New YA book, I'LL BRING YOU BACK, coming Dec 17, 2019.
Richard Brown is the author of five novels, including the post-apocalyptic series, Dead Highways. He has also published a collection of poetry and a short graphic novel. When he’s not writing, Richard enjoys spending time with his family, studying history and economics, and playing board games.
Titanic is one of my favorite things to read about. I also love reading about zombies. You put the two together, and I have high expectations for a great novel. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met. For the first half of the book, I was terribly bored. There wasn't anything interesting going on at all. Even after things picked up, there wasn't a lot of action. Mostly sitting around and waiting. There were also a lot of plot holes that were frustrating. Unfortunately, this was extremely disappointing. I didn't really enjoy it at all.
When I first saw this cover I couldn't help chuckling. It looked like a fun read that blended horror, humor and Titanic, a fascinating tragedy at sea that claimed the lives of two-thirds of the passengers over 100 years ago. It had the seductive makings of a great story.
Yes and no.
The cartoonish cover art is deceptive because there is almost zero humor in this tale. It is more of an alternative history thriller about how a zombie outbreak occurs aboard the Titanic. A young woman just before boarding the ship is bitten and then injected with something by a stranger. She ultimately dies and comes back a zombie, ready to start chomping any and all in her path. The crew struggles what to do with their zombie in steerage and, soon, the others that become infected.
The story switches between a dozen or so different passengers and crew points of view, which gives the reader a sense of the many people aboard the ship, but becomes a bit hard to get familiar with--or care that much about--any one character until the halfway point. This doesn't make the story hard to follow as other stories with as many different points of view because each character is moving the plot along. There isn't much suspense or mystery, because we all know what happens to this doomed luxury ship and the addition of zombies is like sprinkling pepper on a meal that already tastes good. As the date and time draws nearer and the zombie infection increases, the engaging part of this read becomes: how will the zombie outbreak affect the escape from the sinking ship?
The action ramps up the last third of the story, everything tightens more, and the narrative finally focuses on fewer point of views (primarily one crew member's struggles). I was fully immersed by the ending which had a neat twist of sorts.
The writing style in the first two-thirds was heavy tell instead of show, reaching familiar thriller-like waters in the final third. A guilty pleasure for readers fascinated with Titanic and a curious setting for a zombie outbreak. Seemed fairly well researched too. I think if somebody like Jeff Strand or Ryan Thomas had authored this tale it could have been hilarious. Missed opportunity? Maybe. 3.5 stars rounded up for the clever ending. Recommended for fellow Titanic readers, but seasoned horror readers will feel it's too reserved and unscary for a zombie tale.
I enjoyed this book more than the other reviews led me to expect. The writing was a little amateurish, reading in most places like a recitation of events rather than a story, but most of the events were factual (the author must've really done his homework) and it made the scattered bits of really good writing stand out.
It also seemed to me that Brown answered a question here that few people ask: Why was Captain Smith pushing Titanic so hard, knowing there was ice about and that the calm sea would make it even harder to spot? The commonly held belief is that they wanted to arrive early and "surprise the press", while I find the opposite more credible, that Smith and Ismay didn't want to be a day early because the press wouldn't be there to greet the ship. But everything that happened that night makes a little more sense if you throw in a zombie infection. The rush to port, the crews' disregard of the ice warnings, the disorganized loading of the boats, and the loss of half the passengers are all easier to accept if one believes they had something even worse to contend with at the time.
Of course there's a downside to that. A young co-worker once asked my brother, in all seriousness, if zombies were real. Books like this, that are 90% historical fact and 10% zombie, are really going to screw with people like her.
My only complaint about the story is the unsolved mystery of who started the infection and why. All we know is that it was deliberate, and the fact that it's never mentioned again was kind of frustrating. But not so much that I wouldn't read it again.
Entertaining but the writing could've been better. The word "undies" was used. Yes, the idea of zombies being responsible for the Titanic sounds ridiculous, but if done correctly, it could've been done seriously and in an entertaining way. I remember Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer and thinking "how stupid." But then you look at the premise: the slaveholders are vampires who want to hold onto their food source. It could actually be portrayed in a serious matter. Maybe that's my problem with this book. I was hoping that the writer would pretend to treat the subject seriously. And there were moments when he did, death scenes, attack scenes. But it felt like story was rushed into and it kept alternating between serious and childish for lack of a better word. I enjoyed the book and its a great conversation started when people see you with it, but I was hoping for things to be a little more drawn out. But then maybe I'm being the ridiculous one =)
A young woman boards the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, bound for America, idly scratching her neck. She’s been bitten, but she doesn’t know what by. And there was a strange man with a syringe… As the Titanic steams ahead towards its doom, the lads of the White Star Line will soon have another problem on their hands: an appalling outbreak of madness and cannibalism When the young woman collapses on the boat deck, she’s taken to a medbay — but despite being declared ‘dead’, she revives like a bad economic theory and begins gnawing on the medical staff. The White Star’s finest are baffled, and try to contain the Afflicted, but since that wouldn’t be much of a novel there’s a mistake made, an escape effected, and soon Second Officer Charlies Lightoller (“Lights”) is grimly stalking the corridors doing his best Left for Dead run. (At least, between efforts to light his pipe which borders on a running joke.)
This is an odd little story, a mix of historical fiction and horror that manages to be almost comic in its juxtaposition of zombies and the Titanic. The Big Serious Historical Events are still happening in the background, though Lights and another officer are down attacking well-dressed zombie hordes with Webley pistols and fire axes when the ship has its lethal sideswipe with the iceberg, and though they’re distantly aware something serious happened — especially Lights, who gets trapped in a room by a mob of zombies and has to make an escape through the rapidly rising and extremely cold north Atlantic water now filling the deck — they don’t learn of how truly doomed they are until they escape back to the boat deck. I wondered if perhaps the number of people being eaten or zombified meant that more people would be able to escape to the boats (there being less competition) , but the fact that zombie bites took a bit to manifest into full sickness meant that normal-looking people could turn undead, so those in the boats are even more paranoid. The growing epidemic which is filling the corridors with bones and blood also forces Captain Smith to keep the steam engines moving at full blast, in hopes of arriving in New York and finding medical help or more armed men, so there’s even less reaction time to the spotting of the berg than in real life. A lot of dialogue, personality, and scenes appear to have been borrowed from the James Cameron movie, Titanic: Margaret’s Brown appeal to her lifeboat neighbors is nearly word for word as the movie (as I remember it, anyway), and the scene of Thomas Andrews standing at the fireplace in the smoking lounge and then slowly turning is repeated here, only for horror effect: the poor engineer has been bitten and is about to fall into the madness. Although my Titanic buff self noticed some historical irregularities (Smith having all four iceberg warnings when only two made it to the board, staff members and Ismay having posession of one of the others) this is Titanic with Zombies, so …strict attention to detail need not apply.
This is a curious book, fun in its way: I don’t know how other serious Titanic buffs would like it, perhaps thinking it a mockery, but I enjoyed it for its goofiness. Given that Lights is a slight hero of mine — he survived the sinking and later participated in the Dunkirk boatlift using his personal sailboat — I also liked seeing him in action hero mode here. I discovered that “Tiitanic but with Zombies” is something of a micro-genre on Aamzon, and have — since I finished this Friday lunch — read another, one that was far more serious.
I appreciate that at this point, you can’t really get any new stories about the Titanic. It’s very difficult to put a different spin on a 110 year old event, that hasn’t already been done twenty times over.
So let’s introduce zombies!
I agree with other reviewers, the whole zombie aspect seems a bit contrived and there’s no real reasoning as to why it started or why it ends (if it actually does). It was very descriptive but be warned, it is occasionally quite icky at points.
The author has a good idea to start each chapter off with an illustration of the person who’s point of view it’s being told from. Which I suppose is helpful if you don’t already have the well known characters from the film in your head. The illustrations are a bit, dare I say it, amateur-ish? I’m no artist but I didn’t find them very impressive.
There were times it was unintentionally funny as well - “He chopped two more down on his way around the corner of the staircase, and then decapitated another who had sadly stumbled down the stairs in a rush to get a quick meal.” I’m not sure if the author intended this to be quite so funny, but it was just the mental image it brought to mind.
This was definitely a little out of my normal comfort zone - there’s no great romance, and I feel like the whole sinking was just a minor event. It wasn’t the focal point of the story. The ending was also very strange too, and I think it could have been resolved better. I’m not confident the author knew how to end it, or how to explain how the zombies came about.
Not the best Titanic fiction out there, but I like that the author tried something relatively different.
ZOMBIES ON THE TITANIC, DEFINITELY A MUST READ, THAT I HIGHLY RECOMMEND...
Another super great Zombie story told in a brand new twist and this was just great. I've read many stories with zombies over the last couple of years and I'm still in awe of how many different ways the Authors come up with a story, so different from one another, that no matter how many I read they all start and end so different. Which I seriously love and this is one story I've been hoping for, for a long time, a great Zombie outbreak on the ocean liner "Titanic". This I is one book that makes for one great read and one I would definitely recommend to others. This book kept me hooked from page one to the last page of the book and even then I didn't want it to end. Richard Brown did one great job with this story and I could very much see a second book come out of this because of the ending and the way it was written. Thank you very much Richard Brown.
WOW.a really scary and different take on the disaster of The Titanic.A great. Read . I really enjoyed this version. Of ten sinking of the Titanic.it took a bloody turn for the worse that for sure.
We've all heard of the great disaster that took down the world's "Ship of Dreams" on April 15, 1912. The great luxury liner, the unsinkable ship struck an iceberg and went to the bottom of the ocean within hours, taking with it 1514 passangers and crew members, and the splendor of her majestic construction. What if a intense secret had also went to the bottom of the sea that night as well? This is the titillating tale that Brown explores with this superb novel. One passenger, one suspicious incident as they were waiting to board, and then the unexplainable hits the greatest ship on earth. Deftly blending the well-known and must have characters of the story of the Titanic with some superb fictional mastery, Brown introduces the unthinkable to the already powerful tale of death and disaster of the Titanic. Just add ZOMBIES, and you never know what can happen. Potential for corny and ridiculous, was high when you think of the title, but Brown does a full on story with well thought out plot, characters and attention to detail. He does justice to the history and still creates a novel that is enjoyable to read. I stumbled across this, but am extremely excited that I did and that I can hopefully introduce a few more people to this book. I've seen talk about a movie... not sure if it is based on this work or not, but if it should ever be made it would be nothing if it didn't use this masterpiece as a foundation for excellence.
I bought this on a total whim when it was on sale on Amazon for $.99 (it’s $2.99 now) just because it was title was sort of ridiculous, but it also combines two interests of mine. I figured for $.99, what the hell? As it turns out, it was actually an interesting and easy read that kept the pages turning. The beginning started off a little slow, but it was obvious that Brown had done his research on the Titanic, and it was easy to follow along where the characters were at on the ship. I love a good zombie story, and my only real complaint with this novel was that the zombie disease wasn’t explained in any way except how the original victim became infected. There was no lead up to what created the infection or what happened to the original infector. I feel like there should be more closure. I’d probably pick up a sequel and/or prequel if one comes up. Reading a zombie story set the early 1900′s was a neat change, and I am really curious as to how it all started in that time. Here’s hoping I have more than one book to talk about next month!
I went into this with an open mind. Being a Titanic "purist" of sorts, I don't normally take kindly to anything that attempts to rewrite the story. It did look interesting, and since I was having "Walking Dead" withdrawals I have found myself drawn to zombie fiction as of late.
This was not rewriting the story. It was fairly historically accurate and it added a "what if" factor that gave the event a new twist entirely.
I really enjoyed it! The fact the characters that were based on real life people that I had read about ad nauseum helped for me to form mental images and, of course, the setting was one that has been fairly ingrained in my memory since I was a child. ( I guess being freakishly obsessed with a thing can have its benefits from time to time.)
Very enjoyable. I would recommend it. I was considering letting my similarly Titanic obsessed son read it, but will probably hold off for a few more years because of the gore factor.
Titanic plagued by zombies...who woulda thunk it? I probably would have given it 3 stars, but for some reason that I can't put my finger on, I wasn't at all emotionally invested in any of the characters. Other than the zombie outbreak and some resulting variations, it seemed historically accurate so perhaps it was a case of too much history, not enough character depth. The only other thing I didn't care for was the final chapter set in the present. It was just weird and I thought for a moment that I had jumped into another story entirely.
I enjoyed it for what it was...a freebie for Kindle when I needed a short book.
I can't say that I enjoyed this book in any way except for the historical parts that told about the Titanic. I don't read the paranormal genre at all, but I wanted to take a look at this book since the subject matter was about the Titanic (one of my favorite events to study).
From a factual point of view, the author truthfully got the details right, and went beyond my expectations on how historically accurate a book like this could be.
The zombie idea didn't appeal to me at all. The scenes did get a little too graphic at times.
I would have given the book 2 stars, but any book that has the highest level of curse words in it gets 1 star from me.
This was boring, plain and simple. We get chapter after chapter introducing all the people on Titanic, complete with drawings of them and their life history, and maps of certain rooms, for some unknown reason. They talk about the couple of infected people locked in a room. They wander about the decks of the ship. They keep it secret...and so it goes on, page after page.
If you want a book with lots of zombie action, don't bother with this. If you want to read a half decent Titanic zombie book, try Deck Z: The Titanic by Chris Pauls. It's much better than this.
The name of the book best describes the plot of the story. Zombies are everywhere in pop culture and now they have invaded the Titanic. A nice fun read that blends an actual historic event with fiction. This book accomplished what it was meant to do. To entertain the reader and not to be taken too seriously. It was worth a read.
Nothing special here to read, and nothing new to add to the zombie genre. Not that I mind a formula story, but I do mind when it's not terribly well written. Some of the characters were interesting, but some of them were just annoying, and the actions of some did not suit their characters. A slightly below average zombie book.
I love disaster stories and I love zombie stories, so this book had twice as much as I'd usually hope for. It was well written and I really enjoyed it. The characters came to life for me. I loved the idea that the whole Titanic thing could have happened with zombie outbreak involved, it totally worked for me. The pace was good and the writing style excellent. Really stood out in its genre.
This was a great book! It really was. I'm giving it three stars because after a while it just felt wrong. The titanic was a traumatic event by itself but to add zombies just made it too much. Maybe i'm soft lol IDK it's almost like somebody adding zombies to 9/11. Anyway it was great writing but I just was turned off.
Every now and then I go in to a reading lull and the only thing that can keep me entertained is a good old-fashioned zombie story. This was a fun book, with the added bonus of a zombie infection starting on the fated Titanic, causing it to a hit that iceberg and sink (Cameron must have missed that in his film, ha). Nothing new essentially but a fun read.
I thought this book was amazing! I didn't put it down. The characters were very well portrayed and it wasn't over the top cheesy. It was the right amount of historical event, clashed with a zombie outbreak. If you get a chance read it. :-)
It is exactly what the title implies: 'What if the zombie plague infected the Titanic?' Amusing, but it does tend to take itself a little too seriously at times. There is supposed to be a follow up book out soon, I will definitely check it out. I'm a sucker for zombies.
This was a good story. I enjoy reading about the Titanic. This was very easy to envision, and there were no boring parts. Just some minor editorial issues. Also I would have liked something to explain why the infection was introduced.
Very enjoyable! I am a Titanic history buff and will read/watch almost anything that has to do with it. Sure, zombies on the Titanic seems far-fetched, but keeping an open mind and reading it for the story it is, it was a nice read.
Muy entretenido. Es uno de esos freebies de amazon que bajé por curiosidad y quedé más que contenta con el desarrollo de la trama. Richard Brown es muy buen escritor. Es detallista y describe personajes verosímiles, con diálogos bien elaborados.
Wasn't sure if I was going to like this book, but figured, what the hell, I'll give it a read. Kept me glued! While I didn't find it frightening, it was a very enjoyable read, easy to follow and keep track of characters. Do I recommend it? For sure! Read and enjoy!
I honestly couldn't get through it. I'm a huge fan of zombies... but I think maybe I'm a little burnt out on it. I'll try to get through it again soon.
Really well done, seems to have researched Titanic and has woven the zombies onto it, really seamlessly. Excellent mash-up. Gonna be fun to read the sequel.