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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zombie fiction as good as it gets. A must read for the zombie lover in you!, December 4, 2010
As one of my favorite sub-genres in the horror category, I devour zombie fiction. I go through about two books each week and more when I can find the time. Some zombie fiction is down right good, most are mediocre and still others--too many--are just down right awful. Mad Swine: The Beginning happens to be one of the good ones; in fact, I'd say it is better than most in many ways and similar to some of my favorites.
Although Mad Swine does not add anything new to the genre, it takes a more character-driven focus, putting the zombies and the infection in the background. Because of this, the author was able to focus more on several of the main characters and provide some real depth and insight into their nature. It is obvious that Mad Swine: The Beginning is the first of what will be at least a two-book story. The plot is built, the characters formed and the action moves forward in the space of just a little more than a week and leads to what I would call a cliff-hanger ending.
There are parts of the novel that were very realistic and hit home with my emotions. The chapter about his children tore at my heart.
To be fair, I have to say I am surprised by some of the negative remarks people posted about this book. First of all, this is zombie fiction and if a little blood and gore scares you, you're reading the wrong books. That said, Mad Swine has the least amount of gore that I've read in any zombie fiction. I'm not sure if the author of that posting even read this book.
The other remarks to the realism of this novel--well, they are just plain ridiculous. As zombie novels go, I actually found Mad Swine to be a bit more realistic than others. One of those reviewers who bashed the book mentioned to read Day By Day Armageddon if we were interested in good zombie fiction. I have read the book. It was good. But realistic? That's a joke. In Day by Day Armageddon the main character lived in a fortress-like home with a generator, guns and food stores. How is that any different from the negative comments you've given to Mad Swine. Not to mention Day By Day Armageddon was full of grammatical errors and cheesy writing.
For those of you who are serious about the genre and understand that zombie fiction is fantasy, meant to provide us with entertainment, do yourself a favor and give this book a try. I rate this book on par with two of my favorites: Plague of the Dead by the late, great Z.A. Recht and DBDA by J.L. Bourne.
I, for one, am anxiously awaiting the sequel.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book!, September 14, 2010
This review is from: MAD SWINE | the beginning (Paperback)
I had the pleasure of reading this from the beginning when Steve posted it online a chapter at a time. It's one of those books that as soon as you've finished reading the newest chapter, we were screaming for more. As a zombie lover I thought I might be a bit biased, but my wife has read it and she got hooked too. The first couple of chapters are really gut wrenching, and you feel like you're right there with Steve and his SKS. The frantic feeling of getting to his wife and kids really translates and hits home. While you're at it, pick up his other stuff too. Project Hindsight is also very good, except for a noticeable lack of ZOMBIES! Great reading. If you're a zombie nut, don't hesitate to pull the trigger.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It drove me MAD, December 31, 2010
I enjoyed this book immensely. It was the first story that I actually bought and finished on my kindle in less than a week (two nights to be exact) and it was a very good read. However, there were flaws that prevented me from giving it the full five stars. By no means am I sorry that I purchased the book nor were the problems significant enough for me to put it down, but I figured that I would share what I noticed anyway.
1. The author likes football (actually, sports, period). That much is obvious since he used football descriptions (i.e. man was tackled and taken down like a linebacker) about three or four different times in the span of two chapters. Not a big deal, but I can just tell he likes sports.
2. The guns; zombies can be killed by MANY different ways (and some are just as effective), but the author used guns, guns, guns. And a lot of guns. The types of guns that were described, some of them are not even legal (i.e. AKs), yet they somehow found a way into the story, among a community of upper middle class 'suburbanites' since our narrator (Matt) was able to get his hands on a couple. There is no doubt in my mind that if the world was not coming to an end, these gentlemen would be arrested. There were conveniently a lot of 'police' and 'army-trained' men in the community. I would have liked to have seen more ways to kill a zombie rather than just blow its head off. Actually, they are not zombies, but 'crazies' instead. I stand corrected.
3. Author used too many gender specific pronouns and objective forms (ex. such as he and him, respectively, without taking a 'break' in between sentences). For example, he would start a sentence with 'he,' end a sentence him, and put both in the middle all in the same sentence when talking about a character or making a character description/action. It made a lot of sentences redundant and unnecessary. This last point probably won't make a difference to you and I am not an English teacher, but it was something that I thought I would mention.
Those three points being said, I would still recommend this book and I look forward to the sequel Mad Swine: Dead Winter for my Kindle.
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