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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The concept of this book is the best thing about it. What basically amounts to the Avengers or Justice League fighting hordes of zombies. I mean, that's a badass concept. Unfortunately, it did not happen to work out as well as I would have liked it. A lot of that had to do with the characters. They were all so freaking cliched it was ridiculous. It was like Clines just wanted to write a book about every superhero cliche he could possibly think of. I get that, given how prevalent the superhero genre is, it's quite difficult to make something unique, but when you don't even attempt to do so, there's no excuse.
Stealth is by far the worst. The Ex-Heroes equivalent of Batman only apparently the most beautiful woman on the planet. You can't make a character that attractive take advantage of her beauty to get what she wants out of life only to suddenly not want people to know who she is because she was so objectified before the outbreak. You're not objectified if you're chosing to lend yourself to it. Stupid. And the fact that she apparently didn't know what a contraction was drove me up the freaking wall. It's so unnatural.
All the other heroes were just kind of forgettable and boring. Cerberus was a less cool version of Iron Man. The Mighty Dragon was a cooler version of Superman, but that only makes him about as cool as Jubilee. Gorgon was a combination of Vulture from Spiderman and Nick Cage which are both terrible characters.
If this was supposed to be paying homage to the characters Clines knows and loves then he did a pretty poor job of tribute. Just a lackluster story.
The only reason got two stars instead of one is because some of the action scenes were pretty entertaining. I have yet to decide if reading further into the series is likely, but I'm not ruling it out. Most of that is due to the fact that Once I start a series, I have a very difficult time not reading every installment, even if it's just to see how things pan out, crappy though they may be.
Stealth is by far the worst. The Ex-Heroes equivalent of Batman only apparently the most beautiful woman on the planet. You can't make a character that attractive take advantage of her beauty to get what she wants out of life only to suddenly not want people to know who she is because she was so objectified before the outbreak. You're not objectified if you're chosing to lend yourself to it. Stupid. And the fact that she apparently didn't know what a contraction was drove me up the freaking wall. It's so unnatural.
All the other heroes were just kind of forgettable and boring. Cerberus was a less cool version of Iron Man. The Mighty Dragon was a cooler version of Superman, but that only makes him about as cool as Jubilee. Gorgon was a combination of Vulture from Spiderman and Nick Cage which are both terrible characters.
If this was supposed to be paying homage to the characters Clines knows and loves then he did a pretty poor job of tribute. Just a lackluster story.
The only reason got two stars instead of one is because some of the action scenes were pretty entertaining. I have yet to decide if reading further into the series is likely, but I'm not ruling it out. Most of that is due to the fact that Once I start a series, I have a very difficult time not reading every installment, even if it's just to see how things pan out, crappy though they may be.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
God the sexism sucks so bad
Pretty much just okay. Little disappointed by the lack of depth, but it's a book about superheros and zombies, and superhero zombies, and the action scenes were pretty decent and the plot moved along nicely. It was fun mapping out Clines's versions of our own supers.
But the science was dumb, the characters a little flat and very, very white (except for the bad guys of course)... I probably won't bother with the sequel and would recommend Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible instead.
But the science was dumb, the characters a little flat and very, very white (except for the bad guys of course)... I probably won't bother with the sequel and would recommend Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible instead.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Superheroes and zombies. A fun mash of genres that'll entertain.
When Los Angeles is deemed lost to the zombies, known as exes, humanity needs to find a way to survive. Luckily, people started getting superpowers about two years before, so people have something that they could use to their advantage. Unfortunately, any other superheroes that became exes can pose a serious threat.
The book is told in sort-of alternating chapters between the past during the zombie outbreak and the present during the zombie presence. Each of the "then" chapters focuses on a different hero which helped me understand these characters a little bit better. However, since some of these heroes didn't get their "then" chapter until much later, it took me a really long time to really care about these people or even know who they were. This lack of connection to so many characters in the first half of the book made it a bit of a slog to get through. But once I was familiar with the main cast, I found that I enjoyed the book more.
*Light spoilers ahead*
I really appreciated the twist about 2/3 of the way into the book and what led to the zombie outbreak in the first place. Too often are zombie stories about a virus that escaped a lab, this one felt both fresh and justified the superhero aspect of the book. However, I'm not motivated enough to read the rest of the series and find out what happens in the end. The book felt very plot heavy without enough character development, and ultimately spent too much time fending off the living dead. I would have appreciated more time with these characters and what makes them tick.
If you've read the rest of the series, what did you think?
When Los Angeles is deemed lost to the zombies, known as exes, humanity needs to find a way to survive. Luckily, people started getting superpowers about two years before, so people have something that they could use to their advantage. Unfortunately, any other superheroes that became exes can pose a serious threat.
The book is told in sort-of alternating chapters between the past during the zombie outbreak and the present during the zombie presence. Each of the "then" chapters focuses on a different hero which helped me understand these characters a little bit better. However, since some of these heroes didn't get their "then" chapter until much later, it took me a really long time to really care about these people or even know who they were. This lack of connection to so many characters in the first half of the book made it a bit of a slog to get through. But once I was familiar with the main cast, I found that I enjoyed the book more.
*Light spoilers ahead*
I really appreciated the twist about 2/3 of the way into the book and what led to the zombie outbreak in the first place. Too often are zombie stories about a virus that escaped a lab, this one felt both fresh and justified the superhero aspect of the book. However, I'm not motivated enough to read the rest of the series and find out what happens in the end. The book felt very plot heavy without enough character development, and ultimately spent too much time fending off the living dead. I would have appreciated more time with these characters and what makes them tick.
If you've read the rest of the series, what did you think?
Superheroes guarding a group of survivors in abandoned Hollywood. It's Marvel Zombies but 10x better.
A real rub the heels of my hands into my eyes kind of book