Dying Light: Nightmare Row

by Raymond Benson

DYING LIGHT Nightmare Row tells the terrifying story of Mel Wyatt, an 18-year-old American athlete who participated in the Harran 2015 Global Athletic Games two weeks earlier. As one of many Americans stranded in Harran as a result of the outbreak, Mel has been surviving with her little brother, Paul, in an isolated hotel – their parents were killed on the first day of the Infected attacks on the stadium. Thus begins a tense and ticking time bomb thriller of survival.

Genres: Horror, Video Games, Zombies

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2015

About the author

Raymond Benson is the author of approximately 40 titles. Among his works are the critically-acclaimed and New York Times best-selling serial THE BLACK STILETTO, and he was also the third--and first American--continuation author of the official James Bond 007 novels. His latest novels are HOTEL DESTINY--A GHOST NOIR, BLUES IN THE DARK, IN THE HUSH OF THE NIGHT and THE SECRETS ON CHICORY LANE.

Reviews

[S.E. Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's start out with a bit of a disclaimer: I am a ridiculously vested Dying Light fan. Ridiculous. I mean it. So give me some credit for reviewing this as objectively as I can manage.

This was a quick and easy read, simple as they get. So let's see what I liked and what I didn't.

Taffer approves of:
More depth! Harran got more character, more local character at that. The cultural heritage stands out a little better, though I admit even the book didn't delve quite as deep as I might have hoped. Still. It was great to get to know more about the City state of Harran, its politics, and just what went wrong. I also really liked how it focused on the time just before the outbreak and then right after it, giving us that sense of just how quickly things deteriorated. We also learn more about the virus in it, in particular what it does to people, though we do not get to see a lot of special mutations. Which, I suppose, would make sense. Considering mutations take time.

What the Taffer didn't like:
I admit I was able to connect better with Dr. Abbas, rather than the actual protagonist Mel, but that might be because of the word count restriction of a 200 page novella. Mel could have used a little more time to grow. In fact, I think the whole novel would have benefited greatly from not having been condensed the way it was. There was an obvious attempt at highlighting the darkness of human nature, for one. That was what I was looking for. The horror. The bleakness. But it didn't quite come across, and again I blame the word count restriction. Rather than getting right down to the nitty gritty, things were merely brushed at.

If you like other video game tie in novels (which all follow a fairly simple formula) then I think you would enjoy this one. It's not the Halo novel series, more like Resident Evil, but with less horror. And even the Resident Evil book series benefits from being, well, a series-- and substantially better character development across the board. More depth would have definitely benefited the novel. And maybe it could have used another edit.

If you haven't played the game yourself, or aren't planning on doing so, then I'd say skip this. If it had a sequel, or been a little longer, then maybe. But as it is it stands on very wobbly feet as a standalone novel.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being an avid fan of the game, when a tie-in prequel novel was announced, I was very eager to read the book. However, I was disappointed to discover that, up until a short time ago, the novel was only available in Polish. I was very pleased when someone via the Techland forums told me recently that the novel was now available in English.

I really enjoyed the story but I felt that it was over rather quickly. (or maybe that was just my reading speed and enjoyment of the story) The plot could have also gone into more detail on the origins of how the virus started and how it spread. I was disappointed to find that there were no characters from the game featured in the book, I felt this would have been great at bridging the gap so to speak. Also the fact that the whole story was centred around really just one (two at a push) main character; granted there are plenty of minor characters but I felt the story would have benefited from having more main characters - characters from the game perhaps. (although the GRE are mentioned several times and Rais' gang is alluded to)

Overall a good prequel tie-in. I would definitely recommend this to the people who enjoyed the story of the game.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

[Vitek Novy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the Dying Light game so I was really curious about this book. After many hours of playing I know Harran quite well so reading this was like returning to a place I've spent my vacation at.

As for the story it's like getting a bit of background about what happened when the zombie apocalypse started. The girl-hero Mel, she's pretty cool, of course it's "such a coincidence" that she's a parkour runner and finds a kilij saber on her way, almost like a teenage version of Kyle Crane. She gets bitten, has seizures as the zombie virus is spreading in her body, but she's got one goal for which she endures anything - to save her brother. It's a cliche but a hero needs something to live or die for...

I rather liked the part with Dr. Abbas, that was pretty spooky how he starts researching the zombie epidemic. I wish there was more of that. The part with Mel is more like gameplay (I guess it's supposed to be like that). I'd recommend this book to anyone who played the game, you'll probably enjoy it. For those who haven't played it, not sure if it would make sense as a stand-alone book but you can give it a try...

[Nancy Wray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Punctuation!!!

I had to stop reading this after about 20 pages because the excessive punctuation started to fry my head, I tried to ignore it but couldn't. Suggest to have it rectified, I would give it another try if that was done.

[Di · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really sure how I feel about this one. I did really enjoy reading from an infected person's pov.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad side story revolving around Dying Light.
The story follows an American teen in Harran for the games as she searches for her parents and autistic little brother. We get a brief moment of another character POV with some story driven moments but that is quickly moved back to the main protagonist and her drive to save the ones she loves.
Lots of death, gore, and violence but nothing too awful.
We get plenty of depth and empathize easily with the protagonist.
There's a nice contrast section with happy flashbacks as she goes through the horrible turning process.
Not much on surprise or exciting twists but overall, a good book. Good zombie. Good ending. Worth the read.

[Wiedźma · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dying Light. Aleja Koszmarów" to mocna, krwawa powieść dla wielbicieli wszelkiej masy zombie. Czyta się ją błyskawicznie, akcja cały czas biegnie do przodu, a pojawiające się elementy retrospekcji pogłębiają obraz pierwszych tygodni katastrofy, jaką był wybuch epidemii. Nie jest to książka ambitna, ale jej lekturę można uznać za zadowalającą.

Całość na: http://wiedzma-czyta.blogspot.com/201...

[Jessica Juby | jesshidesinbooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of the most poorly written published books I've read. Grammatical errors and incorrect commas everywhere. I'm very surprised that the author has written "over thirty books". There seems to have been no proofreading at all. Glad I didn't pay for this as it would've been daylight robbery. I can only assume it was ghostwritten and he just signed his name to it

[Gnomie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would call this book "relaxing book". The story was a so strong cliche, but quite enjoyable and short.

It didn't add anything new to the story of Dying Light in my opinion, but it's still worth reading.

[Kacper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Czytałem to chyba 6 lat temu i wciąż pamietam to jako jedną z najgorszych książek ever, dwie gwiazdki za to, że momentami było wciągające

[Leo Pysmak · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING BOOK IF YOU PLAYED THE FIRST GAME. The book really goes deeper into the events of the mismanagement of the city state of haran, and how reluctantce is the death of many.

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at 29%

As a huge fan of the Dying Light franchise, I really, REALLY wanted to love this book. Sadly, it's just not good. Art is subjective, I get that, but this is a novel in desperate need of an editor that actually knows what they're doing. The punctuation is all over the place, the sentence structure is often strange and clunky, and the author frequently tells us, rather than shows us.

And, the biggest disappointment of all, the story just wasn't that compelling (at least it didnt compel me). I've powered through objectively poorly written books because I like the plot/characters/general vibe. I can overlook tiny (or glaring) flaws for the sake of a story that hooks its claws in and refuses to let go. Outside of academia, I read for pleasure, and sometimes pleasure is a plot bunny that doesn't have the best execution but still tickles my brain. Unfortunately, my brain was not tickled.

[Jarosław Loretz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ot, młodzieżówka stanowiąca wprowadzenie do komputerowej gry Techlandu "Dying Light". Książeczka jest wartko napisana i nieco krwawa, aczkolwiek częstokroć irytuje płytkimi, tombakowymi przemyśleniami i naiwnym podejściem do życia. Powieść została jednak napisana pod młodego, amerykańskiego gracza, więc nie ma co się dziwić, że w tym momencie bohaterka jest parkourowcem biorącym udział w rotariańskich młodzieżowych igrzyskach i brzydzi się przemocą, ciepło wspominając dom, gdzie została wychowana w duchu religijnym i w poszanowaniu odmienności innych ludzi.

Książka nie jest jakąś straszną tragedią i z pewnością wniesie trochę dodatkowych informacji tym, którzy już grają w "Dying Light", ale całą resztę czytelników raczej pozostawi obojętnymi.

[smocze.polecajki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka świetna dla osób, które wiedzą już coś na temat świata z gry. Osobiście uważam, że jest bardzo dobrze napisana, bo nie mogłam się oderwać i czytałam na jednym posiedzeniu aż skończyłam ostatnią stronę.
Zakończenie jest genialne! Nie spodziewałam się, że aż tak mi się spodoba. Ostatnie dwa rozdziały były chyba najlepszymi z całej książki i warto do nich doczytać 🤯
A klimat jest całkowicie pasujący do rozgrywki pierwszej części gry więc byłam bardzo pozytywnie zaskoczona!

[Vjeko Konc · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get over the punctuation in the writing, this is an interesting glimpse into what led up to the game.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apokalipsa zombie w arabskim mieście. Szybko się czyta.

[Agata · Rating 3 out of 5]

przyjemny prequel do gry

[Avery Thorne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author should've named main character "The Athlete" instead of Mel, saved himself the trouble.