THE DEAD TIMES
DEAD ARE COMING...
Omega Days
RATING:
ZOMBIE RATING:
DESCRIPTION:
When Zombies, hungry for human flesh, enter the world of the living without warning, it does not take long for civilization to collapse. Initially, panic spreads as the insidious terror sweeps over the cities of mankind. Later, comes a realisation that the world is doomed, and, even if by some miracle, the lethal Omega Virus does not spell the end of days, the world has changed irreversibly. With eight million Zombies in the San Francisco Bay Area and counting, desperate survivors attempt to live just one more day - fruitlessly hoping that help will come. Three rules govern survival; make your bullets count, don't fall behind and don't get bitten!
MY VERDICT:
This book has an exceedingly fast-pace; right from the outset, the Zombies start appearing and causing chaos like only Zombies can. This means, once you start reading, you'll be hooked, unable to put it down until you reach the end. The story features all you would expect in a decent Zombie novel; lone heroes, groups of panicked survivors, twisted religious zealots, established safe zones, military lingo and thousands of walking corpses. Yes, Omega Days shrugs off the notion of super-deadly, sprinting, snarling Zombies in favour of the traditional slow moving, only deadly in a horde, shufflers. The first of the only two downsides of this incredibly well-written and edited book is that, dealing with the individual stories of five or more apocalypse survivors, it can be quite hard to follow as it jumps between chapters - one dealing with one group fighting for survival and the next picking up the action with another character, often being completely unrelated to previous events. The second is that the author appears to realise this towards the end of the book and tries to merge every sub-story into one main plotline. It does not really work in my opinion, feeling a bit rushed and unnecessary. However, despite these two issues, Omega Days is one hell of a Zombie book - the start of an whole new series - that I definitely recommend.