Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) [Paperback]

J. L. Bourne (Author), Travis Adkins (Editor), Z. A. Recht (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007

START INTERCEPT_ Sporadic news reports indicate chaos and violence spreading through U.S. cities. An unknown evil is sweeping the planet. The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain. INTERCEPT COMPLETE_ Survivor, In your hands is the handwritten journal depicting one man's struggle for survival. Trapped in the midst of global disaster, he must make decisions; choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them. Enter if you will into his world. -The world of the undead.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is zombie fiction and then there is crawl-out-of-the-grave-and-drag-you-to-hell zombie fiction.  Day by Day Armageddon is hands down the best zombie book I have ever read."
--Brad Thor, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Author

The Day by Day Armageddon project started on a simple pad of paper and from there propagated the universe of worldwide undead devastation.  J.L. Bourne intended the original work to appear as if it were hand written--very raw and realistic.  He began uploading his work piece by piece to the Internet as a serial depicted as a simple serial of journal entries.

The online journal was intended to immerse the reader into the world that was Day by Day Armageddon--J.L. Bourne's vision of one man, on the run from billions of undead, surviving against all odds.

After months of posting regular serial updates, Bourne began the laborious task of writing the novel version of the underground online cult phenomenon.  Suspecting that a traditional publisher might alter his work and take away the raw feel of the journal outlining the fall of humanity, Bourne originally published his work non-traditionally and unconventionally.  He wanted the story out there for everyone to enjoy.  He wanted it untouched, as a real post-apocalyptic journal might be. He was quoted as saying, "there are no publishers or editors in the apocalypse."

Several publishers contacted Bourne before he was approached by Permuted Press.  The two quickly came to an agreement and went to work.  The first edition was re-mastered to the underground cult classic it is today.

Handwritten notes, underlines, scribbles, random thoughts and other unique markings gave the journal a chillingly realistic (or was it surrealistic?) feel.

Day by Day Armageddon has since propagated massive interest among fans of post-apocalyptic and zombie fiction.

As a result if his cult success, J.L. Bourne was approached by Simon & Schuster on the prospect of joining up with their Pocket/Gallery Books divisions to release Day by Day Armageddon to the mainstream.  It was not long until Day by Day Armageddon was headed to the printing press on a 50,000 copy first print run.

Since that time it has seen many, many printings.

The sequel to the original cult classic aptly named, Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile is the wildly successful follow-up to Bourne's first novel.  Go ahead, click the Buy Now button, but first, lock your doors. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Permuted Press; 2 edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978970772
• ISBN-13: 978-0978970772
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (463 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J.L. Bourne is an active duty military officer and currently resides in the Washington D.C. area. He has completed numerous tours of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, logging more than sixty combat missions over Iraq, earning three Air Medal Strike/Flight awards. Despite the ongoing war efforts, he somehow finds the time to put pen to paper in order to bring to you the fall of humanity in the Day by Day Armageddon universe.

www.JLBourne.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Zombie book fans - it's OK to be critical..., November 16, 2011

By 

Mark Twain - See all my reviews

This review is from: Day by Day Armageddon (Paperback)

After having recently finished WORLD WAR Z (and loved it) I wanted to continue in the zombie genre with another favored book among fans. I came across this one after reading the glowing reviews...

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed - both in the book itself and the number of fans whom seemingly refuse to be critical of a zombie book.

I will say that there is some exciting moments in the book (especially the end, although it was quite abrupt). However, the ability of the reader to become deeply involved in the story and visualize this world and the characters in it is severely limited as a result of the author's rudimentary command of the English language. There is practically no descriptive sense in this book. For example, zombies are described as being "smelly" and "hellish-looking" - never did the author bother to go in more detail and way too often are zombie-killing scenes described by a simple one-liner joke. I desperately wanted more depiction and it just simply wasn't there. Where the author focused his attention, though, was on technical babble and military mumbo-jumbo which I found to be really tedious to get through. This is portrayed as a zombie book, but it seemed more a part of the military genre. Funny that WORLD WAR Z had a lot of technical babble in it as well. However in that book it all seemed necessary and did not take away from the author's ability to capture the descriptive undertones of a zombie-ridden world.

Characters are also incredibly one-dimensional and simply not interesting. Beside the main character, I had to keep reminding myself who was who because beside their names nothing else was significantly different or important about any of them.

I still give this book 3 stars because beside its glaring faults it was still an OK book. Honestly though, I gave it 3 stars mainly because I've read far worse. I bought this book as a compilation which included both the first and second book. After having gone through the first, I think I'm retiring it to the book shelf as I don't have a lot of interest in reading the second...

If you want to read a good zombie book look elsewhere, as this one simply falls flat.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the very best books in zombie lore... A must read, January 27, 2009

By 

Marc Wiggins (Orange, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) (Paperback)

This is a great book as the vast majority of reviews for this book state. My review here says the same thing but I just wanted to add in my two cents worth among these great reviews.

I've read this book twice in the last three years. Only a few books can be placed at the pinnacle of it's genre. This is one of them. This is one of the must read books in post-apocalyptic fiction. All due respect to Brian Keene whose a very talented author, but I've read many references to how he had resurrected this genre for the book world. I have to disagree... J. L. Bourne is more deserving of that credit. Keen's books were great and well written but they are more like cousins to the classic zombie genre.

J. L. Bourne's Day By Day is unique in its mode of story telling and faithful to the classic Romero universe which is what I prefer to anything else. I appreciate all the variations and forms of zombie stories that have cropped up in recent years but there's nothing like the standard set by Romero. Day By Day came out more than a few years ago when there weren't many books to choose from. Since then, there are scores of good books out there. And I bet most of these new writers were inspired at least in part by this book.

J. L. Bourne showed us that a "true" zombie book can be written and enjoy success. More than that it was self-published. Since then, many others have followed in his foot steps and the result is a lot of good books to choose from... most of them being as faithful to the Romero universe or having clever refinements while not breaking the original spirit of the rules. I think Bourne is really the one who kicked off this "post-apocalyptic renaissance" we're all now enjoying.

With more than 200 reviews, there's not much I can add to how good this book is. It just is... and I think it will always remain the must-read of this genre.

The journal-type story telling of this book was masterfully done and is so seamless, though I would think it would be hard to pull that off as a believable method since most won't keep journals during an apocalypse. Here, its naturally done and believable. The author is a Naval Officer on active duty. How he brings his experience into the main character of this book is what I think makes this book so unique and believable.

As Dawn of the Dead is a must see for zombie movies, Day By Day is a must read for the book world!

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars number 8 in my top 10!, October 11, 2009

By 

E. Keighron "keighron" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Day by Day Armageddon (Kindle Edition)

I started reading this book on the web. It was a serial that I had stumbled on a few years ago.
After reading the first few chapters I was hooked. Big problem though, it had gone out of print
before I had even found the website. No Joy. I figured I was SOL. Until I found the Kindle store!
And I finally got to finish the story I started so long ago. And yes, it was worth it! One of the best Zombie
fiction in ages. I couldn't stop reading it on line, and when I finally got the book, I didn't sleep until I
finished it ( literally up all night ) I had to hook my iPhone to the charger cable so I wouldn't run out of
power till I was done.

If you like Zombie fiction, this might be up your alley. ( a dark alley, with noises like shuffling feet off near the
darkest part, and a cat jumping past you and bashing off the top of a garbage can.. )

Enjoy.