The Military has returned home to try and reclaim the country from the destruction caused by those infected with the mysterious virus from DiLouie’s 2011 THE INFECTION. Meanwhile, a survivor wakes from a coma to learn he has survived Infection. But, not in the way he would have liked. Buckle up, kids. You are in the hands of Craig DiLouie. Things are going to get brutal.

I was fortunate enough to review Craig DiLouie’s 2011 Apocalyptic masterpiece THE INFECTION, the forebear to THE KILLING FLOOR. Simply put, it was a genuine masterpiece in the whole Apocalypse sub-genre. A virus sweeps the country, dropping people where they stood, then bringing them back as singularly violent creatures, whose sole purpose is to further the Infection. It was brutal, fast paced, and an absolute must read.

So, along comes the sequel. THE KILLING FLOOR picks up right where THE INFECTION left off. America’s Military has been recalled from overseas, tasked with salvaging what’s left of Washington DC. That would seem simple enough, except that the Infected outnumber them, and, as an added bonus, some of the Infected have begun to mutate into some pretty gruesome monsters.

While all this is going down, a survivor wakes up after having being infected, only to realize that is he immune, but that he may also be the key to either ending the Infection, or ending the world. This part of the book was a pleasant surprise. The character arc of Ray Jones was intriguing and it caught me off guard. If there is one thing DiLouie knows, it is carnage. The carnage sequences in THE KILLING FLOOR, as they are in his previous works, are brutal, vicious and absolutely riveting, but I was not expecting the attention paid to character development, and it pays off in a richer and more fuller read. And, just like DiLouie’s other books, once I started it, I simply could not put it down. I couldn’t really find any soft spots in the narrative, or any real flaws in the book. Granted, that’s just my opinion. Feel free to have one of your own.

No one could ever accuse DiLouie of being a sentimentalist. The action is designed to always be moving forward, and sometimes the characters, people you have been pulling for, are killed off. That’s not a detriment, mind you. Craig DiLouie qualifies as a must read. His prose is quick, razor sharp, and unflinching. The literary equivalent of getting hit with a heart defibrillator. It’s a treat to read someone who writes with a true love of the constructs of the genre. If you haven’t read Craig DiLouie yet, stop reading right now, and buy his book. Hell, buy all his books. If you enjoy the Apocalyptic Fiction genre, then you need his books on your shelf.

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