Monster Planet

Monster Island #3

by David Wellington

Set twelve years after the shambling zombie masses have overrun Manhattan, America, and the world, Monster Planet is the mind-blowing conclusion to what must be the scariest trilogy ever. Oceans of blood, scattered limbs, wanton violence, and general mayhem abound, along with revivified mummies, a Welsh sorcerer, and Wellington's signature brand of cool high-tech weaponry and sly humor — zombies, after all, are the ultimate consumers. What do the undead want, aside from fresh meat? Do the steadily diminishing number of humans who have somehow managed to survive over a decade of living hell stand a chance on a planet where they've been reduced to the status of prey? It all ends here, on Monster Planet.

Genres: Zombies, Horror, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic

302 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2006

About the author

David Wellington is a contemporary American horror author, best known for his Zombie trilogy as well as his Vampire series and Werewolf series. His books have been translated into eleven languages and are a global phenomenon.

His career began in 2004 when he started serializing his horror fiction online, posting short chapters of a novel three times a week on a friend’s blog. Response to the project was so great that in 2004 Thunder’s Mouth Press approached David Wellington about publishing Monster Island as a print book. His novels have been featured in Rue Morgue, Fangoria, and the New York Times.

He also made his debut as a comic book writer in 2009 with Marvel Zombies Return:Iron Man.

Wellington attended Syracuse University and received an MFA in creative writing from Penn State. He also holds a masters degree in Library Science from Pratt Institute.

He now lives in New York City with his dog Mary Shelley and wife Elisabeth who, in her wedding vows, promised to “kick serious zombie ass” for him.

Reviews

[Wil Wheaton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited for this book, because I loved [Book: Monster Island]. Monster Island is so fantastic, I've used it as an infection vector (har) to get several of my friends who aren't into zombies to give the genre a try.

The sequel, [Book: Monster Nation], wasn't nearly as good, but was still an enjoyable romp that struck the right notes for me.

Now, there's Monster Planet, a book that, though it shares title and some characters in common with its predecessors bears little resemblance to them in tone, story, and enjoyment. I couldn't even finish it, giving up about halfway through because it just drove me crazy.

David Wellington is a fine author, and I adore his other work, but Monster Planet just isn't at the same level as his other novels. It very much feels like a publisher wanted a trilogy, he agreed to give them a trilogy, and then realized that there really wasn't a third book in the arc. Or maybe he decided to challenge himself and do something completely different from the first two (which would have been a bad idea. Imagine [Book: Return of the King] with spaceships instead of Nazgul.) Whatever the reason, the result is a lot of crazy supernatural stuff that is so convoluted it strains suspension of disbelief (yes, even in a novel that's about the living dead), and was a major disappointment to me, especially considering how much I loved the first two books in the series.

Skip this, and if you really want to read more zombie stories, give World War Z a try instead.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

zombie horror? WHAT zombie horror?

Remember how the 1st in this series was all about zombies and survival and being interesting?
yeah... that seems to have died somewhere along the pages of book 2.

What you get here is a giant mess of random things that don't make sense. Not even by themselves, and even less so when combined. Undead with working brains have superpowers! (we're talking comicbook villain superpowers) Characters established in previous books come back, minus their personalities! Some girl learns "magic" out of thin air. Black Magic thrown about for 2 pages only to be completely forgotten and ignored later

and the ending.. WHAT ENDING?? The book just stops.
No proper resolve, no real tied up ends. Its like the writer just gave up and walked away leaving couple blank pages to finish some other time


PS: get thee to an editor! There were continuity & spelling errors all over the place

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Remate a la trilogía, pero remate suave y a las manos del portero.-

Género. Narrativa Fantástica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Ayaan, ahora al frente de las unidades paramilitares, y Sarah, hija de Dekalb, junto a un grupo de otros supervivientes, están en Egipto buscando lugares que ofrezcan más suministros y mejores oportunidades de supervivencia que Somalia, pero pronto descubren que hay grupos de necrófagos que, además de estar organizados, se mueven con personas vivas y armadas entre ellos. Y es que el Zarevich, el lich, el khassis, ha venido a la zona a terminar con sus enemigos. Tercer libro de la trilogía Zombies.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Trevor Oakley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although well written, I stopped reading this, the third book of the Monster trilogy before the end. Maybe I'll try another time, but for me, for now, I felt the story spiraled off into the stratosphere.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good Lord! What have you been eating?
Taco Bell. Why do you want to help me put the wallpaper back up?

I am sorry folks but this one stinks. And it is not the smell of the undead that did it in. I know it has been a while since I read the second book in this trilogy and that did not help. It took me a while to figure out who was who and what the hell was going on here. I read a lot of series and usually am able to catch up within about a chapter. Here I was playing catch up almost the entire way through the book. And the characters? Holy crap! Good luck trying to figure out if someone is actually dead, a zombie or a what the hell. This was like eating a large bowl of Cheerio's. Not so bad to begin with and than tasting like you are chewing on a damn piece of cardboard towards the end. I gave this two stars because I figure somewhere out there has too be a worse zombie novel. Good luck with this one. You may want to keep this book handy in case the zombie thing actually does occur. I hear toilet paper will be in short supply.

[Guts☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not perfect but it was a fun read for me. I recognize that I've been confused a bunch of times because a few supernatural things occur quite randomly and I'm left wondering what the hell just happened. Sometimes important details are simply left out. Overall enjoyed it and I also bought it for only 4 euros from second-hand book section. I'm definitely going to read more of this author (which is rare for me).

[Ralph Pulner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liches are the best. A great ending to the trilogy.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The third book went full on magical.
It was still okay, but it felt really different from the first and a bit different from the second.
The changing loyalties keeps the reader engaged as you never know what could happen.

A problem I had was spans of time just vanished.
Cross oceans quickly.
Character who gets off in New York, suddenly deep in New York, then back on Governor's Island.
Cross America in no time.
Talk about difficulty fueling a helicopter, but that's it, a sentence.
Prepare an air attack, landmine an egress, and prepare an ambush, at a particular area, but never discuss the prep in the book. Plus the enemy would have heard your helicopter spinning around over head back and forth doing this? Oh wait, enemy got the perfect counter to your plot at some point, that also wasn't discussed.
All these and more make the book feel rushed or there was more, but the author had a page constraint to meet and had to cut giant chunks of the story out.

If you've read the first two, read this one to finish it out.
Also, it wouldn't hurt to read book 2, then 1, then 3.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monster Planet completes David Wellington's zombie trilogy. A trilogy that became more and more supernatural as it went on and in this book we are treated to a story that steps away from the traditional zombie tale far more than the previous efforts. Monster Island and Monster Nation could only hint at the extent that magic would end up playing in this culmination of this saga.
The story takes place twelve years after the zombie plague began and most humans have been wiped out. We are reintroduced to some familiar characters and several new ones. Where the the first two stories were devoted to single liches (zombies who remain intelligent and have special powers) plus an ancient druid and mummies, in this story it starts to become clear that Nilla and Gary were not alone in their state of undead power. The Tsarevich is the most powerful lich of all, able to control massive armies of the undead. He not only controls them but has created other liches as well, Generals in his new army. He too, like the Gary and Nilla, has a love/hate relationship with Mael Mag Och, the ancient druidic ghost whose has been called upon by his ancient god to destroy the world. He has his own agenda and much like the other two that have come before he has a strong tendency to frustrate Mael to no end.
David Wellington has crafted a very involved and detailed mythology in this trilogy. His characters in this book, particularly Sarah and Ayaan, are rich and vibrant and are brought to life with a story that is complex and full of unique takes on the zombie genre.
Certainly, if you are reading this book I will have to presume that you have read his two previous novels and enjoyed them enough to complete the trilogy. If that is the case then you are probably someone who can step away from the traditional Romero works, even if you (like me) love those stories just as much. David has added several new layers on top of the standard stuff here, which allows the story to take off in totally new directions.
If I am to find fault in this book, it is the same fault I have found in the other two novels of the trilogy--some of the elements the author is asking me as the reader to suspend disbelief over are a little bit hard to swallow. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say, this realm is rather fantastical. I would dare say that the Monster series, especially this book, weaves a narrow path between horror and fantasy storytelling. Some elements do work and make good sense (such as human cultists who worship the liches and look forward to death so they can better serve them) while others are pretty over the top (some of the varied lich abilities are a pretty big stretch).
I guess the key thing to recognize is that despite the tagline on each book being "A zombie novel" the title of each includes the word 'monster'. The monsters in these novels are a bit more diverse than just zombies, as characters such as Erasmus, The Least, and Amanita clearly point out. Magic permeats everything and not only the dead have it, but the living as well.
Overall, I have to give the series the same amount of stars that I gave this book. I liked each one of the books primarily because David Wellington knows how to create interesting and compelling characters that are vivid and fun to read about but at the same time he takes risks, stretching the stories in ways that sometimes works and other times does not, at least for me. I will have to admit that he does pull it all together nicely in the end though, as fantastically wild as this saga became in this third and final act.

[T.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first book, the second wasn't bad either. This one was less engaging, I read it more for completion reasons than anything else.

It just felt a bit like he had been told he had to write a trilogy and couldn't quite decide how to end it so he just went with the random thoughts that came into his head. Some of these things were awesome others not so much.

Characters did 180 flips in their beliefs with no real explanation for it. Other characters that should have had really awesome storylines became sacrificial pawns.

Worth reading to complete the series but wouldn't stand up well on its own.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, Monster Planet takes the most ambitious bite of Wellington's three novels. It also veers furthest from the classic zombie archetypes that we saw at the beginning of the series. In this world, some 12 years after the outbreak began, there are a number of zombies who have kept their higher brain functions (usually through mechanical means like a crash cart) after crossing over, and these lichs usually have magical powers, such as the ability to control the other zombies, physical deformities, or even weirder stuff. As such, the process of becoming a zombie becomes a bit like being an X-Man.

We follow Sarah, the daughter of DeKalb (from Monster Island), and Ayaan, the soldier from the first novel, as they pursue the evil Tsarovich on his dastardly quest (whatever that is). Bits from the other novels weave together nicely as Wellington lets the threads of his fantastic horrorscape play out to the end. Because of the complicated mythos of this magical world, though, the horror of zombies qua zombies vanishes completely. While the first book might more aptly be called Zombie Island, this book definitely focuses on Monsters.

A few additional thoughts:

* Once again, Wellington develops a couple solid storylines nicely, with good reveals and cliffhangers that drive the book forward.
* More than some other books, I found it harder to remember the little threads of narrative that returned from the earlier books. Wellington provides fewer clues to remind the reader about what happened previously. Reviewing plot synopses of the previous books would be a wise move for readers who've gone months between books.
* The cover has little or nothing to do with the book. Sigh.
* Ayaan becomes an interesting character in the novel, as her allegiance slides back and forth from one pole to the other. The notion of a benevolent dictator gets some good traction here as a thought experiment.
* Never has mold seemed scary in the way this book makes it seem. Mold and crab legs.

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem is that the apocalypse doesn't happen. I think they destroy the thing that makes the zombies be zombies, and then humans are left to pickup the goddam pieces, but I'm like... well, obviously. I just would've liked to see everybody die.

Also, the logic of the grand large-scale plans these immortanlish folks have been laying for millenia tend to have pretty simple, stupid loopholes. Also I don't care about all the obsessive military weapon fetishism. And I don't remember much of what happened in MONSTAR ISLAND, so that was kind of too bad for understanding what was going on.

Still, who cares? It is a novel about zombies and it was full of zombies and there was hella gore and violence and telekinetic bullshit and a lady who walked around killing people by filling their lungs with mold just by being near them. That shit RULES. All I wanted was a few explosions and some people to die painfully, and I got that. Are you listening, American Government? You can get that shit in books, you don't have to make it happen in real life.

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even a 2-star book but I'll round up... noting I was sorely tempted to round DOWN! The most succinct description I can give about this book is 'what an unholy clusterf$ck!' The trilogy is at best a 2 1/2 star venture and then only just.

Oh wow, where to start. Hm, I guess I could mention that I looked forward to getting the "MI" trilogy for eons and when the PayPal money hit the bank a few months back, well, kaching. I guess then it doesn't hurt as much as it wasn't really then my 'money' I spent but some facsimile of same. Just like these books were a facsimile of gods know what. Seriously kids: I don't know whether to file this under 'horror', 'horrible' or something akin to 'cyberpunk meets Frankenstein's spleen'. It's just that weird. I guess I'm glad I read the last few dozen pages with a REALLY good Christmas Eve buzz!

Last and lastmost: too many spelling errors, too many grammar errors, too many the start of one paragraph was 3 spaces from the edge, the next 24 and the rest just sort of drunkenly spread out in between errors. THE. PRODUCTION. IS. NOT. PROFESSIONAL. If you are the kind of reader where that kind of bollocks bugs you, DO NOT BUY THESE BOOKS. My brain still hurts and it's not even Hangover P.M. yet. Ye gods, we don't even do that when we text, do we Boomers?

In terms of the book, nay the trilogy, my summary:
Book #1 - a lot of promise, an interesting premise. If you enjoy the idea of watching NYC dissolve around you, read it. Buuuuuuuut...
Book #2 - airport book-rack quality z-tale. Like buy it, read it (or part of it), leave it on the plane with no guilt. This including the requisite Middle East slant and Russian bad guys galore. Nothing new, nothing particularly original in the z-genre, sail around the world in a couple of paragraphs. Sloppy plotting, unsympathetic characterizations are a must, too. Kind of an 'oops, sorry, forgot this in Book 1' kind of read. Which really did very little to set us up for....
Book #3 - man, this was all over the place. Magic, violence, a really REALLY weird character change (um, was it just me or did Ayaan's sudden 'change of non-beating heart' catch you off-guard?) and quite frankly an ending that should leave NO ONE satisfied. I don't do drugs but I think they would've helped. I mentioned cyberpunk before and really that reading a book that embraced that descriptive was the last time I felt this lost. We're here, we're there, we're in old musty underwear. New Jersey was the most fun, put it that way.

Look kids, you do what you want. I can't with good conscience recommend these books to anyone. It's sloppy production, it's weird plotting and it's not what I wanted for my birthday OR Christmas. I've read quite a few Wellington books but unfortunately I went from best (the Laura Caxton books) to meh (the werewolf duo) to this rot. Like Peter Griffin sitting in a rom-com: DONE!

Oh well, maybe Santa will bring me something better... Happy Holidays kids. And if your Pagan God tells you to end the world, well, just let me know first, ok? I've still got a cabinet full of good whiskey I need to make my way through...

[Eamonn Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monster Planet is the third book of a zombie trilogy. The first, Monster Island was set in New York and told the story of De Kaalb, a United Nations worker who travelled from Somalia with a team of soldiers after the zombie epidemic to find some medicines for HIV. He left his daughter Sarah behind. In New York he encountered zombies with magic powers, a deranged old Druid and Egyptian mummies risen from the museum. The second book, Monster Nation, was set in the western United States, and told the zombie pandemic story from another angle.

Monster Planet features elements from both the first books so it would be better to read them first. It opens in the middle east, Egypt, and the point of view characters are Sarah, De Kaalb’s daughter and Ayaan, a soldier who went with him to New York and got back home. Now she is the leader of a small group just about surviving. Twelve years have passed since the events of Monster Island and Ayaan effectively raised Sarah. So when Ayaan is kidnapped by a strange new messiah and his fanatical followers, Sarah is determined to rescue her mentor, or kill her if she has become a zombie.

The new messiah with a plan for the world is the Tsarevich, a Russian boy who had been kept alive for years in a semi-comatose state when the Epidemic occurred and so had an oxygen supply. It’s already established that 99.9% of zombies are stupid. They revive shortly after death but the brain is starved of oxygen for several minutes so they become dumb brutes desperately hungry for flesh. However, anyone who somehow had an oxygen supply while dead kept their intelligence. Not only that, they can develop certain powers as well, which vary from zombie to zombie. Such creatures are known as liches. The Tsarevich is very powerful himself but also has a team of these liches to aid him. One looks like a werewolf. Another can speed up or slow down the metabolism of others thus enabling zombies to whiz about like the Flash or enemies to lapse into sleep. One develops the ability to fire bolts of energy from her hands. There is a strong comic book vibe to the whole scenario. X-Men zombies!

The author writes well in efficient prose that makes everything clear. The point of view switches between Ayaan, a valuable prisoner of the Tsarevich as he pursues his plans and Sarah, chasing the enemy to rescue the woman who raised her. Both are strong, likeable characters. The villains, and there are several, are evil enough to inspire loathing and nearly all the main characters have some sort of superpower. The story proceeds in a series of crises and cliffhanger endings with plenty of action and adventure. Reading it I kept thinking that it was all a bit silly but also good, gory fun and I wanted to see how it turned out. The first two books in the series gave me the same feeling. I enjoyed the trilogy as a guilty pleasure, like a B-movie you watch late on a Friday night after a little too much beer. But I did enjoy it. You might, too.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow! This book tied up everything together in the series with a neat little bow on top. There are a lot of new-ish and brand new characters though so I've got them all blurred and confused in my head but over all I liked that it tied back in with some familiar characters from the earlier books. There are new types of zombies in this book again which sets it apart from the earlier books.

It was action packed to the brim. However, there is a sense of... Magic or supernatural used SO much to the point it was convenient or forced for the story line or just kind of overdone. I think this kind of took away from the sense of how a zombie apocalypse could happen in real life.

[Skyler Jones G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha sorprendido el final, más que nada porque ha sido mucho más suave y sutil de lo que esperaba. Además de que deja muchísimos interrogantes en el aire con el tema de la Fuente. Aunque la reaparición de los personajes del primer libro ha sido un poco tardía, tampoco puedo decir que no haya sido bastante acertada. Aunque deja la historia de Nilla muy en el aire desde que termina el libro hasta que reaparece. Aún así, ha sido una trilogía bastante interesante de leer, con una trama currada y bien enrevesada.

[George William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 3rd part in the series and it's pretty great. The world, when compared to the 1st book is a crazy place. The author does a good job of getting the reader to accept the craziness a spoonful at a time. Finally, at the opening chapter of book 3 I realized how deep I was in. I remember I actually stopped reading at that point to reflect on the insanity of it all and how enjoyable this series is.

[Christine Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great ending!!

Monster Planet is the last book in the Monster Island trilogy. Twelve years have passed since the dead started walking the earth. Ayaan has kept her promise to Dekalb and took care of Sarah. Sarah is now a strong grown warrior. When Ayaan gets kidnapped by a strong and dangerous lich Sarah sails from Africa to the United States to rescue her. When Sarah gets to New York she's in for one hell of a shock. 4 stars!!

[Simone Cicali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una trilogia spiazzante, soprattutto per la nuova impronta (mistica, direi) data ai non-morti e per l'altalenare della qualità e della sequenza temporale.
Sono arrivato in fondo per stizza.

Solo una nota: se l'editore stesso lascia una nota sulle scelte di traduzione, siete avvisati in partenza.

[Edward Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it better than the second installment in the trilogy but still not as much as the original. Wellington did a great job in putting it all together and overall I would give the series 3/5 skulls.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most disappointing of the trilogy, almost giving up halfway through as it was somewhat turgid in the middle section but I stuck with it and it did improve. Glad I didn't give up as it is still decent, just not on a par with the opening novel and the prequel.

Ray Smillie

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Qué puedo decir, es un libro de zombies con magia ancestral y deseos de apocalipsis, pero por lo menos es entretenido.
En esta tercera entrega todos los personajes se reúnen y se ve la verdadera naturaleza de cada uno, lo que no se sabe es quién ganará la partida.

[Thomas Hobbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah is grown and 12 years has passed. This book made very little sense to me with the lich and the humans coinciding with the dead. You take out that one bit of information and it's no longer a zombie book. My opinion.

[Liégeois Fabrice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oui, c'est ça, une autre planète... Indéfinissable parce que c'est comment dire parti très loin... Il y a de la reprise dans ce dernier opus mais, j'étais déjà perdu depuis longtemps... Désolé...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I

[Oscar Espejo Badiola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mala, en mi opinión de lo peor que he leído del género Z. Mezcla demasiados géneros de fantasía y no llega a nada.

[Kathei · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book in David Wellington's Zombie Novel series. If you like end of the world stories, if you like zombie stories and if you like adventure stories then this ones for you.

[Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fase conclusiva: dopo dodici anni dalla diffusione del morbo, ritroveremo vecchi e più recenti protagonisti di questa epica trilogia che consiglio a tutti di leggere.
Epico.

[Samantha Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this a while back as I loved his other series and books but book 3 of this series just wasn't the same

[Darryl Bailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but it was a struggle to get through it