THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

The Great British mainland has been lost, overrun by the walking dead, sweeping through the land like a plague, destroying civilization, leaving nothing but decaying buildings and rusting vehicles in their ungodly wake. What is left of the human race now live on the isles around the coast, life rafts in an ocean of terror. Death, disease and desperation run riot through cramped and under-supplied refugee camps, forcing the miniscule remnants of the government and armed forces into a potentially catastrophic situation; the vital need to recapture the land that was lost, to retake the mainland and, ever so slowly, rebuild the civilization that was snatched from them. A small group of soldiers are given a special mission that could turn the tide against humanity's rotting enemy but not everything, as you might expect, goes to plan.

MY VERDICT:

This book is a slow-read - it's not all that interesting at the start, normal Zombie apocalypse stuff, but stick with it and you're rewarded with a truly memorable story involving the battle to retake an overrun London. The main issue with this book is that it is all generally 'good' - it is slow to get to the real 'meat' of the narrative - but there are no extreme lows or astronomical highs; the writing is quality, there are very few mistakes, major characters have minor backstories making them more than just two-dimensional plot devices, the gruesome Zombies are described in eye-gouging detail and so on. There are some scenes that are described hauntingly well; for example, the scene where the advanced team of soldiers is sent up the Thames River in an old, repurposed World War II U-boat in the early hours of the morning, light fog swirling against the tomb-like structures of a dead London, abandoned when the undead became too many to contain and the British mainland was evacuated. I also like the painstaking sense of realism the author provides; detailing the roar of jet engines and how the squad of marines sneak about, quietly to avoid detection or the nervous quivers of untrained militia used to aid the offensive. I do have two negative points though that stand out like decaying Zombie-thumbs. The main one is that, throughout the book, no one pivotal to the story actually dies until the closing chapters - not a massive deal but, with hardly anyone being killed, it does make the insanely hostile land, overrun with undead, harder to immerse yourself in. Secondly, the ending is kind-of anti-climactic; this is the middle book of a trilogy so a mediocre ending is almost expected but the narrative, that has become dramatic and exciting in the final stages, should really have a more satisfying conclusion for those who may not go on to read the third book in the series.