Review: The Living End by: James Robert Smith
One hundred and Fifty million zombies.
Sixty Million Dogs.
All of them hungry for warm human flesh
The dead have risen, killing anyone they find. The living know what’s caused it—a vicious contagion. But too late to stop it. For now, what remains of society are the busy shutting down nuclear reactors and securing chemical plants to prevent runaway reactions in both. There’s little time for anything else
Failed comic book artist Rick Nuttman and his family have joined thousands of other desperate people in trying to find a haven from the madness.
Perhaps refuge can be found in the village of Sparta or maybe there is salvation in The City of Ruth, a community raised from the ashes of Carolina.
In the low country below the hills, a monster named Danger man changes everything.
While watching over it all, the mysterious figure of BC, moving his gigantic canine pack westward, into lands where survivors think they are safe
And always, the mindless hordes neither living nor dead, waiting only to destroy
There will be a reckoning
This was an interesting read, but has me a little torn. The writing was better than average for zombie novels but the story and characters are lacking in places.
Plot: Basically, the world is an apocalyptic nightmare where survivors not only have to worry about the rotting masses, but also has to keep their watch for dogs, which makes for an interesting concept. The dog element in this story made for a unique slant, but I wasn’t that fond of actually devoting a few chapters to the dog’s perspective, particularly, from the perspective of BC. (Rick Nuttman’s dog) The plot takes a different turn after reading through the first half. The story takes on a religious theme, showing how religion comes into play to establish differences between people, thus leading to serious conflict. Overall, the plot wasn’t bad. A lot of things were happening in this story, but the writing style is energetic and it keeps the story going at a fluid pace.
Characters: The story starts off from the perspective of a few very different characters. I was pleasantly surprised from the strong characterization in the beginnings chapters. The characters were well drawn and some of them seemed like real world people. Although, as the story progressed, these characters lost some of that lustre and they quickly became paper thin. I think this is due to the fact that he tried to balance a story from several perspectives with a large cast of characters. (human and dog alike)What I found disappointed was that he made one character realistic and evil, yet that character’s presence was short-lived in the novel, which makes me think that the author shifted into a lot of different gears during the writing process of this novel.
Writing: The writing is energetic and he actually has an admirable writing style. It’s not quite the greatest I’ve seen, but it’s definitely on the stronger side of the spectrum than most. Which is nice to see and James Robert Smith certainly has a good writing style.
Overall: I wasn’t that fond of the plot, and I thought there were a lot more things he could have done with the dogs. The characterization started off great, but quickly lost momentum. I think this story is kind of average plot-wise. But! I think that a lot of people might actually like a story like this because it does have a unique feel due to the dogs’ presence. I was not a big fan, but I can see where people will like this story. Now, there are a few comments I have to make about the actually book itself. I am impressed with Severed Press and some of the material they produce. They make good readable material and they are cranking out some good stuff, and the cover art for this novel is very well done. They took time to get an artist with talent to make their cover art and it really makes this novel stand out. This was an average read, although I did enjoy the writing style. If I had to give this a rating out of 10, I would give it a 7.
Available at Amazon.
