Patient Zero

Bad Moon Rising
$6.99
Every chasm is inky and black, every bad guy sinister. Maberry's more recent books have improved somewhat, but wading through this trilogy was painful. The story he created was just interesting enough to keep the pages turning, but the writing is so convoluted that it was a skim-and-skip experience. Not recommended.

Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead
$16.95
I'm a sucker for fantastic ideas treated realistically, so books like World War Z, which look at zombies and attempt to place them in our world are pure gold to me. This looked like the same sort of thing (though obviously not a narrative, more of a long essay), but from a completely different perspective, and I wasn't disappointed.

The focus here is on law enforcement, and other government and medical authorities. Experts in these fields are interviewed and asked to imagine various zombie scenarios and comment about the response to it, and the final outcome. This is both the greatest strength, and greatest weakness of this book.

The strength is obvious, these people know what they do inside and out, and are far more qualified than most to imagine these scenarios. The SWAT and legal experts, in particular, had some detailed and interesting ideas. That's why I devour books like this, to see what actual experts with real world experience will say.

The weakness comes from the fact that most of these experts seem incensed at the idea of being overtaken by the undead. To take this book's word for it, every cop is expertly trained and always cool under pressure. Most probably are, and they usually do get unfair treatment in zombie stories, but I've met enough cops to know that not all are (one actually told my friends and I that we made him nervous... and I am NOT a scary or aggressive person). I also thin that a bit too much faith is shown in the abilities of the CDC and WHO to react to and contain a fast spreading virus. Not that I doubt their abilities so much as I don't really buy that they could react fast enough to most of the zombie scenarios depicted in movies. There are dissenting opinions present, which is good, but the author is definitely on the side of "the authorities will handle it."

Finally, some points are raised that have been addressed in some works, but those works are not referenced. One specific example is the fact that zombies will eventually rot to the point of not being able to move. In the World War Z world (which is referenced other places), the zombie virus retards the decomposition process by making the flesh of the undead inedible to bacteria. Maybe not a likely scenario, but it would have been nice for that to be mentioned, rather than holding up eventual decomp as a likely way we would win.

I don't mean this to sound as negative as it does, I loved this book start to finish. The ideas and perspectives presented are fascinating, and the artwork scattered throughout is mostly of very high quality. It gets you thinking in new ways about old scenarios, and that's worth the price of admission right there.

PS: One last, minor quibble: The author mentioned the old "science can't explain how bees fly" notion to suggest that while science is exact, is it incomplete. The sentiment is right on, but the example is all wrong. We can explain exactly how bees fly, there is no mystery there (their wings create a tiny vortex above then that essentially sucks them up), we just couldn't explain it back when linear aerodynamics (which can explain how birds fly) were all that was known. Foolish ideas like this, and the idea that we only use 10% of our brains, just refuse to die.

Ghost Road Blues
$6.99
I'm an avid horror fan. I have hungered for some fresh, new, really good classic style horror ....for years now. King, Little, Kontz all getting so stale, and formula, in their success and then along comes Mayberry with his first horror book and knocks my socks off! I could NOT put this book down...and waited in pain every day untill the next two books of this 3 part story came out. And was never disappointed. This is a keeper. You will NOT go wrong with this book! Just make sure you have access to the 2 books that follow or you will go insane! I sure hope he writes more horror! Sooner the better. Please?!

Patient Zero
$17.00
The world is bracing for the next pandemic - a violent virus which could decimate millions. Patient Zero is the story of Canadian virologist Lara Williams and her involvement in the threatened pandemic that seems to have its origins in the Middle East. She is sent to Riyadh to investigate, as part of a World Health Organization Pandemic Containment team, when she meets Daniel Thompson - a journalist who offers to trade any information they respectively have on a possible source at Mecca.