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AZ: Anno Zombie
It’s the dawn of a new era…the year of the zombie!
Fire rained from the sky over Tucson that day. A dust cloud settled over the city. And the dead rose from their graves. Tom Hollinger raced to his ex-wife’s place to make sure she and his son were safe. They weren’t.
Tom was barely able to save the boy from his undead mother. Now, surrounded by a city in chaos, Tom, his son and a handful of friends are battling their way out of town, desperate to make it to safety while the army of the living dead grows in number every hour. The world no longer belongs to the living. A new era has dawned…Anno Zombie!
Fire rained from the sky over Tucson that day. A dust cloud settled over the city. And the dead rose from their graves. Tom Hollinger raced to his ex-wife’s place to make sure she and his son were safe. They weren’t.
Tom was barely able to save the boy from his undead mother. Now, surrounded by a city in chaos, Tom, his son and a handful of friends are battling their way out of town, desperate to make it to safety while the army of the living dead grows in number every hour. The world no longer belongs to the living. A new era has dawned…Anno Zombie!
328 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 4, 2012
1 person is currently reading
451 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 14, 2021
An exciting start to a new zombie series by Peter Mark May. However, lacks cohesion and the emotional pull that locks in the reader for the long term.
A veteran and his young son find themselves in an abrupt zombie apocalypse over night. Along with a group of some known friends and other stragglers they picked up. This group is trying to make it's way north of Arizona in an abandoned school bus.
They encounter many zombies of course. Also, the horrifying immoral depths of some of the remaining human beings.
I enjoyed the story and the action. However, I must say, it was a struggle for me to thoroughly engage in the story, as the emotional connections and bonds developed felt only surface level. Especially when a main member of the group would die, it felt almost irrelevant and quickly passed over. I couldn't become attached to any characters as a result. Without the emotional connection, I struggled to care or become fully invested. This aspect was greatly lacking. If the author could provide a more in-depth story line among the survivors, then as a reader I would become much more invested in the characters and their story.
I did like the creative twist on the zombies. The reader is given hints about unusual activity from the reanimated, which seem to imply the zombies may possibly possess some form of intelligence. I hope the author continues this story line into the next book of the series.
Thank you to Crossroad Press via NetGalley for the digital reader copy.
A veteran and his young son find themselves in an abrupt zombie apocalypse over night. Along with a group of some known friends and other stragglers they picked up. This group is trying to make it's way north of Arizona in an abandoned school bus.
They encounter many zombies of course. Also, the horrifying immoral depths of some of the remaining human beings.
I enjoyed the story and the action. However, I must say, it was a struggle for me to thoroughly engage in the story, as the emotional connections and bonds developed felt only surface level. Especially when a main member of the group would die, it felt almost irrelevant and quickly passed over. I couldn't become attached to any characters as a result. Without the emotional connection, I struggled to care or become fully invested. This aspect was greatly lacking. If the author could provide a more in-depth story line among the survivors, then as a reader I would become much more invested in the characters and their story.
I did like the creative twist on the zombies. The reader is given hints about unusual activity from the reanimated, which seem to imply the zombies may possibly possess some form of intelligence. I hope the author continues this story line into the next book of the series.
Thank you to Crossroad Press via NetGalley for the digital reader copy.
May 23, 2021
WILL CONTAIN MINOR SPOILER AT THE END OF REVIEW! i requested this on netgalley, i really liked it, i love apocalytpic.survival,zombie stuff so of course i was interested and curious about reading this book. we follow Tom whos is a veteran getting to his ex-wives house to save his son and survive the zombies, he ends up meeting some survivors on the way who he helps and that help him. i liked Tom,he was a good character and narrator,also liked the decisions he made. its a short book and its actually fast pace and i liked all the main characters (tom,anna,tommy,alan,dan,kendra..) i like their interactions and how they were smart,making good decisions and didnt do stupid annoying things. im not used to reading adult so certain parts in the book specially in the beginning certain things that tom thinks/says i was like "ohhh, idk how i feel about this" but after it was ok and i got into the book more. i didnt want anythin bad to happen to our characters ofc. the characters were good people, brave,smart,helpful and resourceful which was good!! it sucked when characters died tho even some they werent main characters (but i thought they were gonna be ). i liked the ending too and the fact that we get a way to end the zombies and what makes them undead. im curious and interested in reading the sequel. i wonder what will happen and who we will follow. i also wonder what happened to some certain characters..i hope they survived.. i also liked that we got multiple povs sometimes, mostly it was toms but sometimes we would get the zombies which was pretty cool, or another character that is dying or a bad guy, or one of the other characters like tommy etc.. overall i would recommend this book for those readers like me that like this genre of books and want somethin easy,fast and good to read!
December 18, 2012
I just love where Peter Mark May’s mind lives. It is an incredibly horrific and terrifying place...but I love to visit it nonetheless. On the heels of his breakout hit HEDGE END, May brings us a new glimpse into zombie horror with AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE. If you’re a zombie fan at all, this is one book that you must add to your collection!
AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a bold take on a heavily populated genre. It is a brutal and graphic look into the heart of a zombie apocalypse, but it is also so much more. With this book, May gives us a stark vision of how quickly society could potentially crumble in the midst of such a cataclysmic event.
As with his previous publication, this book is well written and moves along at a nice pace. The prose flows nicely as well, allowing the reader full immersion into this grim and savage world. And the characters are well thought out and believable, a hodge-podge of various personalities and damaged souls. The result is a provocative and vicious book that will keep you glued to its pages.
Obviously, AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a tale about the walking dead; but at its core, the story focuses on one man and the lengths he will go to to protect his son and the people he cares about. The character of Tom is anything but a perfect father, but when the shit hits the proverbial fan, he does whatever he has to in order to provide for his son...even kill the living.
This human-drama element is just one of the several aspects that sets AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE apart from other zombie books. Another is May’s unique take on the zombies themselves. It is always refreshing to see an original idea for the origin of a zombie outbreak, and May certainly has one here. I will not give anything away, but I can honestly say that I’ve never run across this one before.
AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a definite must read and would make the perfect Christmas gift for any horror reader. Peter Mark May is a tremendous talent and an author to watch out for; if you are not familiar with his work now, I can almost guarantee that it won’t be long before you will be. Give this one (and his previous book HEDGE END, for that matter) a look for sure.
AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a bold take on a heavily populated genre. It is a brutal and graphic look into the heart of a zombie apocalypse, but it is also so much more. With this book, May gives us a stark vision of how quickly society could potentially crumble in the midst of such a cataclysmic event.
As with his previous publication, this book is well written and moves along at a nice pace. The prose flows nicely as well, allowing the reader full immersion into this grim and savage world. And the characters are well thought out and believable, a hodge-podge of various personalities and damaged souls. The result is a provocative and vicious book that will keep you glued to its pages.
Obviously, AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a tale about the walking dead; but at its core, the story focuses on one man and the lengths he will go to to protect his son and the people he cares about. The character of Tom is anything but a perfect father, but when the shit hits the proverbial fan, he does whatever he has to in order to provide for his son...even kill the living.
This human-drama element is just one of the several aspects that sets AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE apart from other zombie books. Another is May’s unique take on the zombies themselves. It is always refreshing to see an original idea for the origin of a zombie outbreak, and May certainly has one here. I will not give anything away, but I can honestly say that I’ve never run across this one before.
AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE is a definite must read and would make the perfect Christmas gift for any horror reader. Peter Mark May is a tremendous talent and an author to watch out for; if you are not familiar with his work now, I can almost guarantee that it won’t be long before you will be. Give this one (and his previous book HEDGE END, for that matter) a look for sure.
January 17, 2013
On the day that signifies the dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse, Tucson folks could be considered some of the luckier ones. At least their city still exists. Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other major cities around the world have disappeared into a gaping fiery hole, and all their denizens disappear forever. Armageddon has arrived.
As fire rains down on Tucson, Tom Hollinger and his new main squeeze, Casey, raceacross town to rescue his ex-wife and son from an army of zombies. By the time they get toTommy Jr.’s house, there is barely enough time to rescue his son—who witnessed his nowzombie mother eat her baby daughter—and escape with their lives. Heading for a pub run by his bestfriend and former British paratrooper Alan Hopkins, they hole up and decide how to get out of town.
Together with a mixed bag of survivors, they take off, loaded down with all the weapons they canfind. They’re in a school bus heading north on Interstate 10 in an effort to leave the city limits, hoping to discover what life is left in Phoenix. Along the way they encounter armies of rotting zombie corpses, pick up the occasional straggler and lose a few of their own, as well as encountering packs of rabid humans out to protect themselves or provoke others. Night finds them in relative safety atop a mountain where they can watch the approaching zombie army. If they can get out of this one, what can they expect with the dawning of a new day?
Not for the faint of heart, this bloody thriller has all you could ask for and is a great horror story. An average Joe rises to the occasion to help lead his fellow humans, a splendidly written narrative, and ast-pace gore galore. In this good vs. evil thrill-a-minute story, May has found a way to capture a piece of humanity and give us hope that good will prevail in the end.
As fire rains down on Tucson, Tom Hollinger and his new main squeeze, Casey, raceacross town to rescue his ex-wife and son from an army of zombies. By the time they get toTommy Jr.’s house, there is barely enough time to rescue his son—who witnessed his nowzombie mother eat her baby daughter—and escape with their lives. Heading for a pub run by his bestfriend and former British paratrooper Alan Hopkins, they hole up and decide how to get out of town.
Together with a mixed bag of survivors, they take off, loaded down with all the weapons they canfind. They’re in a school bus heading north on Interstate 10 in an effort to leave the city limits, hoping to discover what life is left in Phoenix. Along the way they encounter armies of rotting zombie corpses, pick up the occasional straggler and lose a few of their own, as well as encountering packs of rabid humans out to protect themselves or provoke others. Night finds them in relative safety atop a mountain where they can watch the approaching zombie army. If they can get out of this one, what can they expect with the dawning of a new day?
Not for the faint of heart, this bloody thriller has all you could ask for and is a great horror story. An average Joe rises to the occasion to help lead his fellow humans, a splendidly written narrative, and ast-pace gore galore. In this good vs. evil thrill-a-minute story, May has found a way to capture a piece of humanity and give us hope that good will prevail in the end.
May 7, 2021
AZ: ANNO ZOMBIE by Peter Mark May
I like a great zombie novel, just as much as the next person, but unfortunately, I was turned off immediately. The blurb sounded good, the genre is Horror but the language used left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The third word in the book is profanity. The second sentence has blasphemy. I will read books that have profanity in them, I'm not a prissy person, who can't accept what our world has turned into. But, with the blasphemy there on the same page, I found that I simply didn't want to devote any more time to the novel. Yes, I understand that in a war, zombie, or horror situation a person is probably going to get profane to get their point across. Maybe the author could put it further into the book, so it's more in passing than straight up before you even care about the characters or the plot.
There were no trigger warnings on the blurb. Highly disappointed.
I received a complimentary copy of #azannozombie from #netgalley I was under no obligation to post a review.
I like a great zombie novel, just as much as the next person, but unfortunately, I was turned off immediately. The blurb sounded good, the genre is Horror but the language used left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The third word in the book is profanity. The second sentence has blasphemy. I will read books that have profanity in them, I'm not a prissy person, who can't accept what our world has turned into. But, with the blasphemy there on the same page, I found that I simply didn't want to devote any more time to the novel. Yes, I understand that in a war, zombie, or horror situation a person is probably going to get profane to get their point across. Maybe the author could put it further into the book, so it's more in passing than straight up before you even care about the characters or the plot.
There were no trigger warnings on the blurb. Highly disappointed.
I received a complimentary copy of #azannozombie from #netgalley I was under no obligation to post a review.
June 19, 2014
A very unbelievable book. The world, coincidentally under key cities, opens up and swallows its inhabitants, who then reanimate as Zombies. There is no explanation of how the apocalypse started (not even the hint or one), which is something I despise most about the mass-produced, carelessly written Zombie-themed books that want to capitalize on the craze. Although this book had the potential to be interesting, it just wasn't. May failed to follow through with multiple points, leaving the reader confused and trying to fill holes in the plot. Why, for example, did this massive group of Zombies follow Tom all over Arizona (specifically, why did Zombies, who had known him in life, follow him)? Why were torrential downpours so damaging to Zombies (an interesting notion, yet one which was not explained)? If you're going to write a Zombie book, at least put enough effort in it to answer the simplest of question!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2013
I don't think that Anno Zombie adds anything new to the genre but it is a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews