A review by alving4
Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

4.0

This genre-blender goes more for the Saturday matinee than for the serious what-ifs. In this story, there are super-heroes in the world — yes, the cape-wearing, mask-sporting, leaping-over-tall-buildings variety. However, the added element to this book (which is the first of a series) is that there are also zombies (for when one pop-cultural trend just isn’t enough). Apparently unrelated to the rise of super-humans, a plague of apocalyptic proportions left humanity (and again, the focus is on the US — LA in particular) with a majority of people becoming zombies (“ex-humans” or “exes” as they are called). The super-heroes are holed up with some surviving humans in The Mount (which is a repurposed Paramount Studios) where they defend themselves from the relentless onslaught of the exes. While I am no fan of zombie stories, the addition of the super-powerful among those fighting them adds a neat twist. Interspersed throughout the main plot (which involves a showdown between the super-heroes and a street gang known as the “Seventeens”) are flashbacks to when each hero first started their super-powered careers. I actually liked those parts (like early episodes of Heroes) much more than the battle between the super-gang and the zombie-gang. The writing and characters are generally pulpy, and some parts get kind of frustrating when minor human characters start acting hysterically out of mistrust for the super-heroes. Again, that might really happen, but it seems silly to get into how human natures are naturally suspicious right in the middle of a situation like the ones in this story. I applaud Clines for taking super-fiction in a new direction, but why did it have to be zombies? (3.5 out of 5)