FRIGHTENING FLIX BY KBATZ: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

What went Wrong with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

by Kristin Battestella

Director Rob Cohen (Dragonheart) takes up the mantle from producer Stephen Sommers, director of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, for the 2008 sequel The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor as Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) come to the rescue when their son Alex (Luke Ford) discovers the entombed Dragon Emperor (Jet Li). Once unleashed, however, the only person who can stop the resurrected Emperor is Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) – the sorceress who cursed him.

Ancient Chinese mounds, swords, armor, and dynastic motifs accent the assassination plots, stabbings, raids, and conquest in the opening prologue. The enslaved building of The Great Wall, life after death texts, and forbidden romance betrayals, unfortunately, are a lot like the opening of the First Film, right down to the same Mummy music cues. Then again, the elemental powers, ancient libraries, tormented generals, and immolating curses nonetheless make for a great tale – one viewers forget isn’t it’s own adventure once Tomb of the Dragon Emperor restarts with our previous heroes now unhappy with post-war quiet and in a rut despite luxury living. Their son’s discoveries of Chinese monoliths and the Emperor’s tomb come easy and don’t feel super epic thanks to the back and forth editing between the bored O’Connells and grave robber skeletons. There’s little time to awe at the 2,000-year-old frozen in time clay army when the more interesting plot elements are glossed over for set pieces treated as more important than the wonder. We can’t enjoy the dragon crossbows, booby traps, or tomb chases because The O’Connells were apparently doing secret espionage work in the interim that we didn’t get to see, either. Instead, some Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – Cradle of Life Eye of Shangra-La gem points the way to eternal life, with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor both embracing the Asian history yet feeling xenophobic with evil uniforms, double-crossing enemies, and contrived western interference repeating the prior films’ M.O. Chases through the streets with fireworks and New Year run amok are fun, but long, hollow fight sequences that do nothing to advance the plot make Tomb of the Dragon Emperor feel longer than it is. There’s no sense of the scope or magical powers despite Himalayan treks, avalanches, mystical healings, and a revived Emperor who himself is asking what this is all for anyway. After the first hour, it’s not quite clear what’s happening with everything including a three-headed dragon thrown at the screen in the last half hour. With a hop, skip, and jump, we’re at a Great Wall spectacle raising rival dead armies in a Lord of the Rings easy meets CGI versus CGI a la The Phantom Menace that rapidly loses its touch.

Fly fishing in the English countryside is not quite Rick O’Connell’s thing, and Brendan Fraser’s once proactive, rugged adventurer is now an out of touch, corny old man with outdated weapons and unheeded advice. It’s weird to see our favorite couple now arguing about their parenting and contemplating mistakes made – and not just because Maria Bello (The Dark) replaces Rachel Weisz as Evelyn in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. After writing two successful novels about their mummy adventures, she’s hung up with writer’s block on the promised third book, but Evie doesn’t have much to say or do once the characters are forgotten in the nonsensical action. Bello looks great in the period frocks and initially the camera accents that forties tone with coy smiles and under the hat brim poise, but this Evie does indeed seem like a different person. It would have been interesting if Bello had instead been a second wife and resented step mom competing with Evie’s memory. Although the kid in peril was one of the problematic parts of The Mummy Returns, Luke Ford (Hercules) is now the grown up Alex rebelling against his parents yet conveniently following in their archaeology footsteps. Unfortunately, immortal hang ups and young love opposites attract can’t save the character from falling completely flat, and Uncle Jonathan John Hannah is a nightclub owner who spends most of his barely-there comic relief with a yak while pilot Liam Cunningham (Hunger) is merely convenient transportation. It’s a pity we only really see Jet Li’s (Romeo Must Die) warlord at the beginning and the end of Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. For most of the picture, the eponymous bad guy – who doesn’t get any other name despite the historical possibilities – is just a resurrected, stilted, CGI thing more like an automaton robot rather than the feared man in charge. His powers over the elements are small scale or convenient, manipulating snow or fire and shape-shifting as needed without any real countdown or ascension of power as anchored by Arnold Vosloo’s Imhotep in the First Film. For the finale we get Li’s fine action skills as expected, but he never really has the chance to be the true villain of the piece. Likewise, Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) is relegated to glossed over bookends. Her immortal Zi Yuan witch lives in Shangri-La, and 2,000 years of magical pools are quickly explained away before a great but too brief one on one battle between our ancient foes – which is all we really want to see in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

While some of the fiery terracotta effects don’t look so great on bu-ray, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor does well with tangible sand, statues, tents, and archaeology tools. The grand English estates match the vintage cars, antiques, typewriters, gloves, fedoras, and stoles. Temples in the mountains, Asian architecture, and snowy panoramas create a sense of adventure while chariots and molten horses coming to life invoke danger. Unfortunately, the shootouts, attacks, and explosions are super loud and cliché music cues are noticeably out of place. To start, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor feels very forties styled in a Universal homage, but then the action becomes hectic and modern messy with stereotypical seventies zooms when it comes to the kung fu. The camera, the people, and the fantastics are all moving at the same time and it’s tough for the audience to see anything, and those contrived yetis – yes, yetis – are embarrassingly bad. Today, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor could have been a direct to streaming off-shoot adventure – after all they’re still making those direct to video Scorpion King movies. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor breaks from the more familiar theme with a bait and switch title caught between two masters. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor seeks to take the series in a new direction whilst also keeping its ties to the previous films. If this had no connection to The Mummy and embraced its own dynastic legends and lore, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor could have been a fun action adventure. Perhaps it can still be entertaining for youth able to separate it from the legacy of the First Film. Otherwise, the flawed, thin story, and try hard of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is just window dressing reaching for an adventurous charm that isn’t there.

 

Revisit More Mummies Including:

Gods of Egypt

Mummy Movies!

Tomb of Ligeia

 

FRIGHTENING FLIX BY KBATZ: Gods of Egypt

Too Many Glaring Marks Hamper Gods of Egypt (not just the White Washing)

by Kristin Battestella

Thief Bek (Brenton Thwaites) helps the exiled god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) reclaim his Eye from the evil God of the Desert Set (Gerard Butler) in order to save his girlfriend Zaya (Courtney Eaton) from the underworld. Along the way, both mortals and gods face several fantastical obstacles and adventures as they seek the help of Ra (Geoffrey Rush). Unfortunately, thanks to an abundance of poor pacing and inferior special effects that can’t compensate for the muddled storytelling, pondering mythology, and misguided point of view; the whitewashing controversy from director Alex Proyas’ (The Crow) 2016 Gods of Egypt is just one of many problems.

An opening prologue and panoramic special effects are nothing but empty show when Gods of Egypt needed to start its story with either the gods themselves or the mortal quest. Instead, the omnipresent narration from our thief knows more about the gods then they do, leaving the tale padded with messy embellishments, unreliability excuses, superfluous scenes, and epic fakery. Assassination coups in front of the gasping crowd seem more like a play the gods put on for mere mortals – CGI gold birds and black jackals parkour in a reason-less fight because Gods of Egypt didn’t begin at the right point in the story and then compounds the timeline further by restarting a year later. Transparent graphics and always on the move cameras call attention to themselves – every scene is panning and sweeping with people coming or going but the visual distractions don’t disguise the muddled storytelling or the jarring, unrealistic, embarrassing, and noticeably pale casting. Poor writing from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (of Dracula Untold and The Last Witch Hunter infamy) likewise dumbs down the mythical and over-relies on effects rather than explaining its world or developing any characters – leaving Gods of Egypt a loosely strung together montage of random cool scenes featuring a magic carpet ride spaceship, underworld deserts, serpents chases, temple gauntlets, and talking rock monsters. It takes an hour for the mortal to round up the gods for some risky mission…because they couldn’t unite and do it themselves? What should be a straightforward quest treads tires thanks to a lot of walking here or there with no idea where the inept heroes are going or why. Viewers can’t take the fantastic risks seriously amid the quips, cliches, and convenient in the nick of time actions leaving no weight or consequences. Serious deaths are short or quickly forgotten unless there’s a need for underworld special effects, which kind of copy Lord of the Rings. Are they trying to get back Horus’ Eye? Are they trying to save the gal who’s actually doing alright in the underworld? Are they trying to stop Set from being badass? Whatever the messy crusade, a literal deus ex machina from Ra leaves no point to it any of it.

Apparently, personal vengeance isn’t enough motivation for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Horus. After he’s usurped, he drinks over it until our thief comes along to inspire him to make jokes while running away from CGI serpents. There’s no room to breathe life into the character, and despite this apparent star vehicle, there’s more for Nikolaj fans on Game of Thrones. Gerard Butler (300) has a great introduction as Set, but when he opens his mouth that lovely Scottish lilt becomes laughably out of place. His scenes seem like they are from a different movie, and Set only interacts with everyone else in a few scenes. For supposedly being the villain who rules over all in fear, most of Set’s speeches are sarcastic quips on said badassery, and he doesn’t actually do a whole lot beyond changing what he wants and why from scene to scene. Brenton Thwaites (Oculus) is a thief but also a lover – a blasé cool cat who thinks he’s better than the gods. Bek’s narrative frame and speaking out loud when he’s alone is purely to hit the audience on the head, and it’s the wrong perspective on the story for us to follow him. Bek’s stealing the Eye of Horus for his dead babe is a more important story than the vengeful gods? Really? This entire storyline could have been red penciled to strengthen the core, for rather than any god realizing his humanity redemption arc, the story unbelievably bends to suit Bek’s good at everything Mary Sue. Sadly, Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) as Thoth – the God of Wisdom who’s more camp like Vanity Smurf rather than clever – appears once an hour in Gods of Egypt to kneel to the white people and joke about liking big butts and he cannot lie. Yes, seriously. Horus’ lover Hathor is played by Elodie Young (Daredevil), and she looks too young indeed as she easily passes between the gods to help or hinder when convenient. Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road) likewise wears inaccurate but skin bearing costumes as the sacrificial girlfriend used for man pain, and Bek isn’t even that broken up over her because he can talk to her in the underworld and really just wants to trick the gods into bringing her back. Rufus Sewell (Tristan and Isolde) is here too as Set’s creeper architect, and Geoffrey Rush’s (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) Ra is some kind of Lear meets Gandalf because the all seeing, all knowing ruler of all Egypt above and below is an old, bald, white guy. Gods of Egypt has a large and big name ensemble that deserved more but unfortunately, everyone here is hopelessly out of place.

Gods of Egypt has epic music, fiery motifs, giant gods, and traditional Egyptian iconography. The picture is bright and colorful with golden palaces and steamy reds. Unfortunately, all the sweeping comes in wide pans and distance shots. The chariot escapes, fatal arrows, fake jungles, and slow motion is downright laughable, and Gods of Egypt will look very, very bad within five years thanks to the poor graphics. It’s obvious these visuals, regal dangers, and any sexiness are toned down for mainstream appeal, but the overdone CGI close-ups make it seem as if all the people were filmed at different times and then inserted into the frame together. Slowed panoramas show one good action move, but then the rest of the fight choreography is a whole lot of nothing leaps or parry embellishments. People fly through the air or slam against the walls as the camera follows their swoops up, down, or sideways, and it all makes Gods of Egypt look too fake and fantastic – doubly so when again considering how the point of view unevenly or conveniently goes back and forth between mortals experiencing the fantastic and gods coming down from high. The eponymous folks die pretty darn easy and the Mary Sue nobodies achieve some really unbelievable feats! If every slow motion moment spectacle was cut from Gods of Egypt, you’d save fifteen minutes, no lie, as the continued over-reliance on special effects borders on a partially animated feature culminating in big battles and more slow motion falling without the people or gods having learned a thing. I want to skip over all the weak incidental CGI transitions, which can’t build a world better than the simplicity of courtly strife nor compensate for the poor storytelling.

Had Gods of Egypt been firm in its own myth and magic and took a stance on whether this was going to be about gods or men, it might have been really cool. Instead, the picture is presented from the wrong perspective at the wrong point in the story and doesn’t put on the right point of view thanks to graphics being more important than the personal quest making it impossible to suspend viewer belief. Gods of Egypt’s two hours plus never develops the world into one deserving of that time and remains ridiculously overlong for a thrill ride action adventure. Embarrassingly white, modern, and out of place people contribute to the glaring storytelling problems. Rather than any rewrite clarification on its mythology or a more multi-ethnic cast, Gods of Egypt underestimates our knowledge of omnipresent Egyptian lore with its superficial spectacle bang for its blockbuster buck, expecting viewers to go along with the poor slight of hand when 300 (which Hollywood is apparently still trying to recreate) and Stargate did it better. Unfortunately, Gods of Egypt is painfully unaware that the audience won’t sit still for frustratingly bad visuals, jarring whitewashing, noticeable movie machinations, and no clear story.

David’s Haunted Library: Lost World Of Patagonia

 

Many people believe that there are creatures out there that exist where science says it’s not possible. One of those people is Cryptozoologist and university professor, Alex Klasse. Alex has learned of a place where dinosaurs still exist and he has received a grant from the Ace corporation to lead an expedition to find them. Alex will be accompanied by students from his university and a band of mercenaries who are in search of rare jewels. The team is taking two nuclear powered all-terrain vehicles into the unknown where danger lurks around every corner.

Lost World Of Patagonia by Dane Hatchell is an action adventure story complete with man-eating dinosaurs that really did exist at one point. It seemed like the author did his homework on what archaeologists and paleontologists believe dinosaurs looked like, complete with some of them having feathers. It also gets into the idea that mammals may have evolved from lizards. One of my favorite scenes in this book was when the explorers send a drone with a camera attached to explore Patagonia and we get to see the dinosaurs in their natural habitat, If you are into dinosaurs and the science behind their existence this is a good book to pick up.

While Lost World Of Patagonia maybe more science fiction than horror it does have some moments that are pretty terrifying. The book opens with two people running through the wilderness being hunted by dinosaurs. Dane does a great job building suspense as you see these two try to survive in a desperate situation. I don’t want to give anything away, but I loved how the beginning was set up with one character, surviving several cliffhangers. I had figured this character would be the hero of the story but then it goes into a different direction. From the beginning this book had a real anything goes feeling to it.

The action scenes in this book were great and I liked hearing about the dinosaurs, but a lot of the characters came across as one-dimensional. There is a love triangle going on here that had the feel of something out of a bad Syfy channel movie. The way they wrap the love story up made me want to stop reading and the ending to the book was enough to make you yell “what the hell?” I think the story should have spent less time on the characters and more time on the dinosaurs because I didn’t care about these people. Where this book really shines is with the focus on a world that time has forgotten.

Lost World Of Patagonia is a book that starts with a gruesome bang, slows down and then has a crazy ending. I love the concept here, as I was reading I kept thinking it would make a great Science fiction/horror movie. It’s like Jurassic Park but with a lot more detail on the creatures that live in this world. Patagonia is a fascinating place to explore and I’m happy to see that there is a second book available.

David’s Haunted Library: Kill By Numbers

 

 

It’s tough to be a human in space. Other races look down on humans because they think of them as violent sociopaths. With the human empire disbanded, they are spread out across the galaxy trying to make a living. This brings us to former assassin Raena  who is trying to get a new start on board the alien space ship,the Veracity. Raena has a complicated past, she was a prisoner as the Templars were wiped out by a genetic plague and the situation has created some bad psychological effects.

Raena is having nightmares of shooting her ex-lover in the head and she has to deal with the fact that the now extinct Templars have left booby-trapped biotechnology throughout the galaxy and her ship is infected. Raena and the pirate crew that she is with must learn to trust each other and figure out how to fix the booby-trapped technology or the galactic economy could collapse.

Kill By Numbers by Loren Rhoads is the second book in the wake of the Templars series and could be best described as a character driven action adventure story. This book starts off slow and gets deep into the character’s personalities before getting into the  story. The thing I really enjoy about Loren Rhoads writing is that she creates characters that seem real and gives a lot of detail on them.  To me the sign of a great character in a book is if you want to read about them even if there is no conflict with them. I love good character development in a story before we get into the action and Kill By Numbers does an excellent job of it.

I love the concept behind this book, Raena is a human on a ship of aliens so Raena doesn’t fit in. Raena is trying to start a new life and escape her past, the crew of the Veracity is trying to help but what they want for her and what she wants for herself are two different things. Everyone on the ship is a different kind of alien but because of her past, Raena is the oddest one. I liked the idea that everyone on the ship was so different making it like a melting pot of races.

Another interesting aspect of this book is how the media is portrayed in this futuristic setting. The crew of the ship gathers at the same time every day to see the news and then talk about the new scandals across the galaxy. The media are a lot like how it is in the present and everything that goes on in the news is seen as truth even if there are no facts to back it up. The media are a small part of the story but I liked how even in the future people are addicted to getting information about other political systems and alien races. The best part of the book is the relationship between Raena and Gavin. Gavin wants to help Raena with her new life but seems to hurt her as he tries to help. Kill By Numbers is like an action packed soap opera in space and the kind of book that hard-core Science Fiction fans will love.

Book Review: Contagious by Emily Goodwin

Review of Contagious

by Michele Roger

“I wasn’t afraid of death. If I died, it would be over. My worst fear wasn’t of dying, it was of living. Living, while everyone around me had their flesh savagely torn from their bodies to be shoved into the festering and ever-hungry mouths of zombies. It terrified me, right down to my very core, to be alive while the rest of the world was dead.”

In the midst of the Second Great Depression, twenty-five year old Orissa Penwell doesn’t think things can get any worse. She couldn’t be more wrong. A virus breaks out across the country, leaving the infected crazed, aggressive and very hungry.

Orissa will do anything-no matter if it’s right or wrong- to save the ones she loves. But when she discovers that most of the world is infected or dead, she must decided if those lives are worth saving at all.

In her narrative story telling, Emily Goodwin presents a refreshingly strong female hero in her zombie-infested, survival tale, “Contagious“.  Orissa, the lead character is one part hard-drinking, drug looking party girl but one hundred percent butt kicking strategist and survivalist.  Upon reading it, I likened Orissa to Ellen Ripley in Alien.
Through Orissa, Goodwin thrusts the reader into new literary territory.  While Ripley grappled with her softer maternal instincts, Orissa juggles her command and leadership role against a sharp personal contrasting desire. While saving trapped hospital patients during a zombie plague, her heart wishes to be rescued by the handsome, Irish doctor, Padraic.
A corner-stone to a great zombie story is the element of gore and Goodwin delivers in spades.  From intestine chomping little girls found feasting on the newly dead in the hospital basement to lead pipes through zombie skull death blows at the grocery store, there is plenty for the reader to, errr, feast upon.  While the male characters do their fair share of “fending off the monsters”, it is the focus on blue jeans and leather jacket clad Orissa and her lead pipe weapon of choice that shines.
Contagious is fast-paced, smart and well written.  It’s above-board appeal is its fresh perspective and its gritty narrative.  Goodwin has shown that female writers can make flesh crawl, both living and undead just as well as her male peers.

Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed by Jeff Carlson

When we last saw Alexis Vonderach in Frozen Sky it was the year 2113 and she had just made first contact with an alien race. The creatures that inhabit Jupiter’s moon Europa are referred to as sunfish by Earthlings and they live beneath the frozen surface. Earth had been taking resources from Europa for months before they realized that beneath the ice were hieroglyphics and tunnels. Vonderach and some other explorers met Europa’s locals and they were not friendly.

Flash forward three months and the sunfish and Earthlings have an uneasy truce. This is where we are in the opening of Jeff Carlson’s Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed. Tribe Top Clan Eight-Six has sent one representative who the humans call Tom to an underground module so they can learn more about Europa’s new visitors. Earth has sent Vonderach, together the two learn each other’s language but when the ground starts to quake due to Earth’s machines,  the peace between humans and sunfish may be shattered.

Earth’s leaders start to debate what should happen next as more sunfish arrive with reinforcements. At this part of the book you see that every human in Frozen Sky 2 has their own agenda and only Vonderach is thinking of someone other than herself. War is about to begin between an ancient race who lives for violence and the greedy governments of Earth who only care about Europa’s raw materials.

Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed has a little bit of everything. At one point this book is an action adventure with the battle between sunfish and humans. it’s also a horror novel with Vonderach trapped in an underground room with a hostile alien and the betrayal that goes on later in the book. Later the book becomes a suspense novel with an insane robot that doesn’t know which species that it wants to destroy. It even workes as a political thriller with all the governments of the world and the scientists having their own agenda and manipulating each other to get what they need. Even the sunfish have tribes and agendas and battle each other to have the best living conditions. I really enjoyed hearing about how they lived.

I took Europa as a metaphor for early life on earth with sunfish representing caveman who battle for limited resources. That being said, you also see the supposedly advanced humans who still battle each other like the primitive sunfish. I loved how in the beginning of this book Jeff Carlson includes a timeline giving all the advancements of Earth throughout time and in this story you also see how sunfish civilization have risen and fallen over the centuries and you began to understand that they really aren’t that different.

Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed is an excellent novel on many levels. My favorite parts were the interactions between Vonderach and Tom as they try to work out deals and learn about each other. I also loved Vonderach trying to reason with the crazy robot that has the memories of the scientist she once worked with. Despite the great action and political intrigue in this novel it was the personal relationships between the different characters that I enjoyed.

Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed is the work of a master storyteller and a great example of what good Science Fiction should be.

 

 

 

The Colony: Renegades

Its only been a few hours since society has collapsed and already the zombies are evolving. They are smarter, faster, stronger,  they spit acid and there are more of them. Things look bleak for Ken Strickland and the other survivors, but they have hope and they will do what it takes to survive the zombie apocalypse. This is the story behind book 2 in Michaelbrent Colling’s zombie trilogy, The Colony: Renegades. 

In book one of this series, the zombies were not as strong and the the thing you wondered about most was will Ken find his family? In The Renegades the main point I wondered about was how were the characters going to survive in this new world where there are zombies at every turn. These zombies aren’t the kind that stumble through the street and walk slow, they are smart, they work as a team and can communicate with each other and they can attack you even when you dismember their bodies..

In most horror novels you find a character that is dealing with something that is much stronger than them and they’re fighting against the odds to survive. Michaelbrent Colling’s book takes it to the extreme. While reading I was constantly thinking  that there is no way that the humans can survive. There is a scene where they survivors are trapped in an elevator shaft while zombies are climbing up the walls to get them. At one point they look down from a window and see so many zombies that they can’t see the ground. There is also a scene where the zombies are climbing up a construction crane to get to their prey.

While writing this trilogy Michaelbrent must have thought to himself what is the absolute worst situation that I can put a human in? The answer to that is the Colony trilogy. I don’t think I’ve ever read a series of  books where the humans had to go through so much to survive. These characters go through hell and back, they lose hope and regain it, they fight among themselves but then have to work together to survive. The Renegades is a hardcore thriller that you can’t stop reading because you have to know how the humans will make it through.

The nonstop action in this book is what really makes it a good read but I also liked the relationship between the characters. For instance the way Ken and his wife act towards each other in the story I think is how most married couples would act in this situation. I also liked how the characters change  in the story. Despite a short period of time passing, everyone changes into a different person by the end.

It’s hard to find any bad things to say about this book. I love the way the story is told and I love the characters. True horror in a novel is watching a character you like have to survive an impossible situation and The Colony: Renegades is filled with impossible situations. My only complaint is that I felt that some of the scenes were over described and the book ends on a big cliffhanger. This didn’t bother me too much, if you made it this far in book 2 than book 3 is already a must read. Michaelbrent Collings has made one masterpiece of a zombie story.

The Colony: Genesis

Giant insects on the windows, planes falling from the sky and students trying to eat each other. This is what teacher Ken Strickland has to deal with as his world falls apart in less than 10 minutes. Half the world’s population has been turned into zombies and most of the other half were bit and turned, so 99% of humans have perished. There is not much hope for Ken but he is still alive and determined to see if his family has survived.

The Colony: Genesis by Michaelbrent Collings is the beginning of a series. It’s a pretty simple premise that has been done in a lot of novels, a man sees humanity fall apart in a short period of time and he wants to find his family. This book is non stop action, it proceeds like a freight train from beginning to end and its one heck of a ride. Despite this premise done many times before, it still works. I like the simplicity in this book, I liked Ken from the beginning and even liked his students even though they were killed quickly.

What I liked most about Genesis was that the chapters were very short and each one ended with a short cliffhanger. I’ve always liked books that keep the action going and this one was no exception.

Though the action is the most important part of the story, Michaelbrent Collings also makes you care about the characters by giving little glimpses of their personalities as the action progresses. For instance there is a character named Becca in the beginning, she is not there long but we learn  that she is a know it all that is constantly looking for recognition. I love it when characters that are hardly in a book get a good description. I also liked how another character that is hardly in it gets described as intelligent but people don’t notice him because he doesn’t have an opinion. It shows that Michaelbrent cares about all the characters in a story, even the less important ones.

The zombies in this book are fast-moving zombies which is a good thing for a book which relies on  action, the swarms of insects in the story was also a nice touch. The chase scene through a collapsed building was my favorite part as Ken learns that sometime you have to trust people. Also I enjoyed how Ken keeps hearing a voice in the back of his head telling him to give up but then he thinks of how his family may be trying to escape the zombies and he has to carry on. One scene in particular has Ken deciding there is no hope anymore and then he looks at the other survivors that have joined him along his journey, he once again feels there is hope for humanity.

The only things I did not like about this book was that it seemed to take Ken forever to decided to try his cell phone and the idea of going upstairs in a collapsed building should have seemed like a bad idea to the survivors. I loved the scenes where these events happened but they seemed far-fetched. The Colony: Genesis is a good action adventure which is in the style of World War Z. Anyone who is in to books combining action and horror will love this one.

How I Started The Apocalypse

Chaz Singelton woke up from the longest sleep he ever had in what looked like a hospital room and he had no idea how he got there. His body felt numb and he had the worst headache ever, but that was the least of his problems. Chaz is the world’s first smart zombie and he is part of a government experiment to create an army of super soldiers who can’t be killed.

This is the story behind Brian Pinkerton’s How I Started The Apocalypse. Chaz is trapped in a secret underground lab, he wants to escape to see his family again but there is no way out, until the government decides to shut down the experiment by killing all the zombies along with the workers in the lab.  With the need to eat human flesh and the power to destroy mankind, Chaz escapes and goes on the run to find his wife and son.

How I Started The Apocalypse is an action packed zombie thriller from the point of view of the zombie. Chaz is a multi dimensional character that you can’t help but like. Chaz never wanted to be a zombie and he tries to fight his zombie nature, he just wants his life back, but he soon realizes that his wife has moved on and he can’t fight what he is.

To make matters worse he is being stalked by Breck Palmer, the man in charge of the super soldier experiment and the one who destroyed the secret lab.  My favorite part of this book was how there was a point where you feel sorry for Chaz and his hopeless situation and you hate Breck for what he has done.  As the story progresses and Chaz has more trouble controlling himself,  he starts to become the villan while  Breck becomes the sympathetic character and the only one that can put a stop to the zombie pandemic.

I did have some issues with How I Started The Zombie Apocalypse, some of the dialoge in places seemed a little cheesey and didn’t fit certain situations. Also there was a scene where Chaz finds his wife that I didn’t care for. Without giving any of the story away I felt that what happened with their relationship was too far fetched. Though the last scene with Chaz’s wife was hilarious and left a smile on my face. Another scene I had issues with was when Chaz tries to end his zombie problem. I felt he should have known it wouldn’t work but his attempts at doing it were very funny.

How I Started The Apocalypse is an original take on the zombie genre. The book is  fast paced with a lot of humor and gore thrown in for good measure.  There are a lot of great action scenes here, and a commentary about how humans act like zombies. I liked Chaz’s escape from the secret lab and there was a scene in Yankee Stadium that was very good. One of my favorite scenes is when Chaz makes a childhood bully suffer giving him his just desserts. There was also a scene towards the end with a goth girl who wants  to turn him into be a celebrity that was very good.  Best of all I liked the way the story ended. The storyline gets wrapped up but it hints at a sequel and I would love to see where Brian Pinkerton goes next with this idea.