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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
This book is a lot of fun. It's definitely super heroes fighting zombies, and pretty much exactly what you could expect from that. It's a little light on female superheroes and a little heavy on women dying to further the men's plot arcs but the characters are great and all in all its just a lot of fun.
Imagine Tarantino making a movie about the JLA in a Walking Dead setting.
The positive: Clines is an excellent writer of action.
The negative: unfortunately everything else needs work especially the extreme, cliched mix and typecast characters.
Oddly (for me at least) is that many of the negatives that ticked me off about the novel I'd easily excuse if this were a comic book.
Look for the summer blockbuster version coming soon to a theater near you.
The positive: Clines is an excellent writer of action.
The negative: unfortunately everything else needs work especially the extreme, cliched mix and typecast characters.
Oddly (for me at least) is that many of the negatives that ticked me off about the novel I'd easily excuse if this were a comic book.
Look for the summer blockbuster version coming soon to a theater near you.
Lots of fun. Super Heroes and Zombies - it's like chocolate and peanut butter, or, I dunno, sunshine and a sandy beach. Fun, hugely entertaining, escapist "literature." Granted, I have no idea how much of this will sustain its energy over the course of a series, but the author made the heroes sufficiently accessible and "human," and the zombie scourge was sufficiently fresh and new. But definitely not for the faint of heart or the squeamish....
I enjoyed this take on zombies, although the many characters and time shifts made for a slightly confusing audiobook. I still loved the narration, and I think I'll continue with the series.
What are you gonna do when the Zombie apocalypse arrives? You'd better hope there are a band of superheroes to defend you. This is a very entertaining genre-mashing concept.
This book gave us a bunch of uniquely interesting hero characters who face opposition both un-dead and living. You might think that the presence of superheroes would diminish the threat of the zombie hordes, but just imagine what would happen if one of those heroes turns. Now you have a super-powered zombie. Not good.
The author delves into some scientific rationale behind zombies and explores how they work - building a rich mythology for this world. The moment when the book explains the origin of the zombies is very cool. The book is sprinkled with fun pop-culture references.
This book is pretty edgy. The violence and gore you expect (it's a zombie book after all) but there is a lot of casual swearing and some crudity. I'm all for flawed edgy heroes but when all the hero characters of the book punctuate their general conversation with profanity, well it got a bit much for me at times, to the extent that it made the characters fell less sympathetic.
Amongst all of this, the protagonist - Saint George - turned out to be a beacon of idealism in a very dark world - but isn't that where idealism is most needed?
Putting superheroes into a serious gritty zombie novel would not have been an easy job to take on, but Peter Clines pulled it off very well.
This book gave us a bunch of uniquely interesting hero characters who face opposition both un-dead and living. You might think that the presence of superheroes would diminish the threat of the zombie hordes, but just imagine what would happen if one of those heroes turns. Now you have a super-powered zombie. Not good.
The author delves into some scientific rationale behind zombies and explores how they work - building a rich mythology for this world. The moment when the book explains the origin of the zombies is very cool. The book is sprinkled with fun pop-culture references.
This book is pretty edgy. The violence and gore you expect (it's a zombie book after all) but there is a lot of casual swearing and some crudity. I'm all for flawed edgy heroes but when all the hero characters of the book punctuate their general conversation with profanity, well it got a bit much for me at times, to the extent that it made the characters fell less sympathetic.
Amongst all of this, the protagonist - Saint George - turned out to be a beacon of idealism in a very dark world - but isn't that where idealism is most needed?
Putting superheroes into a serious gritty zombie novel would not have been an easy job to take on, but Peter Clines pulled it off very well.
[b:Ex-Heroes|7793307|Ex-Heroes (Ex-Heroes, #1)|Peter Clines|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388207656s/7793307.jpg|10753679], or a novel about a graphic novel about a comic soon to be a movie coming to a theater near you!
I have only two problems with Ex-Heroes.
Characterization and theme.
I understand that this is a book about superheroes, which lend themselves to stereotypes. Except in a genre full of them, Cline seems determined to use them all. There is the 'Boy Scout,' who is working for the greater good; the 'Anti-hero,' who is the bad boy that flaunts authority; the 'Radioactive,' who developed powers after being exposed to radiation (actually, Cline explains a couple superheroes this way); the 'Gifted Female,' whose sexuality is her dominant image; the 'Demon,' who has bonded with evil; the 'Teenager,' the normal kid who develops superpowers; the 'Bestial,' who has part animal in his nature. In a nod to Ironman, there is a female engineer in an iron suit. Whoops--I almost forgot the 'Woman in Refrigerator' character--the dead woman that moves the superhero's plot forward through grief/guilt/etc.(1) Oh, and for those who are aggravated by such things, at least two Supers are Mary Sues.
Extra negative points for stereotypes--first, the bitchy Asian council-woman; second, transforming a Korean girl into a Japanese hero; and third, making a Latino gang into the antagonists. What, you couldn't find any Nazis or Russians from 1960? Oh wait--the nickname of the Latino gang was abbreviated 'S.S.,' which almost counts. (For mark's insightful commentary, see (2))
Faint attempt to give cookie-cutter superheroes depth by giving introducing a 'past' and a 'present' narrative were insufficient. 'Nuff said.
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The zombie apocalypse is about a loss of organized society as the individual struggles against the horrific; they become about survival, transformation and the meaning of humanity. The best apocalypse stories focus on rebuilding order out of chaos while struggling to survive. Ex-Heroes is pretty much the exact opposite.
After retreating to a movie studio, the supers essentially form their own oligarchy, or perhaps dictatorship, since Stealth makes all the decisions. The supers don't call it that, of course. But they are the ones strategizing, setting goals, deciding, protecting, and leading. Sure, normal humans help in some of these roles. But you don't hear humans participating in the process, except to fulfill the stereotypical role of antagonistic-suspicion-of-well-intentioned-superhero. The humans are the mirrors for the heroes, the pets, the sheep to lead and direct; the only agency they have is that of poor decision-making. Ultimately, while that may be a prevalent theme in superhero mediums, it is the antithesis of zombie apocalypse fiction.
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What did I like? It was quick and readable. While the language was not ornate, it was coherent and focused. The "Then" narratives that gave background on the heroes were interesting and told well, even if they weren't particularly unique stories (ah, to be a beautiful genius--the troubles I would have!). The section I enjoyed the most is the one few zombie books concentrate on--recognizing the outbreak and attempting to curtail the viral invasion. Cline's analysis was likely spot on in the official reaction, and was creative when Stealth was sending Zzzap out on a mission to locate the living dead. Although some of the explanation of the virus was eye-rolling pseudo-science, but at the end it was combined with an impressive twist that made it worth the effort.
On the borderlands of my normal reading material, I appreciated the challenge. In regards to rating, it hits squarely in my 2.5 zone, but I imagine it is decently done for its genre.
Interesting but spelling-challenged analysis of superheroes:
(1) http://www.comicvine.com/comicbook-stereotypes/12-53865/
mark monday's thoughtful review:
(2) http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/336256854
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"I hate being objectified by men and having my intelligence ignored SO MUCH that I'm going to dress myself in a masked, painted-on dominatrix costume that literally turns me into nothing but a faceless, sexualized female body."
- women, according to Peter Clines
The thing is, it's not just that this is sexist. It's that it makes it completely impossible for me to believe this character as a real person. And considering she's one of the main characters, that's a huge problem.
Edit: Ugh, I DNF'd this half-way through, but then came back to it later and went ahead and finished it off. It has some entertaining superhero fight stuff, but still reads too much like the product of an adolescent boy's imagination. Lots of sex references and objectification of women. And plot problems.
There's a guy who can basically turn into lightning. This means that he could easily solve their zombie problem by just flying around among the zombies, which would be no danger to him and contact with him would basically incinerate them. This would be super handy when thousands of zombies are converging on their location. But he doesn't. Why? Because it feels icky. No no, guys, you don't understand: It feels really icky. When someone questions him about this, he says he'll do it to save lives, by which he means he'll do it to save lives ... eventually. He'll still let lots of people die and be injured and zombified and waste their ammo and let damage happen to their fortress first, and then eventually he sucks it up and uses his OP superpower to kill some zombies.
Oh, and the doctor who can heal from anything except that zombie bite on his arm which hasn't spread up his arm. Why does he not just cut his arm off? Best case: his arm, once free of the zombie virus, will regrow and he'll have his powers back at full strength, including being able to heal others. Worst case: he loses his arm and otherwise remains the same. Since he can't really use that hand anyway, it seems worth a try. Yet no one ever even suggests it. WTF?
This series just doesn't work for me for so many reasons. Which is annoying since I bought the first 4 before reading based on the fact that they looked cool. Although one of the characters with the coolest powers ends up getting killed, so that further dampers my eagerness to continue the series (even though that person was kind of a crappy person, at least the powers were cool to see in action). So maybe I'll eventually try the others, but probably not any time soon. The only reason I'm giving it two stars instead of one is because some of the superpowers were pretty cool and different, and some of the action stuff was entertaining.
- women, according to Peter Clines
The thing is, it's not just that this is sexist. It's that it makes it completely impossible for me to believe this character as a real person. And considering she's one of the main characters, that's a huge problem.
Edit: Ugh, I DNF'd this half-way through, but then came back to it later and went ahead and finished it off. It has some entertaining superhero fight stuff, but still reads too much like the product of an adolescent boy's imagination. Lots of sex references and objectification of women. And plot problems.
There's a guy who can basically turn into lightning. This means that he could easily solve their zombie problem by just flying around among the zombies, which would be no danger to him and contact with him would basically incinerate them. This would be super handy when thousands of zombies are converging on their location. But he doesn't. Why? Because it feels icky. No no, guys, you don't understand: It feels really icky. When someone questions him about this, he says he'll do it to save lives, by which he means he'll do it to save lives ... eventually. He'll still let lots of people die and be injured and zombified and waste their ammo and let damage happen to their fortress first, and then eventually he sucks it up and uses his OP superpower to kill some zombies.
Oh, and the doctor who can heal from anything except that zombie bite on his arm which hasn't spread up his arm. Why does he not just cut his arm off? Best case: his arm, once free of the zombie virus, will regrow and he'll have his powers back at full strength, including being able to heal others. Worst case: he loses his arm and otherwise remains the same. Since he can't really use that hand anyway, it seems worth a try. Yet no one ever even suggests it. WTF?
This series just doesn't work for me for so many reasons. Which is annoying since I bought the first 4 before reading based on the fact that they looked cool. Although one of the characters with the coolest powers ends up getting killed, so that further dampers my eagerness to continue the series (even though that person was kind of a crappy person, at least the powers were cool to see in action). So maybe I'll eventually try the others, but probably not any time soon. The only reason I'm giving it two stars instead of one is because some of the superpowers were pretty cool and different, and some of the action stuff was entertaining.
A little clumsy early on but it came together in a big way.