Monster Nation: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Monster Nation: A Zombie Novel
Book Review: zombie-tastic!
Summary: 5 Stars
well, the easy thing to say is that if you loved Monster Island then you'll love Monster Nation... but let's face it, if you loved MI then you'll already have this on pre-order. In fact, you'll probably already have read it, loaned it out to your friends and are currently taking legal action to get your copy back (that might just be me tho).
so this is aimed at people who've not read MI (and let me just say, shame on you, where have you been??). Nation is a prequel but also a fantastic stand-alone read, with brilliantly realised characters and more gore than you can shake some kind of gore-seeking stick at. It's a classic zombie-tastic read - never has human suffering and the end of society as we know it been so damn entertaining. Buy it. You won't regret it.
Book Review: Nice Prequel
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a prequel to 'Monster Island' by the same author, and is written in a similar style, which isn't surprising. However, that's not a bad thing as both stories are well written and both are good stand-alone reads, with only a few minor references to 'Monster Island' within 'Monster Nation'. There are all the usual things you would expect from a zombie novel and a few unique touches to keep it interesting. There is a bit of military jargon in this book, but not enough to spoil it if you're not familiar with the terminology, and probably justified given that the main character is a member of the US National Guard. All in all, a good book for horror fans, especially if you liked 'Monster Island'.Book Review: Not the best zombie book ever, but enjoyable.
Summary: 3 Stars
OK, so I guess you've read Monster Island and decided to read the sequel - or prequel in this case - to David Wellingtons first zombie novel. Though new readers to this series please note that this book is more than suitable to read as the first in the series before moving on to Monster Island.
Maybe I am in the minority of people out there reading zombie novels, but when I started hunting Amazon for zombie novels I bought a whole host of them by various authors in the hope of some good old zombie nosh entertainment. But what I find is that the books I bought all seem to have either thinking zombies, talking zombies, zombies with rocket launchers, animal zombies and now in this book INVISIBLE zombies. What happened to good old Romeo 'Dawn of the Dead' zombies ? Maybe I am stuck in the past and that Zombies have evolved in the last 20-30 years !
Don't get me wrong the book is entertaining, but what sticks out in my mind after reading the book is not so much what I enjoyed about it, but what I did not like about it - or found confusing. I hated the thought of Invisible zombies and I was confused by there seeming to be two different reasons for the dead coming back to life - Mael's God and the mad scientist Vronski working to save his wife Charlotte. And the introduction of psychics seemed to push what could have been a great book a little further over the top.
Wellington does do a great job in telling the fall of humanity to the undead hordes from start to finish in the book, and that to me is what saves this book. From the first sporadic outburst of the dead returning to life through to the eventual full on zombie apocalypse. The military jargon is easily understandable, and the little notes make fun reading at times.
The book is split once again - like Monster Island - into following a few characters through the outbreak. Bannerman Clark - the military official, Nilla the thinking and invisible zombie, and Dick - well, lets just say he's pretty `armless.
If you enjoyed the first book, your pretty much guaranteed to enjoy the second. But to those people saying this is the best zombie book ever, well I'll have to disagree with you on that. I'll give it 3 stars.
I have already bought Monster Planet to finish the trilogy, and I just hope that Wellington can tie up any loose ends in the final book - though to be honest I think he is going to probably give me more things to be puzzled about !
Book Review: Could have been so much better
Summary: 2 Stars
Started out good, but when the author introduced the magical girl zombie who could do everything apart from fly, some hippy bs characters, and started to inject as many sop opera cliches as possible I just turned off, perhaps by not killing of the male vet and letting him try and osrt out the mess the world was it it could have been better, but as it is its very cliched and new age, one to get from the library.Book Review: Prequel to the epic zombie trilogy - but not as good as the first.
Summary: 4 Stars
This prequel to Monster Island has some nice touches. I particularly liked the use of newspaper articles and other bits of media to demonstrate the increasing panic and breakdown of human society as the book progresses. There is also some attempt to explain the source of what caused the zombies in the last third of the book.
I didn't like it as much as Monster Island though, as the characters didn't seem to be as interesting - most of the time they are in "what the hell is going on?" mode. Neither of the two main characters are very well fleshed out - one can't remember who she is so is a bit of a blank slate; the other is an army guy who's trying to stop the zombie outbreak, but not very successfully. I also had difficulty accepting that characters could make themselves invisible, read minds, predict the future etc (though I guess if you're able to accept that people can come back from the dead then you should really be open to everything). I guess I just like the Romero zombies.