Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) by J. L. Bourne Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $13.45 You Save: $1.50 (10%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $11.85 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel)
Book Review: Survival has a whole new meaning...
Summary: 4 Stars
Where Kim Paffenroth's recent release Dying to Live was to be considered the philosopher's guide to existence after a zombie invasion, J. L. Bourne's novel Day by Day Armageddon is everyday man's field guide to survival. With the gritty, no-nonsense voice of a young Naval officer, Bourne details the evolution of an outbreak of a virus that spreads rapidly from China to America, turning everyone in its path into hordes of mindless, hungry undead. Trapped in his home in San Antonio, Texas the man begins keeping a daily diary of his experiences, detailing in dreary, realistic terms the progression of the downfall of the United States. After making allies with another survivor a few houses away, an engineer by the name of John, they flee the city only hours before the U.S. government is to drop nuclear warheads on all major national cities, including San Antonio. Day after day, with his sanity wearing thin and rations running low, the men continue what seems to be a hopeless struggle for survival in a world overrun with flesh-eating zombies. [...]Book Review: Not bad
Summary: 3 Stars
Not a bad book as far as zombie literature goes, but not nearly as great as World War Z. The main character decides to start a daily journal, and quickly notes a virus sweeping China. Well, you know what happens next. In a few weeks the world is populated by flesh eating zombies. What I didn't buy was the part of the main character keeping a journal, especially when he was on the run. On some days, he has pages and pages of what happened during that day, in great detail. Personally, if I was being chased by flesh eating zombies, I don't think I would have the time, energy or inclination to write entries in a daily journal each day, in long hand. But if you can get past that, the book isn't all that bad. I would usually read it before bed to help put me to sleep.Book Review: Solid Genre Zombies.
Summary: 4 Stars
Day by Day Armageddon is a zombie survival story written from the point of view of one character, through the writing in his journal. Each section is dated just like a diary would be and then a description of the days events. Through his journal the story of the world coming to an end is related while the writer tries to survive.
The format is a nice change of pace in a subgenre that is so loaded with similar stories in similar formats that after reading one book you may have just read them all. The diary style of DBDA is both an asset and a hindrance. The style is refreshing because it gives you a look at survival horror from a different angle and it also allows you to feel more connected to the main character because you are reading his direct thoughts as he wrote them. I think that the style also lends to more creepy and suspenseful feeling in that each new section brings all new possibilities due to the fact that you are not sure how far in the future the next entry may be.
The style has its merits but it has its warts as well. First it seemed that the author had issues keeping to the style, in places it seemed like it was someone writing a journal and in other parts it looked like the prose was like writing a novel. If the book was supposed to written in journal form from someone we assume is not a writer, the prose should reflect that and be consistent throughout. Another problem, not so much the style or authors fault, is that people seem to have trouble grasping the concept of the style. Reading other reviews and talking people has revealed to me that some people believe that the book is poorly written do to week writing and spelling/grammar errors. It is often forgotten that his book is written from an everyday Joe point of view, someone who may not have the best spelling or grammar and is often journaling in haste. This makes it terribly hard to tell whether the errors and sub par writing, in spots, are the characters or the authors and many people seem to have issues determining which it is. I'm inclined to think that the errors for the most part are that of the character, not the author and were left in to help validate the journal like style the author used.
The main character seems to be a real tough guy and was pretty well ready and geared up for a zombie invasion. He's ex-military and would probably qualify as the most resourceful person in any of the books readers have ever heard of. I'm not one to point at a zombie novel and complain about realism but James Bond would be envious of his resourcefulness. However, I would not have it any other way: after all butt-kicking heroes make for much more interesting stories.
J.L. Bourne did a great job with pacing and DBDA should keep reader interested and engaged. You have mad scrambles, shootouts, planes, boats, exploration, and seemingly hair brained ideas all within the pages of this book. When the last page left me hanging I definitely wanted to read more.
I give DBDA for being what it is: an experimental novel written in a sub-genre that has little room for anything new. I believe the author's intent was to take a zombie survival story and give it a different spin via its style. In that Bourne succeeded while delivering an enjoyable, well paced story.
Book Review: very "Guy" book
Summary: 3 Stars
this is really good but a very GUY book. The guy lives ready for a zed invasion. I mean who lives like that? It would be more intrasting if he were a normal person and had to servive, but he is a trained military guy who is perfectly capable of surviving ZEDBook Review: Absolute 'must' for the shambling Z-fan
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm trying to catch up on my reviews, so I'll not repeat what many others here have said, only summarize:
Read This Book.
The author's choice of how the story is presented (jornal format), plus the 'pure' shambling Zs archtype, combined with a genuinely 'good' storyline and characters that you not only related to, but want to hear more about, makes this book a 'must read' for fans of the genre.
(Not) patiently waiting for the next one, J. L. ;)