Customer Reviews

After Twilight: Walking with the Dead

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In addition to Leon and Courtney surviving the Black Beret massacre in Twilight of the Dead, we find out that Vaughn survived as well. Unlike the other two, he doesn't have any lucky breaks (ex: they drive back to Eastpointe in a humvee, Vaughn has to trek back on foot - severely injured). Since he's walking, thousands of zombies followed him back. Then Vaughn loses his mind, wreaks havoc upon the other citizens of Eastpointe, and it's revealed that a group, known as the Odd Fellows, have been manipulating everyone for the past five years.

I loved the first book, but I think this sequel is a thousand times better. I was thrilled to find out there will be a third installment: The Exodus. I will be waiting for it on the edge of my seat, speculating what will happen to the survivors of Eastpointe. (I couldn't help but wonder if the Odd Fellows got the idea for the greyhound buses from the Dawn of the Dead remake.)

Another good book from Permuted Press is The Rage Plague.

Travis Adkins continues the saga of the Black Berets that inhabit Eastpointe, one of the last human outposts in America after the undead apocalypse of five years previous. The story carries forward from where it left off, with Courtney and Leon stuck on top of a building in a town nearby after dealing with Dr. Aaron Dane, who had created a group of uber zombies encased in armor. With most of their fellow Black Berets dead back on the cruise ship that Dr. Dane had been floating around on and creating his army of super zombies, they need to return to Eastpointe. They do not realize that another one of the Berets, Vaughn Winters, the most instable of the lot, has also survived, and has returned to Eastpointe, dragging an entire city of the dead behind him as he escapes.
The plot here is pretty straight forward: we discover that Vaughn has been working for the Odd Fellows, the group of old men in Eastpointe who run things behind the scenes. They have worked hard to insure that no one knows of the other human settlements still out there, believing that the populous will be more manageable if they believe they are the last living souls on the planet. Vaughn, who was unstable to begin with, becomes unhinged after facing off against Dr. Dane and his metal misfits and when he returns to Eastpointe and deals with the obsessive Odd Fellows, who crave control over the cure Dr. Dane claims he had in his possession on the ship, quickly unravels and decides that Eastpointe and everyone who has lived in relative comfort for five years needs to suffer and die. With thousands of zombies now scratching at the walls, he has the tools he needs to cause their distruction.

Travis Adkins has produced a solid follow up to his first book, Twilight of the Dead. The writing style is even and he does a good job of describing the gore and violence that we zombie fans crave. While this story does not really spend much time with our main character of the first book, Courtney, it does develop a good deal more depth with the characters Leon and Tyrell, both introduced but not detailed extensively in the first book. The pace of the action is quick here, with the story covering a little over a day. We are given a few flashbacks to provide us with a background on Vaughn, the disgruntled and disturbed Black Beret who wants to see the whole world burn and eaten.

Overall, the story is entertaining but our villain lacks quite a bit in my humble estimation. It is only my opinion and perhaps others will feel differently but I felt that Vaughn was not too impressive as the bad guy. His efforts at smug superiority to everyone around him comes off as trite and insignificant. He is a wanna be metal head who was on track to becoming the next big thing in music when the apocalypse hit. He lost his sister, who he has, shall we say, a very personal relationship with, and has felt like he has been walking with the dead ever since. When he fails to outwit or outsmart someone he instead tries to menace and threaten them but he comes off as just a self absorbed goth with a chip on his shoulder.
Somehow, he is the one Black Beret who the Odd Fellows, the secretive leaders of Eastpointe, choose to be their primary connection amongst those that go out and procure needed supplies. So when they go out on procurement runs, he secretely collects things for them and more importantly, keeps other things hidden that they do not want the community to find. It just struck me as odd that he would be the choice of such a group of old men-the "devil worshipping" rocker with the vampiric complextion and long black hair with the worst attitude of anyone in Eastpointe. To me it felt like a stretch that they would trust someone like that with anything, let alone all their closely held secrets.

But enough of my criticism of Vaughn. While I did not buy into the menace and smug superiority of this bad guy, I could appreciate the development of the rest of the characters here. Vaughn's descent into darkness moves the plot along, carrying things forward and getting us to the meat of the story, with the undead once again clashing with the living as more and more of the human race is diminished and devoured.

I do enjoy the writing style that Travis Adkins has and though I might feel that his villains in both his previous book (Dr. Dane) and in this novel lacked something, I think he has done a solid job with these two novels. If you enjoy zombie fiction then this is certainly one to take a look at, along with its predecessor. I look forward to the third installment, Exodus, when it comes out next. Courtney, Leon, and Tyrell are characters I have grown interested in and I am curious where their journey will take them next.

it wasnt as good as the first book, it took a little while for me to figure out what was going on and such. but when it got going it got going good it was a decent sequel, once it got going some holes were filled that were left empty from the original i look forward to reading the 3rd book..james...

Travis Adkins adds to his mesmorizing account of the zompocalypse with "After Twilight: Walking with the Dead". Have the survivors become too complacient in feeling safe? You bet yer undead butt they have ... And BOY HOWDY are they going to pay for it.

Adkins has his chops down in his descriptive abilities and story flows as does the carnage this book portrays. This is just an excellent addition to the "Twilight" series of zombie goodness.

Buy your copy today!!

Doc

Great book. There is and end to this but in the very back he says Twilight of the dead Exodus coming soon and its been years. I really enjoyed this book and i hope Travis comes out with a Third installment soon.

I will keep it simple I read this first, did not know there was one before it. Love the book, loved how the characters where explained I cant wait to read the first one..Anyone know when the next one comes out?

This is a good follow-up the Twilight of the Dead. The lead characters, Leon and Courtney are further developed as well as a few others, but the unfortunate flip-side to that coin is Vaughn. He takes a more pivotal role in this book and the more we learn about him, the darker he turns out to be. He survived the battle with Dr. Dane in the first book, but I am unclear if Dane turned him into a "smart zombie" (rolls eyes), or if he was just given something to heal him.

Overall the book is a good read and a nice follow-up to the first book. I hope there's a 3rd book soon!

The book started off pretty good with a few zombie killing scenes but it got boring pretty damn fast. It started off with little things like writing every detail of a small and meaningless act like opening a window or dialing a phone, then it turned into page after page of a characters whole life story. Most of which had absolutly nothing to do with the plot.

I wanted a book that was all about zombies and spec ops guys with lots of blood and guts but what I got was a lot of pointless backstory.

In the sequel to Twilight of the Dead, the survivors of the zombie apocalypse are still residing in the fortified town of Eastpointe. Members of the Black Beret that left Eastpointe on a scouting mission are fighting for their lives. Courtney and Leon are trapped on top of a steaming roof. They believe that all of the other Berets have died on the cruise ship Dr. Dane was using to create his super army of zombies. Dane purportedly also has a cure for the diseased undead. Unbeknownst to them, Vaughn Winters, the most mentally unstable of the Black Berets, escapes from Dane's medical lab. While Courtney and Leon are able to commandeer a vehicle and return to Eastpointe relatively unscathed, Vaughn must travel by foot. Following him are thousands of zombies, thirsting for human flesh. We learn that Vaughn has been working with the Odd Fellows, an elite group of Eastpointe residents desperate for the cure in Dane's possession. Upon his return to Eastpointe, Vaughn loses what semblance of sanity he had and decides to take the fate of the Eastpointe survivors in his own hands. Adkins does an amazing job in this sequel. It has the action and gore that every zombie fan desires. His writing is addictive, it makes you want press pause on the rest of the world until you finish reading it!

I enjoyed the first book in this series and this one was a pleasant read too. It didn't blow me away but I certainly felt I got my money's worth and in the end isn't that what we all hope for when we get a book.
I look forward to more from this writer.