Ex-Patiots

As a general rule, I've had just about enough of zombie fiction. There have been so many zombie novels published since the beginning of the current zombie craze that the overall quality has gone downhill. Luckily, Ex-Patriots, by Peter Clines, is an exception. This was actually a really entertaining book.

It's a sequel to his previous zombie novel, Ex-Heroes.The gist of that story is that shortly before the zombie apocalypse began, super heroes started to show up. Unfortunately, they weren't enough to stop the zombie hordes, so after the world ended, the heroes protected the surviving members of humanity in the remains of a Hollywood film studio. They are menaced by a street gang that seems to be able to control the zombies, or exes as they're referred to in the book.

Ex-Patriots takes place several months after the previous novel. The heroes are discovered by a nearby military base that was working on a secret super soldier project. Unfortunately, the zombie controlling villain from the previous novel turns out to still be around, along with a new foe.

This book has the required gore of any successful zombie novel.It also has a good bit of humor, and some generally likable (and hateable characters). This book--and the first one--are well worth the time of any zombie or superhero fan. Also, apparently there will be a third book, which I eagerly await.

NOS4A2

OK, once again I have been slacking on the reviews here. I have read several bizarro novels that I could have been reviewing--and getting points for--but I just haven't gotten around to it. I have also received review copies of books, which I really should be reviewing, and I'm going to try to review them, at the very least.

I got a review copy of Joe Hill's NOS4A2.This was a really cool novel. It's about a girl (and later woman) who discovers that she has the ability to ride through a bridge that no longer exists to find things that have been lost, but who loses a bit of herself as the price for making this journey. It's also the story of a man who is over a century old, who takes children to a magical place called Christmas Land, where they'll stay young  and happy forever, but at the cost of their humanity. Naturally, these two eventually meet, and become enemies.

I don't want to spoil the story for you, so I won't go into any more detail, but I will say that this is a great book.  Anybody who likes horror should get this.

Geek and Sundry

Did I ever tell you that I am a lazy lazy, lazy man? I mean, I have at least three book reviews that I should be writing. Two of them would earn me Bizarro Brigade points, and the other is for a book I got a review copy of from William Morrow. This is not a review of one of them. This is about a YouTube channel, and I'm writing it to get an entry in a contest to win something or other. I forget what, exactly.

I am talking about Geek & Sundry, who produce lots of geeky web content, most of which, I don't watch. I do however watch TableTop with Wil Wheaton, because I love tabletop games.  Also, I think his beard has evil, hypnotic powers. It's a great series where you get to see lots of geek celebrities playing games, and I've learned about a lot of games I want to try out.  Here's an embedded video of the episode about one of my favorite games:

Since this is a review blog, of sorts, I'll give Tabletop (and the rest of Geek & Sundry) five yo-yos.