Plague of the Dead

[Exatreides]

http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Dead-Mo.../dp/0978970705 This book is terrible. I've only managed to read about two thirds way through it and I have to set it down. I sit in an ambulance for hours at a time every day with very little to do. So I do what any sane man would do. I read. I read a lot. I love zombies, so I try to read as many zombie books as I can. I finished Patient Zero (Which I'll maybe make a thread about too) Which is a captivating and pretty exciting story to move to... this gem of a story. Plague of the dead to put it very bluntly is one of the worst things I have ever read. Every cliche line is in it, every stereotype character is in it. For example: You have the generic scientist trying to warn the government. You have a cigar smoking revolver shooting general. The journalist who's censored by the government. A photographer that's thrown in battle and just knows how to use a weapon(expertly) . Okay some of this could maybe be forgiven if it wasn't for the fact that none of them are described in anyway. You have no idea what any of them look like, no idea what any of them sound like. Where they are from, what they are doing, why they are doing it. Even what they are wearing. Maybe the author thought we'd like to make it up in our imagination? Another example of how terrible this book is. You have a air traffic controller in Nigeria(or whatever) A red cross medic in Cairo. And that random General. In one chapter the zombies are attacking the airport in the first outbreak. The next chapter(or two chapters? who fucking knows in this book) Cairo is burning and the red cross medic is passing out. Then lastly the medic is best buds with the general in the suez and the traffic controller is safe in the suez as well. No reason is given as to how the air traffic controller escaped, or the red cross medic or why she's friends with the general. Time doesn't flow in a steady line in this book. T A couple zombies... Looks like were going to have to shoot some zombies. Cordon off all of Africa. This all happens in the space of around a 100 pages. Which wouldn't be that bad if the book wasn't printed on size 14 font. There's no passing, no buildup. Whoever wrote this never made it past basic creative writing classes. It's simply, "Jack tossed a hand grenade the zombie blew up but there were thousands more coming so they ate him." Well, I paraphrased a bit but there are sections in the book where the Military is mentioned having millions of men and thousands of pieces of artillery to rain down on the zombies. When the battle happens.... They use none of it. It's as if the author simply forgot about it. Then again, maybe we imagined reading about it. The places are not even described besides "They were in the desert. it's sandy." I didn't care about any of the characters, I didn't care about the action, the story, or anything. This book is utter bile(Not even the highly prized bear bile, but bile from perhaps the rotten corpse of decaying possum) Avoid it as such. I've read much much better pieces of fan fiction on this site then in this book. Don't believe me? Use the look inside function and sludge through a page if you can. The Good: The dedication page is to "Ben you should have lived, and Barbra they're still coming to get you." ....Um easy to read large text? The Bad: Cliche plot, Characters, Lack of inner monologue, lack of any real dialogue. General poor writing. I may write a much more detailed review bashing this book when I'm not tripping balls on DXM, but since I am. This is what you get. Enjoy

[zombiekiller]

http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Dead-Mo.../dp/0978970705 This book is terrible. I've only managed to read about two thirds way through it and I have to set it down. I sit in an ambulance for hours at a time every day with very little to do. So I do what any sane man would do. I read. I read a lot. I love zombies, so I try to read as many zombie books as I can. I finished Patient Zero (Which I'll maybe make a thread about too) Which is a captivating and pretty exciting story to move to... this gem of a story. Plague of the dead to put it very bluntly is one of the worst things I have ever read. Every cliche line is in it, every stereotype character is in it. For example: You have the generic scientist trying to warn the government. You have a cigar smoking revolver shooting general. The journalist who's censored by the government. A photographer that's thrown in battle and just knows how to use a weapon(expertly) . Okay some of this could maybe be forgiven if it wasn't for the fact that none of them are described in anyway. You have no idea what any of them look like, no idea what any of them sound like. Where they are from, what they are doing, why they are doing it. Even what they are wearing. Maybe the author thought we'd like to make it up in our imagination? Another example of how terrible this book is. You have a air traffic controller in Nigeria(or whatever) A red cross medic in Cairo. And that random General. In one chapter the zombies are attacking the airport in the first outbreak. The next chapter(or two chapters? who fucking knows in this book) Cairo is burning and the red cross medic is passing out. Then lastly the medic is best buds with the general in the suez and the traffic controller is safe in the suez as well. No reason is given as to how the air traffic controller escaped, or the red cross medic or why she's friends with the general. Time doesn't flow in a steady line in this book. T A couple zombies... Looks like were going to have to shoot some zombies. Cordon off all of Africa. This all happens in the space of around a 100 pages. Which wouldn't be that bad if the book wasn't printed on size 14 font. There's no passing, no buildup. Whoever wrote this never made it past basic creative writing classes. It's simply, "Jack tossed a hand grenade the zombie blew up but there were thousands more coming so they ate him." Well, I paraphrased a bit but there are sections in the book where the Military is mentioned having millions of men and thousands of pieces of artillery to rain down on the zombies. When the battle happens.... They use none of it. It's as if the author simply forgot about it. Then again, maybe we imagined reading about it. The places are not even described besides "They were in the desert. it's sandy." I didn't care about any of the characters, I didn't care about the action, the story, or anything. This book is utter bile(Not even the highly prized bear bile, but bile from perhaps the rotten corpse of decaying possum) Avoid it as such. I've read much much better pieces of fan fiction on this site then in this book. Don't believe me? Use the look inside function and sludge through a page if you can. The Good: The dedication page is to "Ben you should have lived, and Barbra they're still coming to get you." ....Um easy to read large text? The Bad: Cliche plot, Characters, Lack of inner monologue, lack of any real dialogue. General poor writing. I may write a much more detailed review bashing this book when I'm not tripping balls on DXM, but since I am. This is what you get. Enjoy tell you a good book to look for it's called wetworks. i found it in a used book store. it has a good plot to it.

[AcesandEights]

Wow, you liked Patient 0?! I know mileage may vary, but I read it to conclusion just out of shear perversity. Yes, there are some good ideas in it, but it was pretty OTT and the characterization, I felt, was kind of lame.

[Exatreides]

Patient Zero wasn't a great book, but I thought it was a pretty damn good one. It wasn't straight horror so I can see how some folks wouldn't have liked it. I thought It did a pretty good job of putting a more realistic face on Zombies, the scenario although outlandish is still more plausible then a probe from Venus or toxic waste. I like having the unexplained zombies sometimes, but I think this put more of a face value on it. I really didn't dig the whole super ex army ranger cop angle that much, but they didn't hark on it to much. It mixed some mystery in it too, a bit of a love triangle. I'll probably do a better review of it in the near future. Same with the walking dead series But compared to the undead plague it's a god damn masterpiece. Although a half burned copy of the farmers almanac with the feces scrawls of a half crazed Eskimo man also stack up the same way.

[paranoid101]

Just found out the the auther Z.A Recht has Died in December 2009, a shame I enjoyed his first 2 books and was looking forward to the third. He was only 26 at the time of his death.

[SRP76]

Just found out the the auther Z.A Recht has Died in December 2009, a shame I enjoyed his first 2 books and was looking forward to the third. He was only 26 at the time of his death. That's fucked up. Now we'll never know how the story ends.

[capncnut]

Just found out the the auther Z.A Recht has Died in December 2009, a shame I enjoyed his first 2 books and was looking forward to the third. He was only 26 at the time of his death. Yeah, the fact that eveyone is ziplipped about his death leads me to believe foul play was, erm, at play.

[Exatreides]

Looking forward to the end of this series is like looking forward to the evisceration at the end of a torture scene. Sure it's the ending, but its still an evisceration. Pity about his death though, no one deserves to go that young.

[Bruiser235]

I'm finishing up the first book now. It has weak parts, but overall I liked it. Pretty decent for a first book. With time and effort he would have gotten better. He was good enough though, IMO. It's a shame he died. I read he was in the Army. Maybe he died overseas? Who knows...

[carpetbeggar]

I'm about 100 pages into this book now, just at the part where the military just evacuated out of Egypt/The Middle East after the zombies broke through at the Suez. First, I've been hearing for so long how "great" this book was and that I had to read it. So I get it out of the library the other day and start reading it. I kinda liked everything leading up to the break-through of the zombies at the Suez. But what happened next really turned me off. You're telling me that with the might of NATO and the American military holding the Suez canal, the zombies basically broke through with virtually no trouble at all? I mean the military were tracking the virus victims chasing the guy in the truck for days and let them get that close to their front lines? They knew there were thousands of zombies heading right for them and they wait until they reach the Suez to start destroying them? Don't they have the might of the American Air force behind them? Wouldn't they have obliterated the swarm of carriers miles and miles before they reached the Suez canal? No they don't. And when they do arrive they throw a couple of attack helicopters at them until they run out of ammo and have to retreat and then the ground troops start running out of ammo very quickly too. Another thing...the "carriers" were led to the Suez by a guy driving a truck trying to get away from them, but when the truck finally reaches the Suez canal, the carriers are still virtually on his tail after chasing him for something like 100km. Those must be some fast zombies if they can keep up with a truck and chase it for Km's and Km's and stay right on its ass. Lastly when the military is evacuating the continent and have to get to the coast to board a destroyer, they have to steal civilian yachts to get out to the waiting destroyer there to pick them up? You're telling me the American military cannot send a plane or helicopters to EVAC there own troops???? I mean it's not as if the world is overrun with the zombies yet, the world's military's (except for Africa of course) are still intact and they can't....ah shit I've complained enough, you guys get the point, this book sucks. Let's hope a new Day-By-Day Armageddon book is released soon. BTW, are the majority of the Permuted Press books like "Plague Of The Dead" or like Day By Day?

[Bruiser235]

I feel the same way about the Battle of Yonkers fight from WWZ. I'm not knowledgable about the effects of those weapons against human beings, so I'll give Max Brooks the benefit of the doubt, although I've read alot about he got his research wrong. I don't know.

[White_Zombie]

I started reading Plague of the Dead about 2 days ago. I stopped reading about 3/4 into the book for some of the reasons stated here. The sloppy writing just turned me off. The authors death is shocking and my nosiness turned up some leads. "On Friday, Aug 8 at 3:31 AM the Police Department received a business alarm at the Briarwood Professional Building at 1004 Sushruta Drive Martinsburg. Responding officers found an unsecure door on the front of the office complex. A search of the building resulted in a suspect being located within an office. The suspect entered through the front door and proceeded through the building via an area above the ceiling. The suspect at one point fell through the ceiling before being apprehended by the officers. The suspect admitted he had entered the building for the putpose of obtaining Xanax, a prescription drug." "The suspect Zachary Allan Recht, 25 of Crist Lane Inwood WV was taken to the Eastern Regional Jail to await arraignment by a Berkeley County Magistrate on a felony charge of Entering withoiut Breaking." http://martinsburgpd.blogspot.com/20...1_archive.html The picture of the suspect matches the picture of the author. He definitely had a drug problem to go to that extreme to obtain a prescription drug. I surmise his cause of death was an overdose or suicide given the evidence at hand and the family refusing to release the cause of the death. I find it very sad to say the least.

[aaron2]

Plague of the Dead is such a fun book - if you can call the downfall of mankind fun, which I can as it's just fiction... This book has all the elements I love in zombie fiction; lots of zombies, great characters and an absorbing storyline. - - - Updated - - - Plague of the Dead is such a fun book - if you can call the downfall of mankind fun, which I can as it's just fiction... This book has all the elements I love in zombie fiction; lots of zombies, great characters and an absorbing storyline.

[Christopher Jon]

This book is terrible. I've only managed to read about two thirds way through it and I have to set it down. I can confirm. The book is terrible. Unfortunately I've bought it and read it twice by accident. carpetbegger already covered how awful the military aspects of the book are. If you're desperate for a literary zombie fix, it'll do, but I wouldn't recommend it.