Three Rivers Plague

by Zachary Forbes, Joshua Forbes

After a return concert in his hometown, famous rockstar Thomas Wylde witnesses the unleashing of a biological weapon, which forces the nation into anarchy. His band is soon plunged into the post-apocalyptic city of Pittsburgh, now plagued by infection, cults, cocaine junkies, and even the mafia. A member of his band falls victim to the deadly new virus, sending the group spiraling into the mystery of this supposedly Soviet-made bioweapon. But not everyone is convinced of its origins--like Boston police detective Dick Kennedy.

In the following days, it's up to Thomas and his band to discover the truth, not only about this new world, but about his government, his friends, and himself, all the while trying to carve out a slab of survival for everyone and everything he cares about.

This book is a 9-episode story, with each episode divided into digestible chapters. Set in post-apocalyptic 1980s America, Three Rivers Plague will make you fall in love with its charming characters and keep you on the edge of your seat with heart-pounding suspense. It’s a collection of elements from all sorts of genre fiction, including sci-fi, horror, romance, dystopian, and even detective thriller. There’s something here for everyone to sink their teeth into!

Genres: Post Apocalyptic

564 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2023

About the author

Zachary Forbes is a graduate from the University of Florida, where he studied History, Business, and Literary Fiction. Now he lives in southwest Florida. Some of his non-literary hobbies include Judo, shooting, and powerlifting.

He writes post-apocalyptic fiction with his brother, Joshua Forbes, who has published flash fiction works. Zachary likes to incorporate some elements of literary fiction into his genre work, just as his brother's experience with the brevity of flash fiction helps him tighten scenes. Together, they wrote Three Rivers Plague, the first book in the Continuum series.

Having a deep love for history, Zachary has spent a lot of time traveling to new places and studying different weapons, both past and present. He lets the 'lore of the real world' play a part in his works. Authors he takes inspiration from include Lee Child, Timothy Zahn, Michael Crichton, and Robert Kirkman.

You can find him on Twitter/X @ZachForbesBro

Reviews

[Lia (Roman) Rusu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and the fresh idea of having the members of a rock band become the unlikely heroes of an apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic world. The writers' depiction of the characters, who tend to grow on the reader and elaborate their personalities, is relatable on many an occasion, and their flawed nature while striving to do their best is surprisingly endearing.

I hoped the classic zombie specifics initially hinted to would turn into a less predictable overall image, and I felt a slight disappointment when my hopes were progressively shattered.

The novel is fast-paced enough and the tension build-up is duly gradual and multi-faceted, so that action never fails to keep the reader tied to the storyline. Sporadic interesting turns of events ensure an entertaining story progress.

Studying the different various characters as well as the ideas and typologies they stand for is quite interesting. There is a vast array of personalities and behaviours pointing to the complexity of human beings, their intricate relationship patterns and somewhat muddled life choices.

The genre has well been tackled before, but the novelty brought forth by the team of writers resides in the choice of characters and a particular detail in the plot that would lead to a spoiler warning, so I will not reveal it, but urge you to start with the first page and keep reading!

Thanks to BookSirens, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Already Overbooked · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm gonna trade this life for fortune and fame
I'd even cut my hair and changed my name

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

The craft is surprisingly good, with lots of attention to writing conventions and also a few stylistic twists. The characters are the highlight, with a few main perspectives that each carry their own sets of desires/emotions.
The book is somewhat long, but you’ll never be bored once the story gets going. It doesn’t drag or slow down and even the flashback sequences add to the theme quite well.
If you’re looking to scratch that horror/zombie itch, but also want to invest yourself in a good story with some science fiction elements, this book is more than enough.

[Nancy Foster]

I am one of the judges of the special hybrid team Epic Space Stars for the SPSFC3 contest. This review is my personal opinion. Officially, it is still in the running for the contest, pending any official team announcements.

Status: Cut
Read: 20%

One advantage of judging books without reading the blurb or even see the cover is that I am entering the book with as much of an open mind as possible. If I had read the blurb of this book beforehand, I would have wanted to nope myself and not read the book at all.

Which would not be fair because the Three rivers plague is really, really good. Prosewise save for a few scenes that were confusing to me (like the one where Nick's group steals food from some weird cultists), I don't have any major complaints. I think I only spotted 1 typo in the first 20% of the book. Given this is quite a surprisingly big chonker (which I found to be unusual for this genre), I feel a huge appreciation for the two authors for editing the book. It must have been a titantic feat.

So, if the book is undeniably good, why would I cut it? This decision really tears me apart and I had been thinking about this decision for hours. For better or worse, this book had the odd fortune of being placed in a real group of death. There's at least 10 equally good books in this group and I doubt we can let more than 8 of them pass to the quarterfinals. If it had been placed in another group, it would have had good chances to advance to the next stage. In a nutshell, the book is great, but other books were just a tad bit better. One huge upside is that the SPSFC competition allows books to compete again for a second shot. I dare say even though this book is insanely long, I like the dual author's voice style and the read never felt tedious despite its massive length.

Now, everyone will wonder: what is the second problem that made me struggle so much with this book? Sadly, I really detest reading zombie books. If there was ever a top 3 of book tropes I almost never enjoy, one of them would be post-apocalyptic zombie books. Especially ones that take place in the US with zombies that are overpowered and there's lots of bullets being shot left & right. And yes, this book just happens to have the big three complete with shanty towns ruled by armed thugs. Fortunately, the protagonists in this book are insanely likeable and most of the thugs I have met so far seem agreeable.

What makes Three rivers plague stand apart is that our protagonists are all members of a punk 80's rock band that get ushered inside a VIP SUV by masked supersoldiers when the zombie outbreak begins and become trapped in a zeppelin prison. Up to the early point of the story, the scene where the zeppelin rocks to the side made me wonder if the government had sent a nuclear bomb. I was very invested in the book at first (once again, the writing quality is great) when I assumed this wouldn't be a Mad Max zombie book. But I still liked the protagonists, especially Thomas who frequently steals Valium pills from the nurse station. Quite frankly, I was surprised soldiers in the late 1980's had the technology to instantly detect if someone had the zombie disease. Instant 2 seconds. The soldier visors looked insanely advanced for the era. In a way, the way the city and technology is designed, the book is so vague that anyone could have assumed it happened as recently as 2005. I was also liking Nick a lot, he seems like a chirpy guy and knowledgeable about military grade weapons.

What didn't work for me (aside from the zombies)?

Perhaps the way the characters are purposely left 100% ignorant about the zombie disease so many months later. And the warden of the zeppelin gives them ample amounts of non-perishable food without telling them what kinds of dangers they will face. It would make sense he wouldn't know 100% of the disease, but someone would have a Ham radio. People in the 80's and 90's were quite good at building customized radios that detected all kinds of frequencies and eavesdrop on police messages or neighborhood gossip. The book hints the warden's decisions stem from stubborn ignorance, which makes sense. But I am still confused as to why even the soldiers didn't give them a heads up crash course while giving them so much food. These kinds of situations leaving characters off the loop for plot convenience are very common in zombie books.

Rachel was a nice character, but we never quite got to know her. Up until this portion of the book, female characters are almost nonexistant. It only further drives me a bit farther away from the book because I can't identify with the gun wielding strong male cast. I also enjoy post-apocalyptic books where somone with a huge physical and emotional disadvantage has to use wits and grit to overcome situations. In this way, Thomas's drug addiction could have been explored a bit more. Maybe later on in the novel, other characters discover he is having withdrawal symptoms. This isn't shown at the 20% point.

One thing I will add before I finish is Science Fiction is barely a plot point in the early stages of this novel. There is a chance we will get more science thrown in, but in a group of death with several very strong contenders for the quarterfinals, it would be natural books with more Sci-Fi elements early on would have a greater advantage.

To conclude this review, I am certain people that love the big three zombie book tropes will love this book. Having the 6 protagonists as members of the same music band was very clever and makes the reader get to know each member from the start. Maybe I will continue reading this book to discover how it ends. But the book depresses me so much at times that I really want to set it aside and read something more lighthearted.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Continuum series. This book is broken into “sets” and within each set are chapters. Set 1 contains chapters 1-6, Set 2 contains chapters 7-13, so on and so forth. This book has a total of 9 Sets and 76 chapters so don’t go into this book thinking it will be a quick read. I read very fast and it still took me several days to get through it. If you like zombie apocalypse, flawed characters/heros, and the chance to do the right thing - then this series is for you!

Overall a solid book but there are a couple of items that stood out to me.

One was the scene in the beginning after they got off the blimp and found the horse. How was the horse still alive? They had been on the blimp for months, almost a year I think it said, at that point. The horse was locked in the barn. How did it have any food? They talked about how the horse had all the grass to himself, but the grass was in the field, not the barn. And it only took one night if the horse being out of the barn for it to get killed……

The next was Thomas’s obvious drug addiction. He would have been going through major withdrawals prior to the end of the book. He was using cocaine and heroin basically everyday from the way it sounded and there is NO WAY the people on the blimp weren’t keeping track of all the pharmaceuticals on board. They had the governor on board for goodness sakes! They would have been checking and double checking everything is to believe that Thomas was able to swipe bottles of pills multiple times with no one noticing is ridiculous.

Also, totally didn’t realize that this book took place back in the 80s! I thought it was present time and all the flashbacks were in the 80s but upon closer inspection of the dates at the top of some chapters, I found both things were in the 80s. I had to go back and look because I kept thinking “Damn! How old is Kennedy???? They needed to make him younger considering he was a sniper in the Vietnam War even though they don’t mention which years…”

I gotta be honest. The whole Rachel and Thomas thing annoyed me. He’s a coked out, drug addicted, rock star that couldn’t hardly think for himself but ends up being the hero? Why would she even want to be with someone like that?? The back and forth between them just annoyed me. Either have them together or not. Not this wishy washy bs. Honestly I thought Rachel and Kennedy would end up together. He’s actually my favorite character.

4 stars

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this is an enormous dystopian, YA adventure! Something to really get lost in! A well crafted story, really brilliant idea, that turns out to be a twisted version of what the characters believe! I don't want to give too much away. I really enjoyed it, I liked the characters & the story line, some fast, adrenaline fulled action! Lots of death & mayhem! Some unexpected surprises! A really good read!

[Greg Braden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good story , I enjoyed the read. Not going into spoiler's , it's a different take on the apocalypse.

Needs just a bit more secondary character development. But I'll be looking for part 2.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[K.D. Marchesi]

RTC SPSFC read

[Scott Reece · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, almost satirical at times, take on apocalyptic survival with a lot of symbolism for the underlying message.

Some of it can be a bit on the nose, but the prose reads quite well and gets more clever as you read through the book. I quite enjoyed it and I think the ending wrapped up the many threads the story planted quite nicely, with a hint of more to come

[Micaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The pacing between the action and downcline was just what I was looking for, keeping me interested in every chapter without being bored. I liked how the authors kept the music theme in the episode titles and small jokes within the actual writing itself. Definitely recommend!

[Josh Goewey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun book! It successfully breaks away from the dystopian novel cliches that are far too common nowadays. I highly recommend the book to anyone looking for a zombie book with nice writing.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author’s attention to detail is refreshing. It gives the story a lot of realism in a fictional setting that makes the suspension of disbelief in his world and characters that much easier

[Nikolai Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept me hooked the whole time! Loved the characters, the tension was great, and it kept me interested until the last page!

[Stan Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocks and rolls. I liked the rebellious protagonist who slowly got a grip on what the true nature of the world had become.