Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good roadtrip tale, but with zombies, July 21, 2006
Down the Road by Bowie Ibarra continues the growing renaissance of the zombie tale. While not a great novel, Ibarra's first foray into novel lenght (though I would categorize this tale more as an extended novella than a full-blown novel) storytelling hits more than it misses.
Ibarra uses the the so-called "Romero Rules" in regards to the topic of the flesh-eating zombies in Down the Road. There are none of the Olympic-level sprinters of the recent trend in modern zombie films (Dawn of the Dead remake) and Ibarra's zombies remain slow, shambling creatures with the barest of motor functions and instinct (unlike the demon-possessed undead of Brian Keene's great, albeit nihilisitic The Rising and City of the Dead). The story is seen through the point of view of the main character, George Zaragoza, a high school teacher in an Austin school. The story starts off in quick form with George quickly going through preparing to leave the city to head for his boyhood home. There's not of the so-called "origin" chapters that usually used to explain how the crisis first began and where. Instead the reader gradually learns from George's interaction with people he meets during his roadtrip home about what exactly has been happening the past couple of weeks.
To say that George's travels once he leaves Austin was eventful would be an understatement. He doesn't just have to deal with the growing numbers of undead roaming the roads, by-ways and towns in his path, but also the danger of looters and criminals. Ibarra gives FEMA and Homeland Security top-billing as the living danger to bookend the growing undead. I may not agree with all his characterization of those two government agencies, but he does describe vividly just how quickly such organizations can go from protecting its citizens to posing a bigger danger in the end.
But his travels was not just about one dangerous crisis after the other. George meets up with other survivors who show and make him feel alive and give him some hope that not everyone has devolved to their most basest instinct. It's in some of these encounters that Ibarra has injected abit more sex in a zombie tale that other authors have not ventured deeply into. Who said a zombie tale meant character's libido has to be suppressed or be non-existent. How Ibarra came about in creating the situations for the sex scenes might seem incredulous at first, but who said such things couldn't occur. I've seen weirder things occur at frat houses.
Overall, Ibarra's first work looks to be a work of love by a fan of all things zombie and who knows exactly what other fans just like him want from their zombie tales. He doesn't overdo in layering his story with layers upon layers of themes and social commentary. While the theme of how far an individual will go to survive in a crisis is there, Ibarra still sticks to keeping the story moving quickly from one end to the other. I actually thought the novel as too short. He had so much ideas introduced in the first couple chapters that I think he could've added another 150 pages and not lose the reader's interest. But I'm assuming that's where the sequel novel comes in.
Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story by Bowie Ibarra is a very good first try by a new writer in keeping the tradition of the zombie tale alive during this second Golden Age for the subgenre. While there's flaws in this first novel, the story itself moved at such a fast pace that I barely noticed the flaws until after I was done and by then I was already hooked by the world he had put on paper. I hope that with all the feedback he's received from fans and fellow writers both, Ibarra's sequel to this novel will be less of a jewel in the rough and more of the polished gem that I feel he has in him to write. I highly recommend this first novel to all fans of the zombie genre. They won't be disappointed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
40 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your time or money!, September 5, 2005
This review is from: Down the Road (Paperback)
Ok, I'll be blunt: this book was simply awful. The storyline was too simplistic, the characters dull and unrealistic, and the ending could have had potential if the author hadn't screwed up the rest of the story.
The author's writing style is sixth-gradish at best (shocking, since he is a high school teacher in Texas.): poor grammar, misuse of punctuation, and misspellings abound. In fact, it seems as though the author could not get it published at a real publisher and opted to hire a second-rate publisher and paid them to print the book. Believe me, it shows.
The story is simply the author's own fantasy of what he would do if the zombie apocolypse arrived. The sex scenes are a prime example (i.e. having sex in the principal's office with another teacher) of this fantasy. The main character, George, is simply the author with a different name. Taking a creative writing workshop would have enabled the author to avoid many of the storyline mistakes he made.
If you want to read a first-rate zombie novel, read Brian Keene's The Rising and City of the Dead. These two books are actually one enormous story that were well-written and quite scary, though the ending (no surpise here) is somewhat depressing (like the remake of Dawn of the Dead).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
You must read past a lot...but a good one none the less, December 7, 2005
This review is from: Down the Road (Paperback)
I was not entirely disappointed with this one, and I've read a lot of negative reviews. Being a fan of zombie fiction and with what limited books are available on the subject, I guess I'm willing to read past a lot of things. It is a limited playing field, but one that creative authors can really expand upon i.e. Vince Churchill, Len Barnhart, Brian Keene, etc. Bowie Ibarra's story takes place immediately after the world is thrown into chaos. One of the biggest complaints I've read was his bias against the U.S. Military and FEMA, and although it is quite evident I want to add to the fact that Bowie's story really adds something that a lot of stories do not address, and that is role of the military in a living dead world. Most people would assume that it would be every person left for themselves and every American institution would immedietely dissolve...and that would be absolutely incorrect. Military institutions would definetely try and take control. Why? Because if the President is still in power then it would be his or her responsibility to do so. Thus, those poor souls who were not consumed by the living dead would surely battle with the establishment as well.
So, I won't totally slam the book...it has another perspective on how people try and survive. I've read better and I've read worse. You just have to read past a lot of things, see its good points, because there surely are some (like the gangs at the stadium, trust me, when marshal law is declared people will be at there worst). I hope Bowie continues to write Zombie fiction and funnels that criticism into better books.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
