Customer Reviews

Xombies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Although the cover likens this story to a cross between 28 Days and Lord of the Flies, it is not that simple. 17-year-old Lulu (Louise) is with her mom looking for her father. Just as they seem to be at their destination, a plague sweeps the globe. Victims become crazed with a desire to infect others. There is also a side effect that reanimates the dead.

It is a much changed world that Lulu must navigate looking for some shred of sanity. Lulu suffers from a rare genetic disorder and it seems to have made her immune. Lulu teams up with her supposed father and joins a refugee effort on an old submarine.

Lulu's trek leads her to truths both shocking and unpleasant. We learn more of the plague and how it works. Conspiracies, greed, lust for power, and Lulu herself are all brought together in a very original story that is not just a zombie story. This is more of a cautionary tale that takes the reader into new and original directions. Part horror story, part cautionary tale, and part utopian tale this is a wonderful book that starts fast and just keeps going taking surprise turns all over the place. Check it out.

Xombies is kind of a mish-mash of lots of different ideas already out there. Its Romero-esque zombie apocalypse running 28-Days-Later stylewith Ginger Snaps female hormones wrapped up with Max Max and (of all things) Below.

After all the women of the world go Xombie, also turning the men, a girl who is immune manages to escape aboard an Ohio-class submarine looking for safe haven.

If the writing wasn't so good (its very good) I'd call the novel too derivative to stand on its own but it zips along and you keep turning the pages and surprise...when its done, you're sorry.

Its a worthy read and the end was a pleasant surprise.

After seeing the cheesy cover and the title, I was prepared for disappointment. Maybe that's why I was so pleasantly surprised when it turned out not to be a hastily banged-out take off on the Living Dead movies. It IS a Living Dead type story, but the writing is so precise and the story so well-crafted and perfectly paced, that it almost defies the genre with its non-cheesiness.

From the first few pages I was impressed by the sophisticated prose style and evocative descriptions, things I didn't think to find in a zombie horror novel. Even better is the way each chapter is an edge-of-your-seat type of experience, so that you just can't put the book down. I even had to restrain myself from sneaking peeks ahead to see what was going to happen.

The plot starts out simple enough - infectious homicidal corpses run rampant and survivors search for safety. You follow one survivor through her ordeal, as she witnesses horrible things involving maniacal dead people and gets involved with other survivors. The book takes a twist on the zombie genre here, and gets even better as it looks as what happens when the world order crumbles. Zombies are just one of many obstacles that Lulu, the heroine, faces as she tries to find a place in a terribly transformed world. The author's unique vision of this post-apocalyptic world offers a combination of zombie horror, military conspiracy, and futuristic consumerism of the Snow Crash variety. It's impossible to say more without giving away any of the many surprises of this very suspenseful book.

One of the most enjoyable features of the book is the heroine, who defies all stereotypes and never appears weak or "girly." This was refreshing.

Overall, this is a unique book, not just for fans of zombie flicks or horror novels. The writing is a notch above the average thriller and the apocalyptic vision is original. It's like Dawn of the Dead meets Apocalypse Now, and you get the best (or perhaps worst) of both worlds.

How does one review a zombie novel that contains few, if any, zombies? W.Greatshell's "Xombies", while peopled on the periphery of the novel's action with virtually unstoppable hordes of Xombies (reanimated people Xisting on a higher level of the evolutionary ladder), is devoid of any significant zombie-on-human action through much of the story. The Xistence of the Xombies acts as an impetus for the protagonists to flee in their nuclear submarine to the Xombie-unfriendly wastes of the Arctic circle. There they discover a comic-booky enclave of humanity undertaking last ditch efforts to stem the Xombie tide, though in ways that might not be in the best interest of humanity.

The Xombies emerged from the activities of a viral strain that initially affected women with active menstrual cycles (so menopausal women, little girls and genetic abnormalities like our heroine Lulu are immune from the initial infection, though they and all men could still succumb to a Xombie's "kiss"). This is a cliche done to death already in Werewolf, Vampire and Fantasy fiction, so why not here as well, right? But Greatshell's interesting conception quickly falls into narrative pieces.

Lulu and her mother are attacked by Xombies while staying in a boarded-up summer community in Rhode Island (in the best tradition of "Clicker"'s Phillipsport, Maine). It is quickly discovered that bashing them with cars, braining them with tools, shooting them in the face dozens of times, cutting them into little pieces, using explosives, poisoning them and spraying napalm all over them have only limited effect in hindering them, and do not kill them. The infected, more like mutant smurfs on sci-fi overcharged steroids, quickly drive our survivors to a supersecret Air Force base in the arctic.

And this is where Greatshell's novel begins to hit the wall. The Xombies are simply too powerful to provide any level of suspense in the story or to enable the author to continue along the lines of a prototypical, excellent zombie novel. The Xombies are as "high-concept" or "literary" as a zombie could be. The story reverts from a zombie survival tale to a disingenuously overt, snarky, hipster version of Lord of the Flies that might have been better left to its graphic novel form, truth be told. Any of the gore, violence, grittiness and desparation of the standard zombie tale have largely been Xcised. Xombies become "Big Metaphors", humanity succumbs to being "Semiotic Representations" and the readers learn "Universal Lessons About Life, Love and the Human Condition".

And Greatshell then quickly flounders in this new turn as well. Whereas a Golding or even a skilled satirist might have used Greatshell's super-secret arctic base to really tap into the perversity and self-defeat of modern organized government and western society, Greatshell pushes the story to a certain limited point and then sloppily ties it together in a fantastical ending with the re-emergence of the Xombies.

The only saving graces for this novel (from the perspective of both the zombie genre as well as political satire/social commentary) were the excellent writing, haunted imagery and the verve, willfulness, spunk and attitude he lovingly imparts to our heroine Lulu. Most of the other characters in the work fail to really touch any kind of chord with the reader or else have such ambiguous roles in and import to the development of the story that the reader, sighing in frustration at the obvious effort Greatshell put into fleshing out their story lives and deaths, is left confused and not a little bored.

Overall, I would suggest not purchasing "Xombies" unless you are a true zombie fan and desire to taste the fruits of some truly tepid, literary zombie horror.

Zombies - in the movies, at least - come in a few varieties. George Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) has the traditional slow-moving, flesh-eating zombies. The remake of "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) features zombies that move at a rate normally only seen in Olympic track champions. There are even zombie love stories - such as "Return of the Living Dead 3" (1993), in which the zombies specifically want to eat brains, as opposed to just flesh. Other zombie films explore the cause of zombie-hood - like the viruses in "28 Days Later" and the "Resident Evil" games-turned-movies.


For the most part, zombies - which are disturbing creatures to watch, regardless of whether they're moving fast or slow or what part of the humans they're eating - are featured in movies. Walter Greatshell, however, visits this familiar theme in his first published novel, "Xombies."


They're blue from lack of oxygen and they're determined to attack, and these creatures are called Xombies - with an X - because Agent X causes them to become what they are, not dead and not alive. These undead don't seem very smart - though, in true zombie tradition, they can tell humans from their own kind - but definitely make that up in speed and strength.


This is terrifying to Lulu - a 17-year-old girl who has been traveling with her mother and missed the start of the Agent X outbreak. When Lulu and her mother find out that people are sick and women seem to be in the most danger, at least according to the pre-recorded radio broadcasts they listen to, they hide in fear.


Eventually, they must try and seek additional supplies and find out if any of their neighbors are still alive - including Mr. Cowper, who may be Lulu's estranged father. When Lulu and her mother separate for a few minutes as they scout neighbor's houses, it is just long enough for her mother to be attacked and turned into one of these mindless blue Xombies.


Lulu makes a narrow escape and is rescued by Mr. Cowper. Together, they head - sometimes by driving through a sea of Xombies - to a military existence where Lulu must fight through Xombies and squeeze onto a submarine with an all male crew in order to escape certain death.


It started with the women, they say, the women of childbearing age. These women infected men, children, and women who were not originally affected by Agent X. Lulu seems immune - at least from spontaneous infection that attacks most women her age - because of a medical condition that prevents her from having her "monthly visitor." She assumes, however, that she can still get it through Xombie-attack, same as the men.


With so many Xombies loose, the only option is to escape to the north - in hopes that a colder, less populated area would provide a safe place to relocate and possibly start things over. But conditions on the sub are not favorable - there is too little food, too many people, and for Lulu - hate all around her, she is young and female, neither of which bode well for her with the older crew or the boys in her age group who hassle her because of her gender.


Greatshell does a good job of providing plenty of action - including a fair amount of gore - as the sub's crew and passengers make their way to what they hope is salvation. Surprise after surprise - eventually leading to a shocking and unpredictable ending - are delivered in a book that is dripping in suspense.


"Xombies" is not without fault, and the biggest complaint I have is the amount of story Greatshell packs in one book. While the page length is a modest 346, there seems to be an unrelenting amount of much-needed information, especially in the last quarter of the book, which can easily overwhelm a reader. Despite its title and being a horror novel, this is not light reading.


Greatshell's "Xombies" is well-written, overall, and definitely interesting. However, if your stomach turns at descriptions of blood and violence or if you don't like science fiction, pass on this one. For those who enjoy a good zombie movie, reading "Xombies" is a worthwhile change of pace.

Its hard for me to pin this book down. It is not really a book about Zombies, except in only the slightest sense-at least not any zombies I have ever read or seen. You could say that these creatures are dead and want you to join them...in which case, they are a zombie variation, but honestly they are not. They are just as much vampires as zombies in that they give you the "kiss of death" and poof! you are one of them.

I am also not going to get caught up in pointing out that reviewer A or reviewer B just didn't get "it" or whatever-reviews are opinions and I try to write my review to give a potential reader an idea of what this book is all about and what worked or did not work for me. If you think it is great or trash, so be it. Take what you will from my review and all the others.

What I liked about this story was that the author took a great deal of time creating this new disease and new creature. He expended some effort to make this new Xombie creation and I give him credit for that. The author also has a strong working knowledge of submarines and the Navy, which helped tremendously with the story line. Do I know if he was totally accurate in all his descriptions? No, but the details were exceptional and kept that part of the story believable. Overall, he has fleshed out a very detailed and deliberate tale that does twist a few times and surprised me. Once again, this is not your average tale of the undead. What I expected going in was another apocalyptic tale of survival and while that is a part of this-it is the foundation, the story diverges from that dramatically by the end.

I did like Lulu, the main character. She is fully developed (well...the character is, physically she is far from developed) and believable in many ways. I think the author spent so much time on her though that he delved a great deal less on the other characters. Her father is detailed and a few boys on the sub stand out, but they are all rather limited in scope next to our heroin. Of course the story is told in first person so she is the shining star of it all and we see everything from her perspective. There were just too many peripheral characters that snuck in and out of the story and didn't mean too much.

I didn't complain about the fact that we get to know the fate of the main character before the story even starts, I can accept that as a plot device-we know the end, but how do you get there? The question in instances like this usually is: Is this story strong enough to allow the audience to know up front the fate of our hero/heroin? Unfortunately, I am not sure that this story was. I did not really enjoy huge chunks of the book and while it was strong in places the bit revealed in the beginning just dampened my expectations even with the surprises the author unleashes. It seemed a grind through certain areas of text and I found my self just trying to muddle through. The author knows how to put detail into his work and I guess the claustrophobia and stir crazy experience of the characters in the sub wormed its way through too well for me. I just wanted them to get off the damn boat as much as they did after a while.

The bottom line for me was this book just does not resonate. Sure, it was interesting, it was different, and I am sure there is a message in there somewhere (power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?) but some of it was just odd. I guess having a boy who has a fur fetish, old men who are willing to pretend that young boys in makeup and dresses are an adequate replacement for real women, muslim Beatle cover bands and many other things are all ok, but it was just too surreal I guess. I do wish more time was spent with the Xombies themselves-more action sequences giving us more exposure to them. They just don't get too much coverage throughout the book. They appear in the beginning and in the end, but there is this huge gaping maw in the middle that really dragged. I would definitely have liked to get to know the Blue Meanies a bit more.

This book was a novelty that was creative and certainly different but still left me feeling I could take it or leave it. As is usually the case for me I was glad I read something new and different, but in the end, it won't be a lasting memory for me.

This book was millions of miles away from Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or Lord of the Flies, or any of the other things it's been compared to. I found it very promising to begin with, with some very interesting twists on the usual "zombie" story. After it starts off as a somewhat original zombie story, it hops and jumps all over the place. It just got worse and worse, even crossing the line into "silly." The whole submarine thing got tired very quickly, and once they got to the "base" it got completely ridiculous. Nonsensical plot twists and "gotcha" non-endings were problems as well. It turned into a bad 70s sci fi feature. Two specific things that don't give away the story: a xombie-killing baboon and a Beatles tribute band made up of Pakistanis. Anyway, I don't recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of zombie books and movies. Skip this and re-read Keene's The Rising.

When I first read this I thought of zombies front to back blood shed and cahos. The more I read it the more it went into the survival of the fitest.
This is not one if you want blood and killing the whole way but it is a great book indeed. I am one to take at least 3 weeks to get through a book and I finished this in 3 days. I was drawn to the fight for survival and wanting to know what was going to happen.
Yes it gives women a view as being the breeding ground and spreaders of this awful AgentX syndrom but that what was created by a man for power.

Right from the initial reference to Sleeping Beauty you learn this book is going to be a kind of fairytale, and it is - a fairytale not with knights and dragons, but with contemporary elements like submariners and zombies, and with the sly sense of humor to carry it off. If you get the joke, this book is highly recommended.

I bought this book thinking it would be a pulp horror Dawn of the Dead rip off. Instead, it is a update of end of the world genre- and a pretty good one at that. Highly recommended- I cannot put it down.