Eight months ago vampires released the Revenant Virus on humanity.

For Mike Robson, the situation could be far worse. He’s joined up with a small band of humans and the last coven of vampires who are riding out the zombie apocalypse in an old fort along the coast of southern Maine.

The group’s uneasy alliance is strained by the arrival of the creator of the Revenant Virus. He claims there is a vaccine that will make them immune to the virus, but it’s located in a secure underground facility five hundred miles away.

To retrieve the vaccine, Robson leads a raiding party of humans and vampires down the devastated East Coast. Yet none of the horrors Robson has faced match what awaits in the underground facility…

Okay, today on the chopping block is Rotter World by Scott M. Baker, one of the latest zombie releases by the well-respected Permuted Press. Permuted Press has been known to crank out quality zombie fiction, with classics such as ‘Day by Day Armageddon’, ‘Domain of the Dead’, ‘Eden’, ‘Empire’, ‘Dying to Live’, ‘Plague of the Dead’, ‘Down the Road’, ‘Ex-Heroes’, ‘The Infection’ and ‘Kings of the Dead’. With those heavy hitting zombie classics niched in Permuted Press’ belt, it must be pretty intimidating for the next generation of Permuted Press authors to pass along the torch, to maintain the Press’ reputation as one of the best publishers of zombie fiction. Rotter World keeps up the pace and delivers a great story that is reminiscent of some of the zombie classics, bringing out some original concepts and a different spin on the genre.

Rotter World tries something different by throwing vampires into the mix. I was hesitant at first, worried that the author would not be able to use that vampire-element in order to give us a plot-line that is different from all the rest. I’ve seen it before, where an author brings in a new element, something different, yet poor execution leads to a boring and bland plotline. If you wanna bring something different into the genre, you better well use it to make the plot itself different as well, if you fail to do so, then you’re dancing to the same boring tune like everybody else. Rotter World does not fall into this category. The author does a stellar job using the vampire element to shape this story into something different and unique. He utilizes the vampire element of the story in some clever ways and I applaud him for it.

Writing: I enjoyed the writing style. Scott Baker has a straight-forward, clean and crisp writing style that brings the story to life. His descriptions can really bring the gore and his action sequences are well orchestrated. Writing wise, I have no qualms.

Characters: Some of the characters were a little cardboard-ish but overall, the characters in the books are real. A few of them I could live without and I wished the author may have fleshed them out a little bit more. (such as Natalie, O’Bannon and Mad Dog) I really wish Mad Dog was fleshed out more. There was a scene with Mad Dog that I had slight issues with. The reason being that the scene could have been better if it occurred later on in the book, and if you’ve read the book, you’d understand the particular scene I am talking about.

Plot: Riveting. This book has a great plot and the vampire element gives it an original spin on the zombie story. There is a lot of action, blood and gore and also, great conflicts. Maybe one or two of the conflicts seemed a little contrived, but overall, they were some pretty good action scenes. Also, not very zombie novels can give me an ‘Oh Crap!’ moment, this is mainly due to the fact that I’ve read a whack-load of zombie fiction and have read a lot of pretty twisted stuff. But, Rotter World, near the end of the book, gave me a good ‘Oh Crap!’ moment and the author gets bonus points for that.

Overall: Rotter World stands out as one hell of a zombie novel and with a little time, it will catch on and become a popular read among fans. I think somewhere down the road, people might regard Rotter World as a Permuted Press classic and I would probably be one of the people testifying to that. This story has a great plot, good characters, strong re-read value and an excellent, unique slant on the genre.

Available on Amazon.