John O’Brien’s second book in the New World series picks up right from the end of the first book, Chaos. There is some interesting insight into the infected now referred to as the Night Runners due to their increased activity at night versus daytime.
Jack Walker, his family, girlfriend Lynn and the remaining soldiers from Kuwait are on their way back to the states and have to stop in the Azores just like Walker did on his way to SWA. Events have changed in the short time they spent in Kuwait. Lajes now has fewer personnel and is missing their general leaving a skeleton crew to fend for themselves.
Walker offers them a ride on the HC130 and they become one big happy family after setting some ground rules. This leads to them painting the aircraft in rainbow colors and singing ‘C’mon get happy’. Oops, sorry about that, wrong story.
Robert, Walker’s son has been spending time at the controls enabling Walker to communicate with the surviving soldiers, spend some quality time with Lynn and get some much needed rest and giving Robert more ‘stick’ time which equals more experience. Upon leaving Lajes, the decision is made to attempt to get to Atlanta where the CDC has their headquarters and recover information about the virus. This is a great plot device but it seems a little weak in my opinion. Here’s why. In a pandemic, the CDC sends field teams out to the hotzone(s) and has them do preliminary testing and review of what the outbreak is based on the conditions of the patients (victims). That information is sent back to the CDC but the field teams retain a copy for themselves. It would have been far easier to locate a field team and much less risky. But, considering that the Atlanta HQ would have all the data collected from all the teams, the intelligence reward is worth the risk.
Moving on, Walker puts the plane down in Atlanta and a plan is worked out where a group of soldiers led by Lynn will infiltrate the CDC complex and recover any pertinent data that may be there. This is where the reader receives additional details on the Night Runners. The first attempt is repulsed due to the superior numbers of infected that are inside the building.
Enter former SOF badass operator Jack Walker. Instead of sending in a large group which creates a large footprint, he goes solo into the building and reaches the objective with minimal contact with the hostile element that resides inside.
The intel recovered really gives the characters and the reader a scary look at what they’re facing. The Night Runners have been physiologically mutated by the Cape Town Virus into a predatory species that thrive in low light conditions. This does not mean the Night Runners are zombie’s just mutated, cannibalistic humanoids.
There was one little issue that I thought was a bit of a foreshadowing or what poker players call a ‘tell’. Walker mentions that he’d like to try for NORAD and see if that installation is still operational. Conveniently, while overflying a location near that facility they pick up a radio transmission and lo and behold, it’s a security team from NORAD. In my opinion, leaving what happened to that facility a bit more of a mystery would have served the plot better and added a future goal for the characters.
Book 2 of the New World series is yet another excellent addition to the apocalyptic/horror genre but as stated in my first review, the Night Runners are not zombies by any stretch of the imagination. This new species can adapt and evolve essentially learning from the contact it has with survivors. They are not walking dead or reanimated dead; they are now at the top of the food chain with superior night vision, sense of smell and other changes.
John O’Brien’s writing is still dead on target as he adds his years of real world experience as a USAF pilot and later as an SOF operator to the story. This is what a military themed apocalyptic novel should be.
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