The only thing the survivors of the catastrophe in South Wales wanted was a safe place to ride out the apocalypse. The castle looked high walls and natural defenses that even the infection could not breach.
The problem was that someone had beaten them to it. Someone who would stop at nothing to maintain control.
Someone with a dark secret that could change everything....
Born the son of a wealthy philanthropist, Griffiths was orphaned by crime at a formative age, and subsequently raised by the family's kindly butler.
Nursing a bone-deep rage at the loss of his parents, Griffiths invested his inherited billions into extensive combat training and the development of sophisticated technology which he now uses to bring justice to the streets of -
No, wait. That's Batman. Sheesh. I always do this.
I was born in Wales, and lost myself in books as soon as I discovered them. That kid who hangs out in the library. Yeah, that was me.
I never wanted to be anything other than a writer/superhero and eventually I moved to London, finding work as a journalist and editor, before turning to writing horror and science fiction, and being continually amazed that people actually read it.
Mutation is the 4th book of a 6 book series. Each book moves forward in this zombie apocalypse -- the difference in these zombies from other zombie books is that these zombies can think for themselves. They are still a single minded group that never give up. Volume 4 has several new characters taking prominent places in the survivors group.
One part of the story that really caught my attention was a discussion of music and how terrible life would/ will be without music. When the present generation is gone, most of the music will also be gone. I 'assumed' some of the survivors would pass down singing songs, but as life goes on, all music will disappear. Music can express so many feelings and emotions it is hard to imagine a world without music.
Jake is a special 'person' in book 4. At the end of book 4, Jake is caged and taken away, but I'm thinking he will have a big role in book 5, carrying out this human produced virus that is destroying mankind all for a bunch of people that think so highly of themselves. Greed is a good work to use here!
Not zombies, but crazed killers and plenty of infected. They gouge out their eyes and just want to spread the infection. Four books down and a couple to go. Have to complete reading this sci-fi horror series. Not everyone is a hero or a villain. People just trying to survive in a mad mad world.
I haven't been able to put any of the Wildfire Chronicles books down! Plenty of action, a minimum of sugary dialogue, and the author writes of gore and dismemberment like he's writing a Pom. Totally recommend!
Going to make this short and sweet because every second I spend here is time away from starting the next book. Seriously awesome series I dare you NOT to get sucked in to. :)
Book 4 of 6. I read book one with no intention of reading book two until I found on my Kindle that I had purchased book two some time ago and never read it. After book two, I had to read book 3 and then after book 3, I purchased the other three. It just keeps getting better. The characters are well written and seem to act consistently with the personalities given them by the author. I really like that. Also, the author has demonstrated an ability to describe action scenes vividly so they are easy to picture. The exception to this, in my opinion is a battle scene in book 4. This one seemed a bit rushed. My man problem with this series is sometimes I feel too much time is spent describing back stories, taking up space. This battle however could have been longer, something I don't usually advocate. Book four was good and certainly took nothing away from the series. I'm ready to move on to book five. This series has gone beyond a zombie story. Actually, it's not a "zombie" story at all, but there are elements. The bottom line is, if you've gone through the first three books, continue on. Book four will only leave you wanting more.
than global catastrophe. While zombie stories are more fiction than science, the story was holding my interest with science until the reincarnation of "Jake" as a superpredator. More cartoonish than the victims of Wildfire. Throwing trees and human beings like a football? Very disappointing...but alas, I have to know how this ends. On to Trauma...
This book really gets the series moving. Thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns and new characters. I'm lucky that I can relate to the places mentioned in this book as I've been to most of them, so this adds to my own background atmosphere. This is a highly recommended series and I can't wait to see how it all develops.
John wants to ditch Michael’s group. Rachel’s traumatized and brittle; Jason mostly isn’t mentally present (more trauma), and Michael’s a paraplegic now. Not to mention the two young children who need looking after. They’re tying him down and making his life more risky. On the other hand there are some benefits to teaming up, and John can almost certainly outrun his fellow travelers should the need arise.
I would have liked more information on why the other Infected are staying away from that one infected girl who can speak. Many of the changing details of how the infection works are inadequately explained or telegraphed.
This installment is of course called mutation. This is where we discover that Victor’s attempt at making the infection skip him (by making it not work on his blood type), actually results in mutation. This is why we’re finding occasional outliers among the Infected who can talk, who don’t really seem infected at all, or who seem to have super-powers. (IMO, Jake’s too powerful.)
There’s a military garrison near our heroes’ new home, and the commander, Colonel Hopper, is your standard 80s-movie issue insane military leader. One of his people, Nick Hurt, plans to steal the helicopter and escape the Colonel.
In a ridiculous example of small world syndrome (which should already be used up by Claire and Michael reconnecting), one of the characters turns out to be Alex/Jake’s bio-mom, although that doesn’t seem to go much of anywhere.
Note: some of the characters in this series do seriously depraved things to other people. If that isn’t something you’re up to handling, then move on to another book.
I semi-enjoyed the series, but I think I’ll stop here with book four. If you aren’t as nit-picky as I am and don’t mind flat villains, then you might like this series more than I did.
Alas, this fine horror story comes to an end - maybe. There seems to be a remote possibility that Jake may return. I would like to see him return so that he could be disposed of in a truly horrific manner.
Well, I digress since I should be addressing this final installment in the series. The author has created situations in which the story takes unexpected turns. I truly enjoyed the variations in plot and the characters - even the minor ones. every character has something to give to the flow of the story. even though I am not a horror genre fan, I will search out more books by this fine author - as I hope you do.
I got this book as a gift from the Author, and its another nail biter. This is the 4th book in the Wildfire Chronicles, and like with the other books I had a hard time putting it down, the dust bunnies in the house will be attacking me soon. I strongly suggest you read the series in order that way you will appreciate it more and know exactly what is going on. I feel like I am going on this journey with our little group of survivors, lucky for me from the safety of my own home. I love the characters and the action is intense and I can't wait to see what will happen next.
So the end has been reached well I want more lol. Truly I enjoyed this series. I have read many in this vein that didn't grip me as much as series did. It was a bit more violent than the others, and there were a few misspelled words .Through this though it is still a great series that I highly recommend to anyone who loves zombies, Resident Evil, apocalyptic thrillers....
The author really is going from strength to strength with this series. More characters, more settings, and all handled with skill and ease. The various elements of the story combine and are tied up without any sense of obviousness, but with clear plausibility. Timing and pace are excellent. I'm putting off reading number five because it's the last!
I normally don't read "zombie" books and the argument could be made both that this is and that this isn't one! What can't be argued is that the book is well written, has an interesting and well developed storyline and characters. This is an excellent book 4 in a great series.
I started this series with a lot of doubt if I would continue. But as soon as I write this I'll be getting next book. There is so much going on. The infected, just plain psycho's, mutation. It is so fun to read.