Customer Reviews

The Fray

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Kirkus Discoveries:

Rival demigods squabble over a postapocalyptic future in this bombastic fantasy thriller.

Thanks to a plague that turns its victims into cannibalistic, semi-verbal zombies called Destrachan, the
world of 200 years hence is a wasteland, with normal humans holed up in fortresses with their antique weapons
fretfully awaiting the next Destrachan attack. Among them is a young girl named Sera, a preternaturally fierce
hunter who, with her trusty 28-inch knife, kills cougars and zombies with equal aplomb. Observing her from
afar is Jack, a 2,000-year-old man who was the original carrier of the Destrachan disease and controls the
zombie armies. Jack is convinced that his and Sera's destinies are cosmically intertwined. Thanks to his unusual
brand of mentoring--he starts by engineering the destruction of her hometown, which really riles her up--Sera, accompanied by a cute sidekick named Gabriel, quickly discovers her superhuman powers, including an ability to slow, stop and reverse time, levitate enemies and go into magical killing frenzies in which she slaughters hundreds of Destrachan in the blink of an eye.

His tutelage also includes a number of confrontations which end in knife fights but begin with long winded philosophical ruminations. These talk fests proceed from Jack's sophomoric existentialism--"We are specks on this relatively insignificant and remote island of life in a desolate wasteland of nothingness"--through Sera's portentous trash talk-- "I have come to break your stranglehold on fate and release the earth from your death grip"--and fizzle out in inconclusive discussions of yin- yang symbioses. Whether Jack and Sera's relationship is fated to redeem or annihilate a sinful humanity never becomes clear, and it doesn't really matter, since there are always plenty of Destrachan around for the next round of carnage.

A sluggish confection of gassy rumination and video-game gore.

The Fray by Phillip Bradbury
-- By Shaun Clarke on May 23, 2009 at 9:50 pm

The Fray by Phillip Bradbury

Book Summary:

The story is set 2 Centuries in the future, where the world has become a desolate and unforgiving hell of unimaginable horrors. The human population has been decimated by a virus that turns its victims into marauding cannibals. The few survivors that remain exist in only a handful of barricaded settlements that are scattered across the horrific wasteland.

The story follows Sera and Gabriel as they set out on a quest to fulfil a prophecy that could save the future of mankind. But there's one big problem they must journey through hordes of deranged zombies; the victims of the Destrachan virus if they will have any hope of fulfilling it.

Review:

I have to say when I started reading this book it had a sense of familiarity to it, I couldn't quite place it at first and it wasn't until I got further into it that I realised, it wasn't similar to any one book but to many! And that statement is in no way meant to question the author's abilities, in fact quite the opposite. He seems to have breathed new life into the familiar, if that makes sense. Reading this book is almost like putting on a pair of your old favourite shoes, only now they seem to fit much better than you remember. I have to give kudos to the author for his ability to turn clichéd themes on their head and make them enthralling.

Conclusion:

I highly recommend The Fray the characters are believable and endearing, the topography is outstandingly realistic, as is the realism of the actions of the besieged settlements.

While bringing forth new and very original ideas pertaining to storyline, this book also puts into play magnificent twists that keep your interest piqued till the finale. I found this book conveys more story, character development and intrigue in it's pages than the majority (sadly) of books I have personally read.

A strong commendation from my end to whomever spends the time to read the comments, this book is something you haven't read.

This book is very competently written, and provokes some thoughtful imagery. It plays on overused themes, and makes them original, sometimes in interesting ways, and brings to mind some of the great authors of our day. I would buy this book again if I didn't already own a copy. I hope to see more from this writer, in the future