Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Katniss and Peeta are embarking on their victory tour. Having won the hunger games they should be safe but there are rumours of an uprising and Katniss is at the heart of it which puts her in even more danger.

Having finished The Hunger Games I jumped straight into Catching Fire, I wasn’t too sure where it was going to go but was interested to see what would happen to Katniss after winning the Hunger Games and I wasn’t disappointed. The book begins about six months after the events of The Hunger Games.

Again the book was pacy and action packed and I read it pretty much all in one sitting. We saw the return of many key characters and the introduction of some new ones which was interesting. The ending is a cliff hanger so straight onto book three for me. (I’m glad I’m reading them all at once, I’d hate to have to wait for the next one to be released)!

Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games

Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, an area of the country that was previously North America but is now known as Panem. Every year the Capitol run the Hunger Games. A brutal reality TV show where the participants aged between 12 and 18 are picked by lottery from the surrounding districts to compete to the death. The last person alive is declared the winner. When Katniss’ sister is picked to take part Katniss volunteers to take her place and begins the battle for her life in the arena.

I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games so when I saw the books on special offer I bought them and jumped them to the top of my to read list. I read a little bit of YA but not a huge amount. Most of the time when reading YA I personally feel it suffers for it and would be better had it been written as an adult book. With The Hunger Games I would say the opposite is true, it works perfectly as it is and it would have suffered had it been written for adults.

Katniss is an interesting character, flawed but likeable, tough but not without weakness. The other supporting characters are also good, I did find Peeta a little annoying though! The story is fast paced, I pretty much sat and read it in one sitting. I liked the imagery of the future world and the difference in living conditions between the Capitol and the districts.

It's straight on to book two for me, looking forward to finding out what happens!

Alex Scarrow – Last Light

Oil engineer Andy Sutherland has bored his family for years with scare stories about how one day the oil supply could get cut off and disaster would follow. Following some unrest in the Middle East his predictions start to become true. Andy is stranded in Iraq at the time while his wife Jenny is in Manchester desperately trying to get home to their children who are in London surrounded by looters and lawlessness.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction and this book had been on my wish list for a while. It’s actually more apocalyptic than post-apocalyptic but that doesn’t matter, in fact I think it’s probably the better for it.

The narrative follows the Sutherland family who are all in different locations. Andy is working in Iraq, Jenny is in Manchester for a job interview Leona is at university and has to go and collect her brother Jake from boarding school and return to the family home in London, the chapters switch between the different family members. Leona and Jake’s chapters were my favourite although I did enjoy the whole book.

The book is quite disturbing as it is a potentially realistic situation that could occur. Having witnessed the riots across the country this summer it shows how fragile our society really is, so if there was some kind of major disaster that cut off the oil supply things could potentially break down pretty quickly if handled the wrong way by those in charge.

I liked the writing style and that fast pace of the book. I also liked that it was set (mainly) in the UK. The characters were interesting and the story engrossing. I’ll definitely be adding the sequel, Afterlight to my to read pile.

Right I’m off to stock up on tinned food …

Simon Morden – Equations of Life

It’s twenty years after Armageddon. Samuil Petrovitch is a Russian immigrant living in the London Metrozone and researching at the university. He tries to keep to himself to avoid any unwanted attention but when he intervenes to prevent a kidnapping he puts himself onto the radar of the police and two separate gangs which causes big problems.

I’ve had this book in my to read pile for a little while. My Dad lent it to me as he said it was really good but the cover blurb wasn’t really grabbing my attention. My Dad started to badger me for it back so I bumped it up the to read pile and I’m really glad I did.

One of the big things that I loved about this book was the imagery of a post Armageddon London. Clapham Common and Regents park piled high with shipping containers acting as housing for the millions of people crammed into the metrozone, the area within the boundary of the M25 and the only habitable city in the country.

The story itself was interesting and engaging and I was hooked almost immediately. The pacing is fast throughout and the characters are varied and well written. Samuil is a flawed but likeable protagonist with an interesting back story that is lightly touched upon. Sister Madeline is a rebellious nun. In the post-armageddon world the job of a nun is to protect her priest so Madeline is good with guns. The other supporting characters are also interesting.

I’m really pleased I read this book and am very much looking forward to reading the following two books in the trilogy (they are currently in my to read pile awaiting my attention).

Justin Cronin – The Passage

The army was conducting experiments in trying to lengthen life span and improve the healing capabilities of the human body. Instead what they created turned the test people into ferocious vampire type creatures who managed to escape and kill or infect people with the virus. The survivors end up living in a walled encampment surrounded by bright lights to keep the creatures away. A girl called Amy holds the key to survival.

I had been looking forward to reading The Passage as I love post-apocalyptic fiction and the comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand along with praise from Stephen King himself all added to the appeal so when it arrived it jumped straight to the top of my to read pile.

Personally I didn’t think that the book was very much like The Stand (the cause of the apocalypse is a man made virus, the book is quite long, there’s an old woman in it and a band of survivors travelling together for a common purpose are pretty much the main similarities although most of these could be said about a lot of post-apocalyptic books). If I was going to compare it to anything I’d suggest Swan Song by Robert R McCammon but I think comparisons are generally pretty pointless, I’d rather look at books in their own right.

The Passage has two distinct sections. The first covering the cause of the virus and it’s leak into society which tales up about a third of the book and the second section which covered the aftermath and follows the survivors almost one hundred years afterwards which takes up the rest of the book. I have seen several reviews saying that they loved the first part but not the second so much but personally I really liked it all. It was really interesting to read about how the virus came about and it was equally interesting to read about the survivors and how their lives are almost one hundred years on and their quest to save themselves.

I liked the story and the style in which it was written which included a variety of different types of writing including first person, third person, diary entries and emails which I think all worked well together and added to the reading experience.

There is quite a large cast of characters most of whom were memorable and easy to distinguish between (I did have to remind myself who a couple of the scientist / government characters were in the first part of the book but apart from that I found them easy to keep track of). The band of survivors in particular are very interesting and likeable and I very much enjoyed reading about them. There are s few characters who I think are pretty much safe but at the same time Justin Cronin is not afraid to kill off other important characters which I like, it keeps the reader on their toes knowing that one of their favourite characters could die at any given moment.

The Passage is apparently the first in a trilogy. I’m not sure what to make of that really. I think the book works perfectly in it’s own right, it doesn’t need anything more. At the end the situation is not all tied up nice and neatly but that doesn’t matter, most of the human race has been wiped out that does not make for a nice neat ending. There are unanswered questions but I am not a person who needs all the answers, sometimes it’s nice just to have something to think about and wonder and to be honest I’m not sure how another two books could be filled (especially if they are anywhere near as long as The Passage is) but then perhaps that’s why I’m a reader and not a writer! I will of course read the next book and I’ll probably really enjoy it (I liked the sample chapter that was included in the back of this book) but I don’t think that a sequel is in any way needed.

I liked reading the afterward of the book about how Justin Cronin wrote The Passage. I also like the inclusion of the recommended reading list as well, I have read quite a few of the books on that list already but will look into some more of them at some point.

Alden Bell – The Reapers are the Angels

Temple is fifteen years old, born into a dangerous post-apocalyptic America where zombies roam. She travels alone, but when she stumbles across helpless Maury she decided to try and help him find his family. The trip in itself is dangerous and it is not helped by the fact that Temple is being pursued by a man that wants to kill her.

Temple is a complex character. She is only fifteen but seems older then that as she has had to grow up fast in order to survive. She has done things that she is not proud of and is haunted by that, believing herself to be a bad person. She thinks that if she can help Maury get to his family then that may in some way make up for some of the bad things she has done.

The book is set about twenty-five years after the zombie outbreak. This is the only world Temple knows but we meet several characters who remember the world before. The zombies seem to be growing slower and weaker but they still pose a big threat, all it takes is one bite and you will become one of them. The zombies are an important part of the story but in a way they are more of a background feature, this book is not full of blood and gore like many zombie books it is more about Temple’s journey, both physically across America and mentally, coming to terms with her past and thinking about the future.

One thing that I didn’t like about the book was the lack of speech marks. None of the dialogue has them, which I found very noticeable and odd. There was probably a reason for not having them but I don’t know what it was and I did find it quite distracting.

Overall though I really enjoyed this book. I liked the imagery of it, it was easy to picture the scenes and to immerse myself in Temple’s world. I love post-apocalypse and this is a great example of it.

Robert R. McCammon – They Thirst

Vampires have come to Los Angeles. Each night they walk the streets drinking the blood of the unsuspecting people that they find, increasing their numbers in a bid to take over the city. How can the people fight against an enemy that they don’t believe exists?

I like a good vampire novel and this is a very good vampire novel. It took me quite a long time to read it – 16 days – I normally read an average of a book a week. This book is longer than it first appears. It has 531 pages but it is printed in a quite small typeface and new chapters start on the same page rather than starting from a new page as they do in most books. I think if it was to be reprinted now the page count would probably increase fairly considerably. It is currently out of print but I was lucky enough to pick up a second hand copy at the Book Barn a while back. The only other Robert R. McCammon book that I have read is Swan Song and that is my second favourite book ever (after The Stand by Stephen King) so I thought it was about time that I read another of his books.

The book has a large cast of characters which I liked about it. The characters were all memorable and well written so it was easy to keep track of who was who. The vampires were old school evil vampires, only interested in feeding and increasing their numbers. They were quite creepy, which is good.

I enjoyed the story. I did feel that parts of it were a little farfetched but that didn’t really matter and it all served the overall plot. A couple of times I found myself wondering why the characters didn’t have mobile phones and I had to remind myself that the book was written in the 1980’s and people didn’t have mobiles back then! I think this shows that the book had a modern feel to it as it didn’t feel dated at all in any other way.

I think it’s a shame that this book is out of print. I have tried to find out why but the only information I could find was that the author deliberately keeps it out of print. I can’t find any reasons why (If anyone knows I would be interested to hear). I’m hoping that it will be put back into print at some point in the future as it’s a book that deserves to be read and enjoyed. (As an aside, when I first got Swan Song about 12 or more years ago it was out of print in the UK and I had to do a special order and pay quite a lot of money to get it. It wasn’t as simple to just get things over the internet like it is now. But Swan Song is now back in publication here so maybe there is hope that They Thirst will be re-published one day).

Wayne Simmons - Flu

An outbreak of deadly flu kills of most of the population. Those that die soon rise as zombies, hungry for the flesh of the living. The few remaining survivors face a terrifying struggle to stay alive.

Flu drew me straight in from the start, it's fast paced and full of action. There is a good range of characters who Wayne Simmons has no problem killing off! I like that in a book, it keeps you on your toes, not knowing if your favourite character is going to make it or not.

I also enjoyed the Northern Ireland setting. I don't think I've read a book set there before. I believe there is a sequel coming out at some point so I will look forward to reading that and I'll also pick up some more Wayne Simmons at some point as well.

John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids

One night strange lights appear in the sky, everyone that sees them is rendered blind. Bill Masen was in hospital with his eyes bandaged and didn’t see the lights and therefore his eyesight is saved. As well as the problem of most of the population being unable to see there is also the problem of the Triffids. Large carnivorous plants that have been bread for their valuable oils are now able to easily prey on the humans.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction and having never read The Day of the Triffids before I decided it was about time I did. I already had some idea of the plot, as I have watched a couple of T.V. adaptations in the past but I didn’t really remember them very well.

The novel was first published in 1951 and I think it has aged really well, it doesn’t feel dated and there are only a few things that occasionally give away its age. The first is when Bill wakes up in hospital and looks out of the window he is surprised that none of the houses have smoke coming from their chimneys. Secondly when Bill finds a nice apartment in a rich area of London to stay in for the night it is mentioned that the rent would have been expensive at about £2000 a year, whereas nowadays the rent would be more than that for a month! The third thing is that the Second World War is not long passed and there are suspicions implied towards Russia. Aside from those few things there is little to give away that it is 60 years old as it still manages to feel fresh and modern.

I really enjoyed the book, it pulled me in immediately and kept me eager for more throughout. I liked that as well as the difficulties of trying to survive generally there is the added complication of the Triffids making the situation so much more dangerous, even for the people who still have their sight.

I liked the writing style and the characters. I did feel at times that a few things were a little too convenient but that did not spoil my enjoyment of the book at all. It is far better than the adaptations that I have seen (but then the book always is better so no surprise there) so if you like post-apocalyptic fiction then it’s definitely one to add to the reading list, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get to it!

Richard Matheson – I Am Legend

Robert Neville is the last man alive, the rest of the population have become bloodthirsty vampires. He spends his days safeguarding his home, killing the vampires and searching for a cure. He spends his nights barricaded in his home trying to drown out the vampires that gather outside trying to get him.

I was looking forward to reading this book as it sounded like just the kind of thing I like. I had seen the film some time ago but couldn’t really remember it very well (in fact I couldn’t even remember it was vampires, I thought it was zombies but that came back to me once I started reading).

I was certainly not disappointed with the book. I enjoyed it very much and read it quite quickly. Before starting I was a little disappointed that it was so short but having now read it I think the length was just right, it would not have gained anything from being any longer, in fact it may have been the worse for it.

I think the loneliness of Robert Neville was captured well. I particularly liked the chapters with the dog which really illustrated this well. I found the book to be well written, enjoyable and quite thought provoking. I would definitely recommend it.

Charlie Higson - The Enemy

Some kind of plague has struck, affecting everyone over fourteen. Some die, others turn into zombie type creatures that want to kill and eat the living children. The story follows a group of kids from the Camden area of London approximately one year after the plague happened. They have set up home in a supermarket and survive by scavenging for food in the surrounding area. When they hear that central London is safer and that another group of kids have set up home in Buckingham Palace where they are able to grow food and keep animals they decide to make the journey across London to try and build a better live for themselves.

I saw this book advertised on T.V. back when it was first released and I really liked the sound of it. Anything post-apocalypse and you immediately have my interest. I didn't realise at first that it is a children's book, so I was disappointed when I found out. It still sounded good though and there is a warning on the back that it contains strong language and violence so that was a good sign!

The story has a large cast of main and supporting characters that are well written and believable. The plot was gripping with lots of tension and atmosphere. One thing I particularly liked is that the author is not afraid to kill off major characters. I like that in a book, it adds tension and mystery because if a character gets into a dangerous situation you don't know if they are going to survive or not.

I have a niggle with the book. This is that the zombies are referred to as "mothers" and "fathers" (as opposed to men and women) which really grated on my nerves. Having read the extract from the sequel at the back of the book I now know the reason for this, but that doesn't make it any less irritating.

Having said that it had very little impact on my enjoyment of the book which overall I thoroughly enjoyed. It was also fairly easy to forget that it is a children's book, I think it's a book that would be enjoyed by anyone that is into zombies and / or post apocalypse regardless of age. There is quite a lot of violence in the book so some parents may want to read it first before letting younger children loose on it. The swearing was minimal, the only swearword I recall seeing was "bastards". Most of the time the actual word is avoided and replaced with something like "Akkie swore loudly" and I would think that most kids know more swearwords than their parents would like to admit anyway!

So overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend it. I am looking forward to reading the sequel when it is released later in the year.