Patient Zero
First is Jonathan Maberry's 2009 novel of manliness, "Patient Zero". It follows the exploits of Baltimore cop Joe Ledger as he is recruited by the top secret Department of Military Science and goes on to face a cast of villains that includes mad scientists, Islamic terrorists, and hordes of zombies created by the aforementioned pairing. Their target? The good old US of A of course. And on the 4th or July no less. Oh hell naw.Lucky for us red-blooded Americans, Joe Ledger is the manliest lead character I've read in a while. So manly that I picture any movie version would star Gerard Butler if he weren't a fat guy now, and include many extended scenes of gunfire, zombie guts, and loud growling from every character on screen, like an amped-up conversation between Christian Bale and Sam Worthington in Terminator: Salvation. His teammates are basically the 300 Spartans if they were born in modern times and joined the Rainbow 6 team.
To be critical for a moment, the book does get a little "Rah-rah, go USA!!!" at times, and it doesn't exactly make early M. Night Shyamalan plot twists, (though thankfully, it doesn't make current M. Night Shyamalan anything). The love interest is basically Lara Croft. Seriously. She's this hot British chick who leads a rival squad of anti-weird shit commandos and she doesn't like Joe Ledger. Because he's a loose cannon who plays by his own rules? Because she's a woman fighting for respect in a male-dominated group and can't be sexily vulnerable, no matter how much she needs to be sometimes? Maybe. Add on an enigmatic boss who is emotionless and all Cancer-Man like, and you've got yourself an action movie... Er, book.
Actually, Ledger does go beyond the macho 80's movie action caricature at times, coming up with strategies and solving what rudimentary puzzles the supervillains throw his way. It offsets the fact that he's basically an indestructible bad-ass and sometimes the sense of actual danger to the character is comically low. Overall, Patient Zero gets a 7.4 of 10 from me.
Rise Again
The author of this 2010 book is Ben Tripp, and hopefully it sells well and there's a sequel, because the ending refuses to provide closure. That's as far as I'll go on the spoiler route, but if you don't like stuff that ends with a BIG question mark, you have been forewarned. The story is very "Walking-Dead" like, featuring an alcoholic female Iraq veteran ginger sheriff of a small mountain town who has to survive and help others survive a horde of undead swarming up the mountains from Los Angeles. Coincidentally, the zombie apocalypse in this novel also starts of the 4th of July, making me wonder what it is about that holiday that makes aliens, zombies, and countless other assorted scoundrels hate America so much.
In terms of character and thematic development, Rise Again has a lot more going for it than Patient Zero. Danielle Adelman, the lead character is messed up and gets progressively more messed up as the situation unfolds, and still comes off as a heroic character even if she comes off as a bitch a few times. Though you kind of earn the right to be disagreeable when the storyline tends to throw you under the bus as much as it does to Danny, both literally and figuratively.
All the basic elements of Zombie Apocalypse fiction are present here, from the reluctant leader, the rag-tag survivor groups and individual colorful characters, and run-ins with survivors who are worse than the zombies a la "28 Days Later". You've got the small town sheriff, the gay couple, the Vietnam Vet, and some bikers, occasionally making it feel a little too much like an expanded Left 4 Dead campaign. I did like how Tripp actually addresses the fact that Zombies being walking corpses and all, will start to fall apart after long enough, and I liked some of the big, end-of-the-world imagery, especially when Danny takes a trip to San Francisco in search of her lost sister. Also, the sense that characters you like might actually die is very strong and appropriate for something like this.
The end is a little unsatisfying. It goes a little Mad Max, with tribes wandering the earth and Denzel Washington fighting people with a machete. Actually, that part about Denzel isn't real, but the rest of it is accurate. Mainly, the end is unsatisfying because instead of closing the page on the one overriding question throughout the entire book, it creates a cliffhanger. (This is what happens in a post-Battlestar, post-LOST world, I guess.)
Rise Again gets an 8 out of 10.
In terms of character and thematic development, Rise Again has a lot more going for it than Patient Zero. Danielle Adelman, the lead character is messed up and gets progressively more messed up as the situation unfolds, and still comes off as a heroic character even if she comes off as a bitch a few times. Though you kind of earn the right to be disagreeable when the storyline tends to throw you under the bus as much as it does to Danny, both literally and figuratively.
All the basic elements of Zombie Apocalypse fiction are present here, from the reluctant leader, the rag-tag survivor groups and individual colorful characters, and run-ins with survivors who are worse than the zombies a la "28 Days Later". You've got the small town sheriff, the gay couple, the Vietnam Vet, and some bikers, occasionally making it feel a little too much like an expanded Left 4 Dead campaign. I did like how Tripp actually addresses the fact that Zombies being walking corpses and all, will start to fall apart after long enough, and I liked some of the big, end-of-the-world imagery, especially when Danny takes a trip to San Francisco in search of her lost sister. Also, the sense that characters you like might actually die is very strong and appropriate for something like this.
The end is a little unsatisfying. It goes a little Mad Max, with tribes wandering the earth and Denzel Washington fighting people with a machete. Actually, that part about Denzel isn't real, but the rest of it is accurate. Mainly, the end is unsatisfying because instead of closing the page on the one overriding question throughout the entire book, it creates a cliffhanger. (This is what happens in a post-Battlestar, post-LOST world, I guess.)
Rise Again gets an 8 out of 10.
