Dana Fredsti

It’s called “the Event.” An unimaginable cataclysm in the 23rd century shatters 600 years of the Earth’s timeline into jumbled fragments. Our world is gone: instantly replaced by a new one made of shattered remnants of the past, present and future, all existing alongside one another in a nightmare patchwork of different time “shards”—some hundreds of miles long and others no more than a few feet across.

San Diego native Amber Richardson is stranded on a tiny fragment of 21st show more century Britain surrounded by a Pleistocene wilderness. She crosses paths with Cam, a young warrior of a tribe from Roman Brittania, and together they struggle to survive—only to be imprisoned by Cromwellian soldiers.

One of their captives is a man who Amber calls “Merlin, and who claims to be the 23rd century scientist responsible for the Event. Together they must escape and locate Merlin’s ship before the damage to the timeline is irreparable.

Out January 30, 2018

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Oh. My. Goodness!

Fan-freakin-tastic!

This team of authors did a wonderful job, each applying their individual skills into the characters and plot to create a genuine work of art.

They’re bloody genius! The plot was definitive and strong, each twist and turn necessary to its success while the pace drove the story forward idealizing an innovative style of writing with pop-culture references, strong motivations and building tension that didn’t let up.

The world, the world, the world! So intricately pieced together in both a fascinating complexity, and a provocative paradox, the world these two created was bound seamlessly to the characters’ goals which were constantly being tested and driven to an exhilarating conclusion and succession. The characters were so intricately created, intertwined together out of necessity for the stories success, yet, perfectly faulted, flawed and bordered on the insane for what they were forced to endure. Each pivotal moment of their development was strife with struggle, angst and tension.

Although the book flashed through different times from past to present, this was done carefully and fleshed out to the tiniest detail. It has everything you want in a book like this and the only issue I had was when I turned the last page and the story was over.

If I could give a rating out of ten for technical set-up, I would give eleven stars… It was that good! There wasn’t anything I could find wrong with pace, plot, arc development, style, POVs, etc. Everything was done excellently!

I highly recommend this book to all. show less

In the small town of Redwood Grove, Ashley Parker contracted a mean case of Walker's Flu right at the beginning of the semester, causing her to miss the first couple weeks of school. Just as she recovered, everyone else seemed to get sick with it. Her classes are mostly empty and few of those that showed up seemed healthy. Everything goes to hell when the dead start walking, which Ashley discovers in the middle of a sexy, romantic picnic in the woods. Her boyfriend panics and leaves her show more while she is savaged by the dead. Instead of becoming a zombie like most other bitten people, she discovers she is a wild card, remaining immune with some cool perks like increased stamina and keener senses. The government enlists her to join their zombie fighting team with other wild cards in order to prevent the infection from spreading outside of their small town. Let's hope they succeed or the world may be doomed.

This book grabbed me from the first pages with the clear, sarcastic voice of Ashley Parker. Her point of view was a joy to read, peppered with pop culture references and humor. She is a formidable mixture of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ripley from the Alien films: kickass and strong without giving up her humanity. Dana Fredsti borrows the Buffy concept and makes it her own. Ashley has a romantic picnic with her boyfriend in the forest, a classic slasher film trope where her and her boyfriend would have been eviscerated within the first fifteen minutes of the film. Instead, she gains special powers and is trained to fight the undead hordes in order to save the world. The Ripley element comes in when Ashley accepts that physical survival is all well and good, but emotional and mental survival is just as important. One of my favorite parts of the novel is where Ashley goes with her friend Lili to save Lili's cats and bring them back. Even though it's a really stupid thing to do survival wise, I would probably do the same thing because I would be worried about them and it's my job to take care of them. I like that this novel definitely keeps humanity in an apocalypse setting.

The zombie situation in this novel is different than anything I've read before. The government across the world is aware of the existence of zombies and the periodic outbreaks over the centuries. Whole civilizations have been destroyed to stem the undead plague. Zombie films are either documentations of actual events to warn and prepare people or planted to make zombies a part of pop culture and convince people they are fictional. Our government has provisions and trained military for this, but it's different this time. People in staggering numbers get the flu first until they die and become zombies. The actual zombies are fairly normal types that shamble around and eat people. However, in large droves, they become almost intelligent and have strategy when individually, they are simply brainless. I liked this slight deviation from the normal mythos.

Plague Town is a fun, fast read that combines horror, humor, and zombies in an entertaining and engrossing way. I loved Ashley and the world Dana Fredsti created. The cause of the plague has far reaching consequences worldwide. I can't wait to see what they are in Plague Nation. show less

Ashley Parker is a wild card, infected by the zombie virus but immune with some enhanced abilities. She and her team of others like her have been fighting zombies, but rival organization bent on spreading the disease has kidnapped both her boyfriend Gabriel and Dr. Albert, the doctor close to finding a cure for the zombie virus. Her group follows the bad buys to San Diego in an effort to get their people back, but the virus has gone airborne. Zombie outbreaks are happening around the world show more and it seems like no corner of the world is safe.

Dana Fredsti is amazing and I will now read anything she writes. This whole series has been an amazing ride. I read this book in a couple days because of the breakneck pace. Just as with the first two books, the pop culture references abound and include everything from Firefly to Doctor Who. Although the poppy dialog is the Buffy-like humor throughout the novel, this installment is much darker than the first two books. Ashley is still snarky and fast witted, but more subdued and introspective due to the losses she's experienced. While Ashley is tough and kickass with her swords, she sympathizes with people and will go above and beyond for her friends. Her friends and even her enemies are also portrayed well. Lil has bipolar disorder and no longer has medication. Her behavior is erratic, but she isn't insane. The disorder isn't overexaggerated or treated as something she can just get over. The team (mainly Ashley) gets her the medication she needs and works to help her instead of dumping her or dismissing her mental illness.

Plague World ventures into some very dark territory. Interspersed with the story are vignettes of zombie outbreaks around the world. Each one is different and they vary in how detailed and long they are. The zombie virus is now airborne, so it spreads much faster. These little mini-stories gave the reader a good idea what the rest of the world outside of Ashley's story looked like without taking away too much of the tempo and momentum of her story. A very creepy character from one of the previous books comes back and it's frightening. I still get chills thinking about that part. The ending is not completely shiny and happy and I appreciate that. It would be out of place and unrealistic if it were. However, if it's the end of the series, it's not super satisfying. It's a bit rushed and definitely still open for more books should Dana Fredsti choose to revisit it. I really hope this isn't the end for Ashley and I would devour every book. Regardless, Dana Fredsti has made me a fan for life. show less

I need more. Right now. Where is the next book????? I really, really enjoyed this story. I already knew that Dana could write (I am a HUGE fan of her Plague novels!) and this book lived up to my expectations! Mythology, monsters, kick-ass females, weres, demons, and stunts! I loved the ties back to original myths -- Lilith and her human & demon children (spawn). The characters were wonderful and the story left me wanting more, more, more. I loved the descriptions of working on a movie set show more and working as a stunt-person. Actors get a lot of screen/page time but the stunt people...not so much so it was especially nice to read a story featuring and starring them! I would like more background on the characters, especially Lee (the main). Some things needed a bit more fleshing out -- what was the deal with Lee's memory loss? -- but overall the story was well told and, as I've mentioned before, leaves you wanting more. It seems fairly obvious this is the start of another series and I can only hope Dana doesn't take too long to write the next installment! A definite 5 star recommendation for anyone who loves action, mythology, monsters or just loves to read about kick-ass women! show less