Angela White's The Survivors: Life After War, Book One

Imagine a power mad man hijacking the United States nuclear arsenal and launching missiles with the intent of getting the US destroyed by the retaliation.  Imagine it working. And when the whole world, when all is lost, people trying to survive in the world that's left afterward; a world with no government, no law and where only the strong survive. This is a world where radiation is a deadly threat that one has to regularly guard against, where the population has been massively culled, where women and children are treated as property by most and where there are no police to call. It's The Survivors, and it's Life After War. 

Angela White has given us a masterpiece of disaster. The cities are destroyed. Resources are rare and getting rarer. One of the most important factions in the story can't even find bullets for their rifles, although they practice regularly with their pistols. Tribes of slavers roam the world with no one to stop them. Mutations abound; Creatures affected by the radiation. Giant ants, spiders with more than eight legs, weird birds, it's all there.

But there's more than just the standard tropes featured in every post-apocalyptic story. White includes magic in her world. When I first caught hints of this, I thought I was headed into a setting similar to that of the Rifts tabletop role playing game. So far though, that's not the case. Magic appears to be extremely rare in the world White has created, at least so far.

And I say so far because it seems to me that there is a lot of worldbuilding still not done at the end of the first book. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's just that when I finished The Survivors I was looking forward to finding out more about the use of magic, how it fits in the world and where this is all heading. White has revealed one large group of threats, but not how they'll affect the attempts of another group to rebuild and salvage something possible. The group that we're all following hasn't even decided where to settle yet. They're still exploring, trying to figure out where they can go to live and build a society.

I said that magic seems rare because we don't see much of it, but it may be more common off screen, or become something that future generations who more aptitude for as things move forward (the series is twenty-one books long) or it might not. Magic items may be a thing, or they may not. Magic has some usefulness in battle but it's not enough to win a pitched battle all by itself, unless it is and there's more to see. I mean, it's obvious that there's more out there but we don't know what yet. I'm not even sure if I'm making this more of a big deal than it should be. 

*SHRUG*

I guess I'll figure it out eventually. I plan on reading more of the series. 

That's to say nothing of the characters themselves: Angela is a woman caught between two men. I know that love triangles aren't as popular among some audiences as they are with others and I get that, but this is a love triangle more in the vein of The Hunger Games where it's a side plot than with Twilight where the love triangle is the whole story. Angela goes through an amazing character arc which I won't describe in detail as it would spoil a lot of the story, Angela being the closest thing the story has to a main character.

Angela is out to find her son. They were separated during the war. Along the way she manages to hook up with her old buddy Marc. He helps Angela out and trains her to be a warrior, having  himself been Marine Recon for awhile. It's not exactly a match made in Heaven (read the story to find out why) but it works after a fashion and they end up hot on the trail of her son and the man who helped her raise him. It's a wild premise and a wild ride.

The action scenes in the book are well done. I don't get the impression that White is necessarily a Larry Correia level gun expert, but she knows enough to have a person who uses a revolver reload it with a speedloader and that puts her ahead of a lot of the other authors I've read. A lot of the hand to hand stuff makes sense and it's really exciting so that's a bonus. I have a sneaking suspicion that White may have taken a class or two in some type of martial art. I don't know that, but I did when I was a kid and a lot of what's written here comes across as the way things would actually work. Not that it's all high-flying karate kicks. Some of it reads like a backyard brawl but that makes sense, too. Not everyone has training and some of the people that don't are pretty hard core in their own right. 

So yes, asskickery does indeed abound and that's a good thing. There's a more human side to the story though, too. We get everything from the aforementioned love triangle to mother/son, a conniving bitch, concerned leaders, power mad leaders (not the same person) and animal lovers. White seems to have a solid grasp on the human condition and she puts it into her work.

I have only one complaint about The Survivors and I debated whether or not I should even include it. On one hand, I feel like I shouldn't. It's not about story, or characters, or action or anything I would ordinarily include in  a review. On the other hand, it definitely effected my enjoyment of the book, and that's something I definitely review for. 

So anyway, here it is:

I don't get putting that there. It took me out of the story completely. I mean, commercials are something I'm used to on TV, but not in a book. It took me a day to get back to reading a story I had been enjoying intensely up to that point. I still finished the book and I'm still planning on reading other stuff by White, but that threw me for a loop.

Bottom Line: 4.0 (4.75 if not for that commercial) out of 5 Mutated Ants

The Survivors: Life After War, Book One

Angela White

C9 Publications, 2017

The Survivors: Life After War, Book One is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

HBO's The Last of Us Season One

(First off, the disclaimer:  I haven't played the game. If you're looking for someone to make a comparison between the show and the game you've come to the wrong place. That isn't meant as a slam. I've been a gamer for longer than a significant portion of the American population has been alive. I played Pong when it was the new thing.  I just haven't played _this_ game. I love and respect gamers and I respect their desire to see the games that they love translated faithfully. I'm a Harry Potter fan. I'm a Lord of the Rings fan. My love affair with fantasy starts with The Hobbit. I know what it is when the source material doesn't get translated faithfully. If you're frustrated with something that was added or missing I'm sorry. I don't even know what it is. On the other hand, if you're looking for an evaluation of the The Last of Us television/streaming series as a form of entertainment, then read on and let's have some fun.)

Okay, so...

Wow.

I just finished binging The Last of Us last night. Are you kidding me? That was one of the best shows I have seen in a looooong time. It's weird too, because the first time I watched the first episode I fell asleep ten minutes in, woke up with five minutes left and almost gave up on it because it was too confusing.

This time I watched in on my day off after a nap and didn't shut it off until it was over. I even stayed up until Midnight. I get up early during the week. I fall asleep if I try to stay up that late, unless I'm watching The Last of Us.  As a matter of fact, The Last of Us, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1.) We actually get a look at how things break down and it doesn't skip multiple months. Seriously, I loved the first like seven or eight season of The Walking Dead, but the fact that we had to endure the whole "Oh, I was injured in a coma society fell apart" trope and I hated that about it. Things go from zero to disastrous in about three seconds on screen but we get to witness it. 

2.) I have developed a taste for zombie stories where the zombies don't die and come back. I still like the old-school style, but there is something about a disease that destroys the victim mentally but leaves them physically alive. It's just more believable that way. I love the way Cordyceps works and the fact that it takes a long time to kill its victims, even if the transformation is quick.

3.) They picked the right cast. Seriously, mad props to Pedro Pascal, and Bella Ramsey for their performances and to the people who selected them for their roles. Someone hit the lottery that day because these selections were perfect. Hey Twilight fans! I finally found a Bella that I like.

4.) I love Joel. Dude is a straight-up mensch. He does what he says he would regardless of the cost. Deaths, wounds, fear, starvation, whatever. If you fall under his protection he will fight to his own death to protect you. Threaten him or something he loves and he will kill you till you die to death. Joel is the guy you want with you when the fecal matter hits the rotary air impeller.

5.) I love Ellie. That little girl is hard core. She doesn't always make the right decision, but that's inevitable in any human being, especially in one so young. Her mouth is the worst thing I've heard on a fourteen year old since I was a fourteen year old. That much being said, I know people who could out-swear her when I was her age. I was one of them. We did it because we thoughts it sounded cool and because we knew our parents wouldn't like it and then it became habit. Ellie also does it out of habit.

She's smart though. This is a kid who has been through enough and who has learned from her experiences. She's seen and done things that no human being should ever have to, especially when they're not even an adult yet, but she comes through it stronger. And this young 'un is every bit as dedicated to her own as Joel. I was blown away by this character.

6.) I love the fact that they get the gun play right. Listen, this isn't a book by Larry Correia, where you're going to get endless gun facts, but whoever wrote the script has obviously been around guns before. If you've ever squeezed and trigger and you've watched The Walking Dead and seen the characters snap off multiple head shots with pistols while under pressure (IE something is literally trying to EAT them) then you know what I mean. You don't see the unending parade of miracle shots followed by characters who act like it's all in a day's work. It's realistic and believable. (As a side note, don't sit next to me while watching TWD if you're easily startled. I can get a bit grumpy when things go off the rails like that and sometimes I make enthusiastic comments. I've frightened more than one person with my timing.) And the one time a character makes a stupid comment, he gets called on it. I'm wondering if that wasn't put in there simply because of the way TWD does its gunplay.

7.) I love the worldbuilding.  In a way, The Last of Us uses standard Zombie Apocalypse tropes to fill up its world. Not totally though. The use of a government trying to restore order just works, as does the frontier justice it dispenses. The resistance against it makes sense too. In a weird way, so does the episode dealing with a place having electricity when I wouldn't have expected it to as a sort of byproduct of what was actually attempted. The Law of Unexpected Consequences is a thing in the real world. I love it when it pops up in fiction. too.

8.) They get the often ignored details right. Joel even mentions how gasoline breaks down after a given amount of time. An ambush happens because of something that should have been obvious, yet wasn't but it made sense given context. A menu adjustment happens because it's necessary, even if it isn't pleasant. Things decay. Skyscrapers collapse. I love it.

9.) I hated the ending and that's why I loved the ending. I'm not going to tell you what it was, why it made sense or how it works with the characters and is perfectly in character for the people involved. That would be spoiling. I will say that it made sense in context and I'm not sure if I agree with the way things went down or not. I mean, that was a rough decision to have to make and, well...

Yeah, never mind why or what it was. Just know that there is a five minute (actually probably less) passage in the last episode that in and of itself makes the whole season worth watching. I mean that. 

10.) I don't know how or if this works with the game, but there is room for another season. I want to watch it. I want to know what comes next. I don't know if it will happen or not. I don't know if it works with the game. I'd say we've got better odds of a second season of The Last of Us than we do for a second season of Firefly though. 

AND OMG THERE'S A COMIC BOOK PREQUEL!!! I WANNA READ IT!!!!

And, oh jeez. I forgot about the special effects and make up and the music and the show opening that looks just like the one from Game of Thrones/House of Thrones and...

JUST GO WATCH IT!!!!

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Tainted Loaves

The Last of Us
Home Box Office, 2023

Some The Last of Us related merchandise is listed below. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Franklin Horton's Borrowed World Series

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The life of a book reviewer is a hard one. See, for us it's not always the right thing to do if we want to freak out on  a new series or author we just discovered. I have a backlog of books that people have given me that they want reviewed, and if I take time out to read what I want to read, I sometimes feel like I'm letting those people down. But then I get a gift card from Amazon and I'm like...”Wow that sounds good.” Maybe it's a new author and a new series. And maybe I blow almost the whole twenty five bucks on a seven book series.

But if you're paying attention that means I got seven books for less than twenty-five dollars. They were worth it too.

And I have to admit that my discipline broke down twice here. Not only did I get a book that hadn't been give to me, but I found myself unable to review it immediately. Why? Because I couldn't manage to break away from the series long enough to write it. Seriously, pretty much all my free time for the last however long has been taken up by this one series of books.

I don't feel bad about. As a matter of fact, I'm kind of glad I did it. I'm also bummed that there are only seven books available, but whatever. I've only got like a dollar left on my gift card anyway. Oops. I blew the whole thing on one series. Ah well, I'd do it again.

So now, dear reader, I can see the look in your eyes. You're frustrated because that darn Jimbo guy won't tell you what books they are. You think I should just spill the beans already and tell you all what I'm so excited about. I find that entertaining, because the name of the series and its author are the title of this post! You should already have that information.

And seriously, how fun is it to be a blogger if you can't mess with your audience every once in a while?

Ready?

I'm talking about the Borrowed World Series by Franklin Horton. And yes, the story is about a right-wing gun nut named Jim, but it's not like that's it's only appeal. Okay, maybe that added a bit of enjoyment for a Second Amendment supporter named Jim but hey, no system is perfect, right? And his last name is Powell, so it's not like he's totally named after me.

At any rate...

The Borrowed World Series starts off with a novel named... The Borrowed World. (I bet you never saw that one coming, huh?) I don't really do spoilers, HOWEVER...

It starts off with a terrorist attack against the US and its infrastructure. The terrorists hurt us in a big way. They take down the majorityof the Grid that provides electricity to the US as well as a number of our largest oil refineries. In like an hour or so the entire country goes from thriving to screwed, althought it takes a bit for most people to realize how bad it's going to be.

Our hero, Jim, and his co-workers, Randi, Alice, Gary, Rebecca and Lois are caught in a hotel hundreds of miles from home when the Shit Hits the Fan and have to find a way home through the chaos. It's not easy. The story continues from there.

I loved this series, but it is not for the faint of heart. Horton seems to have researched his subject very well before beginning the series. It has a grittiness, a realisticness that a lot of other works lack. I can see things going exactly the way he describes them in the books. Everything from the choices Jim makes in what he puts in his bug-out bag to how he defends his home. But it's not just that. It's the reactions of common, everyday people as the whole country begins to fall apart.

A man will do what it takes to defend his family. Any parent will do what it takes to feed a child. But what if the supply of food is cut off because there is no fuel for trains or trucks? What if the power is out and the gas is off and there's no way to cook? What happens then? Horton's answer, in not so many words, is that it gets scary.

And I don't mean scary in an Eighties slasher flick kind of scary. I mean, I remember being scared out of my wits by Freddie Krueger as a kid. The Borrowed World, however, is totally different because it's so realistic. I always knew, deep down, that no badly burnt, glove wearing whackadoo was going to come to me in my dreams and kill me. Even if some psycho started chopping up kids at a campground, it would be over the FIRST TIME they killed him. It was all so easy to come down from after the show was over.

Reading the Borrowed World Series is not like that. There is absolutely nothing in the story that is impossible or even that unlikely given the circumstances. Jim and friends struggle with the bad guys and at times with each other. The bad guys really just want what the good guys want, only in most cases they weren't prepared for the inevitable collapse of society. Jim was. He's a prepper who has done an absolute buttload of work ahead of time so that when it all goes down he's got what he needs.

The Borrowed World is definitely dystopic, but it's not all bad. I'd actually refer to Horton's work as flat out superversive. Jim and friends don't have it easy, but they work together to overcome whatever is in front of them. If it seems like there's always something, that's life as a character in a book. I feel for them but I wouldn't want the story to get boring. The bottom line is that they never give up and never give in. And if there is a bit of Southern Justice along the way, then that's what's necessary. (I wonder what my odds of getting Franklin Horton and Jack July together for a drink would be?)

Oh, and don't get too fond of too many of these characters. Horton may not be George RR Martin's long lost little brother, but then again, he might be. Not everyone I wanted to still be here is still here. As a matter of fact, Horton killed off my two favorite characters. I'm not going to tell you who they were, but I think you'll like them too. I think you'll like the whole series come to that. And yes, it was worth the heartbreak.

Bottom line: 5.0 out of 5 Go Bags

The Borrowed World Series
Franklin The Borrowed World Series
Self Published, 2015-2019

The Borrowed World books are available for purchase at the following links. If you click the link and buy literally anything off of Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Why I'm Giving Up on The Walking Dead.

*SIGH*

I know what you're all thinking. "This is going to be one of those posts about the new big bad every week and how it's cyclical and Jimbo is giving us the same regurgitated line that we've heard everywhere else and I'm just tired of hearing it.."

Nope.

We here at Jimbo's are not all about the same old thing. We are not about agreeing with everyone else simply for the sake of doing so. Don't get me wrong. I'm not about DISagreeing simply for the sake of doing so either, but there are definitely times when I've gone against the grain. My Star Wars posts have occasionally received criticism on Facebook. I am apparently the only person on the planet who liked Another Life. I've also done some stuff that was seen in a positive light. My post about the Ghost Busters trailer is one of my most popular, and everyone else seems to agree with me that it looks awesome and I've been thanked over email for my Stan Lee tribute. I'[m not sure why I decided to make this point on this post, but my point is that I am who I am, I like what I like and I don't rely on others for my opinions.

So here's my opinion on The Walking Dead: It sucks now. It's not because of the new big bad every season. I like that aspect of it. I always have. Every story needs a problem and in a post-apocalyptic setting it makes sense that the problem is someone trying to carve out their own empire. Of course, this completely ignores the fact that The Group was always (well, after the first season anyway) looking to care out its own empire, with Rick Grimes in the lead. Speaking as the guy with the history degree there empire building always has its big bad, whether it's the Soviet Union (they want to take your rights away), the United States(those capitalist running pig-dogs have poor people in their country!), the Carthaginians (they're taking over our trade markets!) , the Romans (OMG they're taking over our trade markets!) or whatever. For the story to progress The Group needed to be up against something that was preventing them from doing their thing and succeeding. Those were usually dictators, because the show is written by Americans and has a huge American following and our history teaches us that Dictators are Bad.

No, my problem is not that The Group fought against others and there was always someone else to fight. That's how the real world works. It always has. It always will.

No, my problem is that there is no one left to root for. I am of the opinion that a story, regardless of setting, or even genre, has to be about people the audience cares about. If the audience loves the characters they will be interested in what happens to them. The story is about what happens to the characters. Ergo character we care about = interest in the story.

I'm not some multi-million selling author. I haven't even built a website to rival IO9. Maybe I'm full of crap, but it seems to me that I just discovered the secret to writing a good story.

My point as it relates to The Walking Dead is this:

They've killed off most of the characters I cared about and made the rest boring.

Seriously: Remember when Carol was a psychotic, gun wielding nutcase who murdered two people and burned their bodies just because they were sick? Remember when she killed that little girls whose name I cant remember because she was dangerous to everyone else? Remember how you felt about her? About how you wanted someone like her on your side... probably... as long as she didn't think you were a threat to her or hers?

And now she's been reduced to negotiating deals using a movie projector. She's not borderline crazy anymore. She has lost the edge that made Carol who she was and really just needs to shuffle off somewhere for a nap and not come back for a season or two.

Remember Herschel? Remember how he was a man who would do anything to protect his daughters? How he helped form the government of the first colony? How he was an advisor to Rick and kept him from going too far? Remember his severed head lying in a field with a bullet hole in it?

Remember Negan? Remember him dancing around in front of his followers? Remember how he used to draw others to him? Do you remember how much you hated him? Do you remember how badly you wanted to see Rick put a bullet in his brain? Now he's some schlub in a jail cell.

Remember Maggie? Remember how much she loved Glenn? How she carried a baby to term during the Zombie Apocalypse? How she was the only one who could lead once Rick was gone? Remember her always trying to do the right thing, but doing the necessary thing when she couldn't avoid it? And she's where again? Now, I heard that she'll be back for Season Eleven, but that means she's MIA for the bulk of this season at least.

Remember Glenn? Glenn was the guy I always wanted to be if the ZA broke out. I even loved the fact that he was always in a baseball cap.  He was the gamer. The smart one. The guy with the right moves and the irreverent attitude. Remember Glenn chewing Rick out when he was lost in Atlanta at the beginning of Season One? Remember Glenn escaping time and again using methods that only made sense in hindsight? Remember Glenn loving his woman and protecting her with everything he had? Remember Glenn kneeling in a puddle of headlights and having his skull caved in by Negan?

What about Carl? Remember him barely surviving because he was a kid? Remember him always being slightly off? Remember him delivering his baby sister via C-section knowing it was going to kill his mother but doing it anyway because it was either that or lose them both? Remember hoping that he would finally find his first girlfriend (ok, maybe that was just me.) Remember him dying stupidly in a situation he had faced millions of times before?



Remember Laurie and the mess she was part of that led to the death of Shane? Remember her doing her best to keep things together for The Group before they even started calling themselves that? Remember her carrying Judith knowing it was going to kill her? Remember Rick crying as Carl told him what had happened?

Remember Michonne as an enigmatic loner? Remember her leading two toothless, armless zombies around on chains? Remember her always being off by herself somewhere but somehow always doing something that no one else would think to do or finding something that would save The Group? Why in the blue hell is she a shy retiring type now? How does it make sense for her to be the negotiator? Ok, I'll admit that she isn't boring per se, but dammit she's not Michonne anymore, either.

Remember Daryll? Remember how he was Rick's right hand, the man who carried out the orders, the guy who had the guts to do anything? When is he going to come in out of the woods and matter again?

Remember the Governor? Remember the sick society he had built? The Zombie fights? Ah, nevermind. I was glad to see him get what he had coming. But he's still a missing character that added a lot to the show.

But most of all: Remember Rick? Remember him leading The Group? Remember him longing and struggling to build a place worth living in the ashes of society? Remember how hard he worked to be the man everyone needed to be? Remember him negotiating with Negan to buy enough time to figure out how to defeat him? Remember him flying away in a helicopter that an entire village of people couldn't hear? I get the fact that this one is not the writer's fault. I get that Andrew Lincoln decided to leave the show to be with his family. I respect him for that. I think he made the right decision. It still had a negative effect on the show.

I haven't watched the Game of Thrones TV show because I don't have HBO and I don't pirate but I have read the books. I remember the Death of Sturm and how it made the entire Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy work, even though I hated it at the time. I get that killing off major characters can work. I just question whether or not the show creators have made the right choices along the way.And that, my friends is why I just deleted the Season Ten preview and Season Ten Episode One from my DVR without watching them.

The Walking Dead
A&E, 2010-2019


Some The Walking Dead merchandise is available at the following link:

Richard Hummel's Radioactive Evolution

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I like mashups. They make me happy. So, say, if someone were to cross some LitRPG with a bit of Post Apocalyptic Fiction and maybe toss in a medical technology angle, I think I'd probably enjoy that. Uhh..

Wait...

Richard Hummel already did that.

Radioactive Evolution is a successful mix of all of the above. I really enjoyed this one. And for more than one reason.

I'm a fan of zombie fiction (and I've got a review coming as part of my Memorial Day event that is exactly that) but sometimes I think that modern day authors have forgotten that it's possible to do PA Fic without zombies. I'm glad to note that Richard Hummel remembers.

The Earth of Radioactive Evolution is not a friendly place, even if Jared, our main character, is a pretty friendly dude when he can be. The fact remains that most of humanity lives in the ruins of what went before. Radiation is so pervasive that humans that live on the surface have to have regular boosters of nannites in order to protect themselves from the radiation. The good news here is that they energy provided by the nannites powers their bodies and they have no need for food as long as they're someplace with a high radiation count. I'd hate to be an unaugmented human there, but as long as a person gets the nannites they need, they're okay. Of course, it's not always easy to get the boosters...

So yeah, conflict happens and the people on the surface suffer. They people of the Cities, which are in the sky, appear to be much better off. People on the ground resent them, even though they're the ones who make the boosters. So far, we don't know much about the people of the Cities and they're kind of cardboard cutouts, but this is the first book in a series and I'm thinking that Hummel didn't want to give up all of his secrets in the initial volume. That makes sense. Keeping some things to reveal later is how an author keeps his readers interested. I approve.

Part of what really kept me in this book is the LitRPG angle. Players of just about any MMORPG will recognize the process of improving a character and gradually becoming immune to what were once deadly threats. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a Young Kodiak in the West Commons or a Gorilla in Stranglethorn Vale, at some point the deadly threat becomes chump change. That happens here. Radioactive Evolution is a story of survival. It is a story of character progression and accepting responsibility.

It is also, however, a story of RPG style progression and building a character through fighting and gaining experience. The book refers to the process as absorbing and assigning nannites, but that's basically how it works. I like the method of progression too. If you played World of Warcraft during Vanilla or Burning Crusade and can read Radioactive Evolution and not scream "OH MY GOD TALENT TREE" at least once you're either superhuman or not paying attention. New abilities get added as Jared and Scarlet level up. And get this: It's not an artifact that gets taken away at the end of the expansion either.

*SIGH*

Nope. Not bitter. Why are you asking?

I don't really like to do spoilers, but if I don't mention that Jared finds himself a dragon to bond with early in the story then I'm not doing my job here. Scarlet is just too much a part of the story to leave out of a review. She's more intelligent than a human. She can evolve using nannites as well and she does... a lot. She has this weird function, where she's the carrier of ancient lore, but also doesn't know much about humanity. She's Spock mixed with Kess, with a side of Worf and maybe just a touch of Odo.  (If you're not a Star Trek fan you don't get that. I feel bad for you.)

Fans of the Post Apocalyptic genre will be familiar with the Mad Max type thing where what's left of the world consists of only one type of environment. I'm happy to say that's not the case here. We see cityscapes, wilderness, military compounds, flight and even underground tunnels. There's a lot of variety in places and things. Jared and Scarlet are constantly moving and experiencing different things and different threats. The threats are great, but so are the rewards.

And there are most definitely threats. If you feel safe at just about any point in this story, you're not paying attention. Even some of the things that shouldn't be dangerous are. Jared and Scarlet can run. They can hide. They can fight. The one thing it never makes sense to do is relax. Something is always out there. Something is always watching. In the world of Radioactive Evolution, getting lazy means taking unnecessary risks.

It's fun to watch the two grow together too. They start off not knowing much about each other. They start off not knowing much about each others' species. By the end of the book, they're very much friends and, while they still don't understand each other perfectly, they're getting figuring things out between them. They're learning to relate to others better as well.  I can't wait to see how close they get in the future.

And there will be a future. Or, maybe it's closer to the truth to say there already IS a future. The next book is already out and, while I'm not real sure if I like the fact that the titles are so close together (I recently received a link to the book. It's called Radioactive Revolution and when I first looked at it, I thought it was the same book) I really am excited to read it. There is a lot of story left to be told. I'm guessing there will be more than one sequel, but I haven't read the new one yet so I can't say for sure.

Seriously folks, this one is worth your time and money (Although Kindle Unlimited users can get it for free as part of your subscription). I'd definitely encourage you all to check it out.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Nannite Boosters

Radioactive Evolution
Richard Hummel
Hummel Books, 2018

Radioactive Evolution is available for purchase at the following link:

Reflections on Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

I just got done watching The Day After (directed by Nicolas Meyer for the ABC Television Network, 1983) and it got me thinking. I have watched, read and loved a ton of post-apocalyptic fiction. Today was my first time watching The Day After, but I grew up on the Mad Max movies. The Hunger Games is, of course, set in Panem after a nuclear exchange. The latter two series in the Robotech universe take place in a world that has been savaged by aliens. I could go on forever. Science Fiction fans love post-apocalyptic settings. It's just what we do.

I guess the difference between The Day After and the vast majority of other Post-Apocalyptic settings is that it shows the actual apocalypse and the time before it on a level I've only ever seen exceeded by Jericho. At the beginning of The Day After life as normal is taking place. There is a wedding coming. People are registering for classes. If it weren't for the constant chatter about worsening tensions between the US and USSR from TVs and radios in the background they couldn't have made things more average if they tried. Actually, I'd be willing to bet that they DID try and this was the best they could do. They did a damn good job of it too.

So in a lot of ways, The Day After is one of the few post apocalyptic thrillers that truly shows the cost of the apocalypse itself. The cost of the apocalypse is not just measured in the mess made of a ruined city. The cost is measured in real human beings, shattered families and ruined lives. It is measured in the attempts to come back from the horror of an honest to God nuclear exchange. It's something we've never had to witness on the scale envisioned in the movie and thank God for that, but it is truly terrifying.

I grew up during the time when The Day After was made. I turned seven in 1983. I remember checking books out of the library about military everything. I remember reading about the USS Enterprise (The aircraft carrier CVN-65, not the Galaxy Class NCC-1701) and the nuclear arsenal it carried. I remember watching the news with my dad and my grandpa hearing about some guy named Khadaffi and some bombs that went off in Libya. I was way too precocious and I was reading things I had no business reading at that age. I didn't realize that at the time (what seven year old really understands how young they are?) but I should have waited until I got older. Lesson learned, I guess. I took my daughters to see Wonder Woman and my twelve year old thought that poison gas was fake, so I didn't push her as fast as I pushed myself, right?

What I've never understood though, is why we (I?) like it. I mean, it's exciting and suspenseful. If you don't know what's out there, you don't know what the threats are. If you don't know what the threats are, they could be anything. If you're surrounded by threats, survival becomes a problem. All stories need a problem. Just ask your high school literature teacher. (Mrs. Maloney are you out there?). But why this setting and this problem. What's fun about a setting where ninety-plus percent of the human race is dead?

That's the interesting part for me. I've heard people with doctoral degrees in psychology claim that it's because people wonder about their own death and wonder what the world would be like without them. With all respect due to the people who know what they're talking about, I don't think they know what they're talking about. I seriously think that whoever came up with that thesis never bothered to have a conversation with a real fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. Think about it.

Every fan of the PA game that I've come across thinks that they're Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. We, at heart, are all The Chosen One, who will survive the crisis and restore order to the world. When the world falls we'll be the finest scrounger. When we set up the camp, we'll be the one who leads the defense of it. When the first new crops are grown, we'll be the person who found the seeds. When civilization is re-established we'll be the person leading it. Us. The nerds. The real science fiction fans who grew up reading about/watching this stuff. I mean, I'm even working on a Mafia/PA mashup. My main character is THE MAN... Or he will be if this freaking mob boss quits telling him what to do.

Anyway...

I think the fact of the matter is that the attraction of post-apocalyptic fiction is really a desire to be in charge. We want to run things our way and it's never going to happen that way. Even most presidents don't make the difference they thought they would. We all know that the world would be better off if we could just get rid of the corruption and fix the system. The real problem is that the system is so broken that it can't be fixed. It has to be disposed of and the only way to get rid of it is a nuclear war, or a zombie apocalypse, or an alien invasion, a terrible disease....

You know, whatever caused the thing. It really depends on the writer, but at the end of the day something wiped out everything that came before and this time we're going to start over and get it right. This time, there won't be any corrupt politicians because if they try that bullshit, we'll just feed them to a zombie...

Yeah.

The average post-apocalyptic fiction fan has a heroic fantasy. We're going to save the world. We don't necessarily count the cost because it's just a fantasy, right? I mean, I spent how many hours playing Everquest and slaughtering the orcs in Crushbone? The people in the fantasy don't exist. Except...

Except, I wonder.

Every power mad dictator in the history of history has had a vision of a world (or nation) that he ran himself and how it would be "for the people." They all thought that they would be the one to save the world. Lenin thought he would feed all of the people instead of starving them. Mao thought his Great Leap Forward would put the Chinese economy on par with the economies of industrialized world instead of killing tens of millions. Pol Pot thought that moving backward was best for the people and created his own apocalypse by killing half of its inhabitants in order to murder the educated and save Cambodia. Yes, even Hitler thought that slaughtering millions would prevent them from breeding and result in the eventual evolution of a Master Race that would then improve the world. Every one of them thought they were working for the betterment of the human race (in Hitler's case he had a narrower view of what constituted a human than I do) and they were all wrong. Every last one of them was a disgusting excuse for a human being. None of them should be remember positively by anyone.

And those were the closest we've come to an actual apocalypse, especially with Hitler and Pot. (Hitler killed more people. Pot killed a larger percentage of the population of the territory he controlled. I'll leave it to the reader to decide which is worse.)

So, nerd friends, I guess my point is this: Be careful what you wish for. The cost is too high and the outcome is probably not going to be what you desire. Even if you get what you want it probably won't turn out the way you want. But, as long as we're keeping it to people who don't actually exist I guess we're okay. Just don't let the zombies eat T-dog. I know, too late, but I miss that guy.

Some Post- Apocalyptic entertainment products are available at the links below:

Best Villain Ev-ARRRRRR!!!!!

(There will be spoilers for The Walking Dead below.  I don't mean a couple and I don't mean minor. They're big time and there are oodles and bunches of them. They're unavoidable)

I am an aspiring writer. As of yet, I have not been published and seeing as I'm currently writing this while I should be working on a submission for an anthology, I guess I'm not getting a whole lot closer. That much being said, I do have several kind of goals. (I'm told it's not REALLY a goal unless it includes a date.) I want to be able to write a world spanning epic like Harry Turtledove. I want to write a space battle like David Weber. I want to write a character as complicated as Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Raistlin Majere (Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragonlance Legends, The Lost Chronicles, The Raistlin Chronicles and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. No, the Meetings Sextet doesn't count because it wasn't written by Weis and Hickman.) I want to be able to conceive a universe as optimistic as Star Trek and make it as believable. I want to write an epic as magnificent as the Lord of the Rings. I want to write a Hero's Journey as engaging as Luke Skywalker's. I've had most of these goals for years and I'm still progressing toward them. I may never make it, but there is honor in the pursuit. Today though, today I've adopted a new goal: I want to write a villain that is as entertainingly capricious and evil as Negan.

Negan is a slimy fuck but he's charismatic. He uses methods that can charitably be called questionable. I mean, he crushes skulls with a baseball bat as a method of teaching a lesson. He shows up and within a few minutes he's murdered both Abraham and Glenn. That was one of the most shocking moments I've ever seen on television. Seriously. I mean, I watched the series late (I just finished season seven about thirty minutes ago) and I knew Glenn was going to get it. I remember when the entire internet lost its shit over his death. But dude, I've never seen it done that way. The murder of Glenn and Abraham was as much about theater as it was about killing. Negan killed the two as an example to their friends and to excite his followers.

It's worth mention his other side though. Negan rewards those who support his rule. As big of an asshole as a guy like Eugene is, he's well taken care of. I mean, who else gets to have a video game system after the zombie apocalypse? Who else gets to hang out with the bosses wives? He provides his most important followers with anything they want that he can provide. All they have to do is ask for it.

Of course, his method of acquiring assets is not exactly polite. He forces others to work for him. They have to get what he wants somehow. Whether it's the Kingdom growing produce for him or Rick and the rest of the crew at Alexandria foraging for whatever they can find that he will like, they do it. I find this interesting because basically what Negan does is basically taxing a conquered population but the way it is presented is as the horrible thing that taxation really is. He seizes merely because his position as leader of a group of armed people allows him to do so. It makes us hate him more when he takes more than he should.

While his followers get anything they want, his enemies get hurt badly. He's so twisted that he doesn't even kill the person who wronged him. He kills someone else that the wrongdoer knows while they watch. He imprisons people. Negan tortures the families of those who won't follow orders. If you can think of something horrible Negan has probably done it. Well, except for one thing. Negan does not commit rape.

It's a weird thing. Negan won't hesitate to kill a woman if he feels it's necessary. He has a whole freaking harem of wives. Yet the women are all welcome to leave him if they wish to. He kills a man in cold blood once Negan realizes that said individual is about to rape a woman. Upon walking in on  Mr. Rapey McShitface, Negan pulls a knife and runs it directly through his neck. He does it quickly but with no hesitation and no remorse. Negan then apologizes to Sasha, the potential victim who was in prison for trying to kill him.

The weird thing is that it almost makes him feel more slimy. Negan is not insane, at least not by the legal definition. He knows right and wrong. He is an enforcer of rules and talks about how they're all that are keeping his people alive. He has a twisted sense about of constitutes right and wrong but he definitely has one. And if he sometimes gets a little weird and talks about Lucille, his baseball bat, as if she is a real person, well maybe it's just an eccentricity.

All of this adds up to a leader that people will follow. His methods are harsh toward his enemies but his followers love him. In the climactic battle of Season 7, he is nearly eaten by Sasha, newly turned to a zombie after committing suicide as part of a plan to save her friends. One of Negan's followers gives his life to save him from Sasha. Another follower, Dwight runs out into gunfire to pull Negan to safety. As evil as the man is, he inspires incredible amounts of loyalty in his followers.

Negan calls his faction The Saviors. He believes that he is going to save the entire human race. How he is going to do so given his methodology is something only he seems to make sense to him yet he believes that it will work. It almost seems like he believes in himself as the savior of humanity all on his own. I'm wondering if the writers of the series didn't speak to a trained psychologist or psychiatrist to get an idea of the symptoms of megalomania. Negan genuinely seems to be afflicted with it.

The Negan character is so well written it's disgusting. It should not be humanly possible to  write a villain this well. He's complicated. He's motivated. It makes sense that those who follow him do so. (If you disagree, think about it. Would you rather have a comfortable home and a good meal or a baseball bat upside the dome?) He has a semi-definable goal. He has a twisted code of honor. What a sick, twisted, disgust slimeball shit. Negan says things that should be shocking but coming from him it's just what's expected. He's freaking perfect.

Now listen, a WHOLE FREAKING LOT of the credit goes to actor Jeffery Dean Morgan. That guy can play a villain like a stinking champion. I don't watch awards shows. They're just not my thing. But seriously, if there is a single show that gives awards to American TV shows and hasn't at least nominated Morgan for an award they've lost all credibility. Tell them to shove their award up their ass and stop watching because they no longer matter. The fact remains that the character was conceived by the production team and without them, Morgan wouldn't even have a job.

So long live Negan! I mean, at least until Rick and Company finally hunt this POS down and take him out with extreme prejudice. On one hand, I can't wait to see it. On the other hand, I'll miss this guy when he's gone. He has added a lot to the show. A good hero gives us someone to root for. A good villain gives us someone to root against. Combine the two and you've got one hell of a story. Negan has made a terrific show even better. I can't think of a better compliment.

The Walking Dead
American Movie Classics
2012-2018

Some The Walking Dead merchandise is available at the links below

Marina Fontaine's Chasing Freedom

(First off, my apologies to many people. I haven't really been myself lately and my reading/reviewing has been effected. My only excuse is that I had a roommate that kept up at night like a newborn baby and I couldn't concentrate hard enough to read or write. Follow that up with a thousand mile move, a job search, trying to learn a new job in a field I'm almost totally unfamiliar with and a reunion with my young children that  hadn't seen in more than a year and well... It happens. The good news is that I have sufficiently put my brain back together enough to be able to read more that two or three pages at a time. If you're reading this and I owe you a review IT IS COMING. Life has just been crazy lately. I apologize. Now, on with the review.)

America as we know it is dead. All of our freedoms, from the freedom to worship to the freedom to own guns and even the right to eat what we want have been taken from us. People have been forced to live in cities for "environmentalist" reasons. America is a place where cell phone time is rationed and children born with birth defects are immediately put death. Well, at least in Marina Fontaine's Chasing Freedom it is. The crazy part of the story is that it all seems so possible.

The story here, though, is not one of downtrodden people with a boot on their neck sitting quietly. There is a reason Fontaine has work published by Superversive Press.  This is the story of a fight from the shadows against an unforgiving government. It is a story of cyber warfare and sometimes outright violence. It is the story of people fighting the only way they can against a government that has them outnumbered and outgunned. It is, in its way, the story of the plucky underdog. It is also a story of sacrificing safety and wealth for freedom. Chasing Freedom also asks a question that pops up again and again in literature and in history: Was it all worth it? I won't reveal Fontaine's answer, but at the end of the day, I agree with it.

It's easy to see why Chasing Freedom was nominated for a Dragon Award for Best Apocalyptic Novel. It really moves. The characters live and breathe. I couldn't put this thing down. I read it in a day and was left wanting more. That's not to say that the ending wasn't satisfying. It was. It also made sense and was realistic which is something you don't often see in fiction anymore. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Fontaine's work.

You know that whole "Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental" disclaimer that comes at the front of most works of fiction? It's there, right on page three. I just quoted it directly out of the book. I am totally not rude enough to up and call bullshit here. Nor will I make comparisons between the self-righteous absolutist attitudes expressed by politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton because then I might be tempted to point out the possibility that such things had been intentionally included and I am far too polite to ever utter such a sentiment. Of course, if someone else were to read the book and make such statements I would probably find myself unable to manufacture an argument to dispute them with, but such is life.

The characters in Chasing Freedom are amazingly well done and believable. From fighting a war, to falling in love, to having children they do what most people do. The leaders of the movement understand their roles and do what they must but never quite feel right in the role. The role players play their roles. Pretty much anyone involved in the movement suffers, some worse than others. Fontaine's cast is made up of not just characters but people. Seriously. If only he existed, I would totally sit down with Randy over a beer. Well, if I could get him away from Julie (his wife) for long enough I would.

The part that I enjoyed most about the book is not its dystopian setting, but the hope and resolve of the characters. They're face with a world where it would be easiest to go along to get along. The United States of Chasing Freedom is not the type of place to engender hope for a brighter future. The fact remains that they do. They don't give up. Nothing stops them and the horrors just pile up. Julie and Randy are forced to leave their oldest child to be raised by someone else to protect him. Another character loses a hand. KGB style torture is in common use by the US government and some break, but most don't. Friends die. Bases are destroyed. The fight continues. The characters in the work are people we could all learn a lesson from.

Fontaine's villains have motivations that, from their point of view, make sense even if, from my point of view, they don't excuse their actions. A man that participates in torture in order to provide a good living for his family is not someone I'd hang out with on a Saturday night. That much being said, men have always done whatever they needed to do to get by and torture and murder are not exceptions, even if they are despicable. The key to writing believable villains is, in my mind, providing them with not just an evil act to commit but an understandable reason for doing so. Fontaine nails it. I can somewhat sympathize with one particular villain while still considering his actions to be deplorable. It may be possible to write a villain better than that. If so, I have yet to see it happen.

I do have one complaint about the tome. We see a lot of government agents at the sharp end of the stick, but almost none at the top. Something I've always enjoyed in fiction is the Big Bad. The concept is not totally missing from CF but is really underdeveloped. The president is (appropriately) set up as the over-arching nemesis but has no "screen time" that I remember. She's just kind of out there somewhere fuming offscreen and appointing evil people. Nor do we get to spend much time with the members of the cabinet that coordinate the battle against the good guys. This is far from a fatal flaw but it does irk me just a bit. Having stated that I really did love the book. Oh, and I just bought an e-copy even though one was given to me for free. I will undoubtedly read it again at some point so it's worth it. It really is that good.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 exploding flash drives


Chasing Freedom
Marina Fontaine
Self Published, 2015

Chasing Freedom is available at the link below:

Deidre Gould's After the Cure

Imagine, if you will, a world. A world filled with people who have been cured of a virus that turned them into a zombie. A world where the Immune (who never suffered the disease) are living alongside the Cured (who were zombies not all that long ago). Imagine a world where a greater disease may be lurking hidden.. Imagine, in short the world of Deidre Gould's After the Cure. It is a well conceived world which contains enough plausibility that it actually seems possible. It's a world that I'll never forget. It's also a world that gives me nightmares.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction. I always have. Usually though, there's enough distance between the real world and what I'm reading that it doesn't really soak in past my defenses. I read it, enjoy it and then move on. This one got into my mind and soul hardcore. The premise is that a virus was released accidentally by a scientist who broke protocol and spread before it could be detected. Everything in the ATC universe springs from that one action. What made this one scary to me is that it seems way too possible.

I recently reviewed The Wasteland Chronicles Omnibus by Kyle West. I love it. The difference here though is in real world possibility. The Wasteland Chronicles twisted the Sweet Meteor of Death with an alien invasion. I was well able to suspend disbelief while I was reading the books but once I put it down it didn't really haunt me. After the Cure isn't like that. I'm not against genetic engineering at all. Every fruit known to humanity, including so-called "organic" fruit, has had it's genetics altered through selective breeding for at least centuries if not millennia. The fact remains that protocols exist for a reason and it's way too easy to believe that a scientist would break them because they were overzealous. It hits really close to home.

Gould's characters come to life as well. Our heroine is Nella Rider, an Immune psychiatrist who has been hired to interview two of the scientists who were on the team that invented the virus that destroyed the world. She ends up being a lot more intrepid and resourceful than I would expect out of a big city doctor stuck in a fallen world but that's a good thing. She would not have made it otherwise. I teach my daughters to be strong, proud, tough, smart and brave. Nella is the type of woman I have in mind when I teach the girls that. She is someone I admire and what I want my daughters to be. If there is a higher compliment, I don't know what it is.

Her partner throughout the book is Frank, the defense lawyer. He is a member of the Cured. The book goes through some of the things he experienced while infected (which I won't spoil) and it's not pretty. He is still capable of great acts of intelligence and bravery but his memories are just plain disgusting. What amazes me about this character is how well Gould manages to keep us sympathetic to him while still revealing some of the revolting things that he has done. It helps that he contracted the disease by trying to be a nice guy but I'll be reading this one and trying to extract some techniques for my own writing. Gould really impressed me with this character.

The rest of the cast is impressive as well, both as zombies and just normal people. Something a lot of post apocalyptic fiction forgets is that a lot of the world after an apocalypse would still be just trying to get along. I loved, Mad Max but even in that type of a setting not everyone would be a bad ass. Gould remembers that. There are certainly brave good guys clearing out/ curing the infected and bad guy looters who would probably be good with a gun, but there are also neighborhoods full of people who just want to make a living in their new reality. I like that. I love heroic fiction but it's good to remember that not everyone is a super hero.

Gould also makes the Cured react with revulsion to what they've done. She mentions repeatedly a high suicide rate among those who have survived because of their memories. This is horrifying but it's true to life. Anyone who had been through what these people have gone through would have been damaged by it and they have. It just makes sense. It also adds to the believability of the story. I get the feeling she may have studied some psychology while writing this or before. It shows. She has thought through the consequences of her world and it works.

Speaking of the consequences of the world, Gould does a really good job in other areas as well. There is a clear divide between the some of the Cured and some of the Immune based on attitude. A lot of Immune can't forgive the Cured for what they've done while they were out of their minds and sick. A lot of the Cured can't forgive the Immune for killing infected individuals to protect themselves when the infected could have been cured. There are the predictable shortages that would occur in a fallen world. Perhaps most importantly for the book, all of the above happen to the main characters. This is a way a Chosen One (actually, probably Chosen Two) story, but that status doesn't prevent them from dealing with the same problems everyone else has to.

Somehow I've managed to avoid the fact that this is really a mystery novel with a SF background. That's what makes it great. I don't want to reveal too much and spoil the story. I will say that solving the mystery is not just a personal goal. It has ramifications for literally the entire world. So what we've got here is a cross between SF (zombies) a mystery (the whole plot) and my favorite thing about epic fantasy (literal world ending consequences). It's no wonder I enjoyed it.

Of course, After the Cure suffers from the same problem just about every other novel of this type does. Her virus affects the brain and produces a zombie like brain disability. I guess maybe it's just the nerd in me, but I'd like to see something about how it happens in the book and I don't. There is a characters whose brain is eaten by the virus but that doesn't make much sense either. I could be wrong here, and if so I apologize, but I don't think viruses act like that. If someone's body parts are eaten by a microscopic organism it's generally bacteria and not a virus, but then I don't claim to be a biologist or a doctor so I could be wrong here. Then again, even if I'm right the problem is well within the author's rights to adapt reality to the necessity of story. It's a lot less egregious than what Hollywood commonly does with history on a regular basis. These are all minor gripes though and I intend to hie me off to Barnes and Noble to purchase the rest of the series on payday. The first one was that good.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Missing Bacteria Cultures

After the Cure can be purchased at the link below:

The Wasteland Chronicles Omnibus by Kyle West

One day, I realized that my queue was empty and that I didn't have any more books to review from people who had sent one to me to review. (Not that that's a hint or anything. I mean, sure, if there were an author reading this and they sent me their work they'd be next up. But feel free to ignore that fact if you want. I can always review stuff I've gotten off of Bookbub or Netgalley. On the other hand, I'm always very appreciative of the authors who do submit. I wuvs them and stuff. So if you've got a SF/F story of at least novella length the submission guidelines are to send either a .pdf or a .epub to thatjimboguy@gmail.com and ask for a review. If you add a .jpg of your cover I'll use it at the top of your review. If not, I'll post the review without one.) So, I went back into Mount To Be Read on my Nook and decided I'd dig up something that looked good that I hadn't read yet. Lo and behold, I came upon an omnibus edition by an author I had never read. The Wasteland Chronicles: Omnibus Edition was just chilling on my home page on my Nook looking neglected.  It sounded good and I've been a fan of post-apocalyptic works since probably Mad Max (the original not the new one) and in print since at least Battlefield Earth. This one sounded good. I was right. It's got it all.

Fans of the blog know that I avoid spoilers whenever possible. I'm wondering how possible it's going to be to avoid them this time. There is a lot to these first three books (Apocalypse, Origins and Evolution) and there are a lot of twist and turns. Even when things look like they're getting beter then get worse. West doesn't drop boulders on his characters, he drops entire worlds. In one case literally as the Apocalypse has passed not in the form of a war but in the form of the Sweet Meteor of Death (ok, so he names it Ragnarok) come to crash into the northern United States. Things then go from bad to worse.

The United States government established a bunker system before the asteroid struck. It was believed that the bunkers would provide the manpower necessary to repopulate the United States after the initial shock of the strike and associated environment issues died down and things were back to normal-ish. Then the bunkers started to fall, one by one and nobody, or at least nobody in Bunker 108, where our hero Alex Keener is from, knows why. It is believed that some probably fell prey to bandits. Some others were too big for that to be the case though. Case in point being Bunker 1, home of the President of the United States and his Cabinet. It fell years ago and the reason it fell is a mystery. One day is was there and broadcasting. The next day it stopped. That's all we know at the beginning of the book. The reason later becomes obvious, but I won't say why here.

I mentioned Mad Max earlier and it's a fit comparison. Not so much the battle over fuel per se but the existence of the Wasteland and the danger of traveling. Actually, Alex begins the story on foot and alone in an area with no law and order. That's about as safe as you would imagine under the circumstance. He gets lucky at one point. That's as much as I'll say for now. It really does move the story forward at this point and gets us involved in the larger world.

At first, it's a simple introduction into the wastelands of California. It's much colder there than it would be now because of the dust thrown into the air by Ragnarok. Vehicles are scarce to the point of being almost unheard of. Batteries are considered to be a form of currency. Food is scarce and gangs not only abound but hold most political power goes along with gang membership.

Then things get weirder. We find out about Blights, where fungus grows and monsters live. Eventually we find out where they came from. There is some serious weirdness here, but it explains what happened in Bunker 108 when this whole series started. Then we find out why they're spreading... And I'm revealing too much. Just believe me when I say we end up understanding better because Alex has to understand it.

I like the way this works though. First, we learn about our main character. We start to care about his and his motivations. He shows us some guts. Just as we fall in love with Alex, he moves forward into a world that is much bigger and more complicated than he realizes. I like this for another reason as well: Since Alex doesn't  know much about the world around his bunker we can learn about the environment along with him. This works well because West can tell us what we need to know without info-dumping for pages on end. It's a good technique; enlightening and entertaining.

The rest of the cast is easy to believe and fits into the world nicely. From Makara, the Raider turned good-guy to Anna, the warrior woman with a katana they all fit into the world nicely. They do what they should given their established personalities. They make us care about them. The bad guys work as well: Emperor Augustus of the Nova Roman Empire is an evil man by our lights: He uses slaves and holds gladiatorial games to get rid of his enemies. By his lights though, he is a hero. He has managed to build an empire and establish law and order within its boundaries. He has protected his people from the predation of those from outside his empire and established economic well-being for many. Sure, he's a power mad dictator, but he doesn't see it that way. It's all for the "greater good of the people."

I'll be honest about something here: I bought the books as an omnibus. They work perfectly as a seamless book but I'm not sure how they would do separately. That's not to say that they would be bad, but I actually had to look at the table of contents at what point to find out what book I was on. I thought I was still on the first one and it turns out that I was about halfway through the second one.  There seriously is no definite ending to these books that I noticed. That doesn't make them bad stories. It's just kind of weird.

I do have one other complaint about the works in question: I'm guessing Mr West doesn't have much experience with firearms. Alex carries a nine millimeter Beretta throughout the series. Don't get me wrong. I've been trained on the M9 Beretta. It's not a bad firearm for what it's used for. It's just that it's a handgun and no one in their right mind goes into a situation expecting a problem with a handgun if you have any chance at all to upgrade it. Rifles have longer range and hit harder. The reliance on a handgun is a bit strange. I'm guessing he just didn't know any better.

I have not yet read the last four books but I don't know that I'd start The Wasteland Chronicles in the middle. A lot of the same reasons I gave for liking what I've read so far would make it difficult to catch up if you start in book three or four. West Heinliens his world building wonderfully but his lack of info-dumps and filling in past details may make it difficult to catch up. That's alright though. The first book is Apocalypse. Just start there or with the Omnibus, the way I did.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Batteries

The Wasteland Chronicles: Omnibus Edition
Kyle West
Self Published, 2015

The Wasteland Chronicles: Omnibus Edition and the works it contains are available for purchase at the links below:

Mark Terence Chapman's Aliens Versus Zombies

Remember when you were a kid and you used to have all kinds of silly arguments about who would win in a fight? Would Superman win a fight against Green Lantern? Could an alligator eat a bear or would the bear eat the alligator? What would happen if an elephant fought a tiger? I don't know that I ever argued about aliens and zombies, but those arguments are the first thing that I came to mind when I read the title to this book. I was happy too, because we actually do get to see the aliens and zombies duke it out. It was a childhood dream come true. And yes, Zombies Versus Aliens really does deliver. It's a rock-em sock-em gorefest and it doesn't let up.

I'll be honest in stating that the thing that I love about this book will leave some readers cold. ZVA is a book about an alien invasion done right. It is a rollicking good time. Translated into English for the awareness impaired: If you're looking for weepy literary message fic with the proper message and no plot look somewhere else. If you want a story where the good guys are the good guys and they use guns look here. This is a story about people doing their best to survive in a jacked up situation that gets even worse when the aliens show up. They travel around doing everything themselves and improving their situation however they can. These people work hard. They literally go to war.

Chapman very obviously comes from the George RR Martin school of character development. I'd also be willing to bet that he's watched more than one episode of The Living Dead. He has added what I view as a necessary element of pretty much any zombie story: He will let you get close to a character and then kill them. He has no problem doing so. Given the type of story this is, he needs to. I've always been a big fan of that kind of gritty writing. That kind of story development builds suspense. When I'm not sure if the point of view character that I'm currently reading about; is going to be alive on the next page I get into the story more. I can't help turning the page to find out how things turned out and where the author is taking me next. Chapman delivered a story that kept me engaged and wanting more.

The characters in the book are in some ways more accurately portrayed than what I'm used to and that's a good thing. These are not all-knowing supermen. They are living in a zombie apocalypse at the beginning of the book. They fight, they travel and they loot. It makes sense. They don't necessarily know how to do everything right. When they find a horse most of them don't know how to care for it. They're not expert riders their first day. It drives me crazy when you see a city boy (no offense, I am one.) just jump up on horse and start growing things out of nowhere. When they find an alien gun, they can't figure out how to use it because it doesn't work like a gun that humans would build. They eventually do figure out how to drive an alien vehicle but they get spotted because they suck at it. When they try to blow up an electrical tower it doesn't work at first and they have to try again, etc. They know enough to survive but not much more. I enjoyed that.

Chapman's characters are believable in another respect: They react the way that they should. When two sixteen year old boys go off to fight the aliens they're excited. The veteran in the group tries to calm them down. They fall in love with people of inappropriate ages. They bicker among themselves. Things are never perfect.

Chapman has joined a group of zombie writers that I have seen emerge recently and I really like: His zombies are not some mystical, magical creation. They have become zombies through an airborne contagion that damaged their brain. There is no doubt that a headshot would drop one, but headshots are not necessary. Shot to the torso will kill them and a hit on an arm or a leg leaves them wounded. They're also smarter than zombies in many other stories and learn to use weapons and true ambush tactics. This makes them not only more credible opponents in a fight but also more fun to read about. When the zombies go at it with the aliens it makes sense that they could take a few down. Chapman's zombies move quickly and they can -somewhat- think. It takes a bit of getting used to but it adds a dimension to the story that most other zombie stores miss.

The aliens in the book are believable as well. They're not just cardboard cutouts, but "real" people with real motivations who make mistakes. One of their mistakes comes back to bite them in a major way. They have a lot of advantages but they're not unbeatable even if it takes awhile for them to realize it. They do have the advantages of technology and numbers (remember, humanity has been nearly wiped out by a zombie plague) but they pay the price when they screw up. They get cocky. They fail to do the one thing that would have ended the book in the first chapter but they have a good reason for doing so. They really work.

I'll say this about the book as well: It includes a prologue that I enjoyed and that is also relevant to the later story. Chapman names it "Chapter 0" but a prologue is what it clearly is. It is entertaining, relevant and short all things that a prologue should be. I wasn't happy when realized it had a prologue (I'm not generally a fan) but after I read it I realized that it needed to be there.

My one complaint about this book is the ending. I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say that I had seen it before. I knew exactly where too and one of the characters in the book points it out. I was a bit disappointed by that. It was well foreshadowed and it fit with the story but it left me a little empty. Once for that ending was enough. It almost felt like a cop-out. That much being said, it was still a really fun story.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Exploding Alien Heads

Aliens versus Zombies
Mark Terrence Chapman (http://MarkTerenceChapman-Author.com)
Empty Sea Intergalactic Enterprises, 2015

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