Ship of the Dead
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“Readers who enjoyed The Strain Trilogy, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, will find plenty to satisfy them here.”—San Francisco Book Review on Omega Days In the weeks following the Omega Virus outbreak, survivors form desperate clusters, uniting to defend against hordes of the walking dead. But they can only hide for so long… Father Xavier Church never wanted to be a leader. Nonetheless, he’s grown attached to his fellow survivors, and he won’t let anyone cause them harm—though he may be the one who inadvertently leads them to destruction… Ex-con Bill Carnes may crave freedom, but he still prefers sticking with the group rather than fleeing to Mexico with his former cellmate TC. Maybe he’s changing. Or maybe the look in TC’s eyes is more dangerous than the undead… EMT Rosa Escobedo gave up on hope after she watched the man she loved rise from the dead. But when a patient seems to start getting better, she can’t help but hope for a cure, even if it means risking her life… As the numbers of the dead swell, the living are running out of safe havens—especially when the biggest threats lie within their own ranks.
Series
Featured Series
7 primary booksOmega Days
Omega Days is a 7-book series with 7 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by John L. Campbell, Campbell, John L. (Investigator), and John Campbell.
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I admit that my perspective on this book is probably heavily influenced by the fact that I was reading The Living Dead by Romero & Kraus at the same time as I was reading this one so I will review accordingly.
Having been subjected to a zombie novel that tried to be a commentary on society and human nature and to use all the buzzwords and elements of the cultural zeitgeist it could think of reading this one which went for more simple, realistic, and intellectually generous ideas on humans and faith. Where The Living Dead tried to hammer the idea that humanity exists in shades of gray by taking any chances it got to say that everyone is terrible, Ship Of The Dead managed to say just that by showing us characters existing in shades of gray. I wouldn't say that Campbell did that with perfection but he certainly achieved that message more successfully and most importantly more pleasantly (the worst thing a zombie novel can do, if you ask me, is be boring). I assume that this skill of his is why Campbell managed to use ideas that are at their core pretty woke without seeming preachy at all, I don't think I've seen a single review decrying the wokeness of this book.
Campbell also offered exciting scenes that were uncluttered (even if heavy on the descriptions), and actually exciting (the scene where Vladimir restarts the helicopter had me on edge) which after reading the cluttered mess of The Living Dead seemed positively excellent.
In my review of the first installment of this series I compared it to The Walking Dead and think the comparison still holds although at this point the vibe is more Fear The Walking Dead season 2/3 if that makes any sense.
I think I have rambled enough. Will I come back to read the next book in the series? Maybe.