Europe Has Fallen

by Andrew Gouriet

In 1879 Europe will change forever. Something is rising in the east and it will consume everything in its path. Captain Charles Hayward could be our last hope. A small fort in the Carpathian Mountains comes under a savage attack from a super-pack of wolves. It ends as quickly as it began, leaving many unanswered questions. The inhabitants of the fort use this window to escape, but find farms abandoned, villages empty and a strange silence. This changes at the Uzhok pass where they encounter something very different. Captain Hayward will now play his part in the cat and mouse retreat and where Europe will fight for her very survival. He must help lead this band of civilians and Royal Engineers on an epic journey through a disintegrating Europe. Where every dark forest looks on menacingly, every sound treated with caution. They must follow the path home, but with something close to his heart nearby, choices will have to be made.This is part 1 of the trilogy

Genres: Horror

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2012

Reviews

[william curry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down

I read this story in one setting. You could feel the fear and terror caused by the invading creatures as you fought in retreat across Europe...

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excitement at every turn

From the beginning to the end, Gouriet keeps an exciting pace. If you like historical thrillers with more than a dash of the paranormal, look no further. Though the writing style seems stilted, you will soon be drawn into this gripping tale of war, zombies, and human emotions.

[Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this novel is a good one--an evil is invading Europe from the East steamrolling over everything in its path. The story principally follows a regiment of English Engineers and their Austrian counterparts as they make their way from the Carpathian Mountains fleeing from the hordes that are close on their heels.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it falls apart in the little things.

1) This needs some serious editing. Grammatical errors abound and though they are not detrimental to the story, each does distract from the reading experience.

2) The author tends to rely on telling rather than showing. There are scenes interspersed throughout the novel that focus on one or two characters' thoughts and/or interactions. However, there is way too much exposition even in these parts to make this a really enjoyable book.

All in all, the story is an interesting one, but poor execution really holds it back.

[Isac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book and the sequel. Can’t wait for the final book of the trilogy.

[Veronica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical fiction

With a combination of zombies, military forces and the backdrop of war, Mr. Gouriet weaves a interesting historical fiction narrative. We are given a good idea of what the horrors of war do not only to the soldiers but civilians and countries as well. The action was intense with lots of jump cuts allowing the audience to see a lot of different sides. Interesting concept and was carried out well.

[Lee Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beast from the east .....some with 2 heads .

Reasons ...who cares ...just go with the flow , evil baddies, plucky Brits far from home ....stiff upper lip time backed up with good old Sheffield steel ...first half ends in a bit of a drubbing ...but I'm sure a good cup of tea and a stern talking to will bring a second half revival ...Huuuzzzaaahhh .

[Sean Smart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly awful, very badly written, desperately needs an editor and someone who knows how to write. Really started to resent it towards the end and how much time and money I had wasted on it.

[Greg Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical Victorian Fantasy hooked me in. What I love about this story is that it took me on a journey through a disintegrating Europe. Set in the late 1870s, in the Carpathian Mountains, we pick up with a small band of Royal Engineers assisting their Austrian counterparts at a small outpost. Let’s just say things take a turn for the worse from there as winter eases.

We then follow Captain Hayward and his men on a perilous fight through Europe to get home. I loved the buildup to the battles and the creatures the author introduced. There have been some great Historical fantasy books over the years, and I’m always looking to lose myself in another world or timeline. The characters for me grow as the book moves along, at first they feel very military-oriented, but as the book develops, you gain more insight into their backgrounds.
The battles are fast and ferocious, and they feel like they develop into stressful, chaotic action scenes (which I like).

Also, I like the fact that it's not just a straight-out zombie book. It brings in a new world order, various creatures and huge armies ready to conquer the world. I love Nazar’s character as this unrelenting would-be emperor and his quest for power; I think this is developed well throughout the book. He comes across as a leader who will not tolerate weakness and deals with his enemies in a ruthless fashion.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this journey and have started to read ‘End of the Empire’.
I do have some tips (in my opinion) for the author.
I’ve read a mixed bag of reviews, which is always a good thing; some people love it, some not so much. My analogy would be along the lines of a general recruiting soldiers for his army, but he’s recruiting in the wrong places or saying the wrong things! When the battle comes, the so-called soldiers run like yellow-bellied cowards, and he wonders why.

Check the marketing, some of these negative reviews are probably people who like teenage books or young children's books, like ‘Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Twilight, and so on, great books for the right audience. He would be better off going after people who want to read about historical epic fantasy, not the other books. Some might want to read just about zombies, or flesh-eaters in this case, but of course, this book is more expansive than that. The author should try to get that across, as this is shaping up to be a fantastic series, but if it’s going out to the wrong crowd, they're not going to enjoy it, and there will be plenty of people who are ready for something different, and he needs to tap into these readers, otherwise he’ll get more of the negative nellies, who might not understand the journey of the book. 😊

Well worth a read if you like the Victorian era, mixed in with an epic fight for survival across a crumbling Europe.

[Nick Warner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of alternate history books. I’ve enjoyed both the what if the Stuarts and Jacobite rebellion were Vampires (William Meikle Watchers series) or Aliens landed in World War 2 (Harry Turtledove World War series). So zombies/flesh eaters in Victorian Europe seems an intriguing prospect.

The problem is the execution of this is poor. One huge weakness is the book has a very detached, informative “report” type style. Whilst this works for the opening chapter, where you think that you are reading an account of a doomed outpost’s last stand, when you realize the whole book is in this vein it becomes a barrier to the novel. It’s the opposite of immersive. It reads more like a Wikipedia recount of a novel than the novel itself.

This isn’t helped by bland characters, with very little depth to them (and any depth provided again reads more like a report card/brief than anything else), weak dialogue and repetitive action/plot. I’ve multiple issues with the plot from the excessive convenience of supplies whenever needed through to some unlikely choices by all parties involved.

The bad guys speak like a child’s cartoon villain further undermining the credibility of the whole book. Then there’s the forces of darkness themselves. There are so many different types of bad guy that you are struggling to believe or buy into it. If the flesh eaters were it, that would be one thing but on top of that there’s all sorts of other unusual beasts leaving the villains looking overdone and implausible. The whole purpose of what if books is to change one thing – albeit a big thing which has a massive impact. Adding in a whole new menagerie of monsters overwhelms the readers “buy in” to the series completely.

There are a couple of decent action scenes, which if not brilliantly reported are quite good settings, and the author does leave a number of questions unanswered. But it’s nowhere near enough to entice me to read the next book.

1 star

[Ann Bradbury · Rating 1 out of 5]

Intriguing premise of zombie invasion of Europe during Victorian era. Sadly, I couldn't read much of it, just up to the point where the fort that is under attack is being evacuated. The zombie invasion was minimal at that point, with mass attacks of wolves by larger, controlling wolves. Apart from the fact that, as an apex predator, there are going to be far fewer wolves than prey and therefore not thousands available to mass against the fort, the style was very difficult to read. It was mostly told in a sort of exposition-synopsis with no involvement in the characters or storyline. It also jumped about, starting with one character and then constantly switching. For those reasons, I had to classify it as a did-not-finish and can only award 1 star.

[Gary Meades · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun read, with a potentially interesting story. However it is rather marred by the quality of the writing, which is clunky and flat. The characters are wafer thin and there isn't really any development in how they deal with the horrifying circumstances they find themselves in. There is also a lot of repetition of phrasing.

Saying that, I am a sucker for zombie stories and despite the issues with the book, I did quite enjoy it and I would like to see where it goes, so will be reading the next part.

[James Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give it a try

I had little expectation for this story. It was cheap and thought why not. It is good story with plenty of action though it could do with a little more expansion in regards to the details of the battles. Hoping the next book adds a little more background.
It was a good purchase.

[Carrie Mudge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something a bit different

Whilst the writing style does not always seem to flow quite smoothly, the story pulls you in and drags you along, from the Carpathians to the coast of France. A solid read, and looking forward to the next instalment.

[Ian Willey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not sure how this book has such a high rating, it has the feel of being written by an accountant.
Add to that his failure to keep a believable timeline and list like sentence building and it's a frustrating read

[Elizabeth Westgarth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful writing, gave up after one chapter

[Alvatore Sanding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story, it is gripping start to finish with characters that I found developed perfectly throughout the book. Highly recommend if you are a fan of zombies, creatures and the victorian era.