An Interview with H.E. Roulo

On February 29th Horroraddicts.net publishing released its newest book:Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome by H.E. Roulo. She has had stories in other Horroraddicts.net publications such as:   The Wickeds, Horrible Disasters and Horror Addicts Guide To Life. She has also been on the Horror Addicts podcast on several occasions and won our Most Wicked award in 2009. Here is what some people are saying about Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome:

“A perfect mix of classic sci-fi and zombie horror. Once you start, you are hooked!”
-Jake Bible, author of Little Dead Man.
“Sanctuary Dome starts with a bang, is complicated by a kiss, and ends with a promise. This is a YA zombie love story like no other.”
-Jennifer Brozek, author of Apocalypse Girl Dreaming
“A smart zombie novel with relatable characters you’ll be rooting for until the end.”
-Emerian Rich, author of Night’s Knights Vampire Series
“Sanctuary Dome is fast-paced zombie sci-fi on a prison planet of the dying and the undead.”
-Stephen North, author of Beneath the Mask

“H.E. Roulo transports the reader to an eerie, futuristic environment. Her efficiency of prose will absorb readers of all ages. Macabre, frightening, but always hopeful.”
-Philip E. Carroll, author of Shooting Stars

Here is an interview Horroraddicts.net did with H.E. Roulo about her new book:

When did you start writing?

From the top bunk, I’d tell my younger sister stories at night. As soon as I knew enough letters, I put  pencil to paper to write stories. By the time I was in the third grade I knew I wanted to be an author. I just didn’t know how badly it paid.

You produced your first book Fractured Horizon as a podcast. Why did you go this route and where can people listen to it?

For a lot of years, I didn’t tell people I wrote. Co-workers didn’t know. It was my secret.
When I finally decided to take my writing public, I wanted to see whether there was interest. Did people like my stories? Podcasting my novel let me get immediate, week-by-week feedback. I also didn’t have to worry about hiring an editor, I did all the recording myself at night or while my toddler slept.
Fractured Horizon was my first big success, even a Parsec Finalist, and it will always be dear to me. The story of Kay Downs traveling through time the hard way, by living through it, until she reached the damaged future and repaired it, started my career. Peoples’ responses to that story encouraged me to continue. I’ve learned a lot since then. I recently rewrote the text of Fractured Horizon to be clearer. I’ve had it edited. I need to release it, it’s just a matter of finding the time.

Is writing an audio drama different from writing a novel?

I’ve deliberately attempted new things so I would be a better writer. I learned a lot about story, being concise, setting the scene, and pacing, from experimenting. The podcast novel, Fractured Horizon, was an audio book. I simply read the written novel, edited the audio to take out pauses, and added an episode introduction to catch listeners up. It’s a little rough, and moves too fast. I could do better now. Of course, I think that about every project I finish.
Once I was done releasing Fractured Horizon, I was looking to do more audio. I released short stories, including three for HorrorAddicts.net. Those stories did a lot for me. I won the first annual Wicked Women Writer’s challenge with “Graveyard Shift”; released “Undergrowth” as my first ebook single; and “Great Asp & Little Death” became one of the stories in the Rich & Roulo series.
After that, I had several stories traditionally published in markets like Nature and Fantasy’s special Women Destroy Fantasy issue.
Finally, I wrote a script for a full-cast audio drama. An audio drama is different from an audio book because the voices of the characters and sound effects tell the story—just like old radio plays. I had to be creative; there’s only sound to tell the story. I couldn’t rely on descriptions or go inside the character’s head. That audio drama, and the world I created, led to much more.

What is the inspiration behind Plague Masters: Sanctuary Dome?

The novel took a long path. It started as an audio drama submitted to Necropolis Studio Productions for their Omega Road Chronicles, which is a series of moody unconnected short stories, much like The Twilight Show. My script was for a 40 minute show. They selected it right away. Next, I turned the idea into a short for the Live and Let Undead anthology, which is themed around putting zombies to work. And that sold right away.
At that point, it seemed a no-brainer to expand the world I’d come to love. I already had Samantha, who is searching for her brother’s murderer. For the novel, I added the story of Trevor, a teenager from a downtrodden planet. He wants to fight against the zombies swarming his world, but opportunity is scarce. He’s working as zombie-bait for the local militia when the girl he likes becomes infected. They get sent to the Sanctuary Dome, a punishment that’s actually a big improvement, but he’s not infected and is trying to save everyone, even his home world, from this disease.

Are the zombies in your story fast-moving or slow-moving?

Mythology is so important in a story like this. It drives the tension and action. In my world, a bite means a change to a zombie, but there are also blood infections. Get splashed with zombie blood, and you’ll change but no one knows how soon. It turns people into ticking time bombs. That’s what happened to Samantha, and to the girl Trevor loves. They’re infected, but not changed into zombies, yet.
When someone does change, they go through stages of madness and rage. They’re still fast. Eventually, zombies become slow and docile. They will wander with sheep in a field, but they can get aggressive again if provoked. Don’t provoke the zombies, it gets ugly fast.

How many books do you have planned in the Plague Masters series?

It’s a tidy trilogy with an ending I’m really excited to write. At this point, the first book is available for purchase. I’ve finished writing the second one. Now, I get the dig into the finale of the series. There’s going to be even more action, and more at stake for every character.
All the worlds in this system are suffering. The series has to end soon, before there’s no one left for me to torture.

Why do you think people are so fascinated with the zombie apocalypse?

I think there are lots of different reasons. A zombie apocalypse lets us imagine a world starting over. Old, boring problems are gone. No one worries about grades or taxes in a zombie apocalypse.
Life becomes purer, it’s about survival, testing ourselves, and hopefully rising to the occasion. With zombies, there’s no guilt in killing them, no gray area, no reason to understand their point of view. There’s fairness in knowing that they’ll kill you if they can, and you can respond on that level. If you’re smart and careful, you’ll survive. Our world is a complicated place. The zombie apocalypse simplifies it.
Until the Plague Masters rise, of course.

Heather Roulo is a Seattle author. Her short stories appear in several dozen publications, including Nature and Fantasy’s special Women Destroy Fantasy issue. Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome is the first book in her Plague Masters Series.

To hear the audio drama of the short story that inspired Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome, visit The Omega Road Chronicles Audio Drama online.

Find out more at heroulo.com

http://podiobooks.com/title/fractured-horizon/

http://www.fracturedhorizonnovel.com/2015/04/13/free-audio-drama-omega-road-chronicles-ep-3-the-killer-with-eyes-of-ice/

Horroraddicts.net Publishing presents: Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome

On February 29th Horroraddicts.net publishing released its newest book: Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome by H.E. Roulo. She has had stories in other Horroraddicts.net publications such as:   The Wickeds, Horrible Disasters and  Horror Addicts Guide To Life. She has also been on the Horror Addicts podcast on several occasions and won our Most Wicked award in 2009. Much of H.E. Roulo’s writing mixes horror and Science Fiction and her latest book is no exception. My full review is below:

Some teenage boys dream of getting a car or having a nice girlfriend. When you’re a teenager who lives in a run down neighborhood on a planet that is being over run by zombies, you dream of helping your planet’s army kill them all. Trevor wanted to do all he could to help his planet and jumped at the chance to be zombie bait. The soldiers send him into buildings to draw the zombies out and he gets to feel like he is helping society.

Life changes quickly for Trevor as he saves his dream girl but finds out she is infected. Trevor then escapes his planet and ends up in the Sanctuary Dome where the people infected with the zombie virus stay until they are changed. On another planet not far away, a teenage girl named Samantha is trying to find her missing brother and believes that the person responsible is a man named Julius. Julius is a rich man and his money built the Sanctuary Dome, can he be responsible for murder? Secrets are being kept under the dome and soon the zombies will be free to infect the universe.

Plague Master Sanctuary Dome is a book that horror fans and Science Fiction fans will enjoy. Science fiction fans will love the futuristic mythology and the political system that reminded me of The Hunger Games. I love the concept of a dome on another planet where diseased people are kept and the technology they have to see if someone is infected. I also liked how different the zombies are, they can be fast-moving or slow-moving based on how they were infected.

My favorite part of this book was Trevor’s story. Trevor is your average teenager thrown into a harsh situation. He simply wants to protect his family and everyone else on his planet but he finds out that everyone has an agenda and nothing is as it seems. He is used as zombie bait by an army that doesn’t care about him because he is from a poor area of the planet. While he sees himself as helping people against the zombies, his father is against what he is doing and is the only one who is looking out for him. The relationship between father and son is easy to relate to, Trevor’s father just wants to protect his son but Trevor is naive and thinks he knows whats best for himself.

There may be a lot of zombie books out there but Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome is a fresh spin on the genre. What I liked best about it was the characters who are mostly young people who were forced to grow up to fast. Not only do they have to deal with zombies they also have to deal with a corrupt political system that doesn’t have everyone’s best interests at heart. This book has something for everyone. Younger readers will like the action and the characters while older readers will like the setting that H.E. Roulo created. This is the first book in a trilogy and it will be exciting to see where the story will go next.

 

Heather Roulo is a Seattle author. Her short stories appear in several dozen publications, including Nature and Fantasy’s special Women Destroy Fantasy issue. Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome is the first book in her Plague Masters Series.

To hear the audio drama of the short story that inspired Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome, visit The Omega Road Chronicles Audio Drama online.

Find out more at heroulo.com

Review: Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome

Some teenage boys dream of getting a car or having a nice girlfriend. When you’re a teenager who lives in a run down neighborhood on a planet that is being over run by zombies, you dream of helping your planet’s army kill them all. Trevor wanted to do all he could to help his planet and jumped at the chance to be zombie bait. The soldiers send him into buildings to draw the zombies out and he gets to feel like he is helping society.

Life changes quickly for Trevor as he saves his dream girl but finds out she is infected. Trevor then escapes his planet and ends up in the Sanctuary Dome where the people infected with the zombie virus stay until they are changed. On another planet not far away, a teenage girl named Samantha is trying to find her missing brother and believes that the person responsible is a man named Julius. Julius is a rich man and his money built the Sanctuary Dome, can he be responsible for murder? Secrets are being kept under the dome and soon the zombies will be free to infect the universe.

Plague Master Sanctuary Dome is a book that horror fans and Science Fiction fans will enjoy. Science fiction fans will love the futuristic mythology and the political system that reminded me of The Hunger Games. I love the concept of a dome on another planet where diseased people are kept and the technology they have to see if someone is infected. I also liked how different the zombies are, they can be fast-moving or slow-moving based on how they were infected.

My favorite part of this book was Trevor’s story. Trevor is your average teenager thrown into a harsh situation. He simply wants to protect his family and everyone else on his planet but he finds out that everyone has an agenda and nothing is as it seems. He is used as zombie bait by an army that doesn’t care about him because he is from a poor area of the planet. While he sees himself as helping people against the zombies, his father is against what he is doing and is the only one who is looking out for him. The relationship between father and son is easy to relate to, Trevor’s father just wants to protect his son but Trevor is naive and thinks he knows whats best for himself.

There may be a lot of zombie books out there but Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome is a fresh spin on the genre. What I liked best about it was the characters who are mostly young people who were forced to grow up to fast. Not only do they have to deal with zombies they also have to deal with a corrupt political system that doesn’t have everyone’s best interests at heart. This book has something for everyone.  Younger readers will like the action and the characters while older readers will like the setting that H.E. Roulo created. This is the first book in a trilogy and it will be exciting to see where the story will go next.

Book Review: Insurgent Z

Botte Louisiana is just a little fly spec on the map. The weather is almost always hot and life is pretty laid back in this small town. Things are changing quickly though, the military has its eyes on Botte and they want to do some experiments on prisoners at the local prison which is referred  to as Paradis (French for Paradise). The hope was to create an army of super soldiers but not surprisingly, things don’t work out.

Sheriff Mason Guillot is used to work being easy in his town but now he is in the middle of a zombie outbreak and forced to confront his dark past. Eight years ago he was a soldier and his superior officer Jonathan Hart led him into a trap that caused two people to die. Hart is in charge of the experiments at the prison and Mason must face the man he never wanted to see again. Mason must defeat his personal demons and let go of the past in order to help the people in his town survive the zombie uprising.

Insurgent Z  by Mark C. Scioneaux and Dane Hatchell starts off as a military thriller and then turns into a horror novel. The beginning of this book led me to believe it was going to be a very different kind of novel. It starts in the middle east and gives us some background on two of the main characters before it gets into the zombie story line. The opening of this book was fantastic and I loved the dialogue between the soldiers who are being held prisoner in an enemy camp and their torturer, a man they call scarface. This book starts off with a dose of real life horror and then you see how this real life horror shaped Mason before the zombie outbreak 8 years later.

Mason is a man who has gone through hell  and you root for him because he still tries to do the right thing even after he has suffered. I liked how this book gets deep into what makes all the characters tick. Even  the supporting characters are given back stories, two people in the book, a young couple named Ryn and Deb have had a rough life. They are married and nothing turned out how they planned. Ryn became a drug dealer and Deb works with hospice patients. You see that their relationship is strained but as zombies stumble on to their property, you see them work together to survive. I loved their story and it was one of the scariest parts of the book when they have to fight to survive.

Insurgent Z is everything you would expect in a zombie book. You have interesting characters, flesh-eating monsters, science experiments gone wrong, old school zombies(read it, if you know about the history of zombies you’ll know what I mean.) and lots of action. The characters are what really makes this book worth reading though. Even people who aren’t in the story very long get a back story and the authors make you care about them. This is what makes this book horrifying, you care about the people and you want them to get a happy ending. Insurgent Z is a simple story with complex characters and is a good example of how zombie fiction never gets old.

Book Review: Time Of Death Book 2: Asylum

Time Of Death Book 2: Asylum by Shana Festa continues the story of Emma, Jake and Daphne as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse. Its been two months since the collapse of society and they’ve been through a lot. The three of them are currently living on a house boat with Jake’s brother and sister. As of now they are in the safest place possible, but it can’t last long as their food and water supplies start to dwindle. One thing they have learned is that even a safe place can fall to the undead and they have to always be on guard.

Knowing that they can’t stay on the boat forever, they go on land and head up the coast and find a new place called Asylum. Things seem safe in Asylum but more may be going on then meets the eye. With the U.S. government gone, Asylum has started its own government and presents a new way of life. Emma has to adjust to a new world and her and Jake don’t see eye to eye and the loss of several people they know has put a strain on their relationship. Asylum may be safe but things are far from perfect and is life there really better than dealing with the zombies outside?

Like in book one, Asylum has a good mix of action and humor but it also adds some new characters that I liked. We are introduced to a man names Stryker who is a complete mystery. His story unfolds throughout the book and where he starts off as one-dimensional he shows a lot of depth by the end. I liked how Emma’s attitude changes towards him as you see what causes him to be the way he is.

Another new character I like was Jasper. Jasper is a character that is shown as not being to bright but he shows he is an important part of Asylum even though he doesn’t fit in the social groups in asylum, he still does his job well but doesn’t get the respect he deserves. I loved when he is telling Emma how he is not stupid and Emma is thinking she really likes this man but at the same time she gets upset over how slow he is.  I also liked how we get to see Emma’s nursing skills put to good use.

The best part of this book was watching Emma and Jake’s relationship change. In the first book there was conflict between them but that is heightened in this one. The apocalypse would put a strain on any relationship and this one is no exception as Emma and Jake fight over their tasks in Asylum. Some interesting points about government are brought up in Asylum and where Emma starts to think of it as a bad place, Jake doesn’t necessarily think that and I found myself supporting Jake.

Asylum is a book that takes what happened in Time Of Death Book One: Induction and builds on it. This book does not repeat stuff that happens in the first one, it takes things in a completely different direction. While book one has a lot of non stop action, this book has action but gets deeper into character development. I had my issues with book one and all those issues were solved with book 2. This is a much better book then Induction and Shana shows that she is getting better as an author. The only issue I had with this one is that I wanted a book 3. Luckily for fans of Books 1 and 2, book 3 is coming.

Zombie Author Profile: Raymond Lee

What is the plot of your book: Mail Horror Bride?

From the blurb: 

From Russia, With Love…

How do you destroy your enemy? Go for the heart, then take over the brain.
The Z1219 virus, created by Russia’s most skilled scientists, is the deadliest biological weapon in history. Harbored in the human bloodstream, it remains undetected until detonated. Once detonated, the host becomes a walking corpse with only one goal: Eat everyone.
And now it is in America, packaged in the mail order brides the Russians shipped over to destroy us all.
With the disease now running rampant and no cure yet discovered, it is every uninfected person for himself.
Homes are destroyed and the families inside them torn apart. Relationships can help or hurt as those left uninfected discover they are not entirely untouched by the disease.
Follow a group of strangers as they struggle to do anything necessary to survive without losing their humanity in the process. Some will win this challenge. Most will lose.
It’s a new world and the zombies aren’t the only monsters. They’re just the easiest to recognize in a country gone horribly wrong.

What was the inspiration behind the book?

I was sick in bed during the 2013/14 New Year’s marathon of The Walking Dead and happened upon it while flipping through channels. I instantly became addicted to the show and the whole zombie apocalypse scenario. When the season ended and I found myself going through withdrawal, I decided to create my own zombie apocalypse. Like the show, I wanted to focus more on the survivors than just the blood and guts of zombie slaying. Unlike the show, I wanted it known right away how the virus started.
The Russian mail order bride scenario came about because it seemed the easiest way another country could get the virus over here undetected. Thousands of these women enter the country every year. It was easy to see them as the perfect carrier. And to my knowledge, the idea hasn’t been done. I like offering something new.

What was the hardest part of writing Mail Horror Bride?

This was actually the easiest book I’ve written. I am used to writing books with only one or two main characters so when you get stuck, you get really good and stuck. Since there were so many different characters I could play with in this one, I never got stuck. Some scenes may have been tricky but they didn’t truly stump me. I was able to have so many different viewpoints, so many characters with different traits, and have them start out at different locations. it was a lot of fun, especially since this genre gives you license to create some really twisted characters. From the very start I wanted to make a series that readers could find themselves asking “Ok, who’s really the monster here?” The only thing I can even think of that was a bit hard was just keeping track of the time frames and where each character was at. They started separate, in different locations, then slowly joined together into one big group. While switching between the little groups forming I had to constantly keep how much time had passed for them in my head, along with what state were they in and what direction were they headed in now. Oh, and hair color. There were a few times I’d forget who was blonde and who was brunette among the younger girls, and had to go back and check.

What draws you to horror writing?
I share a birthday with the master of horror writing, Stephen King, and I think I share a bit of his demented mind as well. I have the craziest, most frightening dreams. Sometimes the things that happen in them cause me to wake up covered in cold sweat and shaking with fear and nausea.
I’ve always been drawn to anything supernatural, which makes horror writing all the more appealing. Even when writing romance novels under my real name, I tend to generally write darker story lines than you find in traditional romance. It just happens that way.

How long would you survive the zombie apocalypse?
According to every online quiz I’ve taken, I’d be the last one standing. I’ve never shot a gun but I think I’d learn easy. I could slice and dice, which I think is safer in a world filled with monsters attracted to noise anyway. I’m not much of a runner, but neither are the zombies (unless you’re talking Dawn of the Dead zombies, then I’m totally screwed), and I’m pretty low maintenance so living without electricity and all that wouldn’t faze me too much. I’m already very suspicious of people and don’t need a bunch of friends (Quality over quantity!) so I’d be smart about people. My outdoorsman skills and my upbeat attitude would help me live. Upbeat in a zombie apocalypse? Yep, I said that. Put me in a world where I don’t have to work or listen to people gripe about politics and I’m a happy camper. Gotta kill some zombies to live like that? No problem.

If you had to battle a horde of zombies who would be your dream team fighting next to you?
Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes, Michonne, Glen Rhee, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Blade. The Avengers. And from my own book: Raven Bleu.

What else have you written?
I write paranormal romance and contemporary romance under my real name, Crystal-Rain Love. Mail Horror Bride was my debut under the Raymond Lee pen name. I started with romance as it was the easiest genre to break into. The traditional publishers of that genre have always been great about helping new authors know exactly what to do, and generally taking on more authors. Now that I’ve got a nice backlist going in that genre, and self-publishing has become easier, I finally branched out into the genre I’ve adored since my childhood, which was spent reading Stephen King.
Do you have any other books coming out?
The second book in the One Nation Under Zombies series is planned for March. I plan on getting the third out by year’s end.

http://www.crystalrainlove.blogspot.com/

http://raymondleeauthor.blogspot.com/

 

The Colony: Descent

Book 3 in The Colony saga starts with a small band of humans still trying to out run the zombie horde which has taken over Earth. It took only a few hours for society to crumble but a few humans still managed to survive and this is their story. The Colony: Descent by Michaelbrent Collings is a story of hope, survival and zombies.

Descent is just a little different then the first two books. The story begins with 8 people trying to get away from fast-moving zombies who are just as smart as the humans and can’t seem to be destroyed. The survivors have to run through an empty skyscraper and a wrecked aircraft but they finally manage to get to a safe place. There escape comes at a cost though, they are still trapped and they are not in good shape. They need food and medicine and they have no supplies.

One thing that sets this book apart from the last two is it has a little humor and there is a little downtime for the characters. I liked the non stop action that’s in the first two installments and the first half of this book but I liked it that things slowed down in this one, you got to know the characters better and it sets up some really creepy scenes. The action picks up again towards the end and when the zombies find their way to the survivors it is one of the scariest things that I’ve ever read in a zombie novel.

My favorite part of this story is the relationship between Ken and his wife Maggie. In a stressful time Maggie has turned against Ken but when things get  harder they come together. There was one scene I liked where Ken sees two of the other survivors show affection for each other and feels jealous. Another scene I liked was when Maggie sees all the survivors working together and thinks to herself “my family.” I love how all the survivors work together against the zombies despite their differences.

Descent also has one of the funniest lines that I’ve ever read in a book. After Ken has been passed out for a long period of time due to infection, he wakes up and asks how long they have been where they are and his daughter answers: “We’ve been here for seven poops.” I also loved the zombies who were trapped in the airplane and how decapitated zombie body parts start to come after the survivors in the sewer tunnel.

Descent has some great moments, I think this was the best in the series and I’m glad there is a part 4 coming. This one may have less action but it is scarier than the others and all the characters really had a chance to shine. My only complaint about this book was that there are lots of questions that get brought up and I figured they would get answered in this one. Instead the book ends with another major cliffhanger. On the bright side I’m curious what Michaelbrent Collings has in store for the survivors. Considering how each book had something that made it more terrifying than the last one, I have to see what Michaelbrent Collings comes up with next.

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 Book 2:The Hunger War

Life wasn’t easy for Chaz. He died too young in a construction accident only to be brought back to life by the government as the world’s first smart zombie. The government decided that the experiment was a bad idea and destroyed the lab and tried to exterminate Chaz. Chaz escaped though and accidentally started the zombie apocalypse in New York City. Chaz didn’t ask for this to happen and he’s not sure how to stop it but Manhattan belongs to the zombies now.

Being a smart zombie has its advantages, the other zombies are now looking at Chaz as a leader and he may be the one to lead the zombies to a new way of life. Also a second smart zombie named Dolores has found Chaz and together the two will lead the zombies into battle against the humans in the Hunger Wars. Can two zombies in love lead a revolution and find a cure for death? How I started The Apocalypse Book 2: The Hunger Wars has your answers.

I loved how this book manages to include action, comedy and horror in the same story. The story starts with a bang as Chaz’s son Peter is running the city streets trying to get supplies for his father, while dodging zombies and trying to escape gun happy humans.The book goes along at a pretty brisk pace with the battle for New York and Dolores’s adventures going from Portland to New York.

What I liked most about the book was the humor in it. Like when Dolores and Chaz are sharing a bowl of toes and Chaz remarks that they are out of finger food. I also liked Dolores leading zombies into a bedroom to help some humans escape and commenting to the zombies: “Come and get it, yummy, yummy in your tummy.” Also just hearing Chaz trying to rally the zombies for their battle against humanity was funny and a little scary at the same time.

There are also some great moments of horror in this book such as towards the end when a boy spots a zombie in his yard after loosing his mother to one. This book also has a zombie sex scene that will be painful if you’re a guy. In the scene I loved how the guy realizes that even in his current state he is not immortal and while he is falling apart, he’s still not sure he likes the idea of death.

All in all I enjoyed this book with some minor exceptions. There was a couple of points where the dialog wasn’t very good. The scenes with Breck Palmer and Chaz’s son seemed unnecessary but I think that was meant to start a future storyline.  Also in the middle of the book the story changes directions as Chaz and Dolores try to rescue some humans. At this point I found myself feeling disappointed, I liked where the story was going but towards the end I did like where the author went with it.

During the last few pages of the book I found myself thinking it would look great to see this on a movie screen and it set up a third book in the series. I’m hoping the character of Lumpy gets a bigger role in the next book. How I started The Apocalypse Book 2: The Hunger Wars is a fun book with a lot of heart and I think zombie fiction fans will really love it.

The Dead Have Ruled The Earth For 200 Years

It’s over for the planet earth. The zombie apocalypse has happened. The human race is destroyed with the exception of a few people living in spaceships and inhabiting colonies on Mars and the Moon. The humans have movies and music to remember what life was like on Earth, but they left the most important thing behind and now three people are returning to Earth to get it.

It won’t be easy, there are zombies everywhere and these aren’t like the zombies you see on TV, they’re much more vicious. Also, if you bash a zombie it will die then reform and come back more terrifying than before. If a group of zombies are huddled together, they will form into a different creature all together. So in addition to zombies, there are other giant monsters roaming the planet wanting to devour living flesh.

The Dead Have Ruled The Earth For 200 Years by Noah Mullette-Gillman is not your average zombie story. I loved how the zombies formed into giant unstoppable monsters. This book is full of non-stop action and the reason behind the zombie epidemic was believable. Even with all the action, it still managed to have a decent story to it. Society is gone, but the humans left still long for things they left on earth and need them for the new society to last in space.

There are only four characters in the book and what makes the story interesting was how similar each character is, but different at the same time. If you read it, you’ll understand. The character  I was able to relate to most was Dix . He is shown as not being as smart as the others, he feels inferior to everyone else, and has a short attention span. He is left to guard a passageway where the others are searching for the thing they came for. He watches a movie instead of standing guard and things go down hill quickly. Despite Dix being shown as an idiot,  I found myself rooting for him and hoping he would redeem himself and become the hero.

My favorite part of The Dead Have Ruled The Earth For 200 Years was when one of the  characters named Anya asks Dix to pretend he is someone else so she doesn’t feel alone. I could relate to Dix feeling down about not being appreciated by someone he cares for and I loved what eventually happens to him in the story. Another thing I liked was the description of  what Earth looks like 200 years after humanity is destroyed.

The only question I had about Noah K. Mullette Gillman’s book was, what did the zombies eat? It’s stated that they only eat living flesh but there are no humans left on the planet so I wondered if the zombies just ate animals because they didn’t eat each other. There was a lot to like here, though. I liked the protective suits that the humans had and I have never read a zombie sex scene before. The revelation that the characters made at the end also made this a great read. If your tired of zombie fiction then give The Dead Have Ruled The Earth For 200 Years a shot. This book was an original take on the zombie genre.