A review by wyrmbergmalcolm
Zombie Apocalypse! by Stephen Jones
4.0
The significant thing about this book is that, although there is a clearly defined sequence of events, they're told via a multitude of police reports, diary entries, office memos, newspaper articles, texts, tweets and other first-person accounts - all written by different authors. This all kept what could be argued to be a slightly tired genre an interesting and very easy to read chronicle of an end of a world. Excepting one or two recurring diary entries by specific characters, each character exists purely within the scope of a single segment of the book so there's no long-range scope for individual characters and their development. The characters are there to provide their perspectives and thoughts to the increasing zombie threat and then go on to succumb to the inevitable or survive.
What was also refreshing was the mythology built up around this particular zombie break-out. There's a quasi-believable cause to the infection with a scarily conceivable series of events leading to its outbreak and spread. The zombies themselves also have a gradated level of what they once were in that some will still attempt to drive cars, some can parrot speech and some will seek out familiar locations. There’s also one account revealing a possible cure with an outcome that was very satisfyingly dubious. What works well with the book is that the story is told in an effectively chronological way, starting with the first accounts of fighting the building development that goes on to unearth the disease and concluding with accounts of the plague reaching the shores of Australia and America and the subsequent infections spreading from there.
Great stuff.
What was also refreshing was the mythology built up around this particular zombie break-out. There's a quasi-believable cause to the infection with a scarily conceivable series of events leading to its outbreak and spread. The zombies themselves also have a gradated level of what they once were in that some will still attempt to drive cars, some can parrot speech and some will seek out familiar locations. There’s also one account revealing a possible cure with an outcome that was very satisfyingly dubious. What works well with the book is that the story is told in an effectively chronological way, starting with the first accounts of fighting the building development that goes on to unearth the disease and concluding with accounts of the plague reaching the shores of Australia and America and the subsequent infections spreading from there.
Great stuff.