Apocalypse Atlanta

Apocalypse #1

by David Rogers

We've all seen it on the news every year. A hurricane, a tornado, a tsunami, a flood. A BAD thing happens, and all hell breaks loose.

Some people are caught in the chaos, others are victims, some run, others wait for help, most sit at home watching for everything to be fixed for them, and a few dive in to do whatever they can.

The thing about a zombie apocalypse is whether or not you're in that initial wave of people who get hungry and start snacking. And where you are as few turn to many. As we all know, when it's zombies, soon many turns to most. And it's over when most become all.

Apocalypse Atlanta follows three people as the zombies start eating and bring the world down around them a bite at a time.

One is a retired Marine. The second is a widowed single mother. And the third is a biker.

Are there right or wrong answers when zombies are involved? Do things like morality and decency matter? Is it better to be alive to feel guilty, or dead and honorable? Who decides who's right or wrong when a single mistake can make you dinner for a ravenous horde of the undead?

Genres: Zombies, Horror

720 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2013

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something in the blood of horror fans which leads them to sometimes scrape the bottom of the barrel looking for undiscovered gems. If you scrape long enough and hard enough, you'll eventually break through the bottom of the barrel, and that's where you'll find the self published zombie fiction. Finding one of those undiscovered gems in such a dire landscape is rare, but it has finally happened to me. While saying this book is a diamond in the rough might be overstating things, it's certainly an emerald or a ruby.

Where a lot of zombie novels tend to be first person male power fantasies about a man with a gun and a prepper pack trying to get to/defend his family, this novel actually has real characters. There are three main characters, all with different personalities, viewpoints, manners of speech, and ways of dealing with the crisis. The novel gives you some time to get to know these people as the zombie outbreak spreads and intensifies, then does a good job maintaining the suspense for each character when the shit really starts to hit the fan.

One thing that impressed me was how grounded everything felt. I mean, yeah, there's zombies, but beyond that the characters reactions to the implausible threat were completely plausible. Nobody's spouting cheesy one-liners, nobody's jumping motorcycles over swarms of zombies...basically nobody acts like they're being written by a 13 year old boy.

My biggest criticism is that the ending is anti-climactic. There's not a climax so much as an event that would make sense as the logical conclusion point for the book. By the time this event occurs, it doesn't challenge the characters in any way. Of course, this is only the first book in a series which picks up right where this book leaves off, so that's not particularly damning. However, each book in a series should try to stand as it's own thing.

All in all, it's pretty good for a first novel, and I have a feeling the more Rogers writes the more he'll improve, so I'm excited to see what happens in the next book, and hopefully the one after that.

[Brian Switzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't believe there aren't more comments about 'The Dogz' in the reviews. A group of over 100 black people, and every one of them speaks in a manner that would embarrass an 18th century field hand.

Okay. Here what I want to do.
There a bunch of gas stations out along 78 they can hit.
If he ain’t die yet, and if he don’t catch no infection or something, I guess he won’t need no stitches.
That just junk food.

Every sentence of every word spoken by every black character in the book was like that. No contractions, no articles, no tense. "Bitch be trippin." I was embarrassed to be reading it. I felt like I was watching the 'blacksploitation' movies from the early 70's. And every black character was a caricature- no depth to them at all. The author lived most of his life in Atlanta- why he thinks that is the way black people talk in the 21st century is beyond me.

Beyond that, there are two other big problems with Apocalypse Atlanta. One is the pacing. The book never takes a sentence to describe something when he could use four paragraphs instead. Early in the novel Jessica opens the office for the day at her place of employment.The description of her doing so- making coffee, turning on various machines, distributing things, etc. takes five pages to describe- and none of it is important to the plot.

At another point he writes this- "Leaving it all to wait on the bed, she went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. After stripping her nightgown and underwear off, she dropped them into the hamper and stepped into the shower cubical. She stood under the water for a minute with her eyes closed and face tilted up to the spray, enjoying the simple sensation as the shower splashed over her and ran down her body.

Then she sighed regretfully and soaped up her loofah. After washing and conditioning her hair, and giving herself a good rubdown with the loofah, she allowed herself another minute of just enjoying the fall of water before closing the valves and stepped out on to the thick mat next to the cubical."

Or, "Jessica took a shower."

That's how you write a 700 page book in which nothing happens.

One last complaint. At various times in the book living people turn without having been bitten. The book never explores how that happens, or why, or why most people don't turn but some do- it just leaves it there. I'm aware this book is part of a series, and maybe that subject is covered in a later book. I just don't think you can take that big a plot point, and something that contravenes the normal rules of of zombiedom and just lay it out there without some explanation or at least curiosity.

On the plus side Peter's character is wonderfully written and the the parts of the book about the guard were an enjoyable read. The author writes dialogue very well and the zombie scenes are very well written.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I First read this book from 7/21/14-7/25/14. Now, I am re-reading it again bc it has the rest of the series with it. When I 1st started this series, it only had 2 books 📚 with it, so I'm excited to read it all over again. I will post my review once I have finished the book again.

My review: OMG 😲 I love this story. I enjoy reading it from the 3 different points of view which include Jessica, Darryl, and Peter (Gunny). This story has everything. It had, suspense, horror, action, partying, comedy and everything. I really lungs Austin which is someone Jessica and Candice meets. He seems so able to handle anything. Super sexy lol. This story is just getting started really. I'm excited and scared to see what happens with the three different groups. All 3 of these groups have been through so much. They have faced down horrors and figured out what to do to get through the issues. They are all strong and capable and I love how u can see the different personalities come out in each of them.

This author really is great and knows how to tell a story that will keep u on the edge of your seat biting your nails and lips lol. Can't edit to start the next story in the series which will b in about 5 seconds lol.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I downloaded a sample and it was a rather long exposition. So long, I fell asleep. I had to stop when Darryl was so OBVIOUSLY black. I mean the linguistics changed and I was done. I don't like to give low reviews but, geez...when I read ZA, I want to jump in with little exposition or a faster moving start. This just went on and on.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very odd ending. Just ended as if it were the end of a chapter. May or may not get the sequel. I enjoyed the story, but I wasn't able to get heavily invested into any of the characters although there's one new one that sounded good.

[Judith Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typical Zombie fare. A little better than most which isn't saying much. I do not know why I am fascinated with Zombie literature!!

[Mark Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good, long book but kept me entertained all the way, already got the sequel

[Christi Babaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book series! Well written and very descriptive. He really described Atlanta accurately! :

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read can't wait to read the next one!