Gregg Nicholas

The characters in this story are almost comic book exaggerations. About two thirds of the way through the book I was getting tired of the frequent repetition of the oddities about the main character. Frankly, he's unbelievable. I began to wish that the author had used the plot device of giving him alien DNA to explain why he and his offspring were so remarkable. There are no aliens, and no believable explanation for the abnormal elements in this family. I'm surprised that this book isn't in the Young Adult category. I gave it 3 stars for the same reason some people enjoy After School Specials and low-budget Grade B family movies - it's a quick read, just don't expect too much from it.

I'm still a bit put off by the unbelievable number of areas in which Vaz is an expert. However, I've got to admit that I like the author's imagination when it comes to near future technology advances. I'm not talking about the science fiction elements that are major plot points - but extremely unlikley. I'm more interested in the integration of Artificial Intelligences into our lifestyle that is treated as just a background element of the story. And yet, the capabilities of the author's imaginary AI's are probably not going to be realized in my lifetime.

This story can get a bit too detailed at times, especially while describing specific assault tactics or building layout. This first book only covers a few days of time. So far, I'm enjoying how the author has made the disease more believable than many previous authors have done. It will be interesting to see if it is still believable as the story unfolds and the initial infection fades into the past. There are maybe a dozen instances where the author could have used a good editor to correct grammar, spelling, and sentences that made no sense.

This series seems to be targeted at young adults or children. The writing style reminds me of the stories about Tom Swift. I like the author's method of starting with a small element of science fiction, and then developing a story about what the impact might be if this science fiction idea was real. I think he went overboard in creating unbelievable super people that didn't seem to have much depth of character.

There are minor grammar and typographical errors that should have been caught by the editor. The ‘night runners' are nearly believable - far more so than the typical ‘Zombie'. Nevertheless, the author disappoints me by including impossible attributes like telepathy. Throughout the series thus far, he has also presented the idea that normal soldiers can sense when they're being watched because of an ‘energy' . . . to which I say baloney! I think the story had a few tactical mistakes as well. For instance, why would he bring the helicopter back to an area where the monsters are drawn to attack each night due to the presence of the food? Wouldn't that be a big risk for destroying the helicopter? In my opinion, there is a significant vulnerability that all these smart soldiers should have jumped at immediately. Their enemy must hunt a dwindling resource for food. They must kill to survive, but their numbers are out of balance with the available food supply. Therefore, the night runners need to range farther for food every night - but they have to find shelter before the sun kills them. I would think the soldiers would immediately jump to the safer strategy of setting snares, bear traps, pits, mazes, and other methods of letting the sun kill the night runners so that the soldiers wouldn't have to risk their lives and deplete their ammunition. At the end of this book, the author does actually let them come up with land mines. To my mind, this new species is doomed to extinction when all their food lives in the sun, but a few minutes exposure will kill them.

In this series, the descriptions and details of battle action can be a bit repetitive. Since I don't understand the differences between various model numbers of military equipment, I get the feeling that some parts of the story just go over my head as gobbledygook. In my mind, the author never explained how a sporting goods store with its own well for water can handle the toilet usage for more than 200 people for several months. In my experience, buildings with their own well will also have their own septic system - and I just don't understand how that would have the necessary capacity. I think I can point out one other plot problem without giving a spoiler - the motivation of the female enemy is incomprehensible to me. If you accept her emotional motivation (for whatever reason), then I can't understand her actions in regards to Lynn. Nonetheless, I congratulate the author for writing a story that can still hold a reader through 6 books

In my opinion, the plot in this book continues the pattern of the whole series. Too much of the story depends on an unbelievably smart person. The rest of the inhabitants of earth are portrayed as idiots who can't even come up with obvious applications of an invention - or obvious attack tactics, without getting help from the guy who must be the only genius on earth.

The zombies in this series follow the Hollywood movie rules - which is to say, they're impossible and illogical. Since the author clearly intends to give us a fun story, rather than a scientifically believable one, I won't complain too much about the zombies. I did enjoy the series, but found it annoying that Jason ‘Jace' Stanford kept being referred to as being smart. In my opinion, Jace never exhibited more than average intelligence.

Imagine visiting a retirement or nursing home, sometimes called an ‘old folks home', and being trapped there, forced to listen to the meanderings of poor souls who can remember things from 60 years ago, but can't remember anything that happened this week. The “stories” in this book could have been written in the 1800's. They have more in common with ghost stories than they do with science fiction.

This book is absolutely intended for juveniles or very young adults. It starts as a typical coming-of-age story with a young nobody who discovers that they are special. In my opinion, the author omits important story elements because there is basically no growth process, no conflict and resolution. The protagonist goes quickly from a ‘nobody' to surpassing all the experts with his abilities. There appear to be almost no rules to magic - or, if there are rules, they're frequently broken whenever it suits the storyteller. After a couple chapters, I was disappointed with how effortlessly the hero achieved his goals. In many cases, he just imagines an outcome, perhaps even subconsciously, and it magically happens.

How can I give such a high rating to a book that angered me in every chapter? This book should be recommended reading for all of the American Congress. It tells many details of how Americans have lost their privacy and the dystopian consequences that should inspire all of us to reconsider the direction things are going. In my opinion, the book failed to deliver on telling citizens “what to do about it”. Peons like me don't have many options to effect change - except perhaps recommending that everyone read this book to learn what has been publicly divulged about how our government is spying on us - and what it is costing us in taxes and lost foreign trade.

The blurb for this book led me to believe it was a YA sci-fi novel based on the trope of anti-gravity - and it is. Nevertheless, I decided to read it because the pen name of the author is derived from a story that I enjoyed in my youth. The author kept my interest despite the impossibility of the science.

All of the characters have questionable morals. There is no one to call a hero or even a good example. There are a couple of minor plot points that bug me:

1. If Lucy worked there for years, why would anyone be surprised at her disability when she entered the building?

2. I find it hard to believe that Dillon could launch the 500 pound gun to land on the hood of the following car. Our seems to me that would take more power than one man could exert.

If the creatures die from sunlight exposure, why aren't we seeing that used as a weapon? I'd suggest punching holes in walls and roofs, using mirrors or metal reflectors to light a lobby further, perhaps using a prism or disco ball to spread the light through a room. Haven't seen anybody using a generator with ultraviolet lamps to clear out a building. The author has made it clear that Jack believes that sunlight would be torture, but certainly some of the groups he met would have no such compunctions. From the foreword of the next book, I see that the creatures wouldn't be susceptible to commercial UV lights or grow lamps, but none of the characters in the series have even tested UV lighting, so how would they know? As I see it, the creatures are fighting a losing battle. The environment itself will kill them in minutes if their shelter is compromised. Like the classic vampire, this monster has fatal flaws that should prevent it from dominating the world.

There a handful of errors that should have been caught by the editor. For instance, a physicist is not the same as a physician.

The writing style seems designed for a television miniseries - with lots of descriptions that are meant to be developed into computer generated graphics as done by the CSI series. In my opinion, each book should be able to stand alone as a story, and not end with such an obvious cliffhanger.

Perhaps I'm rating this book so highly because many of the books I've read recently have been disappointing. The story is a mixture of thriller, action, science fiction - and other genres that I won't mention for fear they would spoil your enjoyment of the book. In my opinion, the science fiction elements were mostly believable - to someone as ignorant as me. Even the parts of the story that dealt with computer technology were vague enough for me to believe.