Coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, stands in the crosshairs. The economy struggles. A flu pandemic spreads. On a chilly January day, bizarre behavior begins among residents. The cause is the newest zombie drug, as the government keeps reassuring. It’s a repeat of the bath salts ‘zombie apocalypse’ of 2012. Except everyone is saying they’re actually infected zombies.
For wounded warrior, former Staff Sergeant Peter Sullivan, it’s a good thing. War is what the Bostonian does best. Life is what he sucks at. But for doctoral candidate Phebe Marcelino, it’s like stepping into a movie and a descent into a kill-or-be-killed civil unrest. Her moral compass spins. Survival instinct, intelligence, and New York sarcasm are all the young woman has got to save her and her Georgia roommate. You never know what you’re made of until tested!
Unflappable veteran Army Rangers, Delta, and US Marines face combat more violent and harder to kill than flakka users in the Middle East. Offensive military forces arrive, revealing the depth of the crisis. Teamwork under Peter is their fighting advantage.
A high-octane, often funny, literary realism disaster story about the resilience of the plucky human spirit and the bonds of friendship.
What Readers Say: “Great characters and believable action” “Speaking as a cynical old soldier and nitpicking fool, all I can say about this book is it rocks hard and I could not wait to see the sequel. Most of these types of books are boring and derivative - not this one.”—Michael L. Peirce, reviewed June 12, 2020.
“This one goes in the reread pile!” “Love this book. It puts a new spin on zombie fiction, and quite frankly scared the crap out of me, since out of all the zombie books I’ve read this one seems like it could really happen! The storyline, humor, and action helped keep me reading instead of heading out to buy a bunker.”—Carolyn, reviewed December 25, 2022.
K.J. Jones also writes under the pen name Kat-Jo Jones. She is the second generation in her family to have a background in the US Armed Forces/DoD/Pentagon, and she was active in war veteran assistance programs until she developed a chronic illness. An animal and nature lover, she can now only feed wild animals and adopt rescue pets whenever possible.
A member of Mensa, the wise-cracking, metalhead GenX author has an undergraduate degree in four-field anthropology from Wilmington, North Carolina. She achieved her master’s degree in archaeology in the UK.
She combines her life experiences with history, science, and current events in a bold manner that is not typically seen nowadays in the United States.
The Walking Dead meets Progressive Millennial and Immediately devolves into virtue signaling.
Imagine having a wonderful idea for a story and creating a cast of characters and doing a lot of research on the plotline ... and then pretty much NOT researching anything else. Take, for instance, what our young author calls the cargo area of a GMC Jimmy is called: the "Far Back." Or her description of a person driving a stick shift as 'rotating' the stick into gear. 'Phebe tried to rotate the little Honda into reverse, grinding the gears.' Poor Phebe spent pages in that Honda rotating the stick shift, unable to get the darn car to go. Since it's her car, I would normally assume she knew how to drive a manual transmission, but along comes a virus and ALL bets are suddenly off. Then there was the emergency hand-brakes for SUV's.... There may be a couple models that use them, but the Jimmy isn't one of them, neither is the Suburban. They tend to use the pedal variety of emergency brake. Oh, and there's a wonderful crab-trawler in the book with the oddest named compartments. Everyone hangs out on the back hang-out deck. Later, we learn that they're all on the lower hang-out deck and Peter pilots the ship from a flying wheelhouse (not a bridge, a flying wheelhouse.)
The descriptions of guns and ammo were clearly NOT researched, regardless of the author’s protestations. The names of the guns are correct. For the most part, she correctly classified the arms as well. Unfortunately, she has this fondness for explosive hollow-points and all of her ex-military use them. Hollow-points, yeah, I can see it. Explosive hollow-points? Not so much. Anyway, that's just a small thing, though she does go on about and even uses a character, Peter, to highlight their effectiveness. She uses National Guard snipers in a helicopter and her characters call them 'little birds,' instead of an Overwatch, which is the role in which they were engaged... in a helicopter no less. An Apache gunship (I assume it was an Apache) fired its chaingun and 'the bullets were so fast it made a continuous sound.' In the Navy, we called it an R2 Unit, CIWS, part of the Phalanx anti-missile system for our ship. The Army and Marines had their versions as well. I believe all of us called knew them as Burt Guns as well because of the sound they make when firing, a continuous BRRRRRRRRRT sound. It's the rate of fire, not the speed of the bullets responsible for the 'continuous' sound.
Regardless, imagine having a great story and then alienating huge swaths of people by telling it from a political perspective that dismisses entire groups of your reading audience. The characters in her book all see everything through the lens of race. The author is more focused on the race of the people in the story than she is in moving the story along. We spend pages reading sub-par dialogue that leads us nowhere other than to assume these characters are complete idiots. Unfortunately, it is my opinion that she actually insults large numbers of people by claiming they’re racist. She even proudly claims that this book is not for White Supremacists or Neo-Nazis or people like them because it’s for people who think like the rest of the world... people who think like her goes unsaid, but very much included.
Another minor thing, the author’s use of 'cos' and her defense of it at the beginning of the book was just plain lazy. I’m sorry. I really wanted this to be a good series. Everything about this story that was good was undermined by a political narrative that is dismissive at best and offensive in several parts (we're in the deep south and everyone has guns. The people trapped in their cars when zombies came along started shooting each other....) Again, it could have been better. What it ended up being is just sad.
In closing, this is my fault. I read all the reviews and I read her defense against those reviews where she talks about all the interviews and research she did. I will simply state, the 1-star reviews are accurate and whoever she interviewed did her a disservice.
3 Stars bc it’s kindle unlimited & I lower my expectations
There were elements I liked but to much explaining of the delicate psyches of the military dudes. Sure let us know they have issues and say stupid sht, but they just went on forever. Felt like stereotypes on top of stereotypes. Just felt like the author really wanted to make sure we got they had issues and them acting like dcks was somehow just a part of being military. Idk, it was just really boring. I also wish the decent into chaos had be stretched out. It’s a complaint I have for most zombie books. Maybe I was ruined by WWZ but I want to feel the unease as weirdness starts to happen, as normal slowly changes while everyone tries to hang onto a sense of normalcy. Until the crisis is banging at your door. This book gave more of that then some but not as much as I would have liked. Also most of the characters aren’t memorable. They seem pretty 2 dimensional. Again it’s kindle unlimited so I don’t expect a ton but the premise of this book is good and I wish it had been better. Still it’s an ok read and I’ll start the 2nd one. Hopefully it holds my attn. often I find myself not finishing the 2nd book when the first is mediocre.
I enjoyed this first book and will definitely look forward to the next one. It is refreshing to find a well written book by a new author in this genre. Phebe is a PhD candidate who finds herself fighting people infected with a new virus. Other mammels are infected as well. Her journey groups her with Peter, Matt, and her and other ex rangers who plan to survive this extinction event or go out fighting.
It was a great book. I enjoyed it so much I didn't want to put it down but I had to because I was falling asleep. The military camaraderie was spot on. I spent my time in the Air Force and the way the characters in the book got along is exactly how it is in real life. Military people share a special bond and it's well portrayed in the book. Great seat of your pants suspense and action and great story.
Boy, did I enjoy this book! After some sappy romances this was exactly what I was looking for. Written with humorous dialogue it also gave me a respite from those heavy doom and gloom Apocalyptic books. Oh, there is definitely doom in here but the writing style does not leave me with a feeling of total depression. Also, I thought the section with "copyrighted stuff" at the back was hilarious.
Notes: not quite zombies (lots of debating in the books) 'living/infected' style Zombies. (aka, can kill if you do enough damage to non-brain-stem related body parts) I love the research that went into the concept of the zombies.
Love this series. I have read the entire series at least 7 times so far. First read the "Zombie" KU editions. I loved the series enough to have purchased the kindle editions twice.
I do not typically like Zombie books but this one is the exception. The veterans and 20 something's were great. They were people you know. I liked the dialog on what they thought the cause of the outbreak was. The action was real. Looking forward to the next book.
Interesting book. What I liked about it: Well-developed characters with good dialogue and lots of humor. The action is nicely paced - eventually. That brings me to what I didn't like: Starts out really slow with some confusing segues between scenes. Needs a little better editing. Overall rating: Recommend. And, I'm off to read book two.
I know the genre have been beaten worse then the proverbial dead horse but this one is worth a read. Great character development, great story with charts you actually care about and just keep reading because you just have to know what is going to happen next.
My eyes are sore from looking at the Kindle screen and staying up so late! First book in a long time that's done this for me, and I've read a lot of books these last 2 years during COVID-19!!!! Loved the science and the foundations of the main characters. Can't wait to see how the characters and their relationships are developed.
loved the book! Great characters, I can picture them all as real. Seems like a no bullshit actual happening event. Gotta go buy the second book now to see what happens next.
Good read. Above average zombie book. Stereotypical military characters but decent portrayals. Definitely Millennial language for the civilians. Worth a look at book number 2 ...OORAH
Definitely not something for the faint of heart. If you are one of those readers who only like a clean apocalypse with no sex or foul language then this book isn't for you. I on the other hand, totally loved it.
Wow! Awesome book. I really enjoyed the characters and plot and the book kept my interest all the way through - especially with so many edge of the seat activities! Can't wait for book 2!
Much of the time it reads a little like a screenplay, or possibly notes for a screenplay, but I highly enjoyed it. The characters are engaging and relatable. Am heading into the next one right away.
I loved loved the characters!! I’m so excited for book 2! I loved the banter between everyone! I had a good sense of who these people were. It’s worthy!!
I love this twist on the traditional formulaic zombie novel. I wasn’t sure about the whole war vet character thing. Don’t let that stop you. Read this series.
This one will have you laughing as your turning those pages. Had me in tears laughing so hard. The characters are all great and you get to know them each
Very Nice story! Going to download the Second book once this review is written. Zombies, action, gore, guns, what do we want more eh... just buy this. Its good.
Thank you so much to author K. J. Jones for providing me with a copy of their book in exchange for this honest review.
Apocalypse novels have always been popular. Anything about zombies, a world ending class war, asteroids impacting earth, and generally anything about a dystopia has been entertaining us for decades.
It seems that the whole COVID-19 pandemic hasn't slowed down this craze in the slightest. I think a big part of it is that people want to see everyday heroes changing the world for the better. Zombies aren't killed with superpowers, they're killed by normal folk with household weapons.
Extinction Level Event: The Beginning is the first book in a series that follows a group of survivors fighting against a horrific strain of rabies. This virus can jump from species to species and causes a fatal rage that has quickly destroyed society as we know it.
An extinction level event is more than the end of all humans, it's the end of all life on Earth.
The group of characters working together to face this threat is predominately made up of ex military individuals. These men and women are exactly like I've known ex military people to be. Crass, brash, arrogant, alcoholic, brave to the point of self destructive, and loyal as heck.
These are the friends that will bully you, call you names, playfully hit you too hard, but never ever leave you behind. Due to conflicts in politics I don't have a ton of these people in my life anymore but you can definitely find worse company. The main thing to keep in mind is that these characters are real, even if you don't have them in your own circles.
The part that is possibly real but felt a bit forced is the diversity. All of these characters are various races and backgrounds, all speak different languages, and all came from different parts of the world all to end up on the East coast. That's all fine, just feels a bit clumsy to describe everyone by their race and use it as a sole defining feature.
For a book that focuses on a bunch of macho military characters Extinction Level Event has some marvelous female characters. Some are strong and badass, others are smart and badass, all are useful in their own way and don't sacrifice their feminity fully in order to be one of the boys. In fact, the females are so well written it makes some of the male ccharaacters seem underwirtten by comparison.
It's hard to stand out in a sea of zombie books, movies, and tv shows but Extinction Level Event attempts to set itself apart with an interesting premise for the virus itself and just by being damned entertaining. It may not be totally different from every other zombie thriller but it is a fun read.
I hope that the next books in the series take some bold risks to make it more memorable. It's easy to feel like you've had enough zombies for one lifetime but there's always the chance that a new favorite could come along.
I loved this novel. One of the best zombie apocalypse stories. Infected zombies, rather than living dead ones, are hard to find. The characters are vibrant -- I feel like I personlly know them. There were scenes that had me gripping the tablet. And a lot of funny things said by the characters. A gem of a story. I can't wait for the next book in the series!
Do not change your writing or your views. If they don't like it they do read it! We as women should only have to be true to our selves .I want to read 1st edition!!also, I want it paperback