Zombie Apocalypse! End Game

Zombie Apocalypse! #3

by Stephen Jones (Creator)

Through interconnected eyewitness accounts—emails, text messages, reports, diaries, found video footage, and graphic adaptations, Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame tells the story of the climactic final battle between the ZZ infantry of the New Zombie Order and the fighters of the human resistance. Who will win the endgame?

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Fiction, Anthologies

544 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2014

About the author

Stephen Jones is an eighteen-time winner of the British Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

*This review may contain spoilers*

What's it about?

"Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame" is the third and final volume of the original best-selling "Zombie Apocalypse!" trilogy. In in this installment, most major cities have fallen or been destroyed as the Human Reanimation Virus spreads across the globe. As a new race of intelligent zombies rise to power, the remaining pockets of human resistance make a last, desperate stand in the ruins of a world on the brink of unimaginable change. With the final pieces of the epic puzzle falling into place, a centuries-old endgame is revealed through interconnected emails, reports, diaries and eyewitness accounts, as past and future hang in the balance. Thomas Moreby's plan for world dominance is finally revealed in all it's mad glory, as the very fabric of time and space is ripped apart and history itself is about to be changed forever.

Who's the author?

Stephen Jones is the creative mind behind the "Zombie Apocalypse!" series, which has been written by some of the biggest and best-known names in horror and science-fiction.
Stephen Jones is an English editor of horror anthologies, and the author of several book-length studies of horror and fantasy films as well as an account of Lovecraft's early British publications. Stephen Jones shared the Bram Stoker award, with co-editor Kim Newman, for "Horror: Another 100 Best Books" in 2005.
"Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame" is the final book in the series, but other books in the series include; "Zombie Apocalypse! Horror Hospital" and "Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased."

Was it any good?

The standard of each novel in the series has been steadily falling since the first. Where I was only mildly unimpressed with the second book, I was thoroughly unimpressed with this installment. Although the book claims that "the final pieces of the epic puzzle fall into place," I was left with more questions than answers upon reaching the end. As with the second novel, this one contains too many pages of medical reports and scientific findings that are hard to read and even harder to make any sense of, adding to the sense of confusion that pervades this novel. One thing "Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame" did right was bring back some of the characters from the first book, admittedly most as zombies. This bought the three novels together and gave a sense of closure to the series. Sadly, I was still very disappointed by what started out as a promising series.

Would I recommend it?

Only if you've started the series with "Zombie Apocalypse!" and "Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback." Otherwise, I'd steer clear of this. Reading this book out of series is not recommended either!

[Jason Medina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed with how the author ended his series, although in a series with random articles, letters, emails, and journal entries I can imagine it is difficult to create a decent ending. There was no one story. It bounced around a lot to different characters, some whom I could have done without. There were parts of the book that did not add to the story, rather they were a time consuming waste of time to read. While I did enjoy some of the stories, I would have appreciated a more solid plotline to follow through to the end. Honestly, it was hard to read some parts and I felt compelled to just skip through them impatiently. Still, I love zombie stories and had to see it through to the end. There are still three other books that are part of the story written by other authors. I already have the books, so I will read them, although I am not in a hurry to get to them. Sorry.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first two, but still well worth the read!

There were some pretty awesome follow ups from characters we had entries from in past volumes, as well as seeing what happened to a couple of the characters from Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased.

The ending was... not bod per say, but not properly feeling like an ending. It might be that I missed a few important things (I can't read cursive a lot of the cursive entries were towards the end).

[Karl]

Authors contained:

Peter Atkins
Randy Broecker
Ramsey Campbell
Les Edwards
Brian Hodge
Nancy Kilpatrick
Paul McAuley
Lou Morgan
Kim Newman
John Lewellyn Probert
Michael Marshall Smith
Stephen Baxter
Pat Cadigan
Peter Crowther
Jo Fletcher
Paul Kane
Allison :itttlewood
Gary McMahon
Lisa Morton
Thana Niveau
Angela Slater
Conrad Williams

[Kayleigh Dobbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to argue with other people's criticisms that this third book in the trilogy doesn't have a "proper" ending, but I'm bringing it up because I think that's interesting. That was my criticism of Max Brooks's World War Z, and everyone told me I missed the point lol.

Anyway, I liked it! The trilogy is rounded off with another well-crafted anthology - which doesn't even present as an anthology (it's very fluid as one piece with many viewpoints). Even the thought of trying to pull a book like this off gives me headache. Zombies are still rising, Thomas Moreby is ever more dastardly, sci-fi elements are amplified, and cosmic horror is introduced. Fun all around, I have to say!

[Robert Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said this book is a disappointing end to the series, indeed it doesn't provide any resolution to the Thomas Moreby storyline at all. In fact the further the narratives strayed into fantastical science fiction and cosmic horror the more tiresome I found it. There are a couple of solid sections and if you've already read the first two books you might as well read this one too, but if you don't you'll not miss much.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read but the story has started going to some...shall we say strange places for me. I'm not a massive fan of the time travel stuff. It just over complicates it in my opinion. But I'm still going to continue the series for now. I still love all the different view points and characters. It's amazingly detailed writing.

[Happy Goat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The compilation of this book alone impressed me, and I loved the presentation. The conclusion (sort of - there are a few novels set in universe written by other authors now!) rounds of with sci-fi/cosmic horror madness!

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't quite see how this is the end (well I have like 3 more standalone traditional novels from this series to read)--but this is supposed to be the final "found item" compendium. But even though the name of this final volume of the trilogy says Endgame in the title, but it didn't really feel definitely finished. Some story lines do get closed out--the teenage writer; the National Guard soldier Rocky; the teenaged girl with the diary--and others explored more--the New World Pharmaceutical company, the researcher on the island (actually really liked where that one went to), the Australian doctors. It's been hinted in the previous books that Sir Thomas Moreby was even older than 180 when he got entombed by the mob, and with the introduction of time machine, the book goes to some unexpected places.

HG Wells, Leonardo da Vinci, Mobius, Moby Dick/Herman Melville all make appearances in this one. I really liked the mobile app descriptions in this, the journey of the gay man & kid back to LA, and the Most Dangerous Game husband & wife survivors were probably my top 3. Few misses--none of the stand up comedy or song lyric sections I thought were funny or original.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

To put it bluntly: if you've read the first two books, this instalment is disappointing. It ends up leaving more questions than it began with, and (even in the world of zombies) some things that I won't directly mention for spoiler purposes are just completely implausible. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing entries that left me pining for more information and kept me hooked on the storyline, but most of the accounts fall flat or create a plot line that is never resolved within the book. Barely worth the read, but if you have problems with needing to finish a series like I do, prepare yourself, it's grim.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first two, overall. Starts out kind of slow (plus I really didn't buy the plausibility of the story track they used, but hey, it's their story to tell, so, whatever) and ends pretty slow. However, the middle 2/3 of the book is just like the first two books and that made this book worthwhile enough to finish. Overall, this series is pretty cool and I really enjoyed the style of writing.

[Ralph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Certainly not up to quality the first two books. This third installment did little to advance the storyline and ended with nothing really - it just sort of fizzled out. As I was nearing the end of the book a line from Spaceballs came to mind and let me paraphrase, "Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame, the search for more money"... Most of the stories plodded along and left me thinking, what was the point of that story? And the book left me asking and the point of the series is?

[Ralph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Certainly not up to quality the first two books. This third installment did little to advance the storyline and ended with nothing really - it just sort of fizzled out. As I was nearing the end of the book a line from Spaceballs came to mind and let me paraphrase, "Zombie Apocalypse! Endgame, the search for more money"... Most of the stories plodded along and left me thinking, what was the point of that story? And the book left me asking and the point of the series is?