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180 of 209 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best zombie novels ever written (no hype!), May 5, 2006
Let me get this off my chest: I'm a zombie "purist." I'd been looking for a good zombie novel that stayed faithful to George A. Romero's Dead Trilogy (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead) for decades and decided they probably didn't exist (outside of the novelizations of NotLD and DotD).
I prefer the zombies I grew up with: slow, shambling and not too smart. No matter how entertaining or well-written, I don't really want anything that differs too much from the traditional "rules" laid down by Romero in NotLD. A few fun little twists are okay, but when you start radically changing the zombies just to be different or "extreme," you change the entire nature of the threat and start messing with your reader's expectations... Chances are they bought the book because they are a zombie movie fan and they expect your novel to play by the rules; if not by the "classic" Romero rules, then by the "new" rules set forth in 28 Days Later or the Dawn of the Dead remake.
Just when I'd given up hope of ever finding such a novel, I stumbled across Day By Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne. Finally, an author who delivered just plain old-fashioned Romero zombies! I will note that there are some fast zombies later in the book but these are well-explained and used sparingly. Far from being distracting, these fast zombies actually add to the horror. Kudos to the author for satisfying fans of both fast and traditional zombies--not an easy thing to do!
The story, told in first person journal format, kicks off with the narrator (an unnamed U.S. Naval officer) making a New Year's resolution to keep a journal. As the days progress, he comments on his life and various problems he's noticing in the news, particularly about a mysterious disease outbreak in China...
Naturally, the "disease" is the zombie virus, and it quickly spreads around the globe, cutting him off from the outside world. The hero is torn between joining his fellow officers on-base or remaining barricaded in his home, but opts for the latter. In the time he has left before everything breaks down, he improves his home's defenses (adding broken glass to the top of his walls, buying more ammo for his gun collection, adding do-it-yourself bars to his ground floor windows, etc.).
He is determined to "wait out" the plague, but the government fails to contain the epidemic, retreating to hidden bunkers, and leaving the panic-stricken civilian population to fend for themselves. The narrator teams up with his only surviving neighbor, an engineer named John and his dog, who is good at alerting them to the presence of zombies (a little too good, as they have to keep her quiet most of the time to prevent her barking from alerting the undead to their presence).
The growing number of zombies outside forces them to decide to get out of the small Texas town (near Austin) where they were holed up. Along the way, they encounter some other survivors, rampaging paramilitary, hordes of undead, and a variety of other realistic hazards that one would expect to find in a post-apocalyptic world.
One of the key features that makes Day By Day Armageddon so interesting as a tale of post-apocalyptic/zombie survival horror is the narrator's unique perspective as a U.S. Naval Officer (the author is also one, currently serving in Iraq). There is a fair amount of military slang and abbreviations that take a little getting used to, but they add flavor to the book. The attention to detail, from the careful descriptions of weapons to the realistic way that surviving the crisis is presented, makes this book stand out from other zombie novels, which tend to gloss over or ignore such things.
Initially, I was a little leery of purchasing this book I'd never heard of, despite all the glowing reviews here (only one negative out of over 45!), so I checked out the author's website and found he had the first 78 pages online to read FREE. I promptly did so and loved it. There were no more reservations; I had to order this book!
I got it in the mail today; it's a quick, exciting read. I finished it in about three hours (starting at page 78--where the free online sample ended--probably shaved an hour or two off, but I'm a fast reader). I thought the book was fantastic, easily one of the best pieces of zombie fiction ever produced and I eagerly await the sequel as well as the promised novel, Dead Land, set in the same universe as Day by Day Armageddon.
My one gripe about the story is I would have liked to see a bit more depth to round out the supporting cast, but I suppose that can't be helped considering the first person journal format it is written in.
There is an exciting cliffhanger ending. I should warn you... there is no resolution! It only bothers me in that we have no idea when we will see a Part 2. It would have been better, from a marketing standpoint, to capitalize on the success of Part 1 by having Part 2 ready to go within a year at most of this book's release so you could strike while the iron was hot, rather than waiting years...
The number of typos increased a bit more than I would have liked from about page 120 on, particularly chronically misusing "site" for "sight" and "wondered" instead of "wandered". It seemed like there was either a misused word or a punctuation error every few pages (but still not as bad as a lot of other self-published works). I'm not sure if these were prevalent prior to page 78, as I had already read the online version and skipped them in the hardcopy, but I don't recall there being very many. There certainly didn't seem to be too many between pages 78-120 (approximate page spread). These typos are a little more forgivable given that this is supposed to be a journal written on the run by a lone survivor.
Besides the very poor cover illustration, there are a few images included in the book. I could not fully utilize the map of "Known Nuclear Zones" or "Hotel 23" (the military base they flee to) because the maps were so small and pixellated. The scattered few photos were cheesy and distracting, and the photoshop filter used to "enhance" some of them didn't help.
Despite these minor issues, I highly recommend this book to all zombie and horror fans. What you are ultimately buying the book for is the story and the author delivers that in spades!!!
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You will love it!, April 25, 2006
I couldn't put it down. This is a fast read and it just sucks you in. I love the journal style of this book, it is refreshing from the norm. You will love this book if you are a fan of zombies and even if you are not. I can't wait for his next book!
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good beginning of one man's day to day struggle to survive a post-apocalyptic world, July 27, 2006
The last couple of years has seen a sort of renaissance in all things zombies. Zombies have become the "monster of the moment" in the entertainment industry. These shambling undead (or Olympic sprinters for some of the more recent twist on the genre) have permeated film, video games, comic books and novels. Really, the only mode of media that still hasn't joined the zombie wave are the tv networks. J.L. Bourne debuts with a fast-paced and exciting first novel that takes the well-known conventions of the zombie tale and gives it a nice personal touch to set it apart from the many other zombie novels flooding the market.
Day by Day Armageddon doesn't go the usual straight narrative of most novels. The novel is written in the point-of-view of the anonymous narrator, but is told through an epistolary-style. Similar to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Bourne's novel tells the story of this one man's struggles to survive the gradual collapse of civilization and through the post-apocalyptic undead world around him through journal entries. Bourne's choice of writing style lends abit of a personal touch to the proceedings as it imbues the tale with less hyperbole and flowery language. Instead, the journal entries gives the reader just the right amount of look into this man's life. Not everything's explained in these journal entries, but enough clues were hinted at to keep the reader interested in reading more. From the beginning of the crisis which has a timely feel of today's current events to the confusion of the crisis spiralling out of control with our narrator as confused as the people in charge seem to be.
Day by Day Armageddon doesn't lack for action and gory detail, but they seem to be more of affectations to the rest of the tale. Bourne concentrates more on the thoughts of his anonymous narrator. From how to plan for a siege to finding a way to distract the growing undead in his first refuge in order to rescue a neighbor who might be the only living person left the area. When the novel does finally have the narrator and the other survivors place themselves in danger in order to find more supplies or a better refuge, Bourne does a great job of keeping the pace of the story fast and tight. There's not alot of overly descriptive passages of the environment and its new undead in habitants. This minimalist style also lends itself to keeping the characters real. They behave with a rational and logical mind in trying to cope and deal with the worsening situation outside their refuge. Plans are thought out in advance and every precaution and angles factored in whatever decision they make in regards to their survival. In fact, Bourne's characters seem to have either read Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide or at least something similar since they behaved and acted just how Brook's guide said people need to if they're to survive a coming zombie apocalypse.
If there's a bone to pick with Day by Day Armageddon and what keeps me from giving it a full 5 stars it would be the ending. To say that it ends in a cliffhanger would be an understatement. The last couple of journal entries became so action-packed that it succeeded in raising the adrenaline and making this reader want more of the same. But just when things really got cooking the book ends suddenly and with no resolution. The novel is suppose to be just the first book in a larger series. I hope that this is true and that a second novel continuing the lives of the narrator, John and the other survivors in the group comes out. Other than that little complaint, I thoroughly enjoyed this debut zombie novel from a new writer who seems to enjoy the zombie subgenre and knows how to handle it well. No running zombies for Mr. Bourne, though he's hinted at radioactive zombies with abit more oomph than their less glowing undead brothers. Here's to hoping Bourne keeps the sprinting undead to a minimum. Now where's that second volume to this series.
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