Customer Reviews

Thunder and Ashes

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thunder and Ashes starts out where the first book left off in this trilogy. We have the split story, one of General Sherman and his team of army men and civilians making their way from the west coast towards Omaha, hoping to meet up with Anna Demilio and her much smaller group coming in from the east coast. They are racing towards a facility where they hope to hatch a vacine for the Morningstar virus, the plague that has swept over the world creating two forms of plague victims, one still alive, fast, and brutally violent, and one undead, slower, but just as dangerous and canibalistic.

I could have given this story a full five stars, it does rate that based on the action in the story. General Sherman's march was far more interesting to me, especially his pit stop in a little town in Kansas, than the more brief excerpts from Anna and Mason's more silent trek, but their stories tie together nicely, with plague victims, raiders, and rogue government agents all nipping at their heels. The story is cohesive and written with a certain amount of zip to it.

I am no military expert so I have no reason or desire to punch holes in the author's use of various terms and equipment. Again, the story and its use of military armaments are smooth and seamless. We are provided with an action packed zombie thriller as two sets of people are racing against the clock, not even sure what they are racing towards will mean anything in the end, but they are determined to do whatever it takes to get there and try to spare humanity any more agony from this brutal virus, if at all possible.

Where I would be critical of this book is in more or less minor details that unveil themselves towards the end of the story and I hesitate to spell them out because I have no interest in revealing plot points. Suffice it to say that there were two key things that happen that I did not feel were specifically needed to advance the story. One scene simply felt redundant, an echo of a scene from the first book in the trilogy having to do with one on one combat...almost laying the groundwork for a very similar scene in book three. The other issue I have lies within the epilogue and what I would deem an incredibly convenient story element revealed that will play a huge part in the final installment of this trilogy. I suppose I am just not a fan of something that the odds of happening are one in a billion revealing themselves so conveniently. Please understand, these are really minor issues for me and as such do not want them to be considered deterents for anyone interested in picking up this story.

The writing is fast paced, the characters are entertaining, and the story is fun. Perhaps some of the characterizations are a bit exagerated, but when you are dealing with an end of the world type plague, I can certainly understand how some folks would seem a bit over the top. I found myself growing attached to quite a few of the characters and really look forward to finding out what happens in the final chapter of the Morningstar Trilogy. This was a genuinely fun and exhilerating zombie romp.

I really enjoyed this book. While I prefer the classic slow moving zombie, this author has a clever way of having both slow and fast zombies. They're fast while alive & infected and return as shamblers after they die. So you have double the danger as you have to put them down a second time if you didn't get a clean headshot when they were alive.

The characters are enjoyable and towards the end of the book I found myself wishing the book was much longer. This is not a criticism, the mark of a good book is wanting more. You find yourself caring about well drawn characters and would like to hang out with them longer. The science behind the pandemic is very interesting. Post-apocalyptic atmosphere is well done and believable. If I had to nitpick, maybe there would have been more car wrecks and obstacles along the road that one set of characters sped through to get to their destination. But it's a minor point and doesn't detract from the story.

Without giving anything away, one major plot point within the epilogue and the odds that this person is a friend of the other characters seemed a little convenient. However, I guess there would have been many others with the same condition of a certain character. But most of those people would have been killed off because they didn't have the training to survive. Or they're in hiding. So that makes the plot point plausible and takes nothing away from the story.

Fast paced, well written and kept me up late reading for a few nights. Five stars.

Thunder and Ashes is a very solid follow-up to Plague of the Dead. I give it 4 stars with some very nitpicky complaints. First of all, the jet fuel in trucks issue I can't let pass without comment. I will not give away the scene but the author does lead us to believe that trucks can run on jet fuel without problems or consequences. So before you pull up your truck to that learjet for some gas, do some research first! I looked this up, and though technically true, Recht does not explain that in the long run this is not good for a truck engine. In fact if a truck uses jet fuel for too long, it can ruin the engine. I think Recht should have used the fact behind this to sweeten the plot and suspense a bit, as it would have made for a real problem down the road for Sherman's group. Especially as there are situations later in the book that would directly resolve the problem. Yes I admit, I am nit picking on this but sometimes readers will catch these things. Maybe change this in a re-write or expanded addition of the book.

I just have some points of criticism on this otherwise solid book. First of all the pace of this story is just like the first book, excellent. Recht's narrative moves you along quickly and the action is well thought out and executed. The pace of the story when it focuses on Sherman's group is wonderful. You care about these characters and you want to know what happens to them next. The pacing doesn't work as well with Mason's group though. When the story focuses on Dr. Demilio and Mason it does weaken a bit (maybe to a *** story vs. ****) and you find yourself counting pages until Sherman's group is focused on again. The pacing in the first book overcame the characterization flaws but it is starting to wear thin as the saga goes on. He just gets away with it again in the second book. I hope Recht finds a happy marriage between character and pace for the third volume otherwise; it will not be as good.

Recht does need to work on character development a bit. He writes military and police characters very well. The criticism of this is, a policeman, NSA agent, or general does do what a reader expects (act tough, solve problems, fight, or die like a hero) but from the other characters, we don't get much. With characters such as Mbutu, Brewster, Krueger, and Trev you become interested in them, but Recht doesn't develop them enough. You end up wishing they would be a larger part of the book. Other characters like Rebecca, Julie, and Denton have no life to them at all. They are as they appear medic girl, dippy newswoman, and Canadian photographer. They do nothing and bring no color to the story. Recht does try to develop Rebecca but does not go far enough. You read it and you hear yourself saying, "go further" yet the author lays out an issue with her and leaves it in such a way that he could foreshadow and do more with it. The same with Dr. Anna Demilio, tons of material to work with here yet except for those portions of the book where she is going through her PDA, she comes off very two dimensional. Dr. Demilio really is starting to come off as a damsel in distress when she should be a stronger more leading character. Recht needs to fix his characters going into the third book. We need some darkness (betrayal), some flaw (moral decisions with consequences), some love interest. He alludes to some romantic interests between characters, yet drops them the moment they are fleshed out. I am not saying kill the action but Recht needs to color these characters more or further installments will end up with a ** review. The key to make this work is to flavor the characterization in with the intense pace. If Recht does this, the next book will be that much better.

The scenery and backdrop for Sherman on the way to Omaha works well. The town of Abraham works. You care about the fight here. The action and combat is clever. I love the plot of the bad guys getting back at the town after Sherman's raid on the warehouse. The stand-off there works. But I sense some storm clouds again. I go back to character development again this time with bad guys. You have two villains, the Lutz brothers here at the town, yet neither is developed into a nasty threat. The actions of the bad guys have impact (which works) but it is not personalized in any way to the Lutz brothers. They appear as part of it but don't stand apart from it. Recht gives some background to them yet when the threat from them comes, you don't see their hands directly in it. Recht needed a twist here to make them more threatening. Either by bringing a traitor into town or Lutz should have done lasting permanent harm to Abraham. Also, there was some more room for another encounter before coming up to Omaha. The story needed another town or situation with some moral implications for the group. For example, law and order breakdown, crazy post-plague religion, or Sherman making a choice that hurts something. The interesting twist where the bad guy formula does work is that Recht does focus less on the primary bad guy being zombies/morningstar. I do like the message in this book that certain uninfected people pose the greater threat than the shamblers and the sprinters. I think his antagonist ideas work but Recht needs to work on coloring his evil characters more.

In the Mason story going west, again not enough action here, the characters are weaker (the only exception is Trev) and our rouge NSA villains of Sawyer (who is way distant and absent)and Derrick are like cookie cutter bad guys. When Derrick gives you the background of what Sawyer's plot is my thought was well that was kind of established in the first book but I need more detail here. Another flaw that Recht needs to fix for book 3, I need Sawyer to be on hand and actively scheming here, more tricks and traps. He has written Sawyer to be the perfect equal and opposite of Mason, yet he keeps him behind the trees doing nothing for most of this book.

Finally, I will focus a criticism on the split narrative. As I explained above, following two sets of characters towards one goal worked well in the first book and again Recht just carries it off again here. At least the author knows that Sherman is the stronger story. Just when you think the story will unify into one group, it splits again. I won't go into the detail of who spits off and where they are going but on the new group I will restrict my judgment. The challenge Recht has here is to make sure he colors the characters of this other group for the next book, otherwise people will be counting pages until Sherman's group shows up again.

With all its faults, I must admit, I could not put this one down. I look forward to the next book and I hope we have some deeper characters next time.

My issues with Thunder & Ashes are the same exact issues I had with the first book. In an attempt to avoid being redundant I will not repeat myself. However, I will give one example I found frustrating (somewhat a spoiler, might want to skip this part if you haven't read):

The town of Abraham claims to have an initial population of 900 which is then dropped to 363 (pg. 85). When faced with the threat of raiders a townsperson says they have 700 (pg. 174). I don't have much of an issue with this disparity as they perhaps accumulated stragglers over time, although this does not seem to be the case. However, the entire encampment of raiders was held off (and about 12 slain) by Krueger and a somewhat drunk Brewster who were armed with a bolt action 30.06 & shotgun, respectively. Once the raiders began an assault on Abraham the well-armed population was split into a front and rear guard (presumably 350 in front and 350 in back if the gentleman was right about the 700 pop.) and had an amazingly difficult time dispatching roughly 20 raiders (despite the advantage of surprise and numbers) and maybe 100-150 infected. Even if the numbers are off and there are 100 armed townsfolk in front and 100 in back the attack does not seem nearly as daunting as described in the book, especially after we see Krueger & Brewster actions a few pages earlier. Though this situation doesn't ruin the book, it is one of the little things that pop up throughout the novel that make it difficult to suspend your disbelief.

There are many other issues with this book: The logs of Anna do not seem to be written by anyone other than someone with a high school education. Despite the enthusiastic use of ammunition and the fact that it is now an unrenewable resource, there always seems to be enough to go around (even the tight spots where they run low, there is always some source that seems to make itself available). And every single character, with the exception of Trev, seems ignorant to the advantages of a silent kill.

Overall, my conclusion is the same as it was with the first book. Though, not spectacularly well written it is a quick read and will still be entertaining for those interested in the genre.


.chris.

Look, just buy this book. It may be hard to believe, (because part 1 was awesome) but Thunder And Ashes is better than the first part!

This is a rare exception of the sequel being better than the original. Thunder and Ashes is awesome, the morningstar strain is as contagious a read is a virus!!!

The second book, Thunder and Ashes starts where Plague of the Dead ended. The book follows several key characters in their attempt to reunite at Omaha, Nebraska in order to find a vaccine for a virus that causes man to turn into a cannibalistic killer. The book combines many elements of popular movies such as Romero's Dead series and 28 Days Later. The formula works well and Thunder and Ashes is a magnificent book. It is a combination of a viral thriller, zombie epidemic, and an action/adventure like you've never read before. I couldn't put the book down. The book ended well enough to set up for the final book to conclude the series.

I highly recommend reading this book if you like the zombie genre. As I stated it combines many elements of popular zombie films and put them wonderfully well. It's a multi-character story: you got an Army general, a rogue NSA agent, a doctor, and Navy personnel each desperately trying to reach each other. So you'll never get bored and you'll always be wondering about the characters. The author did a fantastic job in getting the reader attached to some of the characters.

I was a bit skeptical of the book at first since I thought perhaps the author lost touch after the first of the book. However, I was proven wrong and after the introduction, I was hooked. Get this book now!

After reading the first book, I was really looking forward to the second. Still a good read, but I was disappointed. Some of the characters didn't match up from the first book to the second. (ex: Mitsui was an international contractor who spoke several languages and whose English was excellent. By the start of the second book he had somehow forgotten how to speak English and was getting by with a translator and hand gestures) Some of the action I couldn't follow. (ex. first Stiles is trapped in a dead end ally, then he walks out of the ally onto a different street.) And most importantly, the infected didn't do much damage in this book. I guess everyone had figured them out by now, but it seemed all the damage was done by rouge government agents and bandits.

I still enjoyed the read and gave it three stars. I am looking forward to the next one. Hopefully the conclusion is more like the first one and ups the infected and bloodshed.

I read the first book, Plague of the Dead, and in general I enjoyed it. There were few real problems with it, the characters were interesting, and the action was enough to make one's heartbeat increase if read at night while all alone in an old house. Good fun, nothing absolutely revolutionary, but reasonably smart and well thought out, etc. Z. A. Recht, who recently passed away, showed definite potential as a writer, and POTD was a nice addition to the zombie apocalypse genre.

Thunder & Ashes, however, seems to read almost like a piece of zombie youth fiction. The dialogue is much more simplistic and obvious, the description of action is extremely literal and soft-hitting, the infected appear to have devolved into pansies (even the sprinters, who should continue to unsettle people like the 28 Days/Weeks Later infected they appear to be related to) that are easily dispatched by a high-fiving crew of one-dimensional characters. The last of these is very strange, because in the previous novel these characters had at least some depth, but now they are just a bunch action figures giving lines that alternate between grinning, scowling, chuckling, and swallowing. A standard exchange of the dialogue/narrative might read:

"These blood-spraying, very infectious, scary zombies are easy to kill, and fun!" Brewster grinned.
"Keep your head screwed on straight, soldier," scowled Thomas.
"Don't worry about him, Brewster. He's still upset about yesterday, when you killed more raiders and made better jokes about combat against armed and non-infected foes than he did," Krueger chuckled.
"That's right. Remember, killing people is okay and fun, if it's a post-apocalyptic world and you have a modicum of reason to kill them," Denton grinned with the thought of spilling more blood.
"I'm just worried because I'm a woman, so these zombies and the raiders still scare me. Help!" Rebecca swallowed, then grinned because women can be tough too if they try hard to put aside their womanly emotions.

Etc. Etc. At times, it's like reading the "Boxcar Children and the Mystery of the Zombie Horde."

All of this stuff I can actually deal with, because the point of reading post-apocalyptic and zombie fiction is to try to inhabit the world the author's created and see what kind of scenarios the author comes up with. All of the things that Recht writes are reasonably plausible, if poorly executed. But if one has read the first book, the major problem is that there are glaring discrepancies between it and this one:

1. It's been mentioned, but why does the Japanese character, Mitsui, seem to have lost the ability to speak English and, I might add, went from being chubby and slow to slight and light-spirited? Is it because the plot needed a mute character for comic relief? Is it because Recht thinks that the reader can only handle one competent foreigner giving input (i.e. Mbutu the Kenyan--Jack the Australian is basically an American with more jokes and grinning)? Why change gears on a character in this way? My guess is that he didn't feel like writing dialogue for the character, so he just willfully changed him into someone totally different.

2. Related to the previous one, in the first novel there were an undetermined/undisclosed number of "unarmed refugees," that the main gang were escorting and protecting. Although some of them were infected/killed along the way, as the first novel closes there still seems to be a small gaggle of these people lurking in the background of the narrative. Let's say eight of them, at most. But these eight or so individuals have disappeared when the second novel begins and their fate is never mentioned. To be sure, their presence was a sticking-point in the first novel, i.e. someone always had to stay behind and watch them, they were scared, they needed food, watering, whatever. There was also one more dude who was the last survivor of Hyattsburg, who was pulled out of a warehouse near the end of the book. He never had a name and he's disappeared too. My guess is that Recht didn't want to deal with these people, perhaps for the reason of the work of writing them into the narrative, forcing the other characters to take care of their non-"Hell Yeah! Get some!" concerns, etc. Fine, whatever. Have a tiny paragraph that says this:

"What's wrong, Rebecca?" Sherman asked, definitely not grinning.
"I'm still thinking about all the others, and what happened last week in Idaho," Rebecca swallowed.
"Oh. I know, that was tough," Sherman answered.
Last week, while in Idaho, the remaining eight refugees, and the dude they had pulled out of the warehouse had become infected one night. Maybe the dude was infected before and, sleeping too close to the refugees, went crazy with infection and bit all the other refugees. They were infected and elected to shoot themselves, or we killed them, or they wandered off heroically, or some such. The point is, they're now gone.

Don't those reading the sequel deserve some explanation?

3. The virus seems to be much less virulent or infectious or scary now. Why in the Lord's name does the Sheriff of Abraham let the group into the town when he just sees that none are currently infected? What about the well-established fact that there is an incubation period that is at least a few hours, if not a week or more? In fact, the Sheriff doesn't appear to even check them out, he just says something like "Pass, friend. And sample our home-baked crusty bread and our oft mentioned, yet inexplicably bitter, brown lager." My guess is that if this town had survived, it survived by shooting every single thing that came within 100 yards of the place. In my mind, in terms of the pandemic that was described to us in the first book, Recht shouldn't have wanted to go to Abraham, Kansas, unless he wanted dead characters and the novel/series to end. And finally, apparently bleach kills the virus now? Useful info to know, I guess, but what a lame virus.

Anyway, the book has some good sections, which is why I gave it two stars. Some of the action is good, and the general scope of the storyline draws the reader along effectively. But in the final review Recht's prose seems to read way too much like a grab for a movie deal, or for a video game, or for a firm niche within the zombie fiction market. In fact, a lot of the book progresses like a video game (or a video game made into a movie, which is then made into a book based on the movie). In one prominent instance, when they get to Abraham they need a mechanic. There is a mechanic, but he requires the group to carry out a vendetta hit on the raiders who took his daughter (and/or rescue his daughter), and this is the only way that he will work on their vehicles. When they carry out the hit and rescue his daughter, he's so happy that he makes the vehicles into little tanks as a special surprise. All of us have played Monkey Island-type video games that have this same formula: we need this thing from this person-->this person will only do it if we do something dangerous for him, which may include an optional objective (for a cool extra thing)-->when we succeed, he gives us a reward. In fact, there is a mission in Fallout 3 that is eerily similar. Whatever the purpose of this aspect of Recht's story, having to read a book where the characters seem incapable of the merest level of ingenuity in figuring out problems is maddening, just like a video game where you are forced to do something even when alternatives would plausibly exist. This town had something like 900 people before, and now the population is much reduced. Perhaps they could ask or barter for another vehicle? But no, that would be absurd as it would be too realistic and leave less opportunity for bantering about how fun killing infected/bad people is.

At the same time, however, I wouldn't tell anybody not to read this book if they'd read the first one. To be sure, I had planned on reading the third book to see where everything goes, but as Z. A. Recht has passed away this may not happen. The author showed a lot of promise with his first book, and with his untimely passing it is unfortunate that there were so many problems with his second and, if the third book is not published, last book.

I could not wait for this book after reading The Plague of the Dead. Now I cannot wait for the next novel. Thunder and Ashes takes up just where Plague of the Dead ends. You are reunited with all your favorite characters and introduced to new ones also. However, the dead are still among us and so are some of the "governmental" bad guys. I went through the book in an entire weekend only because I was very excited about it. Z. A. Recht is a great writer and I hope he continues to enthrall us with such great books.