While most Zombie Lords or Elder Gods would waste their time (and yours) talking you to death, Ob manages to not only talk you to death, but takes action as well. We are given a central zombie here to "boo and hiss" at by way of Ob, and he chews up the pages pretty much the same way he does people - he's over the top, too broad, boastful, loud and self-assured - nothing we haven't seen before in these kinds of books (or movies), but Ob does stand out from others that have come before him (such as Flagg from Stephen King's The Stand) by doing one thing and doing one thing very well.
Pretty much everyone is made from the same torn and gore-stained cloth laid out by Romero's Dead series. Some novel twists abound in the book and you get what you pay for - Action! Action! Action!īut in-between all the action(!) there's still something of a story to tell. I kept thinking that had Danny been older, been able to handle a weapon (although he does wield a baseball bat very well) or had some kind of story of his own he might have helped to move the story along a different track.Īs it is, this is a very linear story filled with often brutal violence and gore that we've all come to expect (and even to love). To have him just be part of the background now is a waste. Having not read The Rising, I'm sure much of the book was eaten up by Jim's quest to find his son at all costs. He's just along for the ride, adding nothing to the story - in fact, it must be a bit of a dissapointment for Danny to turn out to be nothing more than just a normal kid. The largest plot point from the previous book - the quest to find Danny - is resolved early on, and from that point on Danny becomes dead weight. All the build up, backstory, breakdown and plotting of the first book are in the past by the time the first few pages fly by (although some backstory, problems and unresolved issues do crop up in later chapters) leaving the reader with just "the payoff" - an outright battle between the teeming masses of the dead and the remaining few of the living. I've looked all over the front and back covers and inside pages, and there's nothing there to tell me this is a direct sequel to Brian Keene's The Rising.īut does that matter? In the case of City of the Dead, it turns out to be something of a plus.
It's fast becoming a habit with me to pick up books that are either a sequel or part of a series, and not realize it until it's too late.
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