What do you think?
Contagion
A horrific sickness burns across North America like a wildfire leaving millions dead. The infected survivors scour the cities and roads like packs of wild animals, killing any uninfected they find with uncontrolled homicidal fury. Stranded far from home, a father and mother must fight their way across a hostile land to get to their family, and somehow find a safe haven in a world gone mad. This is the first in a series of thrilling novels from a new writer; stories dealing with love and loss, family and friendship, and trying to survive in a land of the dead. Fans of zombie apocalypse fiction will find in this series something they can really sink their teeth into!
- GenresZombies
316 pages, Paperback
Published January 25, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2020
Buddy read with my GR pal hipnoticraQs!
3 1/2 stars, but I'm not sure I'm willing to round it up just yet. I needed more zombie.
Here's what I got: a passive husband who got cheated on, found out about it while on vacation in Paris, came back home to Canada and promptly stepped into a zombie infection across the North American continent. Yeah, he was having a good month. Plus, the infected got him while he was trying to protect his philandering wife. Poor, dead dude.
Presto-change-o, the narrative switches to the wifey. Here, in the second half of the novel, wifey is portrayed sympathetically; she is contrite for her past actions, desperate to get to her kids in the 'burbs of Canada, and slowly morphs into SuperMom à la Sarah Connor of Terminator fame.
I slowly grew to like her and forgot her cheating ways. She was sad; she was determined; she was SuperMom.
And then, I realized that the story was really lacking in the zombie department. Yeah, there are thousands of infected running around, apparently having asphyxiated on phlegm and turned into crazy, snotty freaks. But there's no real emphasis on the monster here; instead the set up appears to be focused on the tension with the raiders (Trey and his gang) and the military camps that keep getting overrun by the infected. I can't recall a single infected being described. There were descriptions of the dying in the airport, and lots and lots of snot, but not the infected once they were dead and turned. (If, in fact, they really died. Not sure about that either.)
Did I like the story. Yeah.
Would I read more? Yeah.
Do I need more zombie? Yeah.
But keep the snot, please.
https://www.deviantart.com/sin-drome/...
3 1/2 stars, but I'm not sure I'm willing to round it up just yet. I needed more zombie.
Here's what I got: a passive husband who got cheated on, found out about it while on vacation in Paris, came back home to Canada and promptly stepped into a zombie infection across the North American continent. Yeah, he was having a good month. Plus, the infected got him while he was trying to protect his philandering wife. Poor, dead dude.
Presto-change-o, the narrative switches to the wifey. Here, in the second half of the novel, wifey is portrayed sympathetically; she is contrite for her past actions, desperate to get to her kids in the 'burbs of Canada, and slowly morphs into SuperMom à la Sarah Connor of Terminator fame.
I slowly grew to like her and forgot her cheating ways. She was sad; she was determined; she was SuperMom.
And then, I realized that the story was really lacking in the zombie department. Yeah, there are thousands of infected running around, apparently having asphyxiated on phlegm and turned into crazy, snotty freaks. But there's no real emphasis on the monster here; instead the set up appears to be focused on the tension with the raiders (Trey and his gang) and the military camps that keep getting overrun by the infected. I can't recall a single infected being described. There were descriptions of the dying in the airport, and lots and lots of snot, but not the infected once they were dead and turned. (If, in fact, they really died. Not sure about that either.)
Did I like the story. Yeah.
Would I read more? Yeah.
Do I need more zombie? Yeah.
But keep the snot, please.
https://www.deviantart.com/sin-drome/...
February 5, 2020
Buddy read with my partner in the zombie apocalypse: Netanella!! (Whose name now pops up in my predictive text)
Sigh..........
This book is like getting a Diet Coke instead of a real Coke. Great idea, but falls short. Almost NO zombie action to speak of. If the author decided to edit this and throw in some zombie violence it would be a great read.
The story behind the source of the virus is great though. Scary believable.
Sigh..........
This book is like getting a Diet Coke instead of a real Coke. Great idea, but falls short. Almost NO zombie action to speak of. If the author decided to edit this and throw in some zombie violence it would be a great read.
The story behind the source of the virus is great though. Scary believable.
February 13, 2019
WOW WOW WOW!!!
I usually do not like zombie type books but I have read so many of my favorite EMP and CME books that I am running out of books to read. I decided to give this one a try and I am so glad I did! It was very different than most zombie books. It was very believable. The thing I liked the best about the book was the fact that the military were not made out to be total losers but the way the book ended.......I don't know. It seems like the second book may make the military into the bad guys. I am very much looking forward to the next book. I am really happy that you finally found time to start writing and look forward to reading anything else you find time to write. Keep up the good work. I may have just found my favorite new author!!!
I usually do not like zombie type books but I have read so many of my favorite EMP and CME books that I am running out of books to read. I decided to give this one a try and I am so glad I did! It was very different than most zombie books. It was very believable. The thing I liked the best about the book was the fact that the military were not made out to be total losers but the way the book ended.......I don't know. It seems like the second book may make the military into the bad guys. I am very much looking forward to the next book. I am really happy that you finally found time to start writing and look forward to reading anything else you find time to write. Keep up the good work. I may have just found my favorite new author!!!
November 12, 2021
It was the title that drew me to the Decimation series. The word has always been problematic for me as it is constantly turning up with two different meanings - to cause severe damage and destruction , or to damage or destroy one in ten. And, as revealed towards the end of the book, nine out of every ten people dying!
Kevin and Stephanie Hayes are returning from a long-planned vacation in Paris. It was planned to put the zing back in their marriage but instead provided the final nail for their marital coffin.
And, just as Kevin figures thing can't get any worse ... they do! A plague has hit the USA and parts of Canada - all passengers are confined to the airports they landed in - until it becomes clear that law and order has completely broken down. Kevin, Stephanie, and brothers Alex and Jamie, takes their chances and start the trek from Toronto towards home in Saskatchewan.
It turns out that the plague has two outcomes, you either choke to death or, not to put too fine a point on it, become a Zombie.
None of the four travellers are Survivalists but they pick up the basics quickly - B&E, looting, car theft, and the indiscriminate slaughter of the infected. It's all very familiar stuff until something happens out of the blue and four become three - the author, Jeff Lorch, is obviously no respecter of the Zombie novel tropes.
The afflicted are a constant threat, as are escaped prisoners and roaming gangs but the book is mainly about how a small group thrown together by circumstance manages to survive in a newly dangerous world where little if anything is as it seems, and safety is never guaranteed.
It is very believable stuff and clearly shows how society depends on lines of supply, law and order and normal humdrum life - take one or more away and there are those, not all of them good people who will thrive, while others scrabble to continue living.
I liked it - except for the end when it descends rapidly into full blown psycho conspiracy mode - the argument seems to be that you are only really free when you have destroyed all controls upon you. It's a simplistic way of looking at it and, tbh, one which doesn't stand up to even cursory scrutiny. "Contagion" goes from good to downright crazy within a few pages.
And I have no idea why the author chose not to mention Donald Trump by name.
2.5 Stars marked up 3 Stars because I enjoyed most of the book.
Kevin and Stephanie Hayes are returning from a long-planned vacation in Paris. It was planned to put the zing back in their marriage but instead provided the final nail for their marital coffin.
And, just as Kevin figures thing can't get any worse ... they do! A plague has hit the USA and parts of Canada - all passengers are confined to the airports they landed in - until it becomes clear that law and order has completely broken down. Kevin, Stephanie, and brothers Alex and Jamie, takes their chances and start the trek from Toronto towards home in Saskatchewan.
It turns out that the plague has two outcomes, you either choke to death or, not to put too fine a point on it, become a Zombie.
None of the four travellers are Survivalists but they pick up the basics quickly - B&E, looting, car theft, and the indiscriminate slaughter of the infected. It's all very familiar stuff until something happens out of the blue and four become three - the author, Jeff Lorch, is obviously no respecter of the Zombie novel tropes.
The afflicted are a constant threat, as are escaped prisoners and roaming gangs but the book is mainly about how a small group thrown together by circumstance manages to survive in a newly dangerous world where little if anything is as it seems, and safety is never guaranteed.
It is very believable stuff and clearly shows how society depends on lines of supply, law and order and normal humdrum life - take one or more away and there are those, not all of them good people who will thrive, while others scrabble to continue living.
I liked it - except for the end when it descends rapidly into full blown psycho conspiracy mode - the argument seems to be that you are only really free when you have destroyed all controls upon you. It's a simplistic way of looking at it and, tbh, one which doesn't stand up to even cursory scrutiny. "Contagion" goes from good to downright crazy within a few pages.
And I have no idea why the author chose not to mention Donald Trump by name.
2.5 Stars marked up 3 Stars because I enjoyed most of the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews