Monster Nation: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.48 You Save: $9.47 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Monster Nation: A Zombie Novel
Book Review: Death becomes her . . . and she reciprocates
Summary: 4 Stars
STORY: We start off with a man named Bannerman Clark, who is a Colorado National Guard crisis response expert, getting an urgent call to a State penitentiary. When he gets there, he finds that the guards, in the solitary confinement area, have been turned into seemingly mindless, vicious cannibals, who are eating the prisoners and each other, although few of them actually end up dead. Fearing that this is the onset of a plague or biological weapon strike, he has the prison go into lockdown, but the Warden just left for a brief vacation in California. Operating still on the epidemic theory, Clark tries to find the Warden, and eventually tracks him to a hospital, where every one has, you guessed it, been turned into seemingly mindless, vicious cannibals, who are eating each other. Meanwhile, one patient there, a young woman, appears to be dead (i.e., no pulse, cold, getting stiff), but remains conscious, although she is amnestic. She eventuially takes the name of "Nilla" after someone gives her a box of cookies. Nilla seems much less mindless and brutal than other "plague" victims, although she still experiences strong urges to eat healthy people.
Interspersed throughout the story, little snippets show us things like newspaper headlines, radio talk-show transcripts, official government announcements, and instant-message texts, all related to the spread of bizarre violence, killings, and cannibalism. As Bannerman Clark tries to approach the problem from the plague-epidemic angle, Nilla starts getting visions of a man (or is he a spirit or demon?), named Mael Mag Och, who tries to convince Nilla that she and him are there on some ancient quest to cleanse the Earth of Mankind's desecrations, and lead the Undead into ruling a newer, simpler, purified world. The interspersed comments, mentioned above, eventually tell the read what really caused this world-engulfing plague of violence, cannibalism, and walking dead, and all the main characters (who survive), converge on that source, albeit with differing motives.
Will Clark solve the riddle of the "plague"? What the heck is going on up on that mountain in Colorado? Will Nilla ever remember who she is? Will Mael Mag Och persuade Nilla to betray humanity and champion the Undead?
COMMENTARY: This story starts off with lots of grisly carnage, and it seldom lets up from the onslaught of grotesque butchery. This could have ended up as a cheap knock-off of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and other slasher-zombie shock movies, but it didn't. What kept it from that fate? Character depth!
The four main characters (two focal ones and two big ancillary ones) are Bannerman Clark, Nilla, Mael Mag Och, and a man named "Dick" who is an early convert to the status of the Undead.
Bannerman Clark is a hard-working, honest, logical somewhat driven guy, who is absolutely convinced, for a very long time, that his beloved Colorado, and eventually the nation, is dealing with a horrific epidemic on a scale beyond imagining. He does everything he can to solve the riddle, but he trouble thinking "outside the box," as in seeing what's happening as something other than a disease issue that needs treatment.
Nilla is an early victim of whatever is going on and, while it has killed her, and she cannot remember her past, she is much more conscious and able to think than the other Undead. She approaches the situations with the angle of trying to figure out what happened to her, trying to figure out who she is, and trying to find a purpose in her new "life".
Mael Mag Och is obsessed with the notion that the "plague" is a world-cleansing form of retribution, caused by the "Father of the Clans" (Mael is Scottish), and that he and Nilla are destined to create a new world order of peace and harmony, free from Humankind and ruled by the Undead. He does not seem, though, to quite notice how most of the Undead are not interested in anything like that, and are interested only in finding, ripping apart, and eating anyone and anything that remains alive.
Dick has a big role early in the story, but his role fizzles out. While he has the spotlight, though, we find out how most of the Undead (not Nilla or Mael) think and why they do what they do. He gives us the "insider's view" of being a zombie, which helps elevate this story beyond just an excuse for describing grisly mayhem and morbid grotesqueries.
The story moves rapidly, the characters are fascinating, the action abounds, and the whole thing is just plain interesting and, in a grisly way, fun.
The story does have three flaws, in my view. A minor one is that the butchery, mayhem, and gore seem unnecessarily and somewhat gratuitously overly-detailed, especially early on. I know this is a zombie story, and those elements are prerequisites, but I think they might have been a tad over-done.
Flaw number two is the Mael Mag Och character. When all is said and done, I'm not sure I know what purpose he served in the story. He does act as a vehicle to tempt Nilla into accepting her status as the most functional of the Undead, and therefore accepting the mantle of leadership for a world dominated by the Undead, but I think that all of that would have occurred to Nilla anyway. Mael does provide a potential answer to the question of "What the heck is going on here?" However, that question was there anyway, and his answer acts only as a
****MILD SPOILER ALERT****
red herring or blind alley. Once the real answer is known, Mael seems superfluous.
**** END MILD SPOILER ALERT****
The author could have tied together the different meanings of what's going on, but he did not, at least not here.
And that brings me to flaw number three: the ending. I'm not sure it's even a flaw, as what I think it is, is a set-up for the next book. The ending of "Monster Nation" is somewhat abrupt, inconclusive, and leaves you saying, "And then what?" "Monster Nation" is the second book in the series, following "Monster Island," which I have not read. From what others tell me, the story in "Monster Nation" actually precedes the story in "Monster Island," and maybe I should read that, and see where this all goes.
CONCLUSION: "Monster Nation" is a well-written, albeit gory novel, with fascinating characters, a strange and interesting premise, and a few flaws, that do not detract too much from the enjoyment of the reading experience. If you can stomach a grisly zombie story, as long as it contains a good story, here is where to find just that.
Book Review: Zombie Part Good - Military / Character Background Bad
Summary: 3 Stars
The overall story is interesting, and the action is great, but the author's knowledge of the military is horrible. So poor that it begs the question about his research ability and his desire to write the best possible story.
In the preface the author thanks an individual for helping him with military issues. I don't want to name this "helper", but he should be fired if he is responsible for verifying Wellington's knowledge of military issues and activities.
Virtually every item about the military is incorrect or based on very outdated procedures.
Some examples:
- Clark frequently refers to CSM Horrocks, the "Platoon Sergeant", as "Chief". Command Sergeants Major are not platoon sergeants and are definitely not called "Chief" - which is a Warrant Officer.
- there is no way - even in the National Guard - that an officer of Clark's age would still be a Captain, and there is no way that a Captain would have his job. Mandatory retirement and / or up-or-out policies would have put Clark out a long time ago. His position within the Colorado Nataional Guard would have been filled by a Colonel, or a Lieutenant Colonel at a minimum.
- Clark wears a "peaked" cap. We don't wear peaked caps in the Army anymore, except in our formal dress uniforms - which Clark certianly would not be wearing. I think that he would have switched to BDUs very quickly from the Class B uniform he appears to have been wearing at the beginning of the story.
- the whole sequence of the platoon giving him a boonie hat as some sort of sign of respect is silly. The tradition that the author refers to for this segment is unknown by anyone I've asked in the last couple of days.
- Clark addresses the co-pilot of a Blackhawk as "Specialist", which is an enlisted rank. Warrant and Commissioned Officers are aviators in the Army.
- the author's understanding of the internal layout of a Blackhawk is confusing at best, idiotic at worst. It appears there was no reseach at all about helicopters and what would have been best for the story. I would have used a Chinook instead.
- the author's description of the internal layout of a HEMMT is also wrong.
- I never did understand how a Major from the Regular Army (Clark's Indian friend) becomes subordinate to a Captain in the National Guard. On top of that, if the two of them had come into service at the same time, how hte Major was still a Major on active duty. He also was long past mandatory retirement and time-in-service maximums.
- the military doctor from USAMRIID is a First Lieutenant???? Someone with her advanced degrees and training would have come into service as a Captain at a minimum.
- throughout the story Lieutenants are addressed as "First Lieutenant" or "Second Lieutenant". Lieutenants are addressed as just "Lieutenant". Militayr doctors are adressed by either their rank or "Doctor", not "Doctor First Lieutenant..." as in the story.
- in 18 years of active duty service, I have seen only on Sikh who was allowed to wear his turban and beard - and he was a Reservist with language skills. I just can not believe that there would be a Sikh in USAMRIID.
The errors go on and on. In virtually every story segment that involves Clark, there are numerous errors in service life and military activity.
I know that some of this may appear to be nitpicking and unimportant to the overall story, but Clark is one of the major characters and his actions drive much of the story. It shows respect to both the story itself as well as the reader to ensure that background information and character development are as correct as an author can make it. The errors in military information could easily be corrected without detracting from the story itself. All I see is an author who was lazy in his story research.
I volunteer to help the author in his next story about anything military-related, and I ask for no renumeration.
Book Review: You won't like it when they're hungry!
Summary: 4 Stars
Monster Nation is the second book by David Wellington in a trilogy that started with Monster Island. In the second book, we are taken back to the events and source that cause the zombie outbreak prior to the story told in Monster Island.
Monster Nation starts out with an introduction to a small but varied cast of people in a variety of locales. Two main characters to bring up here are a woman who will later go by "Nilla" and Captain Bannerman Clark of the Colorado National Guard. Nilla is just a pedestrian starting out in the book, but soon her life is changed forever and we end up seeing various locales, feelings, emotions, and actions through her character till the end. Wellington also put a great deal of depth into Bannerman Clark, whose relentless quest for the truth and constant and vigorous challenging of the bureaucratic process during the outbreak made him not only believable, but extremely real.
In Monster Nation, the United States is undergoing a major change. People are dying, only to spring back to life. They hunger. They haunt. They never stop coming. The survivors in places like Los Angeles, Denver, and other locales are quickly left to fend for themselves as government analysis of the situation, coupled with its delayed reactive, then aggressive proactive stance, leads to dismal failure. Bannerman Clark along with a multitude of soldiers tries desperately to save Denver Colorado and its survivors, while Nilla travels with some teenage runaways across the desert, which soon discovers she is not like them. At the SUPERMAX prison in Florence Colorado (infamous for holding the likes of Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, and Richard Reid among others) a scientist desperately tries to understand what she can from a dead/undead human while what is left of the prison remains locked down in various areas for the dead to feast on. Time is running out for all survivors involved, and back in the Rockies there is a greater threat that could end up being the source of the carnage.
Wellington's second book does a great job of continuing the storyline from his "Monster Island" and not only ties up a few loose ends but further details the supernatural source of the outbreak. We learn more about the ancient apparition of sorts who goes by "Mael Mag Och". We know some of his past but now we learn more about his true being, what his ultimate purpose is, and where his fate may be decided. Occasionally the author lets his own personal opinions of current political situations seep through into his characters (comments on mad cow disease and gun ownership were a tad off), but he keeps it balanced enough to make sense.
The character driven action never lets up and no matter what the scenario, whether it be a maximum security prison or Pacific Northwest's terrain, he puts a lot of research into his writing that makes it true, talented and of course, FUN. One touch I really enjoyed was the incorporation of various newspaper headlines, radio transmissions, blogs, forums, chat rooms, telephone calls, lab notes, and emails that are dropped in now and again throughout the story. The approach is superb because even though we are aware that this is an atrocity that is happening all over the globe, Wellington brings it home by showing modern technology in communication coupled with growing fear of something that has gone terribly wrong.
I could not put down the first one, and Monster Nation was just as dark, gritty, and fun. Wellington's ability to mesh pulp science with serious characters and storyline equals a wonderful EOW (End of World) series!
Book Review: Growing assurance in writing
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this one better than I liked the first one, as the writer gains confidence and skill in his storytelling. Here, he mixes it up by giving truly unexpected twists and turns to the story, by making some of the humans unsympathetic and some of the zombies almost human. Some of the flaws remain; you get the feeling that some of the plot twists are undertaken for shock and novelty value rather than for the internal integrity of the story, but given the fact that there's a lot of, well, crappy zombie novels out there, this is complaining about riches. All in all, a definite improvement on the first, wihch was quite good on its own, and a fresh take on an old subject. Book Review: A Nation on the brink...
Summary: 3 Stars
The 2nd book in David Wellington's zombie trilogy, (which actually should be the 1st), isn't nearly as great as Monster Island was.
Monster Nation actually takes the reader back to the zombie outbreak, showing readers how this all started. Unfortunately, even though David Wellington is a gifted writer, this didn't capture me and keep me as rivited as his 1st entry. It is still good, but just seemed more ponderous to me. Monster Island starts out with a gripping event, and just never let up in solid horror action/adventure. Nation just didn't seem to have the same qualities.
I still look forward to the last book in this trilogy - Monster Planet - and hope for overall better storyline and characters that Wellington gave us in his debut novel.
Good luck David Wellington. See you in my next review of Monster Planet.