After spending the first seventeen years of his life in the under-ground world of the Lone Star Confederation, Steve Brickman, a newly-trained wingman, emerges to join a Trail-Blazer wagon-train selected to make the first deep-penetration strike into the territory held by the Plainfolk Mutes. The mission is part of a centuries-old conflict for possession of the blue-sky world in which both sides have fought with the ut-most ruthlessness. Steve is aware of the dangers but he has no inkling that his arrival has already been predicted by the enemy or that he is destined to embark on a perilous adventure; a test of courage and endurance that will totally change his life and cause him to doubt the truth of everything he has been taught since birth. Much as I enjoy a good old-fashioned zombie apocalypse, and I really do, there are plenty of other types of Armageddon that are just as worthy of consideration.  Back in the early-to-mid eighties, Patrick Tilley wrote a series of six novels, collectively known as The Amtrak Wars, that follow various cultures in the Earth’s far future who have survived a global (probably nuclear) holocaust. The next apocalyptic work of fiction I want to…

The year is 1939. Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence have gathered to watch a damaged reel of film in a darkened room. It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar. If the British are to believe their eyes, a twisted Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers. And Raybould will be forced to resort to dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay. But dealing with the occult exacts a price. And that price must be paid in blood. British warlocks squaring off against Nazi augmented humans? I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to a certain amount of excitement surrounding this novel, so much so that it made it on to my preview list for 2012 when I heard about it last year. This is exactly the sort of premise that is guaranteed to gain my attention. Raybould Marsh is the intelligence officer tasked with finding a way to combat the mysterious new breed of soldiers the enemy has unleashed.  He calls upon the assistance of an old school friend, Will, who has some secrets of his own. Marsh…

Please note Blackout is the final book of the Newflesh trilogy and there is good chance that there will be potential spoilers in this review if you haven’t read books one and two, don’t say I didn’t warn you. With that said lets unleash the undead one more time…  Rise up while you can. – Georgia Mason The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.
 The year was 2039. The world didn’t end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

 Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there’s one thing they know is true in post-zombie…

Please note if you haven’t read Feed, part one of the Newsflesh Trilogy, this review contains some spoilers. Also it’s brilliant and you totally should. Nothing stays buried for long… Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the new organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem fun when you’ve lost as much as he has. But when a researcher from the Centre for Disease Control fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun’s relieved to find a new purpose in his life. Because she brings news: the monster who attacked them may be destroyed, but the conspiracy is far from dead. Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun. Feed was hands down one of my favourite reads of 2010. It brought new life, if you’ll pardon the pun, to the zombie novel. Pitched somewhere between The West Wing and Day of the Dead it was a terrific read and I have been looking forward to the arrival of it’s sequel, Deadline,…

“The Good News: We Survived. The Bad News: So Did They“. Imagine a world where scientists have cured cancer and defeated the common cold. Sounds idyllic, but what if this medical breakthrough leads to the creation and distribution of a virus that reanimates the dead. In Feed by Mira Grant we find an Earth where humanity has done just that.  The infected are a fact of life and everyone has been forced to live with the constant threat of zombies. In addition everyone has the virus. Unlike most of the other zombie novels I have read this month there is a rather optimistic feeling to the novel’s  opening. The world has changed since the time of the initial outbreak, but humanity has persevered. We have learned to adapt.  Everyone knows to take precautions when venturing outside, and when moving between secure locations regular blood tests are the order of the day. The way people receive information has also changed. When the first outbreak occurred it was the blogging community who were first to raise the alarm. Individuals have moved away from traditional media and get their news direct from web based sources. Distinct types of bloggers have evolved including Newsies who,…