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Changeling #5
Zombie Dawn
The ultimate battle is approaching. The dark vampire Caliban and his evil sorceress are determined to take over the human world once and for all. Demon hunter Lucien Charron and his kick-ass daughter are readying for the fight. But suddenly Trey has had enough of their unending combat with the twisted Netherworld...
As Caliban's bloodthirsty zombie army takes shape will Trey decide to follow his destiny or turn away? Can the human world survive without the last hereditary werewolf on its side?!
As Caliban's bloodthirsty zombie army takes shape will Trey decide to follow his destiny or turn away? Can the human world survive without the last hereditary werewolf on its side?!
281 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
10 people are currently reading
447 people want to read
About the author
Steve Feasey
17 books157 followersSteve Feasey was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, UK in 1968. From a modest background, he found escape in books, and spent much of his time in his local library. Always an avid reader, he only began writing in his late thirties, but was fortunate to land a publishing deal for his very first book, Changeling.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 21, 2011
When this arrived in the post fresh from Amazon I was so excited I have been waiting for it for what seems like forever. It's the last book in the series so I knew it would be packed with excitement and danger. I was slightly surprised by how small it looked at only 280 pages it's thin compared to the other books in the series, but saying that it is packed out and full of adventure.
Trey is back from the Netherworld and trying to feel like he fits in. He doesn't want to spend his life looking over his shoulders for demons and vampires, but i doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Lucien, Tom, Trey and Alexa learn of a plot concerning Caliban and his sorceress Helde. A zombie army could be emerging and they have to stop it before the world is taken over. With the appearance of old friends and enemies the group are up against it. Can Trey fulfill the prophecy and put an end to it all for good, it's a lot to ask from a teenage boy, but being a werewolf does help!
I was so happy to be back into Trey's world, I slipped right back in as if being welcomed home. Tom still stands as one of my favourite characters - he's gentle, kind, honest and caring but with a hard fight in him and a willingness to do anything for the greater good. There to cheer them up when down and there to kick them up the butt when they need it too.
I like that we see Alexa grow as a sorceress in this book, I could really get a sense for her future.
Lucien is great and mysterious as ever, and Trey is everything you can identify with, a lost boy looking for a place to fit in, but willing to risk everything to help his friends. His emotions are raw and easily shown and this helps you to connect to him - makes him feel more real.
The zombie plot is well done and got my spine tingling. I could picture the scenes and i was holding my head in protection. Feasey doesn't play on the traditional 'brains' cry which is over done but gives a new exciting angle.
I really enjoyed this book but am sad the series is over. The ending did wrap up a lot of things but I do feel there are some things that have been left open. It didn't feel like a definite ending (here's me hoping he will revisit it in the future) although that's not likely.
If you love werewolves, vampires, magic, zombies, adventure, action and mystery then this book is for you. Well written and with great pace I read it in one go and loved every minute!
Trey is back from the Netherworld and trying to feel like he fits in. He doesn't want to spend his life looking over his shoulders for demons and vampires, but i doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Lucien, Tom, Trey and Alexa learn of a plot concerning Caliban and his sorceress Helde. A zombie army could be emerging and they have to stop it before the world is taken over. With the appearance of old friends and enemies the group are up against it. Can Trey fulfill the prophecy and put an end to it all for good, it's a lot to ask from a teenage boy, but being a werewolf does help!
I was so happy to be back into Trey's world, I slipped right back in as if being welcomed home. Tom still stands as one of my favourite characters - he's gentle, kind, honest and caring but with a hard fight in him and a willingness to do anything for the greater good. There to cheer them up when down and there to kick them up the butt when they need it too.
I like that we see Alexa grow as a sorceress in this book, I could really get a sense for her future.
Lucien is great and mysterious as ever, and Trey is everything you can identify with, a lost boy looking for a place to fit in, but willing to risk everything to help his friends. His emotions are raw and easily shown and this helps you to connect to him - makes him feel more real.
The zombie plot is well done and got my spine tingling. I could picture the scenes and i was holding my head in protection. Feasey doesn't play on the traditional 'brains' cry which is over done but gives a new exciting angle.
I really enjoyed this book but am sad the series is over. The ending did wrap up a lot of things but I do feel there are some things that have been left open. It didn't feel like a definite ending (here's me hoping he will revisit it in the future) although that's not likely.
If you love werewolves, vampires, magic, zombies, adventure, action and mystery then this book is for you. Well written and with great pace I read it in one go and loved every minute!
June 27, 2024
and they didn’t end up together lol
February 7, 2024
idk czemu mi pokazało że już czytałam
kocham Luciena
kocham Luciena
January 14, 2020
Den her serie er uhyre (pun intended) vellykket.
Mytologien og world-buildingen er på plads og er fuldkommen gennemtænkt. Der er masser af overnaturlige væsner af forskellig art at tage fat på, og med mange overnaturlige væsner er der også mange karakteristika at holde styr på og detaljer, der skal tænkes med i forhold til væsnernes relationer og den måde, de forholder sig både til artsfæller, andre racer og verden i det hele taget på.
Karaktererne, deres personligheder og handlemønstre virker realistiske. Især Treys teenage-liv virker realistisk med de kvaler og den tvivlen på sig selv, der hører til; Trey er, udover at være varulv, trods alt stadig en teenagedreng fyldt med hormoner og konfliktfyldte tanker om sin identitet, både når han er alene og i forhold til især Alexa, som han har et særligt bånd til, men også til de varulve, han genetisk har mere til fælles med, men som han vælger ikke at betragte som sin familie.
Sproget glider og er flydende, og bøgerne i serien er stort set umulige at lægge fra sig, - jeg har læst flere af bøgerne i denne serie i en enkelt sitting, og selvom mit læseår 2020 p.t. tegner godt, er jeg alligevel lidt imponeret over, hvor hurtigt det lykkedes at få serien her læst.
Generelt er her tale om en virkelig vellykket serie, som jeg kun kan anbefale at man får læst.
Mytologien og world-buildingen er på plads og er fuldkommen gennemtænkt. Der er masser af overnaturlige væsner af forskellig art at tage fat på, og med mange overnaturlige væsner er der også mange karakteristika at holde styr på og detaljer, der skal tænkes med i forhold til væsnernes relationer og den måde, de forholder sig både til artsfæller, andre racer og verden i det hele taget på.
Karaktererne, deres personligheder og handlemønstre virker realistiske. Især Treys teenage-liv virker realistisk med de kvaler og den tvivlen på sig selv, der hører til; Trey er, udover at være varulv, trods alt stadig en teenagedreng fyldt med hormoner og konfliktfyldte tanker om sin identitet, både når han er alene og i forhold til især Alexa, som han har et særligt bånd til, men også til de varulve, han genetisk har mere til fælles med, men som han vælger ikke at betragte som sin familie.
Sproget glider og er flydende, og bøgerne i serien er stort set umulige at lægge fra sig, - jeg har læst flere af bøgerne i denne serie i en enkelt sitting, og selvom mit læseår 2020 p.t. tegner godt, er jeg alligevel lidt imponeret over, hvor hurtigt det lykkedes at få serien her læst.
Generelt er her tale om en virkelig vellykket serie, som jeg kun kan anbefale at man får læst.
May 30, 2022
I almost gave this three stars, because I was reasonably entertained for most of it, but the bad ending made me less generous.
This is the shortest Wereling/Changeling book, and feels like there's really not much plot; a lot of it is your basic zombie apocalypse, with some added scenes that aren't really necessary but prove more interesting than the stuff that actually matters. For example, we get a few chapters from the POV of a random boy and his dad during the zombie attack, but once they're rescued, they abruptly drop out of the story; it's too much focus if they're just supposed to be a bystander's view of the crisis, but comes off as too little because they felt like significant characters. There are several trippy scenes of Alexa, Hag and Helde doing magic, which makes it seem like Feasey is more interested in his sorceresses than the werewolf protagonist.
Speaking of Trey...so, Ella shows up and quickly becomes buddy-buddy with him, which is kind of weird, because they weren't super close for the week or so that they knew each other, but whatever. But it turns out that Ella is crazy/evil now, and kidnaps Trey to try and force him to join a new werewolf pack. She has belatedly realized that losing control of her transformations and living outside of a magically-protected commune is hard, which makes me wonder why SHE decided to break up the LG78 in the first place. She not only wants a pack, she's doing the whole Transhuman Treachery thing, talking about how Trey shouldn't care about human lives and how the three (3) remaining werewolves can take over the world once Lucien and Caliban destroy everything.
Seriously, Feasey, Ella's arc was one of the few not-terrible aspects of book 3. Why are you bringing her back just to ruin it?
Side note: Marcus, apparently the only other living werewolf, was flying to England to join the pack, too. Apparently he didn't know about Ella kidnapping Trey, though, which would seem to be setting up a plot where he arrives, sees that Ella is crazy and helps save him. Instead, he's mentioned once and never again. (Incidentally, this plot might have worked better if he or Lawrence was the villain instead of Ella.) I hope Trey at least thought to give him the Amulet of Theiss.
Oh, yeah, Trey doesn't need the amulet to transform anymore. Theiss shows up in a hallucination and berates Trey for thinking that someone of his bloodline actually would. Which is annoying because a.) why did Theiss MAKE the amulet if he didn't need it? and b.) "don't you realize that you're genetically better than everyone else?" is the closest thing Trey gets to a character arc, and it's not exactly an inspiring one.
Anyway, the whole thing is just there to pad the book, since being kidnapped means that Trey can't help with the zombie apocalypse until Alexa rescues him. To be fair, this is kind of done well. Trey had been talking about just leaving the whole supernatural war, and he and Alexa had had a fight, since Alexa was jealous of Ella; this adds up to them wondering if his disappearance was by his own volition, Alexa blaming herself, etc. Part of the problem here is that Alexa was acting like an idiot, but since Ella was crazy/evil, she was retroactively "right." In fact, she acts kind of bitchy a lot in this book, but never really gets called on it.
Like I said, it's all entertaining enough, despite the problems. I particularly enjoyed the scenes focusing more on the zombie apocalypse itself, which are decent if not revolutionary; the magical scenes are also weird and interesting. Everything falls apart near the end, though. The way that they defeat Caliban is actually pretty clever: they . But there are several problems here.
1.) Trey could have done this quickly and easily. Instead, he unnecessarily teleports over to Caliban (which tires Alexa out so much that she faints. Boyfriend of the year, Trey) and talks to him for a few pages. We already know what's he gonna do, so it just bogs down what could have been a cool scene. In another story I would get it: we want the hero and the villain to have an actual confrontation before the final defeat. The problem is, Caliban is one-dimensional, Trey is two-dimensional on a good day, and they have no personal connection other than wanting to kill each other. As a result, all they can do is throw clichéd dialogue at each other.
We also get this:
We get it, Trey, you're part of the Superior Race. Can you give us a reason to care about you, other than your ancestry?
(Also, Trey is naked during this scene, because he turned back from his werewolf form to talk; he didn't want to use his magical telepathy with Caliban because his mind is evil or something. I just want to note the awkwardness of making this "dramatic" confrontation while the protagonist is in his birthday suit.)
2.) Trey didn't need to be the one to do this. Lucien was the main one to fight Caliban, and Alexa came close to giving the fatal blow. At this point, Caliban and Helde are so beat up that I could have killed them. So why exactly did we have this Big Important Prophecy about how Trey needed to be the hero? He honestly doesn't do much in this book compared to the other characters, and like I said, his only arc was "finally accepts that he's Better Than Other Werewolves for no good reason." Which is kind of moot, when the werewolf population is down to two.
The epilogue really continues with the stupid. See, earlier in the book, we mentioned that Caliban's plan (transporting a huge black tower, force field and zombies into the middle of London) was going to reveal magic to the world. It doesn't really feel like the rest of the series has been leading to this, but whatever. Except that apparently, this didn't break the masquerade after all! Lucien got the world leaders to claim that the zombie apocalypse was a terrorist attack, where chemicals made people hallucinate everything and the British government used their secret force field technology(?!) to contain the threat to a smaller area.
A few questions:
1.) Won't people find it suspicious that everybody hallucinated the exact same thing?
2.) Won't people find it suspicious that a chemical attack resulted in so many decapitated corpses?
3.) Does the British government actually have force field technology? 'Cause now people expect them too, and will question if they never use it again.
4.) The PM says that they WILL find the people who committed this attack! But...she knows that it was done by two magical people who just went from undead to dead-dead. Who are they gonna blame for this?
5.) We supposedly need to cover this up to prevent widespread panic, but as someone who remembers 9/11, do you think that claiming a massive terrorist attack that killed hundreds or thousands of people isn't going to do that anyway?!
Also, Lucien is helping the demon lords take control of the Netherworld again. Aren't they all dead? Also, aren't they all evil? Should we be okay with this? And why didn't Caliban ruling the Netherworld factor into the story earlier? Seriously, he, Helde, and one (1) monster were the only ones in Leroth. Why didn't be bring in some guards?
This is all just in the epilogue, so it's a small part of the story. But it's how Feasey chose to tie up the whole series, and it's not very thought-out.
And that's kind of my summary of the series as a whole. The characters aren't very defined, the plot is kind of a mess and things are often executed poorly. They can be fun popcorn books sometimes, so I might even reread them in the future, but they can also be intensely frustrating.
This is the shortest Wereling/Changeling book, and feels like there's really not much plot; a lot of it is your basic zombie apocalypse, with some added scenes that aren't really necessary but prove more interesting than the stuff that actually matters. For example, we get a few chapters from the POV of a random boy and his dad during the zombie attack, but once they're rescued, they abruptly drop out of the story; it's too much focus if they're just supposed to be a bystander's view of the crisis, but comes off as too little because they felt like significant characters. There are several trippy scenes of Alexa, Hag and Helde doing magic, which makes it seem like Feasey is more interested in his sorceresses than the werewolf protagonist.
Speaking of Trey...so, Ella shows up and quickly becomes buddy-buddy with him, which is kind of weird, because they weren't super close for the week or so that they knew each other, but whatever. But it turns out that Ella is crazy/evil now, and kidnaps Trey to try and force him to join a new werewolf pack. She has belatedly realized that losing control of her transformations and living outside of a magically-protected commune is hard, which makes me wonder why SHE decided to break up the LG78 in the first place. She not only wants a pack, she's doing the whole Transhuman Treachery thing, talking about how Trey shouldn't care about human lives and how the three (3) remaining werewolves can take over the world once Lucien and Caliban destroy everything.
Seriously, Feasey, Ella's arc was one of the few not-terrible aspects of book 3. Why are you bringing her back just to ruin it?
Side note: Marcus, apparently the only other living werewolf, was flying to England to join the pack, too. Apparently he didn't know about Ella kidnapping Trey, though, which would seem to be setting up a plot where he arrives, sees that Ella is crazy and helps save him. Instead, he's mentioned once and never again. (Incidentally, this plot might have worked better if he or Lawrence was the villain instead of Ella.) I hope Trey at least thought to give him the Amulet of Theiss.
Oh, yeah, Trey doesn't need the amulet to transform anymore. Theiss shows up in a hallucination and berates Trey for thinking that someone of his bloodline actually would. Which is annoying because a.) why did Theiss MAKE the amulet if he didn't need it? and b.) "don't you realize that you're genetically better than everyone else?" is the closest thing Trey gets to a character arc, and it's not exactly an inspiring one.
Anyway, the whole thing is just there to pad the book, since being kidnapped means that Trey can't help with the zombie apocalypse until Alexa rescues him. To be fair, this is kind of done well. Trey had been talking about just leaving the whole supernatural war, and he and Alexa had had a fight, since Alexa was jealous of Ella; this adds up to them wondering if his disappearance was by his own volition, Alexa blaming herself, etc. Part of the problem here is that Alexa was acting like an idiot, but since Ella was crazy/evil, she was retroactively "right." In fact, she acts kind of bitchy a lot in this book, but never really gets called on it.
Like I said, it's all entertaining enough, despite the problems. I particularly enjoyed the scenes focusing more on the zombie apocalypse itself, which are decent if not revolutionary; the magical scenes are also weird and interesting. Everything falls apart near the end, though. The way that they defeat Caliban is actually pretty clever: they . But there are several problems here.
1.) Trey could have done this quickly and easily. Instead, he unnecessarily teleports over to Caliban (which tires Alexa out so much that she faints. Boyfriend of the year, Trey) and talks to him for a few pages. We already know what's he gonna do, so it just bogs down what could have been a cool scene. In another story I would get it: we want the hero and the villain to have an actual confrontation before the final defeat. The problem is, Caliban is one-dimensional, Trey is two-dimensional on a good day, and they have no personal connection other than wanting to kill each other. As a result, all they can do is throw clichéd dialogue at each other.
We also get this:
"Do NOT call me boy, vampire!" Trey raised himself to his full height and glared back at his arch-enemy. "I am a son of Theiss. A true-blood werewolf. Remember that!"
We get it, Trey, you're part of the Superior Race. Can you give us a reason to care about you, other than your ancestry?
(Also, Trey is naked during this scene, because he turned back from his werewolf form to talk; he didn't want to use his magical telepathy with Caliban because his mind is evil or something. I just want to note the awkwardness of making this "dramatic" confrontation while the protagonist is in his birthday suit.)
2.) Trey didn't need to be the one to do this. Lucien was the main one to fight Caliban, and Alexa came close to giving the fatal blow. At this point, Caliban and Helde are so beat up that I could have killed them. So why exactly did we have this Big Important Prophecy about how Trey needed to be the hero? He honestly doesn't do much in this book compared to the other characters, and like I said, his only arc was "finally accepts that he's Better Than Other Werewolves for no good reason." Which is kind of moot, when the werewolf population is down to two.
The epilogue really continues with the stupid. See, earlier in the book, we mentioned that Caliban's plan (transporting a huge black tower, force field and zombies into the middle of London) was going to reveal magic to the world. It doesn't really feel like the rest of the series has been leading to this, but whatever. Except that apparently, this didn't break the masquerade after all! Lucien got the world leaders to claim that the zombie apocalypse was a terrorist attack, where chemicals made people hallucinate everything and the British government used their secret force field technology(?!) to contain the threat to a smaller area.
A few questions:
1.) Won't people find it suspicious that everybody hallucinated the exact same thing?
2.) Won't people find it suspicious that a chemical attack resulted in so many decapitated corpses?
3.) Does the British government actually have force field technology? 'Cause now people expect them too, and will question if they never use it again.
4.) The PM says that they WILL find the people who committed this attack! But...she knows that it was done by two magical people who just went from undead to dead-dead. Who are they gonna blame for this?
5.) We supposedly need to cover this up to prevent widespread panic, but as someone who remembers 9/11, do you think that claiming a massive terrorist attack that killed hundreds or thousands of people isn't going to do that anyway?!
Also, Lucien is helping the demon lords take control of the Netherworld again. Aren't they all dead? Also, aren't they all evil? Should we be okay with this? And why didn't Caliban ruling the Netherworld factor into the story earlier? Seriously, he, Helde, and one (1) monster were the only ones in Leroth. Why didn't be bring in some guards?
This is all just in the epilogue, so it's a small part of the story. But it's how Feasey chose to tie up the whole series, and it's not very thought-out.
And that's kind of my summary of the series as a whole. The characters aren't very defined, the plot is kind of a mess and things are often executed poorly. They can be fun popcorn books sometimes, so I might even reread them in the future, but they can also be intensely frustrating.
July 25, 2014
Amazing last book of the series. I especially liked the section when Leroth was Translocated from the Netherworld to Fulham Road, Stanford Bridge and Helde activated the Shield and then unleashed the 2 zombie's so that they could zombify humans. The Shield really reminds my or the Dome in Stephen King's "Under The Dome"
June 2, 2018
Great series. Glad to have read it all.
May 1, 2015
Zombie Dawn is the last book in the Changeling series. Lucien’s brother Caliban is hiding in the Tower of Leroth and is working with the sorceress Helde in an attempt to defeat Lucien and his crew, which includes Tom, his right-hand man, Lucien’s daughter, Alexa and werewolf Trey Laporte. If that happens, Lucien will take over the human realm, though legend has it that Trey will be the one who can put an end to his plans.
I’ve really enjoyed this series, and, while I liked this book, I didn’t like it as much as I did the last one. This story was told from the viewpoints of multiple characters as the series has been in the past, but I found myself somewhat bored with the sections that dealt with Lucien and Helde. I also had problems with Helde’s form, I just thought it was odd and a bit goofy. It seems like she should’ve been able to be brought back in some different form, if not human. I also had issues with what happened after the resolution of the fight; I find it hard to believe that things on such a huge scale could be covered up.
I did like the scenes with Trey, who I really liked as a character, especially the ones with Alexa. The first book in the series was given to me and I normally don’t read books with characters who are so young (Trey’s 15). I had thought (hoped) that the series would take place over a year or two and the we’d see Trey get a little older, which I think would’ve allowed for some more from his relationship with Alexa. It didn’t, but I still liked their interactions, for the most part, they’re both pretty mature. I also thought a little twist Feasey threw in with one of the characters was interesting and unexpected, unfortunately, I also felt it was a little farfetched.
So, I wasn’t as in love with this last book as I thought I would be, but I enjoyed the series overall and would recommend it. There could be some scary moments, but I think mature younger readers (pre-teen and slightly older) who like the horror genre would also like it.
I’ve really enjoyed this series, and, while I liked this book, I didn’t like it as much as I did the last one. This story was told from the viewpoints of multiple characters as the series has been in the past, but I found myself somewhat bored with the sections that dealt with Lucien and Helde. I also had problems with Helde’s form, I just thought it was odd and a bit goofy. It seems like she should’ve been able to be brought back in some different form, if not human. I also had issues with what happened after the resolution of the fight; I find it hard to believe that things on such a huge scale could be covered up.
I did like the scenes with Trey, who I really liked as a character, especially the ones with Alexa. The first book in the series was given to me and I normally don’t read books with characters who are so young (Trey’s 15). I had thought (hoped) that the series would take place over a year or two and the we’d see Trey get a little older, which I think would’ve allowed for some more from his relationship with Alexa. It didn’t, but I still liked their interactions, for the most part, they’re both pretty mature. I also thought a little twist Feasey threw in with one of the characters was interesting and unexpected, unfortunately, I also felt it was a little farfetched.
So, I wasn’t as in love with this last book as I thought I would be, but I enjoyed the series overall and would recommend it. There could be some scary moments, but I think mature younger readers (pre-teen and slightly older) who like the horror genre would also like it.
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September 4, 2016I loved this series because it's to do with werewolves, who doesn't love werewolves?
But for me, even though I loved it, I felt that the start of every book, took a while to get going. Like there have been huge gaps between the reading of the books because I do lose heart and I avoid it.
However you do really have to push past that initial stage before the action takes over and it does enthrall you.
And as any good author, with an end of series book (except Darren Shan who leaves you wide open to a lot of 'what ifs') Steve Feasey really did wrap it all up in a lovely, clean bow. Which, when you get to my age and level of reading is sometimes a lot more satisfying than the unknown.
But for me, even though I loved it, I felt that the start of every book, took a while to get going. Like there have been huge gaps between the reading of the books because I do lose heart and I avoid it.
However you do really have to push past that initial stage before the action takes over and it does enthrall you.
And as any good author, with an end of series book (except Darren Shan who leaves you wide open to a lot of 'what ifs') Steve Feasey really did wrap it all up in a lovely, clean bow. Which, when you get to my age and level of reading is sometimes a lot more satisfying than the unknown.
March 4, 2013
A very good end to this series! I'm sad to see this wonderful series end though, after picking this book up this morning, I couldn't put it down until I was finished! Ichoose this rating, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was a very entertaining and interesting read, and I. Would reccomend it to people aged 12-16. While this book was very good, it wasn't as interesting and appealing to me, as certain other books, so that's the only reason for the 4 stars. A very good book overall!
May 3, 2011
review to come
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews