erikam's review
2.0
The pros:
Good story concept
Good characters
The cons:
Writing style was just not enjoyable
No real story structure/plot until the last two chapters
Scene skipping
So I loved the idea of this story; you know, the usual plague epidemic turns apocalypse, with plenty of fighting and running for survival, plus throw in a mission to save a scientist that will save the world. I mean, I "one-click" purchased this book as soon as I read the synopsis.
However, I'm really not a fan of the writing style in this novel. This is written in the third-person present tense, which made if feel like I was reading a film manuscript (if that makes sense). Another issue that I had is that the story didn't have a discernable plot until about 3/4 of the way through it.
The biggest issue for me though, was that for some reason the author decided to skip past chunks of story that, as an apocalyptic/horror/action fan, I would have liked to have read. He also chose to cut to different scenes pretty abruptly, deciding to wrap up the previous scene by telling the reader what happened instead of allowing us to "see" it for ourselves.
Here's an example. There's one chapter where the battalion is fighting through the streets of Manhattan to get to a specific location. All of this chapter describes in detail their struggle to make it half way there. The auther states that they have a little over half of their journey left, but as you would expect they are having difficulty because they are fighting through mobs of "Maddies" to make any progress. The scene gets more and more intense and it looks like its going to be a close call if they even make it out of the fight they are in and back on the move. The chapter ends with "'Go, go, go!" Bowman cries. They make it."
That's the end of the chapter. The next chapter picks up after they've completed their journey and are safely at their destination. Where is the rest of the action? The gory fighting? The relief of getting there safely? The skipping to different scenes not only cut out parts that I wanted to know what happened in, but also made it pretty difficult to keep track of characters that I liked, as there are multiple groups that this story follows.
The action that I had been waiting for did FINALLY show up, halfway through the penultimate chapter (90% through the book according to my kindle) and then the book was just over, and it somehow felt like I had read a really long prologue.
2.5 stars for Bowman, Mooney and the Crazy Eights.
Good story concept
Good characters
The cons:
Writing style was just not enjoyable
No real story structure/plot until the last two chapters
Scene skipping
So I loved the idea of this story; you know, the usual plague epidemic turns apocalypse, with plenty of fighting and running for survival, plus throw in a mission to save a scientist that will save the world. I mean, I "one-click" purchased this book as soon as I read the synopsis.
However, I'm really not a fan of the writing style in this novel. This is written in the third-person present tense, which made if feel like I was reading a film manuscript (if that makes sense). Another issue that I had is that the story didn't have a discernable plot until about 3/4 of the way through it.
The biggest issue for me though, was that for some reason the author decided to skip past chunks of story that, as an apocalyptic/horror/action fan, I would have liked to have read. He also chose to cut to different scenes pretty abruptly, deciding to wrap up the previous scene by telling the reader what happened instead of allowing us to "see" it for ourselves.
Here's an example. There's one chapter where the battalion is fighting through the streets of Manhattan to get to a specific location. All of this chapter describes in detail their struggle to make it half way there. The auther states that they have a little over half of their journey left, but as you would expect they are having difficulty because they are fighting through mobs of "Maddies" to make any progress. The scene gets more and more intense and it looks like its going to be a close call if they even make it out of the fight they are in and back on the move. The chapter ends with "'Go, go, go!" Bowman cries. They make it."
That's the end of the chapter. The next chapter picks up after they've completed their journey and are safely at their destination. Where is the rest of the action? The gory fighting? The relief of getting there safely? The skipping to different scenes not only cut out parts that I wanted to know what happened in, but also made it pretty difficult to keep track of characters that I liked, as there are multiple groups that this story follows.
The action that I had been waiting for did FINALLY show up, halfway through the penultimate chapter (90% through the book according to my kindle) and then the book was just over, and it somehow felt like I had read a really long prologue.
2.5 stars for Bowman, Mooney and the Crazy Eights.
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