Monday 22 November 2010

Night Of The Living Trekkies

As a zombie apocalypse fan and a (recovering) Star Trek obsessive, Night of the Living Trekkies has been on my radar for a few months. But I put off getting it as I just didn't see it being all that good. How wrong could I have been?! 


Basic plot outline in one sentence: a zombie outbreak occurs during a Star Trek convention in Houston. As diehard geek, that sentence is enough to get me extremely excited indeed. But I understand it might not appeal to everyone. I say, give it a go.

The book is superbly, tightly written, with humour woven into the dialogue so well that it feels totally natural. The characters are believable and likeable. It's a short, easy read and I will say it's definitely the best book I've read this year. My only criticism would be that, for those who aren't total nerds, some of the jokes might go over the reader's head. But hey, I am a total nerd so I laughed at every one.

A must buy.


Further Reading


Night of the Living Trekkies - Kevin David Anderson (UK Book, UK Kindle, US Book, US Kindle)

Sunday 14 November 2010

Zombie Apocalypse by Stephen Jones

Full disclosure: I'm a Zombie-aholic. I've seen the movies, read the books, adored the comics and just this last two weeks raved about TV series. So when, whilst wandering through my local bookstore the other day desperate for inspiration, I saw a book entitled "Zombie Apocalypse I could not walk past. 


In retrospect, picking it up and taking it home was an excellent decision. The story is told via the medium of letters, emails, diary entries, blogposts and Twitter feeds which makes it quite disjointed but not unduly so, and is very reminiscent of World War Z by Max Brooks (not a bad thing at all). It helps create a picture of the world far more easily and quickly than a normal narrative story. 


Mixing humour, recent political and news events, horror and an underlying bleakness, the story rolls on quickly to a humourous if despairing end. I got through it in a matter of hours, which shows just how easily it grabs your attention.


You do care about the characters, you do get taken in by the story (I stopped reading half way through and was surprised to find there were no zombies trying to break down my door!) and it will leave any horror or zombie fan very satisfied indeed. 


An excellent book and one I wholeheartedly recommend. 


Further Reading 


Zombie Apocalypse! US Amazon UK Amazon

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist