 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
A tale written from the beginning of an outbreak. The start leaves us with no illusions of the origins of the plague. Some would argue that this is an unwanted element as it answers all the questions that leave the reader intrigued and constantly questioning why. I myself would have a tendency to agree with that. What I think it does achieve, especially in this book, is that we, the reader, are the only people to know what is happening. We also get to see from the incident, how quickly things are spiralling out of control.
It has an interesting setting and one I wasn't really familiar with. It is set in a camp site hosting a paint ball competition. Still they all have to start somewhere! Our heroes are well formed though, and brought to life with good description and solid back stories. we are left routing from them start. It has all the gore and terror that you would want from a story such as this and is reminiscent of early King in the way characters are introduced at the early stages of a chapter with back stories and aspirations only to be added to a growing army of flesh eaters by the end of it. It creates an unstable environment that leaves you a little paranoid as you read, waiting for something bad to happen, and not being sure to whom it will happen. Personally this element of the tale kept me enthralled to the end. It is a joy to have a book that engages you with it's key protagonists so well that when they are in danger you fear that not all of them will make it out alive.
Gregory accomplishes a tough job in this book, he has written an engaging book and still left you with enough to want to keep reading. When I reached the end of this the first book in the series, I wanted to read on and find out what happens next.
It has some great characterisations and well defined heroes and villains, which are then put in to palpable terror. Overall an interesting beginning to what should become a great saga.
As a survival text it lacks detail to make it a truly useful text and only score lower for that. Yet the general principles expressed form a solid basis for survival.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |