Customer Reviews

Reign of the Dead

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This book is utterly sickening, and not in the good way that usually accompanies zombie stories. For example, page 8, paragraph 4, line 1: "Jim's extensive military training and lightening [sic] reflexes served him now as he quickly got his arms between himself and the bloody apparition, pushing him away." If you don't see at least a dozen things wrong with this sentence at first glance, then maybe this book is for you. But be warned: every sentence in the book is like this, and just as dry and uninspired as the characters it describes.

And you want to talk about plot holes? There comes a point early in the book where a woman wants to flee her home, but it is under siege by zombies. And, guess what, she can't take her car. Why? Because the keys (only keys, apparently) are in the pocket of her dead husband, who is now one of the zombies walking around outside. The book tells us that he was bitten and laid in bed, sick and dying, for TWO DAYS. The woman (his wife) was by his side the whole time.

Um... he was in bed for two days, fully clothed (apparently), with the car keys in his pocket the whole time? The author tries to skate around the issue by saying the woman was in a distraught state of mind and some other blah-blah, but he couldn't come up with a better excuse why she can't take the car? Say it was stolen or irrepairably damaged by rioters or something; don't skate the issue because you wrote yourself into a hole.

Let's talk about the cover of "Reign of the Dead." Looks pretty cool, right? A photo of a live zombie model gets the job done. However, on the back cover is the same model, full body shot this time, wearing his pristinely clean street clothes and only his head is painted.

What? Designer too lazy to use PhotoShop? Had an extra photo of the model so they decided to just toss it on the back cover? Puh-lease.

I've read better fan fiction than this. It's just floating out there on the internet, and it's FREE! So why pay hard-earned cash for this garbage? Intelligent people, stay away from this book. It's an insult. I'm sure the author's friends, the ones who write all the glowing reviews for this self-published book, will pick apart this review. But potential buyers beware. I wrote this review so you wouldn't get lured in like I did. I know there aren't many zombie books to pick from if you're a fan of the genre, but stay away from this one.

I admit that I love Zombie fiction. There are some great ones out there. I had high hopes for this story. I really felt this could have been fleshed out (bad pun - sorry) much better. All of the characters seemed to be sketched lightly and I had no real reason to care about any of them. The end of the preacher and his followers was almost an afterthought. All in all, typical end of the human race at the hand of zombies story. Nice addition to the collection but not a great story.

The zombie novel resides within a genre context necessarily tightly bound by convention. There are almost always elements of siege and proto-fascistic aynrandianism among the novel's protagonists, but the absence of such dull factors would indicate the absence of zombies themselves and a possible lull in the action.

Numerous amateur writers on the internet have leaned on this genre structure to create a series of stultifying survivalist tales (though probably vicariously exciting to some). In each such tale, an intelligent, somewhat prepared protagonist steeped in the real-politique of the undead sets off with a band of survivors to try and outlast the zombie storm. Caches of supplies are often found, safe havens are carved out and our protagonists live, die and unlive nobly or ignobly, depending on what sheet of cardboard they are cut from.

Occassionally, professional writers-- and here I am thinking of David J. Moody in particular-- have taken the siege context of the zombie genre and churned it into a harrowing tale of survival as well as high pop-psychological fare. David Moody's "Autumn" series revolves around the segregation and alienation of victims of zombie plague, and how the survivors' notions of love, life and the human condition warp under the strain of the undead's constant attention. But Moody took three novels and a series of novellas and short stories to make his points clear. Most serious authors and screenwriters have of late strayed away from the tried-and-true, Romeroesque, Beau Geste staple of amateur zombie writing and plunged into more varied territory.

Len Barnhart's "Reign of the Dead", however, fits firmly within the amateur canon of zombie siege and survivalism. His characters, including hero Jim Workman (successful, perceptive, white middle class, tough as nails but yet empathetic and sensitive-- Herbert Spencer, anyone?), are all simply drawn and quite limited in their emotional and intellectual outlook on their savagely-alterred world. I was half surprised not to see fuzzy versions of Howard Roark or Dagny Taggart saunter through the protagonists' compound. The zombies are blandly written versions of Romero's undead. The action is meticulously described as to the details of surviving but quite low on gore, suspense or even atmosphere.

Mr. Barnhart is not a bad writer per se (even if the book itself is badly edited, and awfully bound). He has a spare, lean writing style. He keeps to an economical, carefully-considered narrative pace with repeated jolts of excitement to keep it moving. He even shows wicked sense of humor and effectively employs pathos and tragedy where necessary. In addition, his biography indicates a far-reaching interest in and a considerable amount of writing for both the horror and space opera genres. His enthusiasm is unbounded!

But "Reign of the Dead" is not worthy of his burgeoning talents, or any serious, adult reader's time. Frankly, I am surprised this novel even made the cut to be published, let alone earn Barnhart a contract to write a prequel and a sequel.

N.B. Parents who care take note-- for young adult readers, "Reign of the Dead" would be an acceptable horror novel to read-- language, gore/violence and sexuality are all kept to a comfortable level. This would not be as distressing to read as, say, Keene's "The Rising" or Rogers "The Dead" or as bewildering to read as Greatshell's "Xombies".

I don't see what everybody is complaining about (unless you paid over $5 for this book). Yea, yea the writing is about high school level, there's continuity errors and the character development is undercooked, but the zombie action rocked out! And that's what we're all here for ain't it? I especially like the prison part.

If you're new to the zombie fiction genre then read the Brian Keene books first or even Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" novel, but maybe later after you've ran out of better stuff check out "Reign of the Dead".

Also read John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids". Highly recommended.

A BIG disappointment! After following many glowing reviews, I purchased this book. Little did I know that the content reflects something out of a basic writing course. Characters and plot are shallow to an almost absurd degree. Chapters run, in some cases, only one page. The main characters are cardboard cut-outs. There is practically no tension in the story. The sudden, convenient ending (no spoilers here) came abruptly and without any logic.
Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide was a much better representation of the genre.

Good points:

Fast moving plot

Cool genre

Stays loyal to its Romero movie roots

Bad points:

Huge gaping plot holes

Annoying protagonists

Contrived dialogue

Amateurish style and editing

Summary: A wildly uneven yarn of the dead coming back to life, hardy band of survivors fighting for survival, gratuitous gore, yada yada yada. The cover gave my wife the creeps, therefore worth the price of admission.

The reviwed edition had a load of printing (I hope) errors in it that reflected the casualness of the writing, almost as if whoever was doing the editing or typesetting was getting dragged away from their workstation to a grisly death. The principal characters and their relationships are strongly drawn but some of the passages caused me to wince, like the dialog in a Star Wars movie. The writing seemed rushed, as if the author needed to finish it before the undead clawed their way through boarded-up windows. But he had time for unflinching violence and gore, so we are left with a splatterfest for the fifth-grade reader. Odd, almost...eerie. Logic and plot gaps big enough to drive a hearse through left me scratching my head. Read it if you dare, then drive a wooden stake through its mealy heart.

As far as zombie fiction goes, this story gets a solid "ehhhh." It's a connect-the-dots tale that all but files the serial numbers off of George A. Romero's zombie works. The few interesting ideas that crop up (a mention of an intelligent zombie, for one) are then tossed away and ignored completely. Characterization can only be called lacking, as well.

One bit of advice for Mr. Barnhart...hire an editor, posthaste. Basic grammar goes out the window with the persistent run-on sentences, fragments, and gross misspellings. Phrases like "he shuttered in fear" (instead of "shuddered") and "he was weary of the plan" (instead of "wary") make reading the book a chore.

All in all, it reads like a first novel, and I hope Mr. Barnhart learns from the experience and improves his craft. (All my criticisms aside, I've already purchased the sequel. What can I say? I'm a sucker for zombie stories.)

Yep, this book coulda been great. The concept is ripped right out of the NotLD movies. You remember, the dead rise for mysterious reasons, they eat the living, people struggle to survive, etc, etc. That's about how this tale goes too, all motions no depth. I really got the impression that this was planned on being a 2 parter, or maybe even a trilogy, considering that the ending was rather abrupt and without much resolve. I won't say what happens to the undead, or the humans for that matter, but it is pretty predictable once things get going. I'm sure that this could have been better. I'm actually giving a star higher than I normally would since this was his first novel, and I try to support anything that has to do with zombies. This is a good primer for a nice halloween zombie-fest, but little else. I usually read a book in under 4 to 5 hours if it's good, and I read this one on and off over a two week period. Sorry, I hope he gets better.

So, the zombies, ummm, just disappeared, but not all of them? And they only attack some people? Oh, and people are so hungry that they consider eating the zombies when, meanwhile, there are plenty of animals in the forest and fish in the river? If there are worries that the fish are contaminated, then why eat the zombies? Is this supposed to be ironic? Wait, if the living eat dead things and then the dead cannibals eat the living, then would the living eating the dead cannibals be double irony? Is there such a thing? Maybe it's not irony. Hmm, in this case, does the book advocate zombiephagy? I don't think I understand this.