Z. A. Recht (1983–2009)

I shall sum this book up with this plot event (and if you think this is a spoiler, you'll LOVE this book):

A general comes up with a plan to sneak into and destroy an enemy complex; the general's role in this plan is to hide in a tree and shoot flares. After this mission is completed, the general discovers that he is still up in the tree surrounded by zombies (who are attracted to noise and lights, of course) and thinks to himself (no, I'm not exaggerating), oops, I made this plan so quickly show more that I never thought of how I was going to escape from this tree.

HE'S A GENERAL!!!

OMG they behave so fracking stupidly that I can't stand it. show less

I can't even give it 3 stars because that would indicate it's average - even if only average for a zombie book - but it's not. The zombies are cool, and the plot could have been tight but there was too... much... stupidity.

"They" (who are they? author never tells us) collect a news-broadcaster, lock her up in a damp cell and torture her like she's Osama himself. Since there was nothing in the story that indicates this character knew ANYTHING about ANYTHING, this torture is stupid, but even show more worse is that she "held out" against it. If you know nothing about something, why hold out? And if you're not a professional terrorist, how could you hold out?

It's frustrating when authors write stereotype behaviors that create some action, but have no realistic component. For a specific example: a building is being overrun by zombies, and the city is about to fall to zombies and yet a guy in some black-ops organization spends man-power and time to hunt down some other guy who helped the previously mentioned tortured-for-no-reason victim escape. Anyone not brain-damaged would a) escape or b) help in the defense of his nation/family/city/etc. Nobody is going to go hunt down one guy to "teach him a lesson", at least not if you have to wade through thousands of zombies first.

Oh, and there's also the military guy who has qualms about killing someone who is about to turn into a zombie: 'I can't kill him, he's still human' when in about 30 seconds he's going to try to start munching on you.

Hey, did that zombie LOOK at me? Pass me the gun. show less

Thunder and Ashes follows three groups of Morningstar Virus survivors. When infected the virus causes you to become the living dead. The first set is lead by a couple of military men who are trying to get to Omaha. Over the course of their travels they find themselves helping a survivors village deal with some ruthless bandits. The second group contains the doctor who is considered an expert on The Morningstar Virus. She is attempting to get to Omaha so she can work on a vaccine. Survivor show more groups one and two hope to meet up at the research facility in Omaha. The final set are sailors from the USS Ramage. They’ve abandoned ship, and while exploring an abandoned town they find themselves in possession of a seriously hot commodity.

Ok, I did it again. I read a series out of order. I didn’t realize this was a sequel to another book. I saw zombies and thought Heck Yeah! Thankfully, reading this without reading the first turned out not to be a big deal. Background info was provided, and I pieced together what had occurred in book one, Plague of the Dead.

The husband and I are both a little zombie obsessed. We have a group of friends who we’ve planned our survival strategy with. Yes, we roll nerdy. So when I discover a new book starring the undead I have to read it. Thunder and Ashes portrayed the reanimated in a different light than I’ve seen so far. You have two types, shamblers and sprinters. The names are pretty self-explanatory. Shamblers move slowly so you can usually get away. The sprinters are the scary ones. They can catch you. Once they’ve let out their roar to alert other undead in the area you better make yourself scarce. They hunt like a pack. Zombies are scary, but the thought that they would be coordinated enough to actually hunt together and sprint after you is seriously unsettling.

Kudos to the author for pointing out the virus is in the blood, and having character decontaminate themselves after a bloody battle with the undead. I hate when folks are out bludgeoning zombies in books or movies with little concern for blood splatter. Hello! Get some protective gear. Last thing you want is zombie blood or brain matter in your eye. Nice group of characters featured in this one. They could have been a little more developed. The pacing could have also been better. An extra 30 pages would have provided a meatier story, and maybe not such a rushed ending. Even with the minor flaws I was enthralled. This would make a fantastic movie. Seriously scary stuff, and if you’re looking for something to make you sleep with the lights on this is it.

I plan to backtrack and read the first book in this series. While I was researching the series further, I was sad to learn the author had passed away. A ghostwriter is working on finishing the third book in this series which is titled Survivors. show less

Three bands of survivors, all working their way to the same place - a research facility in Omaha, Nebraska where a vaccine for the Morningstar virus can possibly be developed.

The first group are former soldiers from the U.S.S. Ramage: Krueger, Keaton, Thomas, Wilson, Brewster and former General Sherman. Also with them are Mbutu, Ron, Katie, Rebecca (a nurse), Jack and Mitsui (both former general contractors with the latter speaking Japanese only), and Denton, a photographer.

The second group show more consists of Anna Demilio, a doctor from USAMRIID, who may prove to be the key to uncovering a vaccine for Morningstar, Julie Ortiz, the anchorwoman who Anna leaked the story to in hopes of containing the virus before it became a pandemic, and Gregory Mason, formerly of the NSA, all wanted for murder and treason by the U.S. Army. Mason helped Julie and Anna escape when they were being held captive by his former peers. They are joined on their journey by Trev, a former mental patient with exceedingly clear mental facilities, and HIS companions, Matt and Junko, former students.

The third group enters the trek much later in the book. These are the remaining sailors from the USS Ramage, joined by a civilian named Hal who had been given the boot from his retirement island in the Pacific by the natives when he insisted that the inhabitants should extend hospitality to the crew of the Ramage. Having found no safe port, with dwindling food and fuel supplies, and with the U.S. military apparently scattered into the wind, they decide to meet up with Sherman, their former general.

This is the second in the Morningstar trilogy, and, thankfully, you did not have to read the first to become immersed in it's sequel.

Thankfully, for the more squeamish, there is not a lot of gore (although people and zombies DO die along the way).

Very well-written, and not just about the zombies, there is a good story in these pages, with characters you'll come to care about, good dialogue, and plenty of action. Surprisingly, most of the danger in this book comes not from the sprinters (living people who were infected by the virus and "turned") or the shamblers (people infected by the virus who subsequently died and were reborn as zombies), but from the uninfected. There are bandits, and raiders, and a rogue faction of the U.S. military that our survivors have to deal with along the way.

This is enough to make me want to go back and purchase the first in the series, "Plague of the Dead".

QUOTES:

"Right," Krueger said, scoffing. "When was the last time we met someone new who didn't try to eat us, huh?"

Beneath the truck, Brewster grimaced and rolled his eyes. "Leave it to Krueger to go all primadonna in the middle of a firefight."

"What I'm saying is that most of the smart people are dead and you're still alive. Whether or not you have a degree, that makes you one of the world's best engineers," Anna said, nodding once and tapping the screen of her PDA to bring up another page of data. "Just a matter of the process of elimination."

Julie, still leaning back with her eyes closed, shrugged at the thought. "Never did think of it like that. I guess that makes me prime material for this year's Pulitzer Prize for broadcast journalism."

Book Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

On researching the author and the book, I found that Z. A. Recht died last year at the tender age of 26, At the time of his death, he was working on the third and final installment of the series, "Survivors", which was going through edits. It is being completed by a ghostwriter, although I was not able to locate a release date. show less