed the different take on the zombie - here...more
Heather (HeadshotHeather)
Let me start out by saying, Craig DiLouie's The Infection is not a zombie book. The creatures that the survivors in this tale encounter are not dead (unless I totally missed the dying part and if I did someone please set me straight and my apologies to, Mr DiLouie) The majority of the world's population became infected, went into coma's for 3 days and when they woke up they were vicious man eating abominations. But don't let that little piece of information take you away from considering this ge...more
MsBDiamondDiva1
Again, I have not an inkling why so many people rate books that are horrible so high. This book at the most is a 3 and nothing more.
The things I hate about this book:

1. My main problem is the there isn’t a clue to why the infection is creating these so called abominations. Is this some kind of alien invasion or is there really an infection? O and about to the very end of the book, you realize that some of these alien creatures have the ability to communicate (the speak some kind of language). I...more
Cameron
The beginning of this book really captured my attention. The author does an excellent job of describing an "infection" that basically takes out most of the world in a two day period. That part of the book is frightening and believable. The main characters in the book are also interesting and I found myself wanting to see how this played out for each of them. Now comes the part where my realism gets in the way. At a point in the book the infection that has, until this point, basically turned peop...more
Gareth Wood
An unflinching story about a global catastrophe and the repercussions that follow, The Infection follows several characters who have banded together to survive in a world gone literally mad. The book is very well written, since the author has a definite ability to bring the reader into a scene. I quite often felt that I was there beside the characters as they made decisions or took action. Craig DiLouie is very good at dialogue, so his characters sound distinct and are easy to follow.

The book h...more
Jennifer
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Anthony Fitzgerald
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Genesis Blue
This book follows a group of survivors as they cross the city on their way to find military aid in an armored vehicle. They each have their sob stories, yet they find themselves fitting together in the group as they fight against the Infected, people who have fallen prey to what seems to be an alien infection that causes them to kill and eat the living.

Add to the mix a bunch of bizarre creatures that are the stuff of nightmares and you have a story that should be scary, but isn't something to a...more
Adam
If you have grown tired of the typical zombie novel, then this one may be for you. For me, this book was tough to get through.

Much of the descriptive text was written as if the author was trying to explain scenes directly to the reader rather than incorporating it into the story itself. This threw me out of the story quite a few times.

Some of the settings do not agree at all with the timeline of the outbreak. For example, I don't see how the state of the refugee camp could have devolved so badly...more
Linda
I loved this book but not for the obvious reasons. Yes it was well written. And yes it stuck to fast-zombie lore. But it didn't really add anything that "28 Days Later" or "Resident Evil" hasn't already brought to the genre. What makes this book so special is how it deals with the survivors. Most zed books put the survivors in neat little stereotypical categories, never really develop the characters, or just use them for zombie fodder. But the star of "The Infection" is the survivors. They are s...more
Sharon
3.75
Started out as a 4.5 but in last 20% went down to 3.75

Totally blown away by Tooth And Nail !!!

Loved the majority of this novel and learning about the individual characters backgrounds and turmoils throughout their journey. However ...



*** Possible Spoiler *** I started out enjoying this just as much as Tooth And Nail but the last 15-20% it just lost it a bit for me. I just found it hard to take the zombie/alien take that's all as I wasn't expecting it and it didn't really explain where any o...more
Kristin
This was an excellent find! It was different because it's more of an apocalypse story and not truly zombie. The main characters were well fleshed out. I liked how they split the current action with flash backs for each person.

Another nice surprise is it is very heavy with military moves and fighting. I enjoyed the pace of the action and how it was set off with the "quiet" moments the characters got (which were not a lot).

I couldn't believe it when I reached the end! So-I was excited when I reali...more
Jason
2 Stars

As a confessed post-apoc-a-phile with love for all things undead, I am normally easy to please.

I felt that the overall feel of this novel was forced upon us, it tried to be an atypical zombie novel, to be different and unique, and to not be generic. The beginning of the book was fantastic. I loved the whole people fell down, screamed really loudly.....and then they changed concept. It was well written, engaging, and exciting. Problem is after that the book fell apart. Even with fast movin...more
Kriss Morton
Since I consider this one of my "Best Of 2012" I finally finished my review. It scared the pants off me at least five times so it deserves at the very least five stars!

Everyone who enjoys post-apocalyptic fiction should read this book. This is not so much a "zombie fiction" at least in the traditional idea of what we think of when we see zombie in the genre setting. Sure, it has a shuffling, running, cannibalistic, primal, carnivorous flesh-eating horde hungering after any and all humans left in...more
Holly Ann
Craig DiLouie delivers a harrowing tale of the zombie apocalypse in his novel "The Infection". From start to finish, this book is a fast-paced page-turner which never runs out of surprises.

DiLouie truly shines in his ability to elevate the terror of the zombie apocalypse. He doesn't stop at the stereo-typical zombies, but includes all types of mutated horrors. There are things that don't have names, whose bite spreads mutation that slowly consumes the victim, ravaging their mind and body until...more
Feuerzeug
Infection is a classic zombie apocalypse novel in every sense except the zombies.

The screaming mass of infected people are mixed with alien life forms and what starts as fight and flight evolves into a philosophical battle of good and evil as well as a thriller novel of the tentacle kind.

I am as usual not an adversary to unusual zombies, but Infection is just a bit too action cramped and transparent to get the full five stars. However, it is a most entertaining read.
James
This book was mediocre at best. I really struggled to get it finished. I think I may have been reading too many zombie novels and this was the third bland zombie novel in a row that I read. I might have been burnt out on poor zombie books by the time I got to this. This book uses the infected human version of zombies rather than the living dead variety and has the cause of the infection be rather unique though never fully explained. About halfway through the book, the author adds some sci-fi typ...more
Marc
Lots to like about this book - if you're reading for bloody minded entertainment, the Infection absolutely delivers. Should be sufficient action, drama and pus spewing for any reader.

Among the things I liked :

Instant on: No waiting in this restaurant. You are served a steaming pile of guts from the first few moments.

Unbridled Imagination: certainly not limited to run of the mill zombies. I've read people complaining of lack of realism - I just call endlessly amusing.

No Pat Explanation: the surv...more
Zaci
Started out great, but some of the characters just seemed extremely dumb. We even have a Mary Sue character. She gave me so many facepalm moments.

The story has far too many side characters so it's quite confusing as they all have their points of view in the story.

The story overall is quite boring though, and I couldn't really sympathize with most of the characters before the end of the book.

The end was alright, but could have been much better.

Cant really recommend it, but you should read it fir...more
Teresa
I sure didn't predict that ending, and the book leaves the reader ready for the rest of the story. I found myself depressed after finishing the book. These things could easily happen here, and we are not equipped to handle any of it. I would not be a survivor here, I'm afraid. The book was fast-paced, and the author did not linger on boring background stories and facts. A lot was left to logic to figure out, and it totally works. Mr. DeLouie has quite the imagination! I could "see" these creatur...more
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The Infection (Paperback)
The Infection (ebook)
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The Infection (Beginnings)
The Infection (Audio CD)

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Craig DiLouie is the author of zombie favorites THE INFECTION and TOOTH AND NAIL, as well as THE GREAT PLANET ROBBERY, a science fiction novel, and PARANOIA, a psychological thriller. THE KILLING FLOOR, the sequel to THE INFECTION, was published in April 2012.
More about Craig DiLouie...
Tooth and Nail The Killing Floor (a novel of The Infection) The Great Planet Robbery Paranoia Advanced Lighting Controls: Energy Savings, Productivity, Technology and Application

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