Zombie Maelstrom by Bryan Cassiday
What happened when they were in the air?
3.75 out of 5
Passengers aboard a flight landing at LAX were surprised when their captain announced that they were landing without the approval of the air traffic controllers. Once they land, they’re not sure what they are stumbling into. LA and LAX are covered in fog/smog/smoke and they can’t see anything. Passengers start to go missing and people are crashing out of high windows and falling with no screams. What is going on?
The narration for Zombie Maelstrom was done by D.G. Chichester and it was done well. Chichester did different voices for different characters, which was really nice. Though a few times I found myself having to pause it to get my bearings on who was talking in the book. The production value is great, I didn’t have any issues with this audiobook — it sounded great.
The story was different. I’ve read many different zombie books, and a lot of them even start out with the main characters not knowing what was going on. But this one still felt unique to me. The main characters in the story felt hashed out by Cassiday.
The book fell just a little flat for me with the confusion of characters (two or three of them just felt like they were the same person). I think slightly more back-story (without getting boring) would be needed to really explain what makes some of these people tick. The turn towards the end of the story (not trying to give anything away) was probably the best thought out part of this book. They could have spent slightly less time trying to figure out what to do, and more time in and around the camp.
The camp’s leader felt like the most explained character in the book, but maybe because he was easily hated. But not as easily hated as the main antagonist, Leamans, who is with the survivors the whole time (seriously I haven’t hated a character in a book that much in a long time). Writing a character who is that much of an a-hole couldn’t have been easy.
Overall, the book felt like it had some new and different aspects to add to the zombie fiction/post-apocalyptic genre. And it had some other aspects that felt very “been there, done that.” This book was a pretty quick read, and the audiobook was enjoyable.
Virulent pockets of plague, first reported in China, break out worldwide and spread with mind-boggling speed. CIA black ops agent Chad Halverson flies to Los Angeles to visit his brother after receiving a call that his brother has been hospitalized after a car accident. Halverson’s Boeing 737 crash-lands in an eerie Los Angeles shrouded with an impenetrable haze of smog. But that is only the tip of the iceberg of Halverson’s nightmare. Lurking in this mist are legions of plague-infected living dead who are driven by an all-consuming lust for human flesh. Halverson’s reunion with his brother must take second place to his own struggle to stay alive.
As civilization crumbles into chaos, it will take all the skills and wits Halverson and his fellow passengers possess for their hunted party to survive in a world overrun with hordes of flesh-craving zombies. Which will pose a bigger threat to Halverson and his ever-dwindling band–their own bickering as they try to organize and defend themselves, their enemies the living dead, or the new “civilization” of men that is superseding the old?
Bryan Cassiday is the author of ten novels. His numerous short stories have appeared in anthologies, such as HORROR SOCIETY STORIES VOLUME ONE. He has been compared to writers as diverse as Robert Ludlum, Jorge Luis Borges, and Max Brooks.
His Chad Halverson zombie apocalypse series includes ZOMBIE MAELSTROM (book 1), ZOMBIE NECROPOLIS (book 2), SANCTUARY IN STEEL (book 3), KILL RATIO (book 4), and POXLAND (book 5).
ALIEN ASSAULT, COMES A CHOPPER, HELTER SKELTER, and BLOOD MOON: THRILLERS AND TALES OF TERROR are his collections of apocalyptic horror short stories. His horror story “A Way Out” is being translated into French for the May/June 2015 issue of the horror anthology TENEBRES.
He also wrote the CIA spy thrillers THE ANACONDA COMPLEX, THE KILL OPTION, and FETE OF DEATH.
His Ethan Carr private detective series, which started with COUNTDOWN TO DEATH, will continue with a sequel due to be released in 2016.
Best-known quote: “The question is, will they be reading my works fifty years from now? Only if I can scratch my soul with my pen.”
