Books for Prep | |
 - Where's the rest of it?The story line is a great idea, and I like that the author puts you right in the story and backfills you on history as you read. I've always found that method fun to read and often makes a book difficult to put down. In this case though, the "backfilling" is horribly incomplete. When you realize you're 50 pages from the end, you will already know you've been ripped off because at that point, you'd need 150 pages (or more!) to adequately develop the characters, explain the story line, and prepare the reader for the ending. There was so much liberty taken with the story line, that the ending made little sense. This story is just told - not explained. When a situation would take some time to develop and write, the author just makes it "so". At one point, a couple of characters must go through a military checkpoint. They have no reason to be there at that time and in those circumstances, but the man lets them through the checkpoint with very little explanation. In another contrived incident the characters find a conspiracy theorist type stranger with very little explanation of how, get convenient information from him, and return the following day to find he's been hushed by an unknown entity (presumably the government). BUT - surprise, he left them a secret hidden map. He just met them for crying out loud. We don't even know much about the main character other than he's very upset about losing his best friend, and even though he has nightmares about his beloved daughter being kidnapped, he chooses to leave her and his wife to accompany a just met, half-cocked, dingbat kid into certain death. Get this book when you've read all of the other "zombie" books. There are some VERY good one's out there. I hope the author pulls the book and spends a couple more years making it a complete novel. It could be great. Rating:  - A book about the necessity of critical doubt in life - gore fans, don't stop hereThe Condemned is the story of Jett, a grieving, disabused, no-nonsense, sentimentally-hurt, sensitive professional truck driver whose main mission is to venture into the City in search of the precious, war-required metal that's mainly found in car wrecks from earlier turbulent times. The City is a forbidden place to "normal" human beings. Only soldiers and authorized personnel, such as the metal- and utility-collecting employees, are allowed within the restraints of the City which is roamed by herds of violent human residues at night. The story centers around Jett's search for his missing partner, Vince, who got caught by the City People. The arrival of a new partner, the Kid, triggers a series of events that propel Jett from his mental goal of revenge to the reality of it. What's interesting in this book is the depth of the main, anti-hero characters' personification. You feel for them, they are everyday people, not more, not less, and have a real human side to show, full of weaknesses, shortcomings, mental stereotypes etc. They react to events and situations in a realistic manner. This realism helps identify with them. Therefore, their story progressively becomes the reader's. But beyond this, the main asset of this story is to show us, although in simplistic terms at times, that there might be a truth beyond what is termed officially as the truth, ie, the City People might not be who the survivors are voluntarily led to think they are. Thus here is one of the author's underlying criticisms: history doesn't exist; only facts are real, history only exists after the facts have come to pass. History thus becomes what the "power that be" want it to look like. Therefore, don't believe the government blindly. Doubt. Be your own critics. Think for yourself. Always! Those who will want to read gore will be disappointed. There is little, and that's frankly not the object of this book. Those who want to use this horror book to discover something useful about our daily life will be served. Plus, it reads so easily, it would be a shame to miss on this opportunity... Rating: - Solid Writing Gives Way To Good Creepy Story.David Jack Bell manages to churn out a really good, solid first novel. His sentences are straight and to-the-point, and he shows how you don't have to write splatterpunk-type horror to achieve weird scares. This is the story of Jett, a man who has a job picking up old, junked out cars that they use for scrap metal, to be used for armory and weapons. It's an all out war against 'The City People', zombie-like people turned into creepy, walking dead, by way of an attack on the water supply. He soon has to work with a kid who instroduces him to another side of his own personality that he wished he'd never discovered. His last partner was killed at the hands of the City People, and he's on a mission with his new partner, one that will take both him and the reader into a dark landscape of thrills, chills, and some very creeped out scenes that will stick in your mind long after you turn out the lights. There are so many zombie novels making their way around the world of Horror these days, that you have to salute David Bell for creating something different and scary, and a lot packed in to the 220 pages of this first novel. Delirium Books cranks out another winner. And If you like any kind of Horror, you should read this. Horrordude. Rating: - Needs more.Characters and plot were a little flat. Could do with a lot more history of both the characters and plot. I read it but don't think I really enjoyed it. Rating: - Solid horror thriller. 4.5 starsAfter seeing Will Smith's version of 'I am Legend' and having also read the original by Matheson, plus Chuck Heston's 'Omega Man', I can see strains of all three in this novel. This story takes place in a nameless city that has pretty much perished under the onslaught of terrorism attacks, with much of its population poisoned via the waterstream years previous. They are light adverse night stalkers who everyone outside the city despises, thinking that they have become vicious animals. The country is at war overseas and essentially we are seeing a world that appears to be winding down, rusting into oblivion with people hanging on, trying to salvage what they can. We are introduced to Jett, a man who works for the government, hauling scrap out of the city in the daytime hours. It is a risky job, with the City People hiding out and ready to kill those who they get a hold of. His partner died at hands of the city people, or was turned into one when they were making run that ran a little too close to dusk. Enter a new partner for Jett, who we only know as The Kid. He is a war veteran with some secrets and a desire to push Jett to find out what really happened to his partner, plus he has a lust for going after the city people. Together, they set out to find out not only what happened to Jett's first partner but what the real deal is with the City People, who have been condemned by society as outcasts and monsters but may be more than they appear. Overall, I found this relatively short novel a brisk and easy read. David Jack Bell has a tight and crisp writing style that keeps the pace steady and consistent, revealing small bits and pieces of this tale in an efficient manner that keeps you interested throughout. I enjoy apocalyptic fiction and besides the movies and books I mentioned above, I also could sense numerous other influences on this work. A world that is slowly dying, war, plagues, famine, potential government conspiracies. It all comes together nicely under the author's deft hand here, in a place where he does not give us much in the way of specific details about the city or about the enemy overseas. We can envision this being a part of our own world in the near future or some alternate reality that none of us would want to be a part of. I enjoyed this story of this grim and dingy place that the author has created. I do wish there was more depth of understanding of the City People but I realize that our view of this world is through the eyes of the main character, which intentionally limits our perception of things. We do not know where things will lead when the story ends, leaving many things open for interpretation for the reader. In association with Amazon.com | |