Hissers, by Ryan C. Thomas, 2011

Hissers, by Ryan C. Thomas, 2011

I know what you are wondering, so I will start by saying, "Yes, it's another <groan> zombie story."  In a sea of zombie novels out there, the only thing that sets this book apart is the main cast of characters happens to be all junior high teens kids. And as such, the story is told from their immature point of view.

In the prologue, the dialog between a general and scientist in a government lab pretty much sets up the entire story to come. While the epilogue doesn't do much except sets up the sequel.

The meat of the story contains no plot twists or surprises. It's fairly straightforward; survive while starting at location A and travelling to location B. What might some find of some interest is how the teens thought process worked and placed them in several bad situations. In essence, lack of information coupled with immaturity led them to some bad decisions.

Somewhere in zombie groans, grunts, and grabs, a teen coming of age tale was buried. It wasn't until the latter half of the book when I finally got a whiff of it.

author: Ryan C. Thomas

For me, I found it hard to relate to the point of views of the teens nor believable. A few times, I felt some inconsistencies with how, I thought, a teen behave given the predicament.

Others reviewers claimed the story to be fast-paced and full of action. I mostly disagree. With the exception of a few scenes, most of everything with importance to the plot occurred at a humdrum pace. While I get, the entire story takes place over one weekend, adding chapter opening lines that state date and time to elicit urgency and haste didn't work for  me. Instead, it had the reverse intended effect.

My rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1 out of 5 stars) - I did not like it.

Ex-Patriots (Ex-Heroes #2) by Peter Clines, 2013

Ex-Patriots (Ex-Heroes #2) by Peter Clines, 2013

Ex-Patriots is the second novel in Peter Clines' Ex series and takes place two years after the first novel. This time instead of our lineup of heroes fighting Los Angeles gangsters, super-villains, and zombies, they are fighting the U.S. Military super-soldiers, super-villains, and zombies.

This installment in the series introduces us to some new characters who become welcome additions to our Ex-Heroes; Captain Freedom and the Driver join  St. George, Cerebus, Zzap, and Stealth

The story is told similarly to the way as Ex-Heroes with the "Now" and "Then" times; cleverly introducing flashback moments for showing the history of several characters and how their actions or events they lives by led up to the actual set of events in the "Now" time.

Unfortunately, a lot of the flashbacks, "Then" time, of the supersoldiers were of no interest to me. I didn't see the importance of the backstory or history of a super-soldier that was a secondary character in the story. I simply found myself speed-reading through those portions.

What I liked best about is the pop-culture infused tale of superheroes surviving the zombie-apocalypse is that it takes in Hollywood; mentioning and describing sites and landmarks I am very familiar with.

Overall, the climax left much to be desired. At best, it petered out and for me, didn't feel like an ending.

On the entire series, I would say the Ex-Purgatory (#4) is the best and stands on its own with prior knowledge of the previous books. Ex-Heroes (#1) comes to a second best and serves as a good introduction the entire series.  Ex-Communicated (#3) ranks the same for me as Ex-Heroes. The addition of Corpse Girl to the team was fantastic. And that leaves Ex-Patriot in last place for me.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars) - It was ok.