December Group Read- Desolation

[Netanella]

Part 2:

1) What do you think of the zombies in this world and are you upset that there weren’t any fast zombies or runners?

The zombies in this world were cool, and I wasn't upset that they couldn't run. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

2) Project Lazarus is introduced. What do you think the aims of the project are?

The aim of the project is probably embedded in its Biblical name, wouldn't you think?

3) Andrew really shows off his true colors. What did you think of his transformation from affable guy to manipulative sociopath? Do you think that was his nature all along or do you think it became a part of him after the outbreak?

This one is hard to gauge. Andrew may have had sociopathic tendencies before the za. Of course, anyone who's read about the Stanford prison experiments knows that seemingly "normal" people can turn 'bad', if you will, when placed in situations that allow for abuse.

4) We’re left with a broken Jerri. Why do you think she suffered such a fate and why do you think she clings to a dead baby for crying out loud?

Jerri's breakdown in part 2 is where I have problems with the story. I don't get her trip on the "crazy train" at all.

6) Camp 7 – pipedream or hope? Canada – pipedream or hope?

Aren't hopes and pipedreams ultimately the same thing?

[Yammy]

Netanella wrote: "Jerri's breakdown in part 2 is where I have problems with the story. I don't get her trip on the "crazy train" at all. ."

Can we talk about that yet or are we still waiting?

[Netanella]

So Jerri's ride to la-la land in part 2 felt like a cop out to me. I can understand the real mom's breakdown - crazy baby hormones and all that. Gotta make you a little bat-shit.

But Jerri? Nah, I have hard time buying her trip to Andrea Yates land. In Part 1, she's sarcastic bad-ass loner babe, with a cynical comment for most everything. She survives in a god-awful FEMA camp by using her wits. However, put a baby in her lap, and Jerri loses about half of cognitive ability almost immediately. Does the baby look a little gray around the gills? Nope, he must be sleeping. :_) What's that godawful stench? Must have forgotten my deodorant. :_)

And then, of course, baby Jacob is dropped one too many times that even poor addled Jerri has to eventually figure it out! And chang-o, prest-o, Jerri morphs back into the scrappy, independent survivor she once was, using chains and sundry other objects to battle her way to the wilds of the Canadian pipe-dream.

:-)

All of the ramblings above, of course, are grossly exaggerated for the sake of this post. And are, also, how I feel about Jerri.

But you know, if I step back and think about it, the author did a fine job in getting me riled up. That's what I love about a good book - the emotional response to what I'm reading. If I read a book and go, "meh," well then, what's the point of reading? Might as well turn on the tv and vegetate.

[Tammy K.]

Netanella wrote: "..... But you know, if I step back and think about it, the author did a fine job in getting me riled up. That's what I love about a good book - the emotional response to what I'm reading. If I read a book and go, "meh," well then, what's the point of reading? Might as well turn on the tv and vegetate. ..."

I agree.

[Yammy]

Netanella wrote: "So Jerri's ride to la-la land in part 2 felt like a cop out to me."

It didnt feel like a cop out to me as much as did just too sudden. I understand the part that Tammy mentioned about people breaking and (insert fancy medical term that I cant remember here) but I think that the author should have flushed out the breaking down part of her a little more.

for instance, how about making her ass stay inside that camp for a few more weeks and eventually force her to eat the 'pork'? How about making her watch in horror as her friend is black bagged? If you slowed the pace down in the camp and made her wallow in the horrors a little longer then the la-la land would have been easier to swallow.

Before the author gets all on my case, I get it bro, you wanted to show the transformation. but you should have expanded the execution and slowed on the transformation. This was a pretty damn good book so I know you have the writing skills to accomplish it if you tried.

Just as soon as it starts, it stops and she becomes her bad-ass self again. Having a dream where your dead boyfriend tells you that you're crazy doesnt make you sane again overnight. it just doesnt work that way.

Both parts should have been expanded. I know we would've had a 500 page book as opposed to a 300 page book by doing it that way but I think it would be worth it.

Her instant transformations got me riled up to so im glad someone else noticed it. I think the author just wanted to skip the fluff to get us from point a to b but sometimes you need that fluff, bro.

There is my rant. If this was a shit book then I wouldnt care but like netanella said the writing is smooth and i got invested in Jerri's original character. I didn't like to see her go away so cheaply and quickly.


mark- fair warning and real talk -

I don't care about minor typos (hell, just look at my posts) and one re-read will let you catch the few you have. So I'm hovering around a 4.5 right now because you brought back the badass character I liked. If by the time I finish this (tonight) and you make her some weak crazy field mouse who gets led into ANOTHER camp (by Lt. Willow it looks like) then I'm bumping you down to a solid 1 star because you can do better and your readers deserve a better ending.

/end rant

[Tammy K.]

Don't you just love a story that gets you all worked up, emotionally invested in both the characters and the plots outcome?!

[Yammy]

I'm at the part where she busted out of the interrogation room and is talking with Lt. Willow. If she somehow agrees to go with him back to camp 6 (seriously, wtf?) then I'm going to stop reading right now.

Keep in mind that this is the same girl who CHOKED A DUDE TO DEATH with her handcuffs yet she's listening to some guy's ramblings?

[Tammy K.]

Hang on to your seat and keep reading =-O

I recall as a youth watching my mother as she watched baseball on TV.
Like most sports fans she had her rituals when she would watch her favorite team. When her man came up to bat she would stand up in front of her chair, assume a batters stance and try to swing when the batter swung, then she would run in place.... It was comical watching her. But also heartwarming to think about now.
I do not watch much television. It bores me. I have zero patience with so called "modern" shows.
But I read a lot.
There are times, when I manage to find a really good book that I find myself on the edge of my seat, yelling at the characters to run or telling them to do/don't do this or that.
There are times, when I reach the end of a book and I feel so satisfied that I just have to clap my hands and say aloud to author, well done!
I guess reading books has become my "sport".

[Yammy]

Never mind. She didn't do something so stupid plus I got to read a badass boss fight, haha. I'll save my thoughts about the ending until the teacher is ready though.

4.5

Was going to go with 'four' but rounded up because it's Christmas. Okay now onto Day by Day. Yea? Yea? No? Okay. . .

[Mark]

Thanks, Yammy. I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Thanks for the candid response. I didn't flush out the sections more out of concern for the length. Most people shy away from 500 pages. I had to trim a lot of fat, so to speak.

[Netanella]

Mark wrote: "I had to trim a lot of fat, so to speak...."

Noooo...not from the pork!!

[Tammy K.]

Thank you Jason for leading this BOTM. You have provided us some very good questions to stir up thought and conversation. This has been an enjoyable BOTM. :)


1) So we finally saw that there was still a Camp 7. Where you shocked at how it looked? Heck, were you shocked it even still existed?
At first I was pleasantly surprised to see that camp 7 did exist. But after a couple pages it became clear that it too had fallen apart.
I can’t help but to say this again; FEMA and other disaster agencies ARE NOT and Were Never Meant to be a long term solutions.
I feel that the way that the FEMA camps would be what anyone can/SHOULD expect if they plan on relying upon the government to save their bacon.


2) What do you think contributed to Camp 7's conditions?
Limited resources, the wrong kind of leadership (military men with zero civilian supervision), the civilians sitting on their backsides (survivors are only survivors if they battle the odds and fight for their independence.)

3) If Camp 6 continued down the path it was headed before the attack, do you think it would look like Camp 7, something better, or something far worse?
Camp 6 was significantly smaller towards the end, but as they had stated they were running low on supplies.
If Camp 6 reached out to the surrounding survivors in the town (the ones who never when into a FEMA camp) than it might have been possible to make a "community".
Otherwise, they were heading into the same fate as the other camps.

4) Project Lazarus is finally hinted at being a social destabilization weapon used on other countries after the outbreak left America in ruins. Thoughts on this. Do you think they would really bother infecting other countries just to keep them from getting ahead in the game of politics?
This is the part where I parted with Mark on what I feel the surviving government would do.
It doesn’t take much thinking to reach the realization that the USA would ruin any chance of a rebuilding of the nation, if they make war with the surviving nations.
USA would want to have as many of their friends and allies helping them rebuild once the first wave of Zombies died off (Remember the first type are all dead)
I did not buy into this aspect of the storyline.


5) Do you think the US really attacked the whole globe or do you think Lt. Willow was exaggerating?
Like I said in the last question, I didn’t by into the global ‘Scorched Earth Policy’ of attacking other nations.

6) Why do you think Lt. Willow persisted to believe that Camp 6 was still operational even though Jerri told him that was not the case?
Denial

7) With Camp 7 fallen, do you think there are any elements of the old government left and do you think America has a future in the story?
The book did not mention any, however our government is supposed to be "Of the People, For the People" There were still some living Americans. So in a sense there is a ‘potential’ for the resemblance of a Post Apocalyptic America ran with the same or similar founding principles.

8) Jerri makes it into Canada and is offered a home in Regina. She refused the offer and chose to stay in a cabin on the very outskirts of town. Do you agree with her decision? Why do you think she made that choice? Do you agree with it?
The Canadian cop gave me the creeps!
Jerri was wise to make her second chance be one of ‘self reliance’.

9) What do you think of her bitter-sweet ending?
It was a good ending. I felt the book needed a ‘Safe for Now’ ending. It was an emotional read and having Jerri end in a ‘safe’ spot offered an emotional relief/release.

10) Better yet, what do you think happened at Regina as briefly mentioned in the epilogue?
Ok, Mark.. .. the reason the zombies did not survive in Canada is because of the freezing weather?!
Dude, have you not been to the northern half of our nation?
My state gets dang cold. The west coast of my state tends to get more rain and fog. However, once you get past the coastline and start to climb into the Cascade Mountain range, we have pretty cold winters with: snow, lots of below freezing nights, freezing rain, freezing fog, snow flurries, our mountain passes are known to close with little notices due to white-outs.

SO in my mind, I decided that Regina ended up falling because… the Lazarus stain made it into Canada!

I enjoyed this story a lot. It was highly entertaining!
You did a great job, Mark!

[Tammy K.]

The reason I mentioned the freezing of the zombies in Canada was because the Canadian cop stated that they had frozen and ever reawakened .

[Mark]

I'm glad you liked the book, Tammy. Thanks everyone who took the time to read it, posters and lurkers alike! Thanks, Jason, for moderating.

To answer your question, I do plan on a third book sometime next year. It will be a standalone that takes place in Alaska (remember that FEMA map in the prologue?).

A word about Lazarus... Willow was not entirely truthful about the project. The project was never intended to be a weapon. It will be clearified in the next book. Jerri will not be making a reaaperance.

[Yammy]

I already said what I had to say about this book. It was good and I liked the ending.

[Mark]

Thanks, Yammy. Thanks for the review even though it wasn't required. I've been on the R4R waiting list for a while now, so any free reviews are greatly appreciated.

I do have a question for those of you who read both books, which one did you prefer?

Curious,

Mark

[Netanella]

I just finished Degeneration this evening, and I have to say that I preferred it to Desolation. I really enjoyed Andy and Richard.

[Tammy K.]

They both had their strengths and weaknesses.
I enjoyed them both but I favored this one because it has a solid plot resolution.
When I got done with degeneration I was not happy about the ending. But sometimes books end like that, eh?

[Tammy K.]

Jason wrote: "I liked the action and the twists in the first one.

I liked the editing and the FEMA camps in the second one.

If I had to pick, then the first one would win because of the action and the twisted ..."

Well said Jason

[Yammy]

Two different books, bro. One was like a 28 days later outbreak movie and the second was like The Road.

i liked each for what it was.

also I want to add that you need to go hire a real editor for the first book. you're losing a lot of potential because of the community college reject who edited it the first time. your story is solid just commas, word choice and shit need some revision. pm me. I know a girl who does editing but she charges.

[Mark]

Thanks for the different insights. It's really cool to interact with readers and fellow zombie fans!

Yammy, trust me - I'm the first to admit the first book's faults. I even warned Natanella. That will get corrected when the contract gets signed. Both books will get pulled and republished. Things are in the works now. Super excited!

Thanks for the offer, though!

Hope you all enjoy January's pick. Thanks again for the honor.

Regards,

Mark

[Netanella]

Mark wrote: "Thanks for the different insights. It's really cool to interact with readers and fellow zombie fans!

Yammy, trust me - I'm the first to admit the first book's faults. I even warned Natanella. That..."

I took your advice, Mark, and got a later copy of the book that looks to have been re-edited. Although there were still grammatical flaws, it wasn't enough to jar me out of the reading narrative that often. Getting a professional spit-gloss polish to both books will go a long way.

[Yammy]

Mark wrote: "Thanks for the different insights. It's really cool to interact with readers and fellow zombie fans!

Yammy, trust me - I'm the first to admit the first book's faults. I even warned Natanella. That..."



contract?

publisher, sumblisher. don't believe in their editors and contracts. pm me so i can hook you up with becky. She knows what shes doing plus i'll probably get a few bones thrown my way. help a brother out, bro.

[Mark]

Netanella wrote: "I took your advice, Mark, and got a later copy of the book that looks to have been re-edited. Although there were still grammatical flaws, it wasn't enough to jar me out of the reading narrative that often. Getting a professional spit-gloss polish to both books will go a long way. "

Hey, thanks, Netanella for the review. I wasn't expecting that. I'm glad you liked the book. Yes, I know the editing needs more polish, but that will get the attention it deserves when the publisher takes it in their capable hands.

It should have a different cover, new ISBN and everything.

Just be careful... I know how you lot like to grab and add zombie books to your shelves when they pop up on Amazon's freebies, so make sure you don't download it or buy it again in a few months! :)

[Randy]

Sigh. Still not done with the book.

However, I'm surprised there hasn't been any mention on the topic of the FEMA poster at location 3048 in the book.

The FEMA poster says:

"Curfew in effect from 6 AM to 6 PM"

What's up with that? Curfew during the day, but free movement at night?

Or did *I* miss something?

[Tammy K.]

I don't have my copy available at this time, but I'll check that out this evening.
Good catch Randy. :-)

[Mark]

No, they should be flipped, haha. Good catch! I'm glad someone took time to admire my art.

[Yammy]

randy, time to move on and let the past go, bro. just stop reading and move on because its all about Better Stay Dead now.