The Last Plague

The Last Plague #1

by Rich Hawkins

A pestilence has fallen across the land. Run and hide. Seek shelter. Do not panic. The infected WILL find you.

When Great Britain is hit by a devastating epidemic, four old friends must cross a chaotic, war-torn England to reach their families. But between them and home, the country is teeming with those afflicted by the virus - cannibalistic, mutated monsters whose only desires are to infect and feed.

THE LAST PLAGUE is here.

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Fiction, Audiobook, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction

538 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2014

Reviews

[Chris Berko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich Hawkins sure does put his characters through the wringer. Our band of merry gentlemen couldn't even fully enjoy their stag party in the beginning because the aging stripper was way past her prime and her sagging buttcheeks swallowed the back of her thong, I mean c'mon man. While chuckling at that scene I forgot for the briefest of moments that this was a book about a world ending plague that turns the population into hordes of ravenous flesh eating monsters that devour everything in sight, so when the shit finally did hit the fan it took a minute for my brain to catch up. I remembered this was Rich Hawkins and that this guy does not want to make you laugh. This was a very good no-two-mutations-are-the-same story with a lot of action and a few heartbreaking moments. The version I read also contains a short story at the end about a minor character who comes and goes in the middle of the main story that complimented the overall narrative and wasn't just useless fodder. I probably would never had read this if I had not read this author's amazing Black Star Black Sun previously and as you would expect with a book like this there is a lot of axe swinging, gun shooting, and things that go splat but it really is a step above what at first glance looks like a book about zombies. Good four star fun, if you ask me.

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich Hawkins has done it right; a fantastic cover (yes, they are important), a synopsis that is just right – just enough to give the reader a feel for the story, but vague enough to make you want to find out what it’s all about.

At about the fifty to sixty percent mark, I started to think to myself, “please don’t ruin this for me, please don’t ruin this for me”. On several occasions I have been reading a fantastic story, a real mind-blowing story where you don’t really know what’s going on, a real mind-blower that makes you wonder…Where did they come from? How did this happen? And then the author spills the beans. More often than not, the cause never lives up to the possibilities going on in my own mind. Rich Hawkins has kept the magic alive right to the bitter end.

The monsters in The Last Plague are a brilliant creation, and really illustrate Rich Hawkins’ gift of imagery and imagination. It’s easy to go with the standby monsters, we all have an image of a werewolf, vampire and zombies. All the author has to do is mention which monster it is and his/her readers will automatically have a picture in their minds. Rich Hawkins has taken the road less traveled by creating a bevy of his own mutated monsters. His intricate, graphic descriptions allowed me to picture, in detail, these monsters torn from someone else’s terrible nightmares.

All of this hard work would be lost if it weren’t for his cast of characters. There is someone in this cast that most people could identify with, which allows the reader to better connect with the story and bring a more personal connection.

Rich Hawkins has created a horrifying new world that’s filled with death, despair and a tiny dash of hope. This is a world that I would only want to visit through the safety of my Kindle.

[Lizz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

If you’re looking for some Go Nagai level monstrosities, look no further. I’m not going to tell you that this is an amazing work of art, it’s not, but it’s good old fashioned gory gloopy fun.

[myreadingescapism · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gooooood grief, how can you possibly make the zombie apocalypse boring? Have your characters complain and be absolutely boring before anything even happens! I was happy to have the world end, to end these characters. Good grief.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm well this was okay I guess, not that bad as a horror but it wasn't really my jam. Not the apocalypse-zombie-end of days theme for me but wasn't horrible to listen to

[Nev Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Someone posted something on Facebook a while ago asking what was the last thing that truly scared them. I didn’t have an answer.

I do now."

See here for the full review:

The Last Plague

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this grim book, the characters were funny and sad and the descriptions of the people changing was horrifyingly good.... I'm looking forward to reading other books by this author ;-)

[chucklesthescot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four friends gather for a stag party at a remote cottage and being cut off for the weekend, they are unaware that something apocalyptic has happened until they leave. Everywhere is abandoned but danger is in the air as the men try to find out what is going on.

My issue with this book is that it was slow to get going. It spends an awful amount of time dealing with what they do that weekend-drink, eat junk food, swear and hire strippers. They talk endlessly about their problems and concerns and the controlling partner that one was has. It just goes on and on. By the time we got on the road with these guys I was fed up with their foul mouths and nothing happening. They finally stop at a town that appears deserted and we get page after page of hanging around there waiting for something to happen. I decided to DNF after 50 pages of nothing.

[Luke Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blast of an action horror novel, this is the literary equivalent of being repeatedly punched - in a good way. Think zombies meet Lovecraft's nightmares and all very British. Great fun.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very slow build. The first half is pretty slow. Once here gets rolling the descriptions and world building is good! Very scary premise!

[Badseedgirl]

I am temporarily DNF'ing this book. I am just not in the mood to read it at this point. This is temporary. I will come back to it possibly latter this year.

[J.R. Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovecraft does Romero.

The Last Plague shows the annihilation of the South West of England at the hands of a new terror.
Breaking the mould from the standard zombie story, the creatures are not undead but mutations, each one taking on different monstrous attributes. This allows Hawkins’s imagination to run riot, whilst offering us a menagerie of vile incarnations to stalk through the pages.
Moving from one effective set piece to another the plot drives forward delivering some truly memorable and horrific scenes. The whole train episode is a particular favourite of mine.
The story builds to an effective and shocking climax, whilst leaving enough dangling for a sequel to be in demand.
Horror fans, zombie fans and monster fans will all get a kick out of The Last Plague.

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting invasion/infection mystery. It has Lovecraftian style painted all over it. Love it!

The characters weren`t so unforgettable but we have to admit that it`s an action driven book.

Now I`m really curios about the other books in the series.

[Darren Dilnott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Staggeringly brilliant book from Rich Hawkins. Rich, violent horror at its finest. Great characters in a chilling tale of survival against monstrous infected. Looking forward to the sequel.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

So recently I had to fly back to Australia for a wedding and would be spending ten hours on a flight from Japan. And naturally because I'm built like a giraffe on growth hormones, I had to get a seat with extra legroom which meant sitting on the wing over the plane turbines. So I had a couple options:

1.) I could try and get some sleep amidst the noise of the plane and steadily go insane until I was posed a flight risk.
2.) I could bury my face in some books for a few hours and resist the urge to lose my collective shit.

Naturally I took option 2, bought some cheap e-books on Amazon and buried my face for a few hours while the engines droned in my ears. Of those books, one of them was this here book with the cover that looks like a Lovecraftian porno.

The Last Plague fits into the familiar bucket of Post Apocalypse horror revolving around a global pandemic. Shit's gone sideways, the whole world's gone to hell and the protagonists of the book are just trying to eke out an existence in the wreckage. Except instead of a zombie uprising or a viral outbreak, we have aliens, body horror and a healthy dose of Lovecraft inspired nihilism. So in other words:


We really Cronenberged up the world, didn't we Morty?

The story begins a few days before shit rockets skyward with our four main blokes; Frank, Joel, Magnus and Randy, all going away for a quiet weekend/stag party before Joel's due to get hitched. The weekend passes and even before the two days are up, Magnus sees something in the sky that sends him into a catatonic state. The blokes return to civilisation only to find that the world has gone to hell in their absence. Towns emptied, citizens going feral and bodies and blood everywhere. Naturally it only gets worse.

I'll say this about The Last Plague if nothing else; it is very engaging and easy to get into. The writing is brisk with short soundbyte phrases interspersed between longer sentences that ratchet up the tension a notch. The environments are decently described and elaborated on to give the reader a solid sense of the world. And the monsters designs are just...how do you do that chef-thing with your fingers? They're just:



Hawkins definitely dug deep into his nightmare zone because some of the monster designs are awesomely gruesome and horrifying to mentally put together.

That being said though, outside of the monster designs and the overall atmosphere of the book, the rest of it is just....okay. It's like the initial idea of a cosmic horror apocalypse is just the really awesome seasoning on an otherwise run-of-the-mill steak.

For starters, the story itself is nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. It's your standard apocalypse story down to a tee:
- Shit be totally fucked
- A steadily dwindling party
- Mass killings of randos and minor named characters we only meet once
- An incompetent military
- Humanity being worse than the monsters
It's all so scripted and by the numbers that whenever a new character was introduced, I was mentally ticking down the pages until they died or disappeared. There was even a section early on where a character introduces herself by her full name. Who does that? The only reason someone in a story would do that is if the author knew they weren't going to be around for much longer.

It also doesn't help that the book is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. Or at least feels long. This wasn't a story that needed to go on for as long as it did. After the initial outbreak, the book settles into a comfortable formula that goes like this:
- Enter a new town
- The town is fucked and infested
- Monsters and gore
- Escape
- Military episode
- The military get slaughtered
- Escape
- Rinse repeat
I'm not kidding, the entire book plays out like this over and over and there's only so many on-fire buildings and mutilated corpses and body-horror nightmares I can stomach before I want to jam sewing needles into my eyes just to escape the monotony of it all.

It also doesn't help that the characters are pretty flat overall. Post Apocalypse stories hinge on their characters to do a lot of the grunt-work. Since the world is fucked, it comes down to watching the characters adapt and evolve to their situations and learn to live and survive. But the four main blokes of the story don't really evolve beyond the standard formula of what is required.
We have Frank, the closest thing to a protag we have in the book. A good chunk of the chapters focus exclusively on him and his attempts to rescue and protect a girl - Florence - whose parents where eaten by the infected before her eyes. Frank's personality can best be described as "suffering from a case of Chronic Hero Syndrome". His backstory involves a dead daughter, whom he projects Florence onto but his character never really rises above that. There's also the matter of his missing wife whom you can tell from the get-go he won't ever see again.
Then there's Randy, the party animal of the group. He lives at home with his parents, is loud and boisterous, drinks and eats like a pig, becomes the resident angry violent bastard of the group and goes out the way you'd expect.
Joel is probably the most flat of the characters, if only because he's so milquetoast and mild you may as well rename him to "Boring Magee". He's quietly religious and has some moments of a crisis of faith throughout the book that never go anywhere. His goal is to find his missing fiancee whose only real character trait is that she's Polish. And ultimately he was the character I had the least amount of investment in.
Then there's Magnus. Now if there was one character I actually had some real investment in, it was Magnus. Of all the characters, his story was probably the most complex and conflicted. He was the first to be exposed to the alien presence in the sky. He gets infected early on and develops a hivemind connection to the horde. His goal is find his family is a mixed blessing, because his family life sucks due to his wife's Bipolar Disorder. And he's experiences nightmares that come across as more than a little prophetic. So when he was the first to up and pop his clogs I was all like:



You took the deepest, most interesting character in the book and threw him to the wolves? Rudeness!

The book also came with a novella - AWOL - attached but honestly after the end of the main story, I didn't really care all that much. The novella is about one of the minor characters from the main story (a soldier named Guppy) and his quest to find his family, but given that I didn't care for Guppy in the main story and that his ending - which I skipped to - happened as I expected, I didn't think I was missing out on much.

All that and a bag of chips being said though, I can't say I ever found The Last Plague to be a bad book. It was readable, very rarely bored me even though the plot settled into a rhythm and the disgusting cosmic horror designs kept me engaged if only so I could see what nasty bits of ultra-violence Hawkins would inflict on his characters. But the story is bog-standard, the characters are underutilised and the whole thing plays out pretty much exactly as you'd expect with a few small variations. It didn't light my pubes on fire, but at least it didn't turn my knob into a vagina mouth with a drooling tongue.

[Madeleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy and enjoyable read!

“I can hear the people inside it. They’re talking to me. Can’t you hear them?” “What are they saying?” Frank asked. “They want to absorb us. Eat us.” “That’s good to know,” said Ralph.



[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a Zombie novel, but something more exciting. I don't want to go to a spoiler territory, but those who like Lovecraft, apocalypse and Saving Private Ryan, won't be disappointed. A combination your don't see very often, or not at all.

I liked the way Hawkins introduced our main characters, something like from Stephen King Dreamcatcher and adding the british touch to the mix. Actually this holds much better than King's book at the end, not bad for a debut writer.

This is a very violent, brutal, gorefest infested book, so beware. Of course there's rough edges, it's not perfect. Character's are have depth, but not enough, but that's often difficult balancing act when you combine action and horror to avoid "boring bits".

This is a solid four star book.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a big fan of this book in its original form so I was very happy to see it get a second life with a new publisher. It's criminal that this series hasn't gotten more buzz and attention. Rich has done a great job smoothing out the edges on this as well as make the beginning of the story in particular feel more developed and complex. And as another great bonus, you get a novella set in the universe, following the storyline of a minor character from Last Plague.

I love that this book has the serene bleakness of Stephen King's The Stand while also capturing the frenetic terror of James Cameron's Aliens. It's a great cornerstone in a genre which many have traveled before.

[Gilliam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A competent but unremarkable horror lark that melds zombie apocalypse tropes with the sort of alien made environmental armageddon that unfolds in David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This bleak and violent novel was difficult for me to get through for many reasons. First, the stag party weekend and all the minutia described was boring and unnecessary. Then there were a few chapters of standing around and waiting, while no one knew what was going on. Thank goodness the action started soon after all of this. And yet, the novel seemed looonnnng to me, even though it really wasn’t.
The Job level happenings that occurred to the group of characters got to be so much for me that I ended up rolling my eyes at the end. There is such a thing as too much, dude.
Also I had a hard time connecting to most of the characters in the main group, besides Magnus and florence. The rest were boring, flat, underutilized, and interchangeable, or annoying a.f. Especially Randy. What he had against Florence, I have no idea.
And the author’s description of one of the main character’s wives disgusted me. Not because the lurid details and his own personal feelings about this type of person that went far beyond the pale; but obviously the author thinks that very overweight women are disgusting in all ways, especially during eating, and for sex uses. The fatphobic author really showed his colors about this very plainly, and I’m disgusted by his actions on this.

Audible’s use of the talents of the narrator Jake Urry confounded me, throughout the audiobook as well. Urry’s plumby English accent, and his almost constant rolling of his ‘R’s’ like a Shakespearean actor (especially during the thick of things) would have been more fitting to a classic period novel, or....say, Shakespeare. I mean, who uses this type of narrator for an apocalyptical novel with aliens, and Lovecraftian abominations....? It was distracting, and completely out of place. Give this man a classic novel to narrate, somebody! PLEASE!! He’s GOOD, mind you..... but this was the wrong job for him.

Meanwhile, the massive amounts of monsters were absolutely horrifying, and incredibly detailed in their evolutions....? I guess you could call it? There are some nasty bits of ultra violence, for those who like that kind of thing. I found the ending just ok, but I guess the author set things up for a sequel or two. I sincerely doubt I’ll be reading or listening to it, though. I may have reached my quota of horrors for this month, thank you very much.

3 stars, and only recommended to those who like this kind of novel

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there has been a book that has left me absolutely uncomfortable when going to sleep, it is this book. This book left me having nightmares at the vivid and brutal portrayal of an unknown invasion that takes over the country side and possibly more ... If you love horror and an end of the world scenario this book will give you sleepless nights. I truly can say this is the only book to give me nightmares, not even a film has left me this creeped out, The Last Plague is one goddamn thrill ride ... its The Road meets flesh eating Miyazaki like creations (Spirited Away on ACID) meets the brutality of Hostel ... it also is heartbreaking at times and thats because of the brilliant way this author fleshes out his characters (no pun intended). If you are not afraid to take a chance, I highly recommend a book that will stay with you long after you read it ... trust me it will creep you out.

[シナモロール · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was rather painful, to be honest. Unlikeable characters (including a self-proclaimed "vehement anti-theist"), extremely lengthy descriptions of discusting matter such as snot, feces and other excrement. Some of the dialogue was okay and some of the character interactions were somewhat entertaining.
The story is your typical zombie apocalypse where army gets involved sort of thing, with no real twist to the formula. Some cool concepts were introduced but they were never explored, which could be a good thing since this would've been much longer otherwise, and I didn't have the stomach for it.
Also, one of the characters literally says "This is the Last Plague" near the end, so minus points for that as well.

[Ash Hartwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant look at the final days of Britain. Set in the south of England a group of survivors struggle to make it to safety against an ever increasing menace. The gates of Hell are well and truly open as all manner of abominations stalk the countryside and lay waste to towns and villages alike. A group of friends, away on a stag weekend in the country, are forced to go in search of their loved ones while humanity falls around them.
Will this be the last time I read Rich Hawkins - Hell no. Will I ever go to Salisbury or Sidmouth on holiday, probably not. Mr Hawkins owes the Dorset and Somerset tourist boards and apology.

[IAN SPEIGHT · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gut-wrenching Horror tale this is! One of the best Horror novels I've read in years!
Superb detail, A Rivetingly intriguing post-apocalyptic Tale. This is the first Rich Hawkins
novel I've had the pleasure of reading. It' won't be the last!


A pestilence has fallen across the land. Run and hide. Seek shelter. Do not panic. The infected WILL find you.

When Great Britain is hit by a devastating epidemic, four old friends must cross a chaotic, war-torn England to reach their families. But between them and home, the country is teeming with those afflicted by the virus - cannibalistic, mutated monsters whose only desires are to infect and feed.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

No matter how much of a lover of the apoc/zompoc genre I am, this book was not really my style. It is much more horror than apoc book. Hawkins describes with zest quite an extensive variety of mutations in great detail.

I finished it. Since I have no issue quitting books I don't like, I guess that says something? But honestly, I had trouble remembering which of the major characters was which and I honestly didn't care much about who survived and who didn't.

I listened to this book on audio and the narrator was a little more "ominous" sounding than is my preference but it was fine to listen to.

[Jakob Jasin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greta read, definitely for a mature audience given the language. It's your typical end of the world zombie book, but there's nothing wrong in reading a classic. It starts of kind of calm, and things pick up rather quickly. I won't spoil anything, but it will keep you turning the pages. The ending though was a little lackluster in my eyes, but that didnt detract from the experience that I had with the book. Overall, I'd recommend it to any of my peers for a fun, easy read that isn't overly complicated.

[Matthew Wilkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non-stop death, destruction, and demise

This book was grim, dark, deep, and it pulls you in and doesnt let go, and I loved it.

Rich has an amazing way of making you feel for the characters, in the hope they all make it out and they all survive the sheer mass of flesh and blood that's devouring everyone in sight.

The death descriptions are fantastically gory (if you like that type of stuff), and from start to finish you're hoping, preying they make it out alive.

Wi definitely recommend to anyone.

[Concerto · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a book that someone can read for horror. In my opinion, all of the characters felt dull. The plot did not make sense to me because everything somehow perfectly aligned themselves. For example, one of the main character is about to die, suddenly, another side character pops up from no where and saves the character. This happens multiple times in the book which killed the page turning sensation for me.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: The Last Plague

Author: Rich Hawkins

Publication Date: Aug 2014

Genre: Zombie

Score: 2.5/5

This book was minimally ok. Lots of telling, not much showing. An unknown plague sweeps Britain transforming the infected into alien monstrosities. Four men are having a bachelor’s weekend when it starts. They travel across a horribly changed country. This is a gore-filled book and not for those with weak stomachs. Not great.

[Virdomarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Writing is a bit stilted, seems like a first novel. Quick pace, maybe too much so. The additional novella "AWOL" was better, the author lingered a little more on the more interesting scenes (The Tunnel).

Notable for being based in Britain with normal characters, rather than a special forces soldier in the USA.

Will probably read the next one at some point, author might have improved (As with AWOL)