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Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

3/30/2014

1 Comment

 
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"Once you've arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took."

I started out his month with the idea to only review Indie authors for March and today is no different, however, like every good second act…there’s a twist.

Today I want to talk about Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies, and while some might say, “Hey, that’s not an Indie title!” I say, “NAY!” Isaac was an Indie author and published 3 titles before a scout looking for undiscovered talent found his website and the short story that Warm Bodies grew into. And talented Isaac is.

Don’t care for Indie authors you say? I say you’re missing out on a treasure chest of awesome books! More on Indie Authors on my blog next week! But I digress…

Warm Bodies is probably only the second zombie story EVER that I actually enjoyed—the first would be Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines (which I’m planning on reviewing next month!) I, Zombie by Hugh Howey comes in a close third and the reason I like these undead tales are because they aren’t your normal, over-told, over-gored stories of mindless killing machines chasing the last remnants of society through crumbling cites. Well, Ex-Heroes sort of fits that bill, but we’ll talk about that later.

Warm Bodies is the story of R, who is a zombie, and his life after death. Sure, R kills and eats people, but he doesn’t enjoy it. When he’s not hunting, he lives a pretty normal life…for a zombie. He collects old LPs and knick-knacks from a world long gone and has made a pretty homey residence out of an old 747.

Unlike other zombie stories, the zombies in Warm Bodies have formed a kind of structure to their un-living situation. They all live in the Airport, led by the mysterious Boneys, some even get married and have families—in a manner of speaking.

Everything is going reasonably well for R, considering the circumstances. That is, until he comes across Julie. After eating the brains of Perry (Julie’s boyfriend) —R beings to relive some of Perry’s memories, and then he does something that has never been done before in the history of undead literature, he save’s Julie’s life. He brings her back to the Airport and after making a few attempts to get away Julie starts to realize that something is different about R.

What follows is nothing less than the breakdown of everything that has kept the world going through the years and both sides, human and zombie, are reluctant to embrace the change.

At its heart this story is a love story, but it is filled will clever humor and well thought out introspection about the human—or zombie—condition. Warm Bodies is not a zombie story about death, it is a story about life. Themes revolve around embracing change and how love can quite literally heal all wounds…and undeath.

If you’ve ever considered reading a book about zombies, but aren’t really excited about endless blood and gore and a depressing “there is no hope” storyline, Warm Bodies is something you MUST pick up and read.  This book is filled with clever and intelligent dialogue, great characters and an extremely enjoyable and well thought out plot.

A prequel to Warm Bodes, The New Hunger, is available at Zola.com and according to his website an untitled sequel is in the works. Check out www.isaacmarion.com for more information on his upcoming titles as well as a collection of short stories and flash fiction that are all free on his blog.

Next week we’ll talk about the new book by Samantha LaFantasie, “Made to Forget – A Nepherium Novella”

As always you can hop over to My Bookshelf to pick up this book and thousands of others on Amazon.com, and please check out my Writer's Blog and join in the conversation!

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Enemy Of Man by Scott Moon

3/27/2014

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Everyone wants Kin Roland dead.

Well mostly everyone.

Enemy of Man is a great second effort by my friend Scott Moon, author of Dragon Badge, which pits ex-naval soldier against...well...everyone.  The story follows Roland across the surreal and sometimes deadly landscape of Crashdown as he chases down an alien bent on destroying everything he holds dear. But Roland is also being chased. Naval Shock Troopers led by Roland's nemesis Sergeant Orlan will stop at nothing until to find Roland, and bring him to justice for his crimes.

As the mysteries of Crashdown are revealed and new enemies appear Roland must race them all to save his world and the women he loves.

This adventure moves very fast and is packed with violence and fun. Long wars have hardened these men and women and none of them are willing to go down without a fight. With Enemy of Man, Scott proves that he is great at writing both urban fantasy and great science fiction. This story deals with love and war and how they push people into intense and impossible situations.

This was a great read and I'm really looking forward to Book Two, which hopefully will be out soon! Do yourself a favor and go pick up this book!  

Check out Scott's website: http://www.scottmoonwriter.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter: @scottmoonwriter

As always you can hop over to My Bookshelf to pick up this book and thousands of others on Amazon.com, and please check out my Writer's Blog and join in the conversation!

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