Zombie Rage by JR Rain

You have to just take this for what it is and that is a fairly average zombie story. I enjoyed the first in this series more probably because having read a few tough books before it I was just so glad to have something nice and easy to read that I overlooked it’s obvious flaws. 
The flaws stood out a tad more in this book to me. It’s too short first of all. I mean realistically the three books in the trilogy could have been compressed into one large book without a problem. It’s all a little gung-ho, American for my taste but I can get over that if the writing is good. It ain’t. 

We follow Jack again as he fights the infection and eventually is cured by his brother and girlfriend by being drowned. I did like that little scenario of having a window during the infection where you could actually be cured. It put a good spin on the zombie yarn. 

However I feel like each book now has the exact same situation arising in it. The first book saw Jacks brother Joe being infected, and then Jack was infected in the second and now it looks like Anna will be the patient in the third. I hope she actually turns completely just so it’s a different storyline. 

These books ain’t bad but they sure as hell aren’t anything fantastic either.  

 

 

Zombie Patrol by JR Rain

You’re going to have to be a fan of the zombie genre to like this. I’m not saying it’s bad, on the contrary it’s one of the better zombie novels I’ve read, but it ain’t something that will cross boundaries and encourage new readers over to this genre. Try Mira Grant for that, trust me. 
I enjoyed it though. It was exactly what I was looking for. I needed a quick, not-overly-intelligent, nicely gory, zombie novel to cheer me up after some tough reads and this was exactly that. It even had a better storyline than I anticipated to be honest which was refreshing. 

So the book centres around Jack. Jack is a park ranger in a zoo and also lives on the zoos grounds with his teenage daughter who he home schools. Jacks brother arrives to his door after going awol from the military and seems to be suffering from a mysterious illness after touching some meteor-like item that fell from the sky. He’s brought a friend just to make things more interesting. Mike is also pretty ill. 

Joe and Mike end up handcuffed to pillars in Jacks basement after apparently losing touch with reality and attacking Jack. 

Up to this point I thought the book was a fairly standard zombie yarn but the author did put a good spin on it by having this interlude in the illness. Joe and Mike apparently get better all of a sudden. Other than their red eyes you wouldn’t even know they had been sick. Of course it’s never going to wrap up nice and easy like that is it? Nope they’re better alright but they’re also very hungry. And not for a couple of weetabix. 

I liked this book it had a good twist in the stereotypical zombie genre and I liked that the author is trying to give a genuine reason for the disease and its origins. Better than I expected but not going to win any awards.  

 

 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Did you know this was wrote in 1932? Seriously! It’s really shocking to me that Huxley was able to get away with writing something so out there and overtly sexual at a time that sex was a taboo subject in most parts of the world. I suppose Britain may have been slightly ahead of times but I do know that this book would have been banned Ireland back then. It actually probably was if I had the time or inclination to research it. 
It’s similar to George Orwells 1984 in that it’s set in the future and the government have complete control over its inhabitants using brainwashing and drugs. However where 1984 had the government making a very strict, hard life for its inhabitants Huxleys government has created inhabitants that are brainwashed to be constantly happy. It’s a stupid, naive happy however. They have no independent thoughts and do whatever they are told to do like mindless robots. 

The main characters weren’t exactly likeable but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If this book was wrote now it would have focused solely on the love triangle between Lenina, Bernard and John but thankfully it was written around eighty years ago so it instead focused on the world and its inhabitants as a whole with the love story (if you can even call it that) a very minor subplot. 
I wanted Lenina to maybe evolve a bit throughout the book and become a little more independent and less brain washed but unfortunately that wasn’t to be and she remained stubbornly stupid throughout. Bernard was instantly unlikeable and also remained that way throughout with tiny hints of a better side peeking out now and then. I suppose John was probably the most interesting but there definitely could have been more done with his character. 

I liked this book and the whole premise that it had. It was shocking to read even now as a possible future. However I do feel like it could maybe have started where in the last few chapters and gone from there instead. It was only just getting really interesting when it was over. 

Not bad though. Not bad at all.
  

 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (Maze Runner Series #2)

I loved the Maze Runner. I really loved it. I thought it was an original take on the whole dystopian, messed up future genre and it was a good young adult book which I alway think is a good thing. 
The Scorch Trials just didn’t live up to its predecessor I’m afraid. It wasn’t terrible but it was lacking in the excitement that was at the heart of the first book. I suppose because we had that whole element of shock and fear of the unknown in the Maze Runner that it was always going to be hard to carry that into the next novel. 

It was incredibly frustrating for a huge part of the book and to be honest it ends in an even more frustrating manner. Don’t sit down to read this book expecting any answers about WICKED and the whole Trials experiment anyway because we learn nothing. In fact it’s worse than nothing. We just end up with even more questions. 

I’d like to think that Dashner has this all planned out and it will all come together brilliantly in the third book but I have my doubts. It has that feel of rushed panic about it as if the author himself wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on at the best of times. Let’s make her betray him but not really but really you know? No. I do not. 

And why? Why for the love of God does every young adult author feel that they have to introduce a love triangle? Why can’t there just be two people who fall in love and maybe have one or two challenges that they must overcome before living happily ever after? I blame Stephanie Meyer entirely for this. It was her stupid Team Edward/Team Jacob thing that started the whole trend. Just another in a long list of reasons to dislike her. 
Anyway look, I’ll be reading the third instalment for sure to see what happens but this definitely wasn’t as good as the first in the series.