Tag Archives: zombies

Review: Feed

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Feed
Feed by Mira Grant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sick of politics right now? Feel like blowing someones or your own brain out? Well read this book and be absolutely blown away and giddy and crying and whooping ….chewing the inside of your cheek till it bleeds..and being ok because at least your following a presidential campaign which makes you feel almost proud to be an American..despite the fact it resides in a fictional and alternate future.

Zombie genre though this maybe labeled, but do not mistaken it for a zombie book. This is not about zombies nor is it even about a zombie apocalypse. This is a story about us and our world climate. It is some of the best writing and story telling I have read this year … hell in decades. This is piece of political, sociological, psychological, anthropological and fictional art. It is something worth putting down the book you are reading, whether you read zombie books or not, and start reading now.

I recommend this to anyone who has a brain and has ever thought hmmm what if. Because folks, this is completely feasible, and Mira’s absolutely relentless attention to detail and facts on virology and political climate makes its a book for the ages.

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Review: San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats

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San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Short Stories are an under-appreciated genre but with the advent of ebooks it is allowing for authors to share single stories instead of being dependent on acceptance to anthologies. It is also a great way to get a taste of the flavor of an author. This definitely happened to me today and boy was I in for a surprise!

 

The only difference between a Comic-Con and a siege is whether or not they’re actually trying to kill you. And sometimes these ones try to kill you anyway, just to keep things interesting.“

The author, Mira Grant had me first at Comic-Con and second at Browncoats**. The fact it as a zombie story had me clicking buy before you could moan “braaaaaaaaainnnnsss“. I cannot think of a more perfect setting for the zombie outbreak. Just who are the real risen and who are in makeup? I giggled purely with the thought of how I would deal with that “little” problem. It is one of those book discoveries you end up doing “facepalm” after recovering from your “OMG” face and then asking yourself how in the world you missed it! The perfect Weekly Shorts entry at $2.99, sitting at 120 pages an, what I believe to be the perfect length for a novella (approx 30K). 

A viral-based zombie story (Kellis-Amberlee),  is told in the form of flash-backs and memories being compiled by Journalist Mahir Gowda 30 years after the “Rising”. She has the task of obtaining an interview with a the only known survivor of the 2014 Comic-Con “event”, from a very reluctant CPT Lorelei Tutt USCG. Due to the wi-fi being turned back on the people who ended up trapped inside the San Diego Convention Center, the stories of the hero’s, the fallen and the general chaos were uploaded and preserved in digital format. This novella reads as a window to the past, or at least the column of blood and hunger.. despair and sacrifice making up this tale. It tells the stories of the first hero’s of the zombie apocalypse.

Ms. Grant introduced and developed definitive characters we immediately fall in love with. The challenge with the novella is to do this in a very focused presentation. It is a challenge that many film writers have when trying to take a novel and make it into a 2 hour film. What will need to be cut, or at least in this instance, what details can be left out or glossed over but still have a new reader to the series, like me, “get” the story and be sucked in. There were references and “whispers” to the news that was all over the wire and blogosphere about a zombie outbreak, and that was all I needed to know this was part of a bigger plot. 

Referencing so many sci-fi pop-culture tales, as well as one made up one (which honestly I wish would be made into a real TV Show) it made the fan-girl in me giggle and smile, even though I knew having Browncoats in the title, it was bound to be tragic in the end, especially when we know that Lorelei was the only known survivor. I cannot shout loud enough about this novella. It was out of this world fantastic, festive and phenomenally fun!

I would recommend this for not only those fans of zombie reads, but of anyone who likes a tragic adventure to boot! Grab a hold of a cricket bat, 2×4 or weapon of choice and dive in! I am giving this a bio-hazard rating of ? ? ? ? ? – FULL CONTAINMENT of excitement needed!

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Zombie Week Launch – GAMELAND – SUNDAY SHORTS | Cabin Goddess

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 Zombie Week Launch – GAMELAND – SUNDAY SHORTS | Cabin Goddess.

FULL ZOMBIE EXPLINATION OF ZOMBIE WEEK AND WHY NO ONE HEARD ABOUT IT!

Interested in being part of it? Give me a buzz or leave a comment. I plan on featuring authors, books, movies reviews, recipes and even recipes. Indie Zombies baby INDIE!

BTW this is my 100th post here on Alaskan Dreams! THANK YOU EVERYONE!

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Hell Colored Glasses – World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Review)

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks
My rating: 4.5  of 5 stars
Awards: Audie Award (2007), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2012) 

“…like looking at the world through hell colored glasses…” – Tod at the Mural of Victory in Denver, CO

The cat knocked over a pile of books I have yet to find a home for (which is why I read ebooks for the most part now) and this was one. I have not read it in a few years but I remembered how much I did plus I have his ‘Zombie Survival Guide‘ in my backpack for when the horde shows up I am ready to go.

So many books focus on the terror during, but Max is focusing on what happens after. What is the world like? What have peoples psyches become? How does this effect the children? Government? Economics? Even more addressed in his personal compilation using the information he collected for an official report addresses.

This book is really interesting. But fair warning, if you are looking for the blood, the guts and the infection of a traditional zombiesque novel Z style you maybe disappointed because this is after the war. But I beseech you to give it a chance.

I just acquired the audio version of this book and it is worth every penny. It has a cast, each tale being told in their own voice. I found myself crying, horrified, terrified at times and shocked. The story structure is in a type of retelling of the oral accounts from the survivors, so hearing the story is so powerful. The audio format is the maple syrup on the bacon that is the book! I can go to sleep listening to this (yes I am a glutton for punishment and obviously a masochist when it comes to my dream cycles).

The sociological implications being addressed with each story from each survivor our ‘Author’ interviews. I realize this probably has been an issue with some readers, especially those that want their zombies fed to them on a plateful of “BRAAAAAAAAAINS”. But the tale could not be any different without it being just another book about zombies. Being a medievalist I adore the oral format, I truly enjoyed how he presents each of them, how he let the stories flow from each person to the next, a global bonfire. A futuristic book of post apocalyptic lays with the tragic nature of the stories. At the same time more complex due to the subject nature. Each tale like a mini-short of horror and survival with each persons experience.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie WarIt is an elegant and dark mockumentary compiled together in a simple and powerful presentation. The cover is under spoken in a color of rusty orange, the Z standing out. The font is jagged, blood dripping down a deconstructed Z  and the flames in the background psychologically presented us with the end and the beginning.

I recommend this to someone who wants a step up from the fictional tales and that want to take this belief to the next level…who knows these tales may actually help you when patient zero emerges, so take notes!

QUESTION!! WHAT was your favorite interview in the book? For those that listened to the audio version who struck at you the hardest?

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Brooks is the son of director Mel Brooks and the late actress Anne Bancroft. He is a 1994 graduate of Pitzer College. His wife, Michelle, is a screenwriter, and the couple have a son, Henry.

Max Brooks lives in New York City but is prepared to move to a more remote and defensible location at a moment’s notice.

WWZ Now Set For Summer 2013

Paramount has just announced that they have pushed the release date of World War Z to the summer of 2013. According to a source at Plan B, the studio now feels confident enough in the project to promote it to the summer slot.

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ANTICIPATION KILLS Preview: Days with the Undead: Book One

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Days with the Undead: Book One by Julianne Snow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What would you do? How would you survive? During the first 33 days after patient zero follow a group of survivors as they are faced with the challenges of staying alive and ahead of the horde.

This is an amazing book. It was amazing to read it on the website and put together in this gorgeous presentation is even more wonderful. I cannot wait to do my Cabin Goddess posts during her blog tour. She will be stopping by for Guest Posts, interviews and I will post my final fantastical review of the most anticipated book for me of 2012!

My final review will be released on the 28th! BUT I have treats galore set up along the way!

It is spring and the dead are defrosting their teeth and arising from the snow drifts..

Days with the Undead is finally here!

EXCERPT

“Four days ago my world, the world, went to hell and I don’t think it’s coming back. From what I’ve been able to gather from Ben, Brooks VanReit, who I will refer to as Patient Zero from this point, came into the ER of St. Michael’s Hospital with practically non-existent vital signs. The staff assigned to treat him tried to resuscitate him but their efforts failed. Sometime between 7:30AM and 7:45AM, he was pronounced dead and as quickly as he died, he came back to life. From what I understand, the doctors and nurses first thought they were witnessing a miracle. They immediately found out how wrong they were.

Ben had tucked himself away in the nearby nurse’s station while completing a few charts before going home and he said he had a fairly good view of what transpired. His description of the carnage left in the wake of the reawakening is brutal. As a doctor, you get used to the sight of blood but even Ben tried to impress upon us the sheer volumes that covered the ER that day. It was all over the floors making any means of escape difficult if you were in the direct vicinity of the attacks. Arterial spray marked the walls in long sweeping arcs of crimson. It didn’t take long for the nurses and doctors who had been working on Patient Zero and thus been attacked in the chaos that erupted to reawaken and start attacking other people. It was like a wave, attack, death and then reawakening. The more that were attacked, the more that came back. And in one of the busiest Emergency Rooms in Toronto, it was absolute pandemonium. With blood everywhere and many of his colleagues succumbing to death and then entering a second life of sorts, Ben knew it was only going worse”

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It was while watching Romero’s Night of the Living Dead at the tender age of 6 that solidified Julianne’s respect of the Undead. Since that day, she has been preparing herself for the (inevitable) Zombie Apocalypse. While classically trained in all of the ways to defend herself, she took up writing in order to process the desire she now covets; to bestow a second and final death upon the Undead.

As the only girl growing up in a family with four children in the Canadian countryside, Julianne needed some form of escape. Her choice was the imaginations of others which only fostered the vibrancy of her own.

The horror and forensic/crime thriller genres top her list of favourites, but she can never turn down a good science fiction, fantasy or mystery read.

Julianne appears in the anthology Women of the Living Dead with a story entitled The Living Dead at Penderghast Manor. Look for her short stories in future anthologies.

Days with the Undead: Book One is her first full-length book, the basis of which can be found in her popular web serial of the same name.

(Goodreads reviews View all my reviews)

Published and Promoted by Sirens Call Publications

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Day 3 – the beginning of it all from dayswiththeundead.com

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The post that started it all. If you do not read Julianne Snow’s webisodic tale you really should, so why not start at the begining and work your way through because coming up here on February 29th her book that contains these days plus more content!

When I open my email and find a post update from her I am so excited! I hope you can enjoy it too!

GO READ IT HERE!!! Day 3.