Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) by J. L. Bourne Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel)
Book Review: brilliant
Summary: 4 Stars
Day by day armageddon portrays the story of one mans struggle for survival as the world is wiped out by plague and the dead rise up. Chillingly written in a similar style to I Am Legend, and Lucifer Wars, with inflections of Last Man On Earth. This is a nice story that is quite gripping in places and would translate well into Film in the way that omega man starring charlton heston translated. It would be good to see authors like this hitting the mainstream as there are too few new authors that have writing capabilities like this. Keep it up!Book Review: An indepth and powerful post-apocalyptic tale.
Summary: 5 Stars
Originally started as an online fiction journal, 'Day by Day Armageddon' is written in a diary form from the perspective of a lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic world that is overrun by the living dead. The author, John Bourne has been writing this ongoing zombie saga in between serving as a U.S. Naval officer. His knowledge of tactical survival and weaponry is reflected perfectly within the pages of the novel. Sometimes quite clumsily written, the book gives off a realistic viewpoint of this harrowing and desperate situation.The tale starts out with the epidemic first impacting on the world, as humanity quickly begins to crumble around the writer. With massive similarities at the start, to that of the cult online diary 'Alpha_dog', we see the panic and uncertainty of the situation slowly taking over. From the start, the reader finds out that the diary is being written by a lone military man who falls upon his training and knowledge to ensure his own survival. Soon we meet a few other survivors, as the diary takes the reader on a desperate trip from one location to another.
The small band of survivors end up hiding away, only to find that they have to defend themselves against more than just the decaying hordes of the undead. Drawing heavily from the ideas from within George A. Romero's cult classic film 'Dawn Of The Dead', Bourne ends this first volume with a dramatic turn of events for the survivors. Unfortunetly, the ending does seem to come about all too quickly, but this leaves open the start of the next instalment perfectly.
Bourne opening admits that he is no 'real' writer, but his obvious passion for the subject brings out a flare of energy that is often clouded in other similar work. The novel is no masterpiece, but one hell of an adventure into the dangerous and uncertain post-apocalyptic world of the undead.
Like in David Moody's fantastic 'Autumn' series, 'Day by Day Armageddon' turns more towards the harrowing mental stress of the survivors, rather than the simple blood & guts angle that could easily be followed with a zombie novel. The writing quickly submerges the reader into this sudden decaying world of our main survivor, allowing you to feel that you are also part of the events that take place within the unfolding tale.
This first volume ends with such a dramatic turn of events that you will be crying out for the release of the next volume. At the end of the book, you are treated to a seven page preview of Bourne's next written project entitled "Dead Land" which looks to be written from a third person viewpoint.
The book runs for a total of 258 pages (including the "Dead Land" preview) and was published off the authors own back.
Book Review: Yawn
Summary: 1 Stars
I have read so many books in this genre, some blooming brilliant (The Autumn series by Moody probably being my favourite), some interesting but badly written (aftermath), and some well written but not that interesting. However this is the first that is badly written and extremely boring. I think that maybe if you have an understanding of guns or even the text of people within the services you may find this a little easier to follow, that said there is still way to much vocabulary relating to tactics and weaponry.
It is also hard to relate to the characters and their plight as they are far to organised to be normal and their characters are not at all likeable. Sorry to the author as I am sure he put a great deal of time into it but is just not a great read.
This is of course a personal opinion and I would hate to destroy someones work but I didn't even get halfway through the book before becoming bored enough to start something else.
If you can get a hold of it cheap and you enjoy reading text books give it a try but don't say I didn't warn you.
Book Review: Pretty good stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an interesting and well written piece of zombie fiction, and i do not agree with anyone who thinks that it is boring, most zombie fans will enjoy this book, the characters are 'real', they are brought to life during the story, and i cannot wait for the follow up. Book Review: Passionate but poor
Summary: 2 Stars
Day By Day Armageddon is not a well-written book. That said, to a lot of people that won't matter.
Casting aside the somewhat lacklustre approach to grammar - which we can all agree only gets in the way if you aren't too happy with the book to begin with (unless of course the spelling and format of a book is outstandingly bad, which this is not) - this is an interesting but shallow depiction of the authors long nights thinking through the reality of a zombie-based apocalypse. It's not particularly boring, as some reviewers have said; but then, I share the mindset of most 'hardcore' zombie fiction fans and know a little about guns and tactics myself. Anyone who got interested in this book based on its subject - I can't imagine may others bothering with this book - already has some idea how they'd react, what they would do, and how they would behave in times of long-term corpse-combat. This is part of the experience of the book - for the most part, you're merely reading how J. L. Bourne would do it.
It's like having a discussion with a friend. An interesting friend, who has genuinely thought through his plan, but then you could easily have friends like that already. In my opinion this book adds nothing to the genre - there is no character development (indeed, several characters appear to be just there to make up numbers), and the emotional impact of such a massive catastrophe is only touched upon.
The style of the book doesn't contradict this. From the very beginning, you are aware of the mindset of the author/narrator; military minded, focusing on action and details rather than philosophy or hideous emotional trauma. To be honest, it's what you'd expect, and what most zombie fans are after. It's filler, in my opinion - just another story about another guy with a who can make a headshot - but that's about as good as zombie fiction gets.
There is some photo art in the book, but this is left unexplained, undeveloped and irrelevant. A shame, as in context it could have really added to the finished product.
Overall this has the definite feel of an online journal that has been put into a book format without much thought. As a free ebook, I'd welcome it; but only buy it if you have a serious devotion to the genre. Fortunately for Bourne and his contemporaries, almost everyone involved in zombie fiction consumption is an addict, and if you're reading this, you probably are too.