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itcamefromthepage's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Books really should have warnings on them like *written by cop* so you know what books to avoid.
Repetitive and indicative of all the issues with contemporary policing, just with zombies. Only finished hoping that the painfully unfunny random sidekick would suffer a horrible zombie death.
Repetitive and indicative of all the issues with contemporary policing, just with zombies. Only finished hoping that the painfully unfunny random sidekick would suffer a horrible zombie death.
badseedgirl's review against another edition
3.0
It is official, after reading Dead City, Joe McKinney is the “Texas Zombie Guy.” Now Mr. McKinney if you are reading this, don’t feel bad. I’ve only read two of your novels and they were both about zombies in Texas. Although to be completely honest, Savage Dead does take place on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico, but that ship embarked from Galveston so…..it still counts. Now Mr. McKinney I have not yet read the other three novels in your “Dead World” series, but based on the book descriptions, I think it is safe to say that they are also about Zombies in Texas.
Now Mr. McKinney; May I call you Joe?... I’ll take your silence as agreement. Now Joe, I know this is your first novel, and young writers are told to write what they know. I just want you to know I think it is great that you have embraced this ideal. I understand from your author bio that you were a police officer from…Let’s say it together….TEXAS! Well it just so happens that your hero in this novel is also a law enforcement officer from that great “Lone star State.” Specifically San Antonio. I truly hope for your sake that that is as far as the similarities go. I think I would have heard about a massive zombie attack on a major US town even in these backwoods of Tennessee. But I was actually talking about your character April. Eddies is married to April who, and it pains me to say this Joe, is one of the shrewiest women I have ever read in literature. Oh Yes Joe, I DO consider the zombie genre to contain “Literature” (notice the capitol “L”), but I digress. April. Man is she a Bitch. She is introduced on the first page complaining to Eddie on the phone about the shift he has to work. You know the job Eddie does to pay the bills. It seems that Eddie was transferred from 3rd to 2nd shift on an emergency basis due to the birth of his child, and April who will be henceforth referred to as “The Princess” does not like that he will be forced to move back to 3rd shift when the emergency is over. It seems she want Eddie to be home with her and the “Little Prince.” Oh yeah and The Princess does not like him on the 2nd shift either because he has to work in a bad part of town. And then the zombies arrive. And all hell breaks loose. And Eddie spends the rest of the novel trying to get back to The Princess and the Little Prince.
Unfortunately Eddies seems to have the focus of a tween girl at a new mall. Now Joe, I’m sure we both can agree that there will be many distracting things in a zombie uprising. What with all the dead walking and the biting and the screaming and the gun fire, it would be only natural for someone to have difficulty giving their 100% all the time. But I would hope that someone who has had police training and who is also trying to locate his missing wife and only child would be better able to focus on the task at hand. I’m sure you meant to show that Eddie was sensitive to the needs of others and was unable to stop being a cop even when his family was in danger. But to be honest it sort of came off as him acting like that dog from the Disney movie “Up!” you know “Squirrel” or maybe that he suffered from some serious ADHD. Now if that was what Eddie had let me just express my heartfelt apology. I would never belittle someone suffering from a true disorder.
Now to provide you with positive feedback. I loved the ideas that you character Ken Stoler. A zombie “expert” whose knowledge came from zombie chat rooms and forums GENIOUS! He brings up the intriguing concept that those San Antonio citizens out there mindlessly chomping away on each other might not actually be the reanimated dead, but are just so infected by the virus that they act dead. If that was true, well gosh darn it they wouldn’t be zombies, they would be those folks from “28 Days Later.” I appreciate that you never answer that question. It leads the reader to question whether Eddie was really just killing a bunch of sick people all night.
Because I feel we have made a sort of connection Joe, it pains me to say that this novel is never going to win any awards. It’s not that it is a bad novel. It’s just that it has been done before. Never fear, Dean Koontz had to write four novel(la)s before he got his first nomination. Something, namely isfdb.org, tells me that you will do better that.
Now Mr. McKinney; May I call you Joe?... I’ll take your silence as agreement. Now Joe, I know this is your first novel, and young writers are told to write what they know. I just want you to know I think it is great that you have embraced this ideal. I understand from your author bio that you were a police officer from…Let’s say it together….TEXAS! Well it just so happens that your hero in this novel is also a law enforcement officer from that great “Lone star State.” Specifically San Antonio. I truly hope for your sake that that is as far as the similarities go. I think I would have heard about a massive zombie attack on a major US town even in these backwoods of Tennessee. But I was actually talking about your character April. Eddies is married to April who, and it pains me to say this Joe, is one of the shrewiest women I have ever read in literature. Oh Yes Joe, I DO consider the zombie genre to contain “Literature” (notice the capitol “L”), but I digress. April. Man is she a Bitch. She is introduced on the first page complaining to Eddie on the phone about the shift he has to work. You know the job Eddie does to pay the bills. It seems that Eddie was transferred from 3rd to 2nd shift on an emergency basis due to the birth of his child, and April who will be henceforth referred to as “The Princess” does not like that he will be forced to move back to 3rd shift when the emergency is over. It seems she want Eddie to be home with her and the “Little Prince.” Oh yeah and The Princess does not like him on the 2nd shift either because he has to work in a bad part of town. And then the zombies arrive. And all hell breaks loose. And Eddie spends the rest of the novel trying to get back to The Princess and the Little Prince.
Unfortunately Eddies seems to have the focus of a tween girl at a new mall. Now Joe, I’m sure we both can agree that there will be many distracting things in a zombie uprising. What with all the dead walking and the biting and the screaming and the gun fire, it would be only natural for someone to have difficulty giving their 100% all the time. But I would hope that someone who has had police training and who is also trying to locate his missing wife and only child would be better able to focus on the task at hand. I’m sure you meant to show that Eddie was sensitive to the needs of others and was unable to stop being a cop even when his family was in danger. But to be honest it sort of came off as him acting like that dog from the Disney movie “Up!” you know “Squirrel” or maybe that he suffered from some serious ADHD. Now if that was what Eddie had let me just express my heartfelt apology. I would never belittle someone suffering from a true disorder.
Now to provide you with positive feedback. I loved the ideas that you character Ken Stoler. A zombie “expert” whose knowledge came from zombie chat rooms and forums GENIOUS! He brings up the intriguing concept that those San Antonio citizens out there mindlessly chomping away on each other might not actually be the reanimated dead, but are just so infected by the virus that they act dead. If that was true, well gosh darn it they wouldn’t be zombies, they would be those folks from “28 Days Later.” I appreciate that you never answer that question. It leads the reader to question whether Eddie was really just killing a bunch of sick people all night.
Because I feel we have made a sort of connection Joe, it pains me to say that this novel is never going to win any awards. It’s not that it is a bad novel. It’s just that it has been done before. Never fear, Dean Koontz had to write four novel(la)s before he got his first nomination. Something, namely isfdb.org, tells me that you will do better that.
books_n_cats_1973's review against another edition
3.0
I cannot say this is, by any means, great literature. In the past, I would have tagged this as a “garbage read,” something to pass the time. By no means is this story sophisticated with a well developed plot and character development. It is, at the most for me, an alright, so-so passage of time. Many books I get through are those audio books I get from the OverDrive App linked to my public library card. This was a book suggested by OverDrive, which was available while placing another audio book on hold. I had never really checked out suggestions by Over Drive before. I have decided to give some of these suggestions a try. Generally, I like to listen to high brow, sophisticated, intellectual books which receive awards such as the Pulitzer, Booker Man, Hugo and the Nebula for Science Fiction and literary value, etc. I have changed my opinion on only listening to what one may consider “literature” as compared to pulp fiction, or garbage. Not only does it allow one to further distinguish between various grades of fiction, but it also gives one a sense what makes good fiction, that which has a lasting effect on the reader’s mind pertaining to insight of life and the world around him.
Also, I have decided to try and not refer to particular works as “garbage,” as I am sure they may have some type of value or relativity to the world we live in. Do I think every work should have some type of didactic value? Absolutely not! Some works may be experienced simply as a ‘fun romp’ without the need for a sense of existence justification.
Another reason I would like to abstain from the garbage tag, is that the author worked very hard and diligently to bring their particular labor to fruition. After finishing the reading of this story, I decided to find out a little bit about the author. What I found out had startling and respectable results.
The most impressive thing about this novel, is the author, Joe McKinney. He is a full time police sergeant in San Antonio and writes fiction on the side. This is the first in a series for which I plan on eventually reading through. Joe stated in an interview that, while out supervising his men at a crime scene in San Antonio, one of his deputies quietly whispered, “hey sarge, I’m writing a zombie novel also.” The love of reading and fiction may be found in some of the most unsuspecting places.
The story consists of a police officer, Eddie, surviving a zombie uprising in San Antonio Texas, of which the origin began in Galveston. I, as a truck driver have been to these areas. It is fun to experience a story which takes place in various times, whether it be past, present, or future of places I have been. Of course, I did imagine most of the zombies being Hispanic, as most people in these areas are. One nice thing about reading a book, as compared to watching a movie or television show, is that the imagination of the reader must be more active to create visuals and auditory effects.
My own imagination brought it’s particular flavor of hilarity to the narrative as I heard zombies mumbling in Spanish. Blood and other offal on their clothing may have resembled spilt Salsa. Many men zombies were wearing Sombreros, Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots with button up, colored short sleeve shirts. Some zombies shambled, trying to keep beat with Mexican music from stereos on endless loops. Many zombies were stuck in their own pick up trucks.
This audio book has been narrated by a Tantor Media reader and is available through the Tantor Media website, as well as OverDrive for which various public library systems purchase licenses for patrons to download to their smart phones for listening. Tantor Media seems to be full of what I would consider non-literary, or low brow fiction. By all means, I would like to reiterate, that I am not saying it is low quality. In my opinion, compared to something like The Goldfinch, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt, Dead City would be substandard relative to literary quality. Tantor Media fiction has it’s place and serves it’s purpose for those seeking that type of art.
Also, I have decided to try and not refer to particular works as “garbage,” as I am sure they may have some type of value or relativity to the world we live in. Do I think every work should have some type of didactic value? Absolutely not! Some works may be experienced simply as a ‘fun romp’ without the need for a sense of existence justification.
Another reason I would like to abstain from the garbage tag, is that the author worked very hard and diligently to bring their particular labor to fruition. After finishing the reading of this story, I decided to find out a little bit about the author. What I found out had startling and respectable results.
The most impressive thing about this novel, is the author, Joe McKinney. He is a full time police sergeant in San Antonio and writes fiction on the side. This is the first in a series for which I plan on eventually reading through. Joe stated in an interview that, while out supervising his men at a crime scene in San Antonio, one of his deputies quietly whispered, “hey sarge, I’m writing a zombie novel also.” The love of reading and fiction may be found in some of the most unsuspecting places.
The story consists of a police officer, Eddie, surviving a zombie uprising in San Antonio Texas, of which the origin began in Galveston. I, as a truck driver have been to these areas. It is fun to experience a story which takes place in various times, whether it be past, present, or future of places I have been. Of course, I did imagine most of the zombies being Hispanic, as most people in these areas are. One nice thing about reading a book, as compared to watching a movie or television show, is that the imagination of the reader must be more active to create visuals and auditory effects.
My own imagination brought it’s particular flavor of hilarity to the narrative as I heard zombies mumbling in Spanish. Blood and other offal on their clothing may have resembled spilt Salsa. Many men zombies were wearing Sombreros, Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots with button up, colored short sleeve shirts. Some zombies shambled, trying to keep beat with Mexican music from stereos on endless loops. Many zombies were stuck in their own pick up trucks.
This audio book has been narrated by a Tantor Media reader and is available through the Tantor Media website, as well as OverDrive for which various public library systems purchase licenses for patrons to download to their smart phones for listening. Tantor Media seems to be full of what I would consider non-literary, or low brow fiction. By all means, I would like to reiterate, that I am not saying it is low quality. In my opinion, compared to something like The Goldfinch, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt, Dead City would be substandard relative to literary quality. Tantor Media fiction has it’s place and serves it’s purpose for those seeking that type of art.
flerpi's review against another edition
2.0
A boring zombie book. That shouldn't be possible, and yet Joe McKinney managed it. The premise - the zombie outbreak starting in the midst of hurricane devastation - has potential, but little is actually done with it. It feels like only 8 of the 288 pages were dedicated to any sort of character development, world building, story telling, etc. Everything else was just the main character killing and running from zombies. It quickly got boring, and about halfway through the book I was mostly just skimming because everything felt the same: " Oh no, zombies! Run away. Now I'm trapped! Fight my way out. Get away. Encounter more zombies." Wash, rinse, repeat. Zzz. I did manage to finish the book, and it was mildly entertaining, so there's that, but I think this book is best suited for reading in the bathroom, during commercial breaks, etc.
dagrumpypixi3's review against another edition
5.0
the first book of the dead world series. fast read and well written. hoping that reading further into the series says how tue out break startee.
prufrocks_necktie's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A fun, tense zombie adventure that takes place over a single, delirious night. The fast pace helps keep the book entertaining, which is good when you come to realize just how thin and faceless the characters are. They are not important, but for this sort of book they do not have to be.
Would recommend it for someone that wants a fast-paced zombie thriller without much thought to characterization.
Would recommend it for someone that wants a fast-paced zombie thriller without much thought to characterization.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
2.0
I found it hard to believe that the main character was a cop because of all the dumb decisions he seems to take through the book. He breaks a working phone purely because he gets cut off from his wife, meaning nobody can use it. Smart move. He decides to go off and investigate every noise he hears. His driving is shocking for a cop as he destroys half the cars in the city. For someone who is so determined to get home to his family, he seems very easily distracted by a pile of things that are nothing to do with him or too dangerous for anyone to even think about dealing with. But good old Eddie decides to try and be supercop to all the needy!
Marcus the psycho cop is a complete nutter yet Eddie still sticks with him and does whatever Marcus wants. On every single page I wanted him to die. He is beyond obnoxious, his conversations with Eddie are dumb and pointless and he is so reckless he seems determined to get them both killed.
The women in this book are really awful. The attention seeking female reporter who thinks that trying to be sexy will get her what she wants in the apocalypse. I HATED the bitch and couldn't understand yet again why Eddie was wasting his time talking to her when he had a family to find. His wife was obviously incapable of doing anything except cry and fall apart and seek advice from a man before blowing her nose, and that was before the zombies. She was much worse later on, wailing her head off to alert every zombie in the city because Eddie got mad at her. Jeez.
The whole plan for driving downtown, where the zombies are at their thickest and where most criminals are likely to be roaming, just to get another car was one of the dumbest things I've read. They pass a ton of abandoned cars, they even move some out of their way!!! But they keep going into town to get this car??? Crazy crazy plot.
The good points in the book are plenty of zombies, gore and a fast pace. But it does not save the book from dumb characters.
No more from this author thanks!
Marcus the psycho cop is a complete nutter yet Eddie still sticks with him and does whatever Marcus wants. On every single page I wanted him to die. He is beyond obnoxious, his conversations with Eddie are dumb and pointless and he is so reckless he seems determined to get them both killed.
The women in this book are really awful. The attention seeking female reporter who thinks that trying to be sexy will get her what she wants in the apocalypse. I HATED the bitch and couldn't understand yet again why Eddie was wasting his time talking to her when he had a family to find. His wife was obviously incapable of doing anything except cry and fall apart and seek advice from a man before blowing her nose, and that was before the zombies. She was much worse later on, wailing her head off to alert every zombie in the city because Eddie got mad at her. Jeez.
The whole plan for driving downtown, where the zombies are at their thickest and where most criminals are likely to be roaming, just to get another car was one of the dumbest things I've read. They pass a ton of abandoned cars, they even move some out of their way!!! But they keep going into town to get this car??? Crazy crazy plot.
The good points in the book are plenty of zombies, gore and a fast pace. But it does not save the book from dumb characters.
No more from this author thanks!
jrobles76's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book! I was originally drawn to the book because of it's San Antonio setting (I live in Austin). So glad I picked it up. It is a superb entry into the Zombie genre. Mckinney does a great job of creating that claustrophobic feeling of being trapped with the dead quickly moving in for the kill. That feeling of, "oh crap! There's no way out!". The way they just seem to come out of nowhere and then you're surrounded. It's not till the next book that we find out that the moaning is a sort of call that attracts other zombies. It has all the feel of a great zombie movie, and is genuinely scary. I look forward to many more from this author.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
2.0
I found it hard to believe that the main character was a cop because of all the dumb decisions he seems to take through the book. He breaks a working phone purely because he gets cut off from his wife, meaning nobody can use it. Smart move. He decides to go off and investigate every noise he hears. His driving is shocking for a cop as he destroys half the cars in the city. For someone who is so determined to get home to his family, he seems very easily distracted by a pile of things that are nothing to do with him or too dangerous for anyone to even think about dealing with. But good old Eddie decides to try and be supercop to all the needy!
Marcus the psycho cop is a complete nutter yet Eddie still sticks with him and does whatever Marcus wants. On every single page I wanted him to die. He is beyond obnoxious, his conversations with Eddie are dumb and pointless and he is so reckless he seems determined to get them both killed.
The women in this book are really awful. The attention seeking female reporter who thinks that trying to be sexy will get her what she wants in the apocalypse. I HATED the bitch and couldn't understand yet again why Eddie was wasting his time talking to her when he had a family to find. His wife was obviously incapable of doing anything except cry and fall apart and seek advice from a man before blowing her nose, and that was before the zombies. She was much worse later on, wailing her head off to alert every zombie in the city because Eddie got mad at her. Jeez.
The whole plan for driving downtown, where the zombies are at their thickest and where most criminals are likely to be roaming, just to get another car was one of the dumbest things I've read. They pass a ton of abandoned cars, they even move some out of their way!!! But they keep going into town to get this car??? Crazy crazy plot.
The good points in the book are plenty of zombies, gore and a fast pace. But it does not save the book from dumb characters.
No more from this author thanks!
Marcus the psycho cop is a complete nutter yet Eddie still sticks with him and does whatever Marcus wants. On every single page I wanted him to die. He is beyond obnoxious, his conversations with Eddie are dumb and pointless and he is so reckless he seems determined to get them both killed.
The women in this book are really awful. The attention seeking female reporter who thinks that trying to be sexy will get her what she wants in the apocalypse. I HATED the bitch and couldn't understand yet again why Eddie was wasting his time talking to her when he had a family to find. His wife was obviously incapable of doing anything except cry and fall apart and seek advice from a man before blowing her nose, and that was before the zombies. She was much worse later on, wailing her head off to alert every zombie in the city because Eddie got mad at her. Jeez.
The whole plan for driving downtown, where the zombies are at their thickest and where most criminals are likely to be roaming, just to get another car was one of the dumbest things I've read. They pass a ton of abandoned cars, they even move some out of their way!!! But they keep going into town to get this car??? Crazy crazy plot.
The good points in the book are plenty of zombies, gore and a fast pace. But it does not save the book from dumb characters.
No more from this author thanks!
notyourdad's review against another edition
1.0
I thought a long time over whether I was going to bother to review this book or not, but here we are.
I'll start this review off by saying that writing a good zombie book is hard to do. I'm an avid zombie fanatic, so I was willing to give this book some grace. However. I really struggled to get into this book. It was written in the first person POV, so you don't get a lot of information about the zombie outbreak itself. Nothing about how it started, or where it started. That's fine. I can forgive that. Like I said, zombie books are hard to write, especially from the first person POV. I just found the vagueness to be really distracting because instead of following whatever Eddie was doing at the time, I was thinking about the million questions I had about the zombies.
The next gripe I have with this book is the lack of character development. I mean, I spent 288 pages with Eddie and I feel like he didn't change at all. He's a bored cop with a shrill wife and baby at home at the beginning of the book and the only thing that changes is that he starts fighting zombies. Yawn. I also didn't care for how the only 3 female characters in the entire book were represented as vapid, useless "females." This definitely did not pass the Bechdel Test.
The last problem I have with this book, and honestly the biggest reason this got only 1 star was the fact that Eddie is just a bad cop. He on multiple occasions references ways in which he would abuse his powers as a cop before the zombies showed up. At one point he is talking to a survivor who doesn't care for the police and Eddie alludes to putting people like him in jail for a night for looking at him wrong. I mean, come on. That is just blatant abuse of police power. And that wasn't even the only time it happens. I just can't condone that kind of behavior, especially in a fictional character that I'm supposed to be rooting for.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It was boring and the entire time I was reading it I was counting the pages until the end.
I'll start this review off by saying that writing a good zombie book is hard to do. I'm an avid zombie fanatic, so I was willing to give this book some grace. However. I really struggled to get into this book. It was written in the first person POV, so you don't get a lot of information about the zombie outbreak itself. Nothing about how it started, or where it started. That's fine. I can forgive that. Like I said, zombie books are hard to write, especially from the first person POV. I just found the vagueness to be really distracting because instead of following whatever Eddie was doing at the time, I was thinking about the million questions I had about the zombies.
The next gripe I have with this book is the lack of character development. I mean, I spent 288 pages with Eddie and I feel like he didn't change at all. He's a bored cop with a shrill wife and baby at home at the beginning of the book and the only thing that changes is that he starts fighting zombies. Yawn. I also didn't care for how the only 3 female characters in the entire book were represented as vapid, useless "females." This definitely did not pass the Bechdel Test.
The last problem I have with this book, and honestly the biggest reason this got only 1 star was the fact that Eddie is just a bad cop. He on multiple occasions references ways in which he would abuse his powers as a cop before the zombies showed up. At one point he is talking to a survivor who doesn't care for the police and Eddie alludes to putting people like him in jail for a night for looking at him wrong. I mean, come on. That is just blatant abuse of police power. And that wasn't even the only time it happens. I just can't condone that kind of behavior, especially in a fictional character that I'm supposed to be rooting for.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It was boring and the entire time I was reading it I was counting the pages until the end.