Brian Keene - City Of The Dead

Where can you go when the dead are everywhere ? Cities have become overrun with legions of the dead, all of them intent on destroying what's left of the living. Trapped inside a fortified skyscraper, a handful of survivors prepare to make their last stand against an unstoppable, undying enemy.
With every hour their chances diminish and their numbers dwindle, while the numbers of the dead can only rise. Because sooner or later, everything dies. And then it comes back, ready to kill.

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The book begins where The Rising left the reader. Luckily, for those who didn't read the book shortly after finishing the first one, the last chapter is repeated. Jim Thurmond, Frankie and pastor Martin travelled through five states facing death with each step to finally reach Jim's ex-wife's house to look for Jim's son Danny.
Danny is alive and reunited with his father but the zombies aren't far away. The house soon is ambushed from the outside and it is only a matter of time until they face the inevitable once again.
They find themselves in a small room without escape while the zombies try to burn the house. le, attracted by gunshots, Don De Santos, leaves his panic room for the first time in what seems to be forever. He sneaks up to his attic to discover faces and little Danny in the neighbor's house. With time running out he manages to lift his ladder from one window to the other and all are save - for now.
Wounded and scared they all flee in his SUV but are soon in trouble again. Chased on top of a parking garage they are rescued by a helicopter which takes them to the seemingly only safe place left: The Ramsey Towers in New York City.

Wounds healing and adjusting to a new life, they think they might have made it until the undead form an army, preparing to ambush the tower and killing the last remaining living humans on earth. The hopeless battle for their lives and all that humanity stands for begins and leaves a group of ten people underground trying to go, well, nowhere.

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Keene's impressing way of describing the war inside the tower almost blew me away. He has this thing to involve different characters which shortly after face their death while the reader just thought a new, lasting character, entered the story. He does that in a very natural way that it always feels saddening to read that this person dies.

What happened in this tower was rage, wrapped in simple words that made it feel like it's real. Placing gruesome pictures of people overrun and dying where ever you look in ones head.
The eerie feeling in the underground tunnels left goosebumps on my arms. Imagine standing in the tunnel, smelling the sewer and it is pitch black around you. You don't know where you are going, what's around the next corner or who is standing directly in front of you staring in your eyes.

Keene gave his story something real and alive so that the ending isn't shocking at all.

"Everything dies, but not everything has an ending."

The zombie-fan is delighted !

Rating:
Visit Brian Keene.

Mass Market Paperback: 357 pages
Publisher: Leisure Books (May 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0843954159
ISBN-13: 978-0843954159

Footnote:
Keene just published another book strongly connected to 'The Rising':
The Rising: Selected Scenes From The End Of The World contains thirty-two short stories based in the world of The Rising and City of the Dead. Now, fans can witness how the undead epidemic plays out across the globe-Australia, the United Kingdom, Norway, the United States-nowhere is safe from the zombie invasion. Meet new characters you'll come to love, re-discover old characters you thought were gone, and find out what happens after the fateful events of City of the Dead.
(Product description taken from Amazon)

Brian Keene - The Rising

The dead are returning to life as intelligent zombies. Trapped by the undead, escape seems impossible for Jim Thurmond. But Jim’s young son is alive and in dire peril hundreds of miles away. Despite overwhelming odds, Jim vows to find him— or die trying.

Joined by an elderly preacher, a guilt-ridden scientist, and a determined ex-prostitute, Jim embarks on a cross-country rescue mission. They must battle both the living and the living dead. And for Jim and his companions, an even greater evil awaits them at the end of their journey. This is the time of...The Rising.

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In the beginning The Rising reminded me a bit of Stephen King's "The Stand" and "Cell" but that changed later on.

Basically the story is about a black hole opened by Havenbrook Laboratories. The hole weakened the walls between this world and the world the others come from. The others are things living in the void. They obtain our dead bodies as soon as it dies. They are intelligent, able to speak and hungry. Of course there are a lot of them so they kill the humans by eating a bit but always leaving enough of the body so that one of their brethren can use it. The Brethren also use animals also use dogs, cats, snakes or birds for their advantage.

Jim Thurmond hides in a self built bunker since weeks. His wife and unborn child were killed and now belong to the zombies. Without hope and not knowing if his son Danny in New Jersey is still alive he sees no future and is ready to kill himself when suddenly his cell phone rings. Frozen he doesn't move and later listens to his sons desperate phone call. With new hope he decides to find a way out of his bunker to rescue his frightened son.

Rescued from the zombies by pastor Martin he finds an alley with hope and the believe in God. Martin thinks he's destined to help Jim find his way to New Jersey.

Then there is Frankie, a drug addict prostitute who tries to survive somehow. After she rescues a running soldier she is captured herself.

In a world where no government exists people built their own government the way they think is convenient for them. So it happens in the city of Gettysburg that a group of soldiers built a shelter for them and use survivors as their slaves. The camp is lead by Colonel Schow, a cruel man with a cruel mind. He uses women shiftwise for "moral" in a so called "meat wagon". Townspeople are required to enforced work or used as bait when exploring other towns.

So it happens that one day Jim, Martin and Frankie are hostages in Gettysburg when the camp is moved to the Havenbrook Laboratories. During an ambush they all make it to free themselves and decide to all drive to New Jersey to find little boy Danny.

The book ends with Jim entering his ex-wives house to find his son and Frankie and Martin hearing gunshot from inside.

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The reader doesn't expect the ending comes this fast and most of all stays completely open. And I mean completely. It feels like the book misses a few pages. Those who tell us that Jim finds him son alive. This made me grab the second book 'City Of The Dead' immediately as my next read.

I liked that the main characters aren't heroes. They all have their weaknesses and they all were rescued by someone else during the book. It made the book so real and described what would happen if some day the world actually ends. What differs this book from all the other zombie novels is that there is no escape. There is no safe island. Well there might be safety from the possessed human bodies but there isn't safety from the dead animals which already played a huge role in this book. It really got me thinking when someone in the book mentioned to sail out onto the ocean just to be killed by hungry sharks or bigger animals.

There was one short talk that really got me hooked on this book because it is so simple but also tells all about what's going on and made me cringe:

'Wait a minute.'
'There is something else, Jim !'
'Just a second -- got it !' The grin on his face died when he glanced up at the pastor.
'What is it ?'
'Sniff the air for a moment.' Martin told him. 'Do you smell it ?'
Jim breathed deep and then gagged.
'Jesus, what is that ?'
'They are coming !'

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The Rising is different, it's intelligent and it's reality of the possibility what might enter the world if we open a black hole (experiments regarding this actually are happening) is frightening. Keene touched a topic before a few others (f. e. Preston) tried to touch in different ways but didn't get it the way I'd liked it. Fascinating and intriguing.

Rating:
Visit Brian Keene.

Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Leisure Books (January 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0843952016
ISBN-13: 978-0843952018