Zombies have become a staple of modern pop culture. Over the past two decades we've been treated to everything from romantic comedies to traditional horror on the subject in just about every medium there is. That said, this book stands out in terms of scope and its focus on the militaristic and diplomatic aspects of a worldwide pandemic (eek... lemme check the copyright date... 2019? Wow, how's that for timing?)
This book doesn't have a protagonist which is not an issue for me, but I could see it being a turn off for some people. That's the hazard of a subject that is worldwide in scope with a high mortality rate. Nearly 7 out of every 10 named characters do not survive three chapters (spoilerish? It's a zombie book...).
Instead, you can expect tank battles, sea engagements, a treatment of the logistical implications of moving people and equipment - actually, that was all very interesting to me. The obligatory US v. China skirmishes were Tom Clancey-esque descriptions of real-world tech and fun to read.
Where it lacked was in it's size. The thing is a brick and something like 700 pages, but that is a guess since my copy does not have page numbers... this is a problem when you have young children with an awful habit of pulling out bookmarks and have to spent 5-10 minutes searching for your place. It could have been trimmed down by ~15% without losing anything - my opinion.
Not to be prudish, but even for a zombie novel, it gets gratuitously dark at times. I don't generally go for s*xual torture in my zombie media, but that's just me. Also, a couple characters were over-the-top in their hateabiility, but at least Ryan kept it fairly well balanced; the "good-old-boy" racist stereotype was balanced out with the "obnoxious college leftist" stereotype. But due to the aforementioned body count, it doesn't really matter.
Was this a long review? Well, it's a long damn book.
All joking aside, this was no chore to read and genuinely enjoyable for the most part. Would recommend if you are a Tom Clancey/Military genre fan in need of a zombie fix.
-Wes