In under 10 minutes, 99.9% of the world's population will be dead… or changed. Conversion is instant. Headshots just make them angry. And they’re getting smarter.
Ken Strickland has made it through the first moments. But his family is still out there.
Can he survive? Can he find them? And even if he does, what comes next? Will they survive? Will they, with the few other survivors they have found, find a way to stop this menace? Or will they simply become a fewmore of the creatures that now rule our world?
One of the most versatile writers around, Michaelbrent Collings is an internationally bestselling novelist, produced screenwriter, and multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist. While he is best known for horror (and is one of the most successful indie horror authors in the United States), he has also written bestselling thriller, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, humor, young adult, and middle grade works, and Western Romance.
In addition to being a bestselling novelist, Michaelbrent has also received critical acclaim: he is the only person who has ever been a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award, a Dragon Award, a RONE Award, and a Whitney award: and he and his work have been reviewed and/or featured on everything from Publishers Weekly to Scream Magazine to NPR. He is also a frequent guest at comic cons and on writing podcasts like Six Figure Authors, The Creative Penn, and Writing Excuses.
I really tried to finish this series as I am never one to be able to not find out the ending, BUT I absolutely could not force myself to keep reading this. By the fourth book I was so tired of the authors on going explanations about the main characters prior experiences to explain the current situations. For example in detail his son's circumcision that had no need to be explicitly written about, or the sound of broken glass had to be broken down to a memory of his, blah blah blah.. Every time anything happens it has to be related to some cheesy memory. Another issue I have a problem with is that the children are the focus of the authors. It is kind of creepy how one of the characters holds the daughter named Hope and the authors writing and things that are said in the books just made me uncomfortable. I just decided around book four that this is horrible and a waste of not only my time but the .99 I paid for it. I never have quit on a series as I said, but this is the first time I've felt like I just can't finish reading this crap!!
The writing isn't bad, but the story... I'm 22% in and we're ?4? hours into some chaotic events with no end in sight. I know it's an omnibus, but being reminded in book 2 of stuff that happened just a few pages ago got old quickly. It would probably be worth someone's effort to edit it down into a single cohesive book, instead of flashing back to things I read earlier today, but, I suppose there's no money in that. It isn't 'sparking joy' [haha] so I'm letting it go.
"They were half-pinned under an SUV that was burning brightly, sending black puffs of smoke into the air like an old West smoke signal, like it was humanity's last chance to ask for help."
At the beginning of this series, almost half of the world's population suddenly turn into zombies and start killing the other half, so there's lots of gore. In fact, this is likely the most gruesome book I've ever read. Right off the bat, we smell "the pungent odor of bowels that had been purged in fear and death" and see a zombie "kneeling over a young girl, yanking loops of entrails out of her stomach." Despite all the gore, the author is initially squeamish when it comes to swear words, although the cussing does increase as the series goes on.
The gross-out moments don't stop with the zombies, either. In a flashback, we also learn that changing diapers is gross: "He could have done without the time he learned the hard way that little boys could pee straight up and if you didn't do some strategic pre-aiming a good deal of that pee was liable to go right into your mouth." Yech.
This series is mainly written in the form of extremely short action-packed chapters which all end on a cliff-hanger (including the end of each book), spurring you on to read more. It reminded me of L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth in this way. So despite the hefty page count, it makes for a relatively quick read. That said, I would have liked it if the author had slowed things down a bit more often. The non-stop close calls do start to tire you out after a while. The characters keep narrowly escaping doom over and over (often via deus ex machina) only to wind up in trouble again and again. These characters certainly have an incredible amount of both good and bad luck.
Our main point of view character is Ken Strickland, a Boise high school teacher who knows martial arts. He's alone versus the zombies at first, but he eventually meets up with other survivors. He first meets a tough-as-nails farmer named Dorcas, then he meets a tough-as-nails cowboy named Aaron. It seemed to me that Dorcas immediately switched from being the tough one to the scared one once Aaron showed up, though. As the series continues, more characters get introduced, including a baby and a small child who remain asleep for most of the time.
You could tell the author did his homework to give us realistic details regarding things like train car decoupling. There's a great scene early on involving a chase through a subceiling which I thought was well done. There are also some great lines sprinkled throughout the book. One of my favorites is "Like being born in reverse, going from blood and light into the darkness again."
There are also some funny turns of phrase such as "a woman who looked like she followed the Countess Bathory bathing regimen" or "Bunk beds with paper-thin mattresses that were covered by burlap bedding designed less for warmth than exfoliation." In another scene, bees fall down as if dead, but they might just be stunned. Ken "didn't plan to stick around and check for tiny pulses" to be sure.
The zombies gain more and more powers as we go on, until they become the most formidable zombies in fiction. Not only are they fast and smart, but they can't be killed by head shots. They're telepathic, they heal quickly, they can transform their bodies, they spit acid, and their various body parts continue moving after being cut off (hey, zombies are unrealistic in the first place, why not go full-on nightmare?). They're basically invincible.
The zombies can also mentally attack anyone who uses a cell phone (but not a walkie-talkie). Since the zombies are such a huge threat, it means there's little time for people to turn on each other like they usually do in post-apocalyptic fiction. When the people in the group do have tension, it's not presented as good versus evil, but rather good versus good, which is always a more interesting conflict.
I can't stress enough how fast-paced this series is. By the time we get well into book 3, only about six or seven hours have passed since the beginning of book 1. The characters have basically been running a zombie marathon with little time to rest or refuel between chase scenes. It makes you wonder how they haven't simply collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
After all the non-stop action in the first five books, the characters finally get a chance to breath in book 6 and the reader gets a chance to learn more about them which was a nice long-overdo change of pace. Book 6 also introduces my favorite character in the series, Mo the mellow Maori Mormon millionaire.
Book 6 and much of book 7 take place in Oregon, although the author seems to forget this at times, telling us interesting facts about Idaho as if that's where we still are. I've got to say again, the plot does feel repetitive. The characters almost get caught by zombies, they escape, repeat. The series would have been better if most of this repetition was removed. There are also occasional head-scratching lines like this one: "Ken wasn't one of those pacifists who believed it was better to put defenseless children in front of a bullet-wielding maniac than it was to put guns in the hands of cops."
Overall, this is a fine action-packed zombie series for readers who don't mind gross-out moments.
Book one starts with a bang, and rushes through a constant barrage of ever increasing “zombies” with every increasing powers, and non stop action and gore. Figured it would level out at some point but it didn’t. There is not one minute of calm.
Too much so. Get a concussion, Break an arm, cut off fingers, keep climbing, don’t bother stopping blood loss, no problem. Carry someone on you back while leaping from windows onto a crane after losing 2 fingers that are still bleeding while the zombies start to spit acid, gain the ability to climb walls, etc
Ummmmmm. Nope
It got worse in book two..
Started skimming then reading 8-10 pages, got worse, skimmed more, read a bit...ugghhh, tried a bit more, aaaaarggghhhhh
I wasn't sure about this book series at first. It was long honestly. It was SO worth it though. I do love zombie books and this did not disappoint. It was genuinely terrifying in...honestly most of the book. I did not hate the ending like I do in most zombie books. The endings always feel like a quick sloppy wrap up in other books, but in this series I Really enjoyed the explanation as to what happened. It was really great. There is a lot of detail about things that happenes prior to the outbreak (character's memories). I skimmed those pages. This book was more set as regular people versus most zombie books where the people are ex navy seals or incredibly buffed out guys that take on the world. It was a much different perspective and was much appreciated. I fully recommend this series!
I had already read the first two in this series, but when the box set was on sale I bought the whole thing. This is a "zombie" story, sort of, with a twist at the end. Loved the characters. Love the plot (except when people I liked died). The plot was great. It kept me up at night. Even the twist toward the very end was pretty good.
One caution: There are a lot of type errors in these books—more than I expect to see in a final published edition. Double words, missing words. A couple of times the character names were wrong. But even with that, the story was good.
The violence is Walking Dead level—lots of blood and gore, lots of dead people. Parents should probably skim it before giving it to their kids.
Holy Hell. Half the world turns into crazed zombie-like creatures in an instant and begin attacking everyone not yet turned. One bite and they instantly turn as well. Cars crash, planes fall and the world is in chaos. A small remnant remain, banding together to escape their doom. But these creatures keep adjusting and changing to overcome any obstacle that the group can manage to put in place. Singly, they are easily defeated, but in groups there is a collective conscience that guides them and it wants what the group has - the two young daughters of a surviving family. As the fight goes on the group loses more members until only a few are left at the very end. A surprisingly good ending to a great story.
Okay this complete saga is an emotional rollercoaster in the extreme. It's an incredibly fast paced journey of several characters following a horrific end of the world as we know it event. But, it's really more than that even. It's a telling of a story of good vs evil, and how even in the midst of the apocalypse, you can find love, laughter, and hope if you fall into the right group of people. What a ride!!!!
I really enjoyed the story, as with all books it had it's flaws that I will not point out. Read it for yourself and form your own opinion. I loved ending though I wish it were a bit longer, not that it was unfinished by any means I just wanted more time with the characters I really enjoyed Christopher and would've loved to learn more about Aaron. Can't wait to read what the author comes up with next.
As the story begins it is a bit disjointed but within a few chapters things begin to make sense and as you follow along the fear is palpable ..taking you from one sad moment of sacrifice to another .. and then at the end of the series ..surprise..what a wrap .. you will either hate it or love it .. either way you will be entertained and what more can you ask for in a good story
Enjoyed this box set very much. Sure, there were some proof reading issues - words missed out, wrong names used occasionally which confused me briefly - but the general story was very good, a different take on the zombie story that made it very interesting. I was sad when it ended - wanted more!
All I can say is, "STRESSFUL!" This is not a series that you cozy up and relax with. No.... the characters in this book (series) do not get a break! This takes place in DAYS. Constantly running, running, running. No explanations, just GO. Short books and short chapters, so that helps a little You want end of the world? You got it.
Zombie led stories are not my normal books but this one was interesting and kept me reading. I like the plot of how the zombies come onto the scene (psychological warfare being prod cast through the airwaves) and I love the idea of using one family that had enough love and goodness that help saved the world from being destroyed. Not a disappointed read!
I don't want to leave a bad review. This book just wasn't for me. I love the dystopian genre and read it all the time. Without zombies! If you enjoy zombie apocalypse books you will probably love this. I read about 1/3 of the series and had to stop. I got this for free and didn't pay attention to what it was about. That will teach me! Enjoy!
You will need an imagination for this book. The story is amazing the characters you really like and it is non stop all the way until the end. The reason for 4 stars is that I did skip bits as it was so fast paced that some of it wen t to memories and it just felt to different in pace. Excellent book tho I would recomnend.
I did find parts repetitive and it took a while to really get a feel for the characters. To begin with it felt like a nightmare where you are running and never getting anywhere. Thought about putting the book several times but I can't leave a book unfinished. Loved the ending.
Well, after finishing this saga, I have to say the it was quite a read. I love apocalyptic type books. I was totally invested it the characters, surprised at the twists and turns. These zombies went above and beyond what we see as a zombie. If you are into all that and love reading Michaelbrent Collings, then this book is for you.
I read the whole collection, but not sure what to say. It was entertaining & intense. My complaints are that it had to much action. I saw the ending coming because of hints, but hoped for something different. It was okay, but not excited.
Its been a long time since I have been totally engrossed in any book. Full blooded action from start to finish. Really enjoyed the experience. THANK YOU!!!
I only paid $.99 for this series. I have paid way more for worse books. This series is very well written and very fast paced. Loved it. Not your typical zombie apocalypse story. Glad I have it a chance.
Fast paced right from the start and continued that way through the series, thought it would slow down but never did. A great story line of struggle, survival, love and loss. Recommend this series to anyone looking for a great read.
Excellent! Kept my attention all the way through. If you like long reads with action and horror this is the one. It has to be constant action to keep me interested.
I felt like this series would never end. Right up to the it looked like a lost cause for humanity. I do give this series a star for imagination . Very different from others i have read. Take your time stick with it, is worth reading
. You just have to keep on reading until you reach the end.. That said, it is a story full of zombie's and kind of a splatter story. But , all action to the bitter end.