Nearly two hundred years after the planet was ravaged by millions of undead Zees, the human race is still struggling to rebuild. The Zees may be long gone, but so too are centuries of scientific advancement.
A group calling themselves The Keepers of Knowledge have set out to retrieve and protect what little technology survived the fall. When four of their Prospectors go missing, the Keepers turn to a no-nonsense mercenary named Azina and her eclectic crew of hardened veterans to find them.
The search leads the group to a crumbling underground city. But what looks like just another ruin from a bygone era isn’t nearly as deserted as it appears. Soon, a simple rescue mission becomes a slippery descent into hell as Azina and her men unwittingly awaken a savage, bloodthirsty world. Who will stand and fight, and who will be lucky enough to stay dead?
I was fortunate enough to have the author, Griffin Hayes, contact and send me a copy of Hive, a zombie novella. I’m usually not a big fan of novellas, mainly because novellas are a very hard story to sell, and most publishers see them as a publishing grey area. So, right from the get-go, I was suspecting a lacklustre attempt at originality but I was wrong, Hive is genuinely original.
That is probably the most attractive quality about Hive; it stands alone in the genre because its slant on zombies is different, appealing and clever. I was pleasantly surprised at how different this story truly was, and I couldn’t put it down.
Writing: I liked the writing style. There is room for a little improvement, sure, but he has the kind of writing style that will drastically improve with everything he writes. So for now, the writing is good, but it also has the potential to be great. I would have liked to have seen a few more descriptive scenes of the zombies, but I also understand that the author was trying to keep a fast pace and he didn’t want to bog down the quick pace of the story, so I can’t gripe about that too much. Pacing was a strong factor in this novella because the author’s sharp, clean-cut writing style, mixed with the interesting plot, made for a very quick read.
Criticisms: I am not sure what I have in the way for criticisms because this book has not disappointed me in any way. But, I do wonder if the author would have been better off to expand it into a novel and publish it as a paperback to reach a wider audience beyond just the Kindle market. Because this isn’t reaching a bigger market as I’d like to see, but I really hope that the author does garner a following from the Hive series. It seems as though people are taking an interest in the series and there are some fans eagerly awaiting the second book in the series, (which is due out soon) and I will admit that I am one of those people.
Overall: If you want a zombie story that is fast paced and has an original plot, then look no further than the Hive series. I really am curious as to how the author will continue the series considering how he ended the first installment…read the story and you’ll see what I mean. I have the feeling that this might become a very successful series once more people discover this talented author.
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