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abibliophagist's review against another edition
3.0
3-3.5
I have to give the author some serious props for taking two very stereotypical subjects (super heroes and zombies) and giving us something rather unique. The chracters were fun and the flashbacks really grabbed me (I wish there was a prequel book!) but overall I felt this drug on a little and I found the present situation way less interesting than the past and there was a major plothole for me that I can't talk about without marking this as a spoiler so you've been warned! Spoilers ahead!
Ec-Heroes takes place in post apocalyptic, post super hero LA, where survivors both super and regular have turned a filming studio into a veritable fortress. We follow St. George, one of the first supers discovered as he tries to keep his new city safe from not only exes (zombies!) but ex supers. At some point, 2 years prior to the present of this book, a zombie outbreak took place, starting small and spreading slowly out of control. Around this time superheroes started popping up, with a variety of origin stories and powers and many of them band together to try and contain this zombie menace. However, much like non-zombie pandemics, it spreads out of control due to poor management, stupid people and sympathy for the infected. Being LA, prior to the outbreak the heroes primarily dealt with gangs, the current gang being the Seventeens. After the fall of humanity, this gang is still around and periodically causes issues trying to steal their supplies and whatnot. However, on what should be a normal supply run, something goes awry and the Seventeens manage to pop the tires of the Heroes truck and strand them to fend off zombies while they attack their fortress. While the attack failed, some members were captured, all of which attempt suicide and one of the successful ones turns into a zombie, except rather than bloodlust it speaks to them and tells them sh*ts about to go down. This causes St. George and Stealth, the mastermind behind their little oasis, to venture out to the Seventeen's location to try and figure out what's going on.
On their reconnaissance they discover something that changes everything, not only is this encampment huge, like 20k people huge, but it's unprotected. All because they have a super too, one they call PZ and he is an Ex, well almost one, and he can control the Exes around him. He knows they're there using the eyes of exes they encounter on their journey and he in true supervillain fashion tells them his whole plan, which gives them time to get back and prepare. Now they're about to have a show down against PZ and his horde of zombies.
So overall this was a very easy and interesting read. The plot was unique the characters good, the stakes felt real enough. However, for me, the attempt to integrate the superheroes into this world was only really done via fighting (with exception to Barry, an energy man who acts as a generator for their fortress which was a really cool idea). This caused there to be a TON of random zombie fighting scenes, and they all kind of read the same "superhero does super thing but gets overwhelmed but then other supers help them at just the right moment" and it took a lot of power and self-discipline to not skim these scenes.
My favorite part was the backstory, at first it seemed like he was going to do and every other chapter a la Oryx and Crake, which I was all for, but soon it became every couple of chapters and I jsut really looked forward to the few chapters on the past. On the rise of the superheroes, their individual backstories, the rise of the zombies and the world falling apart, it was all so interesting.
But I felt it just wasn't explored enough, some of the origin stories were super interesting, some less so or borderline problematic (Gorgon's for instance where it talks about his 18 year old girlfriend when he's 28 and all the hard sex they have, like jesus that's gross, it doesn't help that they straight up say they started having sex when she was 17 and he took her virginity, Cline WTF). On top of that the author was OBSESSED with telling us how sexy Stealth was, but somehow thought it'd be okay because she hated being objectified? But something tells me someone who hates being objectified wouldn't wear what she wore.
However, the stakes I mentioned earlier were for the characters described, not for the world they were protecting. The humans in the fortress seemed like an afterthought, often nonexistent until it seemed like author remembered them. When they were present it was just for them to cry outrage or fear and give a reason for what the heroes were doing. But they were cardboard overall. This is a surprising and unfortunate move for the zombie genre, as it goes against the whole rebuild of society thing. Which was a misstep, if you took them out you didn't miss them so what really was the point. It could have just been a group heroes holed up somewhere that go through this. On top of that, the society they built didn't seem all that great, they were so keen on questioning why people would live under the gang's thumb in the name of survival, yet here was a group living in a borderline dictatorship under Stealth. At one point a bunch wants to leave and while the Super's claim they can, they sure do keep talking to them and trying to talk them out of it until it's too late for them too. It just kind of hinted that not all was well in that group if the first major conflict made their pet humans freak out and try and flee.
But the major plothole for me was the "origin" and PZ, a super they introduced was called the Regenerator, he could heal people and be invincible. At first, it felt super interesting that he lost his powers when he got bit because all of his powers became focused on keeping him not a zombie. But later Cline comes up with an arguably really interesting notion regarding the infection, it's not the virus that kills you, it's the illness upon illness from all these people biting each other, making for a straight-up death cocktail of other infections. That's actually somewhat legit in the mind of me with no understanding of if that's plausible. BUT it destroys the Regenerator thing, if his body was just staving off a bunch of illnesses and not some fancy zombie virus, then he should've healed up and been fine. Heck he gets his head blown off and it comes back, so you can't tell me it can't handle curing some illness. But instead, he loses his powers. Also PZ (Patient Zero if you haven't already figured it out) isn't Patient Zero at all, the Regenerator's wife was, whom he attempted to bring back from the dead but made a zombie, because he could animate the body, but whatever made her HER is gone. It doesn't explain the bloodlust though. PZ was just the first person she took out. So P2? With that being said, why did PZ become essentially what the Regenerator was trying to make his wife? Still deadish, but functioning and talking, why did he become the controller and conscious zombie if he wasn't even Patient Zero? I feel the better twist would be if it WAS Regenerator's wife. Rather Cline chose to have it be Gorgon's gang leader nemesis, creating a conflict by default. I wish, WISH it had been a more creative conflict.
Then it ends as predictably as it can, the super's fight the baddies and win, with only one death and of the character I cared the least about.
So it was a fun ride, but what I'd call a dick flick, similar to it's sibling the chick flick, a bunch of cool people beating up baddies and also there are girls in tight clothes with little substance or emotional connection underneath. So if you're like me an able to clock out while reading and cut a book slack in the name of a fun read, go for it. It WAS fun, no doubt, and I will read the second book, but how this has so many books in the series is beyond me. It's a cool enough concept with cool enough characters to be worth the read, but it doesn't have much substance, and if the second one doesn't either I probably won't read the third.
Like a said, I'd read a whole book that was just the flashbacks, that would've been super cool.
I have to give the author some serious props for taking two very stereotypical subjects (super heroes and zombies) and giving us something rather unique. The chracters were fun and the flashbacks really grabbed me (I wish there was a prequel book!) but overall I felt this drug on a little and I found the present situation way less interesting than the past and there was a major plothole for me that I can't talk about without marking this as a spoiler so you've been warned! Spoilers ahead!
Ec-Heroes takes place in post apocalyptic, post super hero LA, where survivors both super and regular have turned a filming studio into a veritable fortress. We follow St. George, one of the first supers discovered as he tries to keep his new city safe from not only exes (zombies!) but ex supers. At some point, 2 years prior to the present of this book, a zombie outbreak took place, starting small and spreading slowly out of control. Around this time superheroes started popping up, with a variety of origin stories and powers and many of them band together to try and contain this zombie menace. However, much like non-zombie pandemics, it spreads out of control due to poor management, stupid people and sympathy for the infected. Being LA, prior to the outbreak the heroes primarily dealt with gangs, the current gang being the Seventeens. After the fall of humanity, this gang is still around and periodically causes issues trying to steal their supplies and whatnot. However, on what should be a normal supply run, something goes awry and the Seventeens manage to pop the tires of the Heroes truck and strand them to fend off zombies while they attack their fortress. While the attack failed, some members were captured, all of which attempt suicide and one of the successful ones turns into a zombie, except rather than bloodlust it speaks to them and tells them sh*ts about to go down. This causes St. George and Stealth, the mastermind behind their little oasis, to venture out to the Seventeen's location to try and figure out what's going on.
On their reconnaissance they discover something that changes everything, not only is this encampment huge, like 20k people huge, but it's unprotected. All because they have a super too, one they call PZ and he is an Ex, well almost one, and he can control the Exes around him. He knows they're there using the eyes of exes they encounter on their journey and he in true supervillain fashion tells them his whole plan, which gives them time to get back and prepare. Now they're about to have a show down against PZ and his horde of zombies.
So overall this was a very easy and interesting read. The plot was unique the characters good, the stakes felt real enough. However, for me, the attempt to integrate the superheroes into this world was only really done via fighting (with exception to Barry, an energy man who acts as a generator for their fortress which was a really cool idea). This caused there to be a TON of random zombie fighting scenes, and they all kind of read the same "superhero does super thing but gets overwhelmed but then other supers help them at just the right moment" and it took a lot of power and self-discipline to not skim these scenes.
My favorite part was the backstory, at first it seemed like he was going to do and every other chapter a la Oryx and Crake, which I was all for, but soon it became every couple of chapters and I jsut really looked forward to the few chapters on the past. On the rise of the superheroes, their individual backstories, the rise of the zombies and the world falling apart, it was all so interesting.
But I felt it just wasn't explored enough, some of the origin stories were super interesting, some less so or borderline problematic (Gorgon's for instance where it talks about his 18 year old girlfriend when he's 28 and all the hard sex they have, like jesus that's gross, it doesn't help that they straight up say they started having sex when she was 17 and he took her virginity, Cline WTF). On top of that the author was OBSESSED with telling us how sexy Stealth was, but somehow thought it'd be okay because she hated being objectified? But something tells me someone who hates being objectified wouldn't wear what she wore.
However, the stakes I mentioned earlier were for the characters described, not for the world they were protecting. The humans in the fortress seemed like an afterthought, often nonexistent until it seemed like author remembered them. When they were present it was just for them to cry outrage or fear and give a reason for what the heroes were doing. But they were cardboard overall. This is a surprising and unfortunate move for the zombie genre, as it goes against the whole rebuild of society thing. Which was a misstep, if you took them out you didn't miss them so what really was the point. It could have just been a group heroes holed up somewhere that go through this. On top of that, the society they built didn't seem all that great, they were so keen on questioning why people would live under the gang's thumb in the name of survival, yet here was a group living in a borderline dictatorship under Stealth. At one point a bunch wants to leave and while the Super's claim they can, they sure do keep talking to them and trying to talk them out of it until it's too late for them too. It just kind of hinted that not all was well in that group if the first major conflict made their pet humans freak out and try and flee.
But the major plothole for me was the "origin" and PZ, a super they introduced was called the Regenerator, he could heal people and be invincible. At first, it felt super interesting that he lost his powers when he got bit because all of his powers became focused on keeping him not a zombie. But later Cline comes up with an arguably really interesting notion regarding the infection, it's not the virus that kills you, it's the illness upon illness from all these people biting each other, making for a straight-up death cocktail of other infections. That's actually somewhat legit in the mind of me with no understanding of if that's plausible. BUT it destroys the Regenerator thing, if his body was just staving off a bunch of illnesses and not some fancy zombie virus, then he should've healed up and been fine. Heck he gets his head blown off and it comes back, so you can't tell me it can't handle curing some illness. But instead, he loses his powers. Also PZ (Patient Zero if you haven't already figured it out) isn't Patient Zero at all, the Regenerator's wife was, whom he attempted to bring back from the dead but made a zombie, because he could animate the body, but whatever made her HER is gone. It doesn't explain the bloodlust though. PZ was just the first person she took out. So P2? With that being said, why did PZ become essentially what the Regenerator was trying to make his wife? Still deadish, but functioning and talking, why did he become the controller and conscious zombie if he wasn't even Patient Zero? I feel the better twist would be if it WAS Regenerator's wife. Rather Cline chose to have it be Gorgon's gang leader nemesis, creating a conflict by default. I wish, WISH it had been a more creative conflict.
Then it ends as predictably as it can, the super's fight the baddies and win, with only one death and of the character I cared the least about.
So it was a fun ride, but what I'd call a dick flick, similar to it's sibling the chick flick, a bunch of cool people beating up baddies and also there are girls in tight clothes with little substance or emotional connection underneath. So if you're like me an able to clock out while reading and cut a book slack in the name of a fun read, go for it. It WAS fun, no doubt, and I will read the second book, but how this has so many books in the series is beyond me. It's a cool enough concept with cool enough characters to be worth the read, but it doesn't have much substance, and if the second one doesn't either I probably won't read the third.
Like a said, I'd read a whole book that was just the flashbacks, that would've been super cool.
alyssahedge's review against another edition
3.0
This was my first zombie book (they are popular around my house) and a fun, quick read! I enjoyed the mix of zombie apocalypse with superheroes. Some bits were cliche, but the mystery that unraveled around Patient Zero, the virus, the possible evolution of zombies kept me reading just to find out what/who was at the bottom of all of it. And the discovery about how the whole thing got started was awesome (and angering)!
All in all, I had fun reading this and will continue reading the rest of the series.
All in all, I had fun reading this and will continue reading the rest of the series.
ktjawrites's review against another edition
5.0
If you want a mashup of zombies and superheroes, you’ll receive exactly that.
alice_digest's review against another edition
4.0
I stumbled across this book when I was cruising Amazon one day. Superheroes and zombies? How could I resist that? It was guaranteed to be awesome fun or really, really terrible. Luckily it was the former! It's pure trashy entertainment, and if that's all you are expecting from it then you won't be disappointed. I always try to rate on a scale of pure enjoyment rather than necessary "worthiness" .. and for just being a really fun read it gets 4 stars, despite its faults.
There is a quotation on the back describing it as The Walking Dead meets The Avengers, and honestly that is exactly what this book is (but so much more fun than The Walking Dead is)! There was an outbreak of a zombie plague that over ran the population, leaving on a few pockets of survivors.. standard zombie stuff. The zombies are actually referred to as "exes" which actually does help to make it feel a little fresher. However in this world there are also a people with super powers, who had been acting as vigilante heroes for a few years before the plague. They have banded together to help protect the survivors from whatever threats they might all face.
I honestly loved this book. It's a proper guilty pleasure. There are a good range of heroes with a range of superpowers, some more useful than others. St George is probably the most awesome as he is impervious to almost everything, super strong, he can fly and he can breathe fire! I was a big fan of Zzzap too. I thought Gorgon's powers were also interesting, and he had a nice darker edge to him next to the squeaky clean St George.
It is worth noting that this book is 100% an adolescent boy's dream. At the end of the book the authors notes that this novel was born out of conversation with friends in school, and you can tell.. and I'm not sure he ever grew up! For what it is I'm not upset with it for that. Of course it means that a lot of the women are hypersexualised.. particularly Stealth! I did like her, I thought she was an awesome character but.. there were A LOT of descriptions of how hot she is. And she wears a mask to hide her face because she is SO PRETTY that people never take get seriously. Some of this I can perhaps (perhaps) rationalise (a little bit). The majority of descriptions of her hotness comes from St George chapters (not all but most). It does serve to remind us that St George is in fact human and not boring far too perfect saintly guy. He has impure thoughts! He also has casual sex with another female character in which we get a nice description of her bra too. It's thin defence but I tried.
Now as for Stealth's costume I remained a little baffled as too why, if she was so sick of being objectified, she would choose to dress in a latex suit with belts and straps in all the right places! It was never stated anywhere, but I assume that as a "stealth" character she finds her hot body a useful distraction. She is constantly objectified.. but she isn't a sexual character. She has a bisexual past, which she mentions in a very logical and cold was (sex had as useful function) but comes across to me as a now existed as asexual. I have a feeling that might change in future books.. I was be disappointed though.
The are other women in the novel too, and while they are more sexualised than then male characters it's not to the extent of Stealth. I would say there are more descriptions of dead female exes than the male ones.. at one point he does describe the blood dripping between the breasts of one. Gross. This is problematic but.. the novel was just so much fun I honestly didn't care that much. When I was reading this, and talking about it now, it does read like a comic book. Like a graphic novel turned into text. It's an unavoidable truth that over sexualised females are a trope of comic books, so I guess it plays into the very visual style Clines is going for.
Still, Cerberus was another of my favourites, and while being a giant robotic suit of hardcore armour it is piloted by a woman. She managed to escape without any descriptions of her body parts that I can remember, and she's both super smart and completely badass. So not all hope is lost.
It's not perfect.. but I didn't expect it to be.. and I don't particularly need it to be! This is a guilty read. It's pure fun. There are a lot of action scenes are they're brilliantly written. The characters are also well-formed, and distinctive. The plot is crazy. If you like superheroes and you like zombies.. give it a read.
I loved it. Maybe I shouldn't have but I did. It's better than I ever expected it to be.. and I cannot wait to read Ex Patriots!
There is a quotation on the back describing it as The Walking Dead meets The Avengers, and honestly that is exactly what this book is (but so much more fun than The Walking Dead is)! There was an outbreak of a zombie plague that over ran the population, leaving on a few pockets of survivors.. standard zombie stuff. The zombies are actually referred to as "exes" which actually does help to make it feel a little fresher. However in this world there are also a people with super powers, who had been acting as vigilante heroes for a few years before the plague. They have banded together to help protect the survivors from whatever threats they might all face.
I honestly loved this book. It's a proper guilty pleasure. There are a good range of heroes with a range of superpowers, some more useful than others. St George is probably the most awesome as he is impervious to almost everything, super strong, he can fly and he can breathe fire! I was a big fan of Zzzap too. I thought Gorgon's powers were also interesting, and he had a nice darker edge to him next to the squeaky clean St George.
It is worth noting that this book is 100% an adolescent boy's dream. At the end of the book the authors notes that this novel was born out of conversation with friends in school, and you can tell.. and I'm not sure he ever grew up! For what it is I'm not upset with it for that. Of course it means that a lot of the women are hypersexualised.. particularly Stealth! I did like her, I thought she was an awesome character but.. there were A LOT of descriptions of how hot she is. And she wears a mask to hide her face because she is SO PRETTY that people never take get seriously. Some of this I can perhaps (perhaps) rationalise (a little bit). The majority of descriptions of her hotness comes from St George chapters (not all but most). It does serve to remind us that St George is in fact human and not boring far too perfect saintly guy. He has impure thoughts! He also has casual sex with another female character in which we get a nice description of her bra too. It's thin defence but I tried.
Now as for Stealth's costume I remained a little baffled as too why, if she was so sick of being objectified, she would choose to dress in a latex suit with belts and straps in all the right places! It was never stated anywhere, but I assume that as a "stealth" character she finds her hot body a useful distraction. She is constantly objectified.. but she isn't a sexual character. She has a bisexual past, which she mentions in a very logical and cold was (sex had as useful function) but comes across to me as a now existed as asexual. I have a feeling that might change in future books.. I was be disappointed though.
The are other women in the novel too, and while they are more sexualised than then male characters it's not to the extent of Stealth. I would say there are more descriptions of dead female exes than the male ones.. at one point he does describe the blood dripping between the breasts of one. Gross. This is problematic but.. the novel was just so much fun I honestly didn't care that much. When I was reading this, and talking about it now, it does read like a comic book. Like a graphic novel turned into text. It's an unavoidable truth that over sexualised females are a trope of comic books, so I guess it plays into the very visual style Clines is going for.
Still, Cerberus was another of my favourites, and while being a giant robotic suit of hardcore armour it is piloted by a woman. She managed to escape without any descriptions of her body parts that I can remember, and she's both super smart and completely badass. So not all hope is lost.
It's not perfect.. but I didn't expect it to be.. and I don't particularly need it to be! This is a guilty read. It's pure fun. There are a lot of action scenes are they're brilliantly written. The characters are also well-formed, and distinctive. The plot is crazy. If you like superheroes and you like zombies.. give it a read.
I loved it. Maybe I shouldn't have but I did. It's better than I ever expected it to be.. and I cannot wait to read Ex Patriots!
natshak's review against another edition
3.0
I guess I am on a superhero kick lately. Now that we are in quarantine, I have the opportunity to read some of the books that I do not have on audiobook. One notable series that I cannot find on audiobook is the Ex-Heroes series. I had just finished the Super Powereds series right before this, so I figured I would keep with the Super Hero theme. Ex-Heroes uses a “now” and “then” format in which the present day is a post-apocalyptic landscape where zombies roam the world. There are occasional flashbacks to times when heroes were mysteriously manifesting powers and fighting to save the United States from zombies. The bulk of the story revolves around a group of heroes and regular people hold up in a base called the Mount. As they venture out on missions for food and supplies, they are repeatedly attacked by another group of survivors called the Seventeens. The Seventeens, led by a man who can control zombies, end up attacking the Mount. The heroes are able to fend off the attack and kill the leader. They then must figure out how to incorporate thousands of new refugees and what the future holds. I enjoyed this book. I am already a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories. The introduction of super heroes is an interesting combination. One must suspend disbelief as it seems strange that humanity is devastated by a “slow zombie” virus, especially in a world of super heroes, but if you don’t think about it TOO much, it does make a fun story.
observer_1's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
hmonkeyreads's review against another edition
3.0
This one is all over the place.
Negatives: I'm sick of zombies and end of the world stories. I'm not a huge fan of super heroes. I don't like reading about battles and gory monster stuff.
Positives: origin stories of super heroes are cool. (Frustrating that they aren't more fleshed out here.) Love among super Heroes in a zombie apocalypse could be interesting and fraught with danger/angst.
More negatives: characters that are super annoying (mostly Stealth, the super hot Victoria's Secret model / genius / crabby leader of the Heroes)
More positives: cool/interesting characters like St. George and Gorgon and Cerberus.
I will make an allowance here because he's setting the stage for future books. I will try book two but it will have a short leash.
Negatives: I'm sick of zombies and end of the world stories. I'm not a huge fan of super heroes. I don't like reading about battles and gory monster stuff.
Positives: origin stories of super heroes are cool. (Frustrating that they aren't more fleshed out here.) Love among super Heroes in a zombie apocalypse could be interesting and fraught with danger/angst.
More negatives: characters that are super annoying (mostly Stealth, the super hot Victoria's Secret model / genius / crabby leader of the Heroes)
More positives: cool/interesting characters like St. George and Gorgon and Cerberus.
I will make an allowance here because he's setting the stage for future books. I will try book two but it will have a short leash.
twilliamson's review against another edition
3.0
Ex-Heroes is a perfect example of the post-modern mashup novel. It takes two novel ideas--superheroes and zombies--and weaves a story that, while quaint, is hardly original and lacks any clear purpose aside from mere diversion. And while the novel is diverting, it certainly isn't fantastic.
Condensed, the novel is about a band of superheroes as they make their last stand against a horde of zombies set loose upon the world by superheroic hubris. Clines seems to pose the real question of what good superheroes are at the end of the world, and while the finale is somewhat uplifting, the nature of the story being a series suggests, of course, that there's still far more to come in the lives of these characters.
Ultimately, what the book does best is invent a few interesting characters in the comic book sense--they're not very well distinguishable aside from their powers, and their motivations still seem a bit dubious, but the action is fine and the plot comes together quickly enough to make the book readable.
Critically useful? Probably not. This isn't a thinker, nor is it even an innovator. Instead, it cashes in on a now-tired zombie thrill and does so without overstaying its welcome. I don't think I wasted my time entertaining myself, but aside from being a picture-perfect example of post-modern blank parody, I'm not really sure it means anything. It isn't really critical of anything, but simply speaks in a kind of dead language regurgitated for the cover price.
Condensed, the novel is about a band of superheroes as they make their last stand against a horde of zombies set loose upon the world by superheroic hubris. Clines seems to pose the real question of what good superheroes are at the end of the world, and while the finale is somewhat uplifting, the nature of the story being a series suggests, of course, that there's still far more to come in the lives of these characters.
Ultimately, what the book does best is invent a few interesting characters in the comic book sense--they're not very well distinguishable aside from their powers, and their motivations still seem a bit dubious, but the action is fine and the plot comes together quickly enough to make the book readable.
Critically useful? Probably not. This isn't a thinker, nor is it even an innovator. Instead, it cashes in on a now-tired zombie thrill and does so without overstaying its welcome. I don't think I wasted my time entertaining myself, but aside from being a picture-perfect example of post-modern blank parody, I'm not really sure it means anything. It isn't really critical of anything, but simply speaks in a kind of dead language regurgitated for the cover price.
veronica87's review against another edition
4.0
You have to kill them faster than they're killing you. That was the lesson we'd learned too late.
Superheroes in the zombie apocalypse. Need I say more? This was an entertaining read from start to finish - a total blast. The story follows a group of survivors living in L.A. who are led by a small group of people with super powers. They've converted one of the big movie studios into their fortress and the reader follows along with them as things go from bad to worse upon the discovery of a new threat. I really liked how the story unfolded, with every other chapter going back in time to the early days of the outbreak and focusing on a brief history of each of the superheroes. It was absolutely perfect for me and appealed to all sides of my geekdom. This is a series that is going on my to-read list.
Superheroes in the zombie apocalypse. Need I say more? This was an entertaining read from start to finish - a total blast. The story follows a group of survivors living in L.A. who are led by a small group of people with super powers. They've converted one of the big movie studios into their fortress and the reader follows along with them as things go from bad to worse upon the discovery of a new threat. I really liked how the story unfolded, with every other chapter going back in time to the early days of the outbreak and focusing on a brief history of each of the superheroes. It was absolutely perfect for me and appealed to all sides of my geekdom. This is a series that is going on my to-read list.