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Monster Island #2
Monster Nation
In the heart of America, in the world's most secure prison, something horrible is growing in the dark. A wave of cannibalism and fear is sweeping across the heartland, spreading carnage and infection in its wake. Captain Bannerman Clark of the National Guard has been tasked with an impossible mission: discover what is happening — and then stop it before it annihilates Los Angeles. In California, he discovers a woman trapped in a hospital overrun with violent madmen. She may hold the secret to the Epidemic but she has lost everything — even her name. David Wellington's first novel, Monster Island, explored a world overcome by horror and the few people strong enough to survive. Now he takes us back in time to where it all began — to the day the dead began to rise.
285 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
66 people are currently reading
2973 people want to read
About the author
David Wellington
74 books1,152 followersDavid 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 196 reviews
July 3, 2008
Yeah, zombies are the new pirates, as in they were a hip/boring/cutting-edge hipster allusion a few years ago, and now they are over and kind of annoying. But they are also the best monster! Except for the Cloverfield monster. They are scary and they just keep coming and they symbolize modern american stupid culture AS WELL AS face-eating awesome gore.
And this one is full of missteps, oh boy. Like the ancient deity from the beginning of civilization is from... Ireland? And the zombie who feels remorse, which I guess is what the story is about, but still. And the non-explanation for why the zombie who feels remorse strapped an air thing to her face before she died, although that might be answered in the third one.
THE ZOMBIE WHO FEELS REMORSE is the name of my new album.
Still, the ending worked, zombies tended to be characters with interior monologues, sort of, and a zombie fought a bear! A zombie fought a fuckin bear. That's why we read zombie books, not for Kafkaesque commentaries on society or, like, even Dean Koontz levels of suspense. Pssh. It is an instance of somebody getting an MFA, liking zombies, and then aiming for the lowest possible common denominator, e.g. ME. Four stars!
When we found out about Monster Island, Hannah and I stomped around going MONSTAR ISLAND in growly voices for about a year, until eventually we read it. While I was reading this one I said MONSTAR NATION the same way a lot of times. Now I am saying MONSTER PLANET!! until I read that one.
And this one is full of missteps, oh boy. Like the ancient deity from the beginning of civilization is from... Ireland? And the zombie who feels remorse, which I guess is what the story is about, but still. And the non-explanation for why the zombie who feels remorse strapped an air thing to her face before she died, although that might be answered in the third one.
THE ZOMBIE WHO FEELS REMORSE is the name of my new album.
Still, the ending worked, zombies tended to be characters with interior monologues, sort of, and a zombie fought a bear! A zombie fought a fuckin bear. That's why we read zombie books, not for Kafkaesque commentaries on society or, like, even Dean Koontz levels of suspense. Pssh. It is an instance of somebody getting an MFA, liking zombies, and then aiming for the lowest possible common denominator, e.g. ME. Four stars!
When we found out about Monster Island, Hannah and I stomped around going MONSTAR ISLAND in growly voices for about a year, until eventually we read it. While I was reading this one I said MONSTAR NATION the same way a lot of times. Now I am saying MONSTER PLANET!! until I read that one.
October 26, 2013
-Más explicaciones para la propuesta zombi diferente de este autor.-
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Los destinos de una mujer no identificada a la que acabarán conociendo como Nilla, del miembro del Servicio de Inmigración Dick Walters, del capitán de la Guardia Nacional Bannerman Clark y de una anciana llamada Bleu Skye, se encontrarán de diferentes maneras durante el inicio de un repentino apocalipsis zombi en territorio norteamericano. Segundo libro de la trilogía Zombies.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Los destinos de una mujer no identificada a la que acabarán conociendo como Nilla, del miembro del Servicio de Inmigración Dick Walters, del capitán de la Guardia Nacional Bannerman Clark y de una anciana llamada Bleu Skye, se encontrarán de diferentes maneras durante el inicio de un repentino apocalipsis zombi en territorio norteamericano. Segundo libro de la trilogía Zombies.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
August 18, 2009
This is the sequel to Monster Island but is set in the time frame before that book. This book sets up how the "virus" was first found in a prison and its spread throughout the West. We see the infection through the eyes of a normal person - Bannerman Clark - and through the eyes of a thinking zombie (who has no name until the end).
It was interesting to see the spread of the infection (and pretty accurate as far as I know) but I liked Monster Island better. That could be because I knew the setting of NYC much better than the Western US or it could be because there was more conflict in the first book.
I didn't like the idea of sending the zombie woman to go shut down the source and the explanation of why it happened just pushed my suspension of disbelief too far. What I had the most trouble with was the timeline. The zombie woman meets Mael Mag Och (the evil peat mummy from Monster Island) as a spiritual manifestation. He is guiding her east and trying to get her to help him spread the infection. At the end, he tells her that there are only a few thinking zombies and he names the doctor in Manhattan (the major zombie character from Monster Island) as one of them. But in Monster Island, we are told that he didn't become a zombie until well into the infection after NYC was overrun and that character didn't meet Mael Mag Och until after he was separated from the African girl paramilitary group. So it would seem that the two timelines don't quite match up enough for Mael to know of the existence of both these thinking zombies.
I'll be reading the third book - Monster Planet - to see if the author can create a fun zombie story like the first one. I think this novel is useful to have a better understanding of the zombies of this series but it left me a little cold.
It was interesting to see the spread of the infection (and pretty accurate as far as I know) but I liked Monster Island better. That could be because I knew the setting of NYC much better than the Western US or it could be because there was more conflict in the first book.
I didn't like the idea of sending the zombie woman to go shut down the source and the explanation of why it happened just pushed my suspension of disbelief too far. What I had the most trouble with was the timeline. The zombie woman meets Mael Mag Och (the evil peat mummy from Monster Island) as a spiritual manifestation. He is guiding her east and trying to get her to help him spread the infection. At the end, he tells her that there are only a few thinking zombies and he names the doctor in Manhattan (the major zombie character from Monster Island) as one of them. But in Monster Island, we are told that he didn't become a zombie until well into the infection after NYC was overrun and that character didn't meet Mael Mag Och until after he was separated from the African girl paramilitary group. So it would seem that the two timelines don't quite match up enough for Mael to know of the existence of both these thinking zombies.
I'll be reading the third book - Monster Planet - to see if the author can create a fun zombie story like the first one. I think this novel is useful to have a better understanding of the zombies of this series but it left me a little cold.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2011
2 AND 1/2 STARS
I decided to read this series in chronological order after buying both the first two books. The writing is not bad, in fact, it's quite good. However, once the story got going, I quickly began to hate the Nilla storyline and her ridiculous invisibility gimmick. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Yes, even in a zombie novel, suspension of disbelief can only take you so far. There were a few other problems I had with the book. In one scene, a zombie (with human teeth, remember, this isn't a vampire) bites the neck of a 7 foot black bear and kills it. Please. A zombie would be hard pressed to pull out a clump of the bear's fur much less rip open its skin. In addition, every once in a while I would find some spelling errors which shouldn't happen in a professional novel costing $13.95.
Other small details that took me out of the story was when a zombie threw a bone up at a flying helicopter and actually hit it. Wouldn't it be more poetic to have the bone be thrown at it and miss? The intention would still remain, but the reality wouldn't be flushed down the toilet. But okay, maybe that's being too picky.
Anyway, I did enjoy Clark and Vikram's storyline and that was probably what kept me reading. Unfortunately, the ending wasn't satisfying, feeling rushed and thrown together without too much thought. I hear better things from critics about Monster Island, and being from New York City, I'm a little more excited now to read it.
I decided to read this series in chronological order after buying both the first two books. The writing is not bad, in fact, it's quite good. However, once the story got going, I quickly began to hate the Nilla storyline and her ridiculous invisibility gimmick. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Yes, even in a zombie novel, suspension of disbelief can only take you so far. There were a few other problems I had with the book. In one scene, a zombie (with human teeth, remember, this isn't a vampire) bites the neck of a 7 foot black bear and kills it. Please. A zombie would be hard pressed to pull out a clump of the bear's fur much less rip open its skin. In addition, every once in a while I would find some spelling errors which shouldn't happen in a professional novel costing $13.95.
Other small details that took me out of the story was when a zombie threw a bone up at a flying helicopter and actually hit it. Wouldn't it be more poetic to have the bone be thrown at it and miss? The intention would still remain, but the reality wouldn't be flushed down the toilet. But okay, maybe that's being too picky.
Anyway, I did enjoy Clark and Vikram's storyline and that was probably what kept me reading. Unfortunately, the ending wasn't satisfying, feeling rushed and thrown together without too much thought. I hear better things from critics about Monster Island, and being from New York City, I'm a little more excited now to read it.
October 12, 2009
David Wellington's first zombie apocalypse novel, Monster Island was startling in its originality and quality of writing. Wellington has a creative writing MFA and all that cute stuff, and the dude can twirl a sentence. His taut, powerful prose and lucid pacing suggests he's probably capable of writing any kind of prize-winning literary fiction he wants, but is for whatever reason fixated on zombies, werewolves, and other monsters that populate his books.
Monster Nation is a prequel to Island. Where Island dropped us right in the middle of the apocalypse ("after the fall" if you will) and just took off running, Nation moves much more slowly, wading its way through the zombie uprising itself. In describing such events, and the slow decline of humanity in the face of a flesh-eating undead plague, Wellington falters a bit. Obviously, zombie uprisings and the subsequent apocalypses are no longer new literary territory, and the reason Island was so good was because Wellington pumped such an amazing amount of fresh life into the genre (zombie pigeons? oh yeah you better believe it.) But in Nation, he fails to achieve a similar feat. His blazing, adventurous creativity is gone, replaced by a careful attention to character, primarily in the forms of a military leader, Bannerman Clark (a stupid name), and a young woman who, through an odd series of events, kept her brain alive while succumbing to the zombie plague, thereby turning into the rare flesh-eating corpse capable of rational thought.
Wellington used this same rational zombie device in Island, and it was fascinating because the character, "Gary," intentionally did it to himself and proceeded to use his combination of undead invincibility and working human brain to wreak major havoc. But the thinking zombie in Nation, "Nilla" (again with the silly name) became who she is by accident, and the explanation of her transformation is pretty feeble (something about an oxygen bar... yeah.) Her character never really recovers from this plot twist, remaining similarly passive and poorly formed throughout the book. Wellington seems more interested in putting his energy towards his military leader, Clark, who struggles to fend of the growing zombie hordes while grappling with his own moral dilemma regarding the slaying of undead "civilians." It's a nice element, but isn't intriguing enough to deserve the intense scrutiny Wellington devotes to it. I read this book aloud to my girlfriend each night, and both of us had trouble staying awake as page after page unfurled about Bannerman Clark and his soldiers shooting zombies and flying around the country feeling bad about shooting zombies. Wellington's focus on the military side feels informed and, as always, is well written, but the story itself doesn't add anything new to the problem: Ultimately it comes down to guys in uniform killin' zombies, and we've seen that before.
Wellington rallies in the final 50 pages or so, culminating this second book in what is apparently a zombie trilogy with a truly unexpected plot twist that handily tied up a lot of loose ends and reminded me why I like the guy and why I will definitely read the final book in this series, Zombie Planet. Even when Wellington is slightly off his game, he's weirder, darker, and slightly better than most other horror writers I can think of.
Monster Nation is a prequel to Island. Where Island dropped us right in the middle of the apocalypse ("after the fall" if you will) and just took off running, Nation moves much more slowly, wading its way through the zombie uprising itself. In describing such events, and the slow decline of humanity in the face of a flesh-eating undead plague, Wellington falters a bit. Obviously, zombie uprisings and the subsequent apocalypses are no longer new literary territory, and the reason Island was so good was because Wellington pumped such an amazing amount of fresh life into the genre (zombie pigeons? oh yeah you better believe it.) But in Nation, he fails to achieve a similar feat. His blazing, adventurous creativity is gone, replaced by a careful attention to character, primarily in the forms of a military leader, Bannerman Clark (a stupid name), and a young woman who, through an odd series of events, kept her brain alive while succumbing to the zombie plague, thereby turning into the rare flesh-eating corpse capable of rational thought.
Wellington used this same rational zombie device in Island, and it was fascinating because the character, "Gary," intentionally did it to himself and proceeded to use his combination of undead invincibility and working human brain to wreak major havoc. But the thinking zombie in Nation, "Nilla" (again with the silly name) became who she is by accident, and the explanation of her transformation is pretty feeble (something about an oxygen bar... yeah.) Her character never really recovers from this plot twist, remaining similarly passive and poorly formed throughout the book. Wellington seems more interested in putting his energy towards his military leader, Clark, who struggles to fend of the growing zombie hordes while grappling with his own moral dilemma regarding the slaying of undead "civilians." It's a nice element, but isn't intriguing enough to deserve the intense scrutiny Wellington devotes to it. I read this book aloud to my girlfriend each night, and both of us had trouble staying awake as page after page unfurled about Bannerman Clark and his soldiers shooting zombies and flying around the country feeling bad about shooting zombies. Wellington's focus on the military side feels informed and, as always, is well written, but the story itself doesn't add anything new to the problem: Ultimately it comes down to guys in uniform killin' zombies, and we've seen that before.
Wellington rallies in the final 50 pages or so, culminating this second book in what is apparently a zombie trilogy with a truly unexpected plot twist that handily tied up a lot of loose ends and reminded me why I like the guy and why I will definitely read the final book in this series, Zombie Planet. Even when Wellington is slightly off his game, he's weirder, darker, and slightly better than most other horror writers I can think of.
September 27, 2024
David Wellington's 'monster' series is made up of: Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet. I had bought them on a day trip to that world of books, Haye-on-Wye. Together they make up an interesting and innovative take on the zombie apocalypse genre. If you like this kind of escapist fiction then I really recommend this trilogy, and I should add that any of the books can be read standalone, though obviously reading them all does add some extra context.
Monster Nation takes place before Monster Island chronologically, and covers the initial outbreak of the zombie epidemic. Personally I find this stage of any zombie series to be the most interesting. As America is over-run with zombies and some well-drawn characters attempt to check the spread we also meet another of these 'special' zombies - ones that have kept their intelligence and also often gained a new ability. In this case a female zombie who can make herself invisible. Following her plight and her attempts to determine if she still counts as human or not provides the main spine for exploring the collapse of a society.
(By the way, if your interests have a miserable bent and you enjoy this kind of nation-collapse story, I recommend Graham Masterton's 1981 novel Famine. And if you just enjoy zombies chomping on bodies then watch Charlie Brooker's hilarious and scary zombie-filled reality TV satire Dead Set.)
Monster Nation takes place before Monster Island chronologically, and covers the initial outbreak of the zombie epidemic. Personally I find this stage of any zombie series to be the most interesting. As America is over-run with zombies and some well-drawn characters attempt to check the spread we also meet another of these 'special' zombies - ones that have kept their intelligence and also often gained a new ability. In this case a female zombie who can make herself invisible. Following her plight and her attempts to determine if she still counts as human or not provides the main spine for exploring the collapse of a society.
(By the way, if your interests have a miserable bent and you enjoy this kind of nation-collapse story, I recommend Graham Masterton's 1981 novel Famine. And if you just enjoy zombies chomping on bodies then watch Charlie Brooker's hilarious and scary zombie-filled reality TV satire Dead Set.)
June 24, 2010
This is the second book in Wellington's trilogy, but functions more as a prequel to Monster Island. This is about the origin of the zombies - sounds good, huh? And Wellington really pulls through with the amounts of gore and violenece you would expect from an initial infection.
The problem comes in with the super-powers he starts giving some of the zombies. Invisibility, mind reading, healing, etc. Also, the mystical 'Source' of the infection - just give me a good old-fashioned government developed virus, or even a mysterious plague.
Plus, i expect that the reader is supposed to empathize with the main character Nilla - who happens to be a zombie. I'll pity zombies,but I draw the line at getting to know them as separate 'special' individuals.
Overall, I think I am too much of a classicist when it comes to zombies to truly enjoy this installment in the trilogy. Wellington isn't a bad author. He's just not my type of author.
The problem comes in with the super-powers he starts giving some of the zombies. Invisibility, mind reading, healing, etc. Also, the mystical 'Source' of the infection - just give me a good old-fashioned government developed virus, or even a mysterious plague.
Plus, i expect that the reader is supposed to empathize with the main character Nilla - who happens to be a zombie. I'll pity zombies,but I draw the line at getting to know them as separate 'special' individuals.
Overall, I think I am too much of a classicist when it comes to zombies to truly enjoy this installment in the trilogy. Wellington isn't a bad author. He's just not my type of author.
August 2, 2016
The weakest of the trilogy but essential to read the 3rd in the series. I give it a lot of levity, deserving or not.
November 8, 2022
It’s okay for a prequel. I think the first book was a bit better.
This one seemed to magical. Yea the first book had some moments, but it felt more grounded in reality. This book was a lot of mind talk and astral projections. And the end… just… odd.
Interested to see where the third book goes.
Spoilers below
——-
So in the first book zombie birds were an issue. None here. I think that would be a worse issue than people to some extent.
When did the Mummy dude convince the Civilian yellow peep lover to cut his own wrists? How long had he been dead? How did the Mummy even psychically reach the DoD guy to convince him to suicide if guy was alive? Just seemed odd to toss in suddenly.
The end seemed weird way to finish.
This one seemed to magical. Yea the first book had some moments, but it felt more grounded in reality. This book was a lot of mind talk and astral projections. And the end… just… odd.
Interested to see where the third book goes.
Spoilers below
——-
So in the first book zombie birds were an issue. None here. I think that would be a worse issue than people to some extent.
When did the Mummy dude convince the Civilian yellow peep lover to cut his own wrists? How long had he been dead? How did the Mummy even psychically reach the DoD guy to convince him to suicide if guy was alive? Just seemed odd to toss in suddenly.
The end seemed weird way to finish.
July 19, 2025
I really wanted to enjoy this book, because I was interested in the premise and I liked the first one but wow. First of all, he MUST have dropped his editor between books or something because the amount of spelling errors, grammatical errors, and sentences that were just written in a way that were clunky or made no sense was ridiculous. Especially considering the first book was actually pretty well written.
They say write what you know, and it was very clear in this book that the author did not know much about a wide variety of topics that were brought up. Admittedly, some of these topics may have gotten a cursory google search, maybe even a glance over a wiki page, but not much more than that for the majority. His geography seems to be the most accurate out of everything, but I live on the East Coast so hey maybe not!
Almost the entirety of Bannerman's perspective was the most irritating, infuriating, unenjoyable pile of crap I've forced myself to slog through without DNFing. He was one of the most intolerable archetypes in any zombie apocalypse, a naïve idiot who can't accept that these aren't people anymore and can't stop sabotaging the rest of the world while he was at it. I've never seen someone this moronic be in charge of so much that he shouldn't be, quite honestly he should have been "strongly suggested" to retire years before this even occurred. Or at least removed from duty after the incident at the hospital or the following event, it was some of the most ridiculous unnecessary loss of life an resources I've ever seen due to one man refusing to believe what everyone has been telling him. Literally won't let his epidemiologist(? doctor? diagnostician? surgeon? she was certainly a woman of many many talents apparently) dissect (vivisect? according to Bannerman I suppose) any of the zombies to learn more despite every single test point towards lack of any life, or any pain for that matter. And then even after he has finally "accepted" that these are in fact not just poor innocent civilians anymore (after the death of the only person who knew anything about what was going on of course, because your team knowing what they're researching in these conditions would obviously be a truly bad call; best let no one else know so others have to piece it together after your untimely demise) he basically relapsed like four more times. And his way of thinking aside from that was so moronic? Get the CDC out of here the military needs to be the one handling this the CDC has no idea what they're doing, oh but we do need to contact WHO and bring them in??????? At first I thought the author was an idiot and it really only had the chance to come out in Bannerman's POV, then it showed that some of the higher ups also thought Bannerman was a useless dolt they couldn't promote despite his years of service and I was like "okay so he IS meant to come off as stupid that's at least a little better". But then the civilian came in and I wasn't sure again, he seemed to think the sun shined out of Bannerman's ass. When it was revealed the civilian was working with Mael since the beginning (which was actually a really interesting angle, I didn't think it would have been from that early on) I assumed he had been using Bannerman to make the apocalypse worse, like playing chess bad on purpose, which would have made everything make so much more sense because Bannerman really sucked at this. But then the civilian seemed to actually, genuinely, like Bannerman and want him to join his cause??? So now I just don't know. I just know that reading his POV made everything in this book ten times worse. And like I understand the need for a military perspective in this one, I just think it was a dreadful experience, maybe if his crisis had only gone on for like two chapters max it could have been good but as is it made it such an unnecessary bit of page filler.
And like I understand Vikram and Bannerman are friends and Vikram obviously agrees with Bannerman's ideology regarding the outbreak but it made no sense to me why the author bothered to have Vikram outrank Bannerman. If anything, for the majority of the book, I had assumed Vikram had been serving UNDER Bannerman, it literally makes no sense as to why he is over Bannerman and still is here and follows his orders. Nevermind that the rest of the military allows it. The only reason I can think of would be that it was some weird power move promotion to continue not promoting Banner on the higher up's part so neither of them really care? But if so I think he should have made done it better. I did like their little moments though, one of the few things that made Bannerman's POV tolerable.
It especially sucks how much Bannerman made it unenjoyable for me, because the rest of the book largely wasn't bad. Except the random psychic. That actually really sucked, I was very close to dropping it cold turkey right then and there to be honest. I'm very glad he didn't last very long, I feel like there were other ways to convey that to Nilla than to introduce a random psychic for like 20 pages. And her taking a victim to prove herself to Mael could have been replaced as well.
I was so excited to realize that this book was going to be about the girl in California in the oxygen bar after all! I was really hoping that's what this one was going to be about when there were three book sand three "special cases" that Mael had mentioned in the first book. Her losing her memories was an interesting twist, I do wonder what caused that; I doubt Mael/his god did it on purpose like he said, although her being called "Nilla" because of it was cringeworthy. I thought her parts were super interesting and that she was much better at controlling urges to eat (and at everything in general tbh) than Gary had been. Although, while for Gary actively decomposing was kind of a big deal, for some reason he didn't focus very much on it in this book. It was a very back burner concern for Nilla, which is a shame because that was something about the first book that was so interesting. Its no wonder that Mael turned on the male manipulator to the extreme, which was very funny; very interesting to see more of him from more perspectives. While I did like her character for the most part, the author is definitely not beating the "can't write female characters" allegations from the first book, her character wasn't nearly as one dimensional as any of the girls from Monster Island (if anything, Dick was the most one dimensional as he spent most of the book acting as Mael's meat puppet) but there were several scene like okay I know you said you dedicated this book to your wife but have you actually talked to a woman before? Like did your wife read this first and approve it? Even the scene where she randomly decided that letting herself be sexualized and having some buy touch her boobs was chill because it meant she was alive? That her thinking she was about to be raped was not that bad because the guy still wanted her? Yikes. Those two scenes were definitely the worst of it at least, the majority of her parts were pretty good to read.
I liked the aspect of the chapters opening up with clips of news headlines, blogposts, and etc. that were related to the outbreak. At first they were all very obviously linked to the zombies but at a certain point they started integrating seemingly random lab notes which was a neat way of building the reveal of how the apocalypse was brought into existence. Like with the last book I feel like he switched POV too quickly, it was like right as you settled into the character, or at least their part of the story, we moved on to a different one. It was much more severe in this book than the last one I feel, there were several places where we would have benefitted from an extra chapter from one POV over the other, it mostly just killed any sense of tension he a built up. Only like Nilla escaping her captors in the cave and on did it really start to flow when switching POVs.
Honestly from the second it became clear that this already established mystical apocalypse was brought about because some scientist was messing around in things he shouldn't have I was sure I was going to hate the ending, I was basically preemptively rolling my eyes. But it actually wasn't that bad? Maybe its just because my expectations were so low, but the explanation actually sorta worked to me. I definitely didn't prefer it and thought it was unnecessary in an apocalypse that the last book already told us a god brought upon to bring about the end of the world, I feel like this ending made them into two different apocalypses a bit. I did like how it provided a reason for Nilla's invisibility at least, because before that I just thought it was kind of stupid, I still do; but I at least liked that they made the explanation more about her shifting the perception of the energies and not just going actually invisible. I also liked how that made her the only one able to actually see what had happened at ground zero. Her going "you deserve worse" and just cutting the cord was so cold, I loved it.
I was glad that this book had a satisfying ending that pulled everything together for the most part, because the third one was like ten years later and I'd actually have to pay for it unlike these two so I don't think I will finish this trilogy.
They say write what you know, and it was very clear in this book that the author did not know much about a wide variety of topics that were brought up. Admittedly, some of these topics may have gotten a cursory google search, maybe even a glance over a wiki page, but not much more than that for the majority. His geography seems to be the most accurate out of everything, but I live on the East Coast so hey maybe not!
Almost the entirety of Bannerman's perspective was the most irritating, infuriating, unenjoyable pile of crap I've forced myself to slog through without DNFing. He was one of the most intolerable archetypes in any zombie apocalypse, a naïve idiot who can't accept that these aren't people anymore and can't stop sabotaging the rest of the world while he was at it. I've never seen someone this moronic be in charge of so much that he shouldn't be, quite honestly he should have been "strongly suggested" to retire years before this even occurred. Or at least removed from duty after the incident at the hospital or the following event, it was some of the most ridiculous unnecessary loss of life an resources I've ever seen due to one man refusing to believe what everyone has been telling him. Literally won't let his epidemiologist(? doctor? diagnostician? surgeon? she was certainly a woman of many many talents apparently) dissect (vivisect? according to Bannerman I suppose) any of the zombies to learn more despite every single test point towards lack of any life, or any pain for that matter. And then even after he has finally "accepted" that these are in fact not just poor innocent civilians anymore (after the death of the only person who knew anything about what was going on of course, because your team knowing what they're researching in these conditions would obviously be a truly bad call; best let no one else know so others have to piece it together after your untimely demise) he basically relapsed like four more times. And his way of thinking aside from that was so moronic? Get the CDC out of here the military needs to be the one handling this the CDC has no idea what they're doing, oh but we do need to contact WHO and bring them in??????? At first I thought the author was an idiot and it really only had the chance to come out in Bannerman's POV, then it showed that some of the higher ups also thought Bannerman was a useless dolt they couldn't promote despite his years of service and I was like "okay so he IS meant to come off as stupid that's at least a little better". But then the civilian came in and I wasn't sure again, he seemed to think the sun shined out of Bannerman's ass. When it was revealed the civilian was working with Mael since the beginning (which was actually a really interesting angle, I didn't think it would have been from that early on) I assumed he had been using Bannerman to make the apocalypse worse, like playing chess bad on purpose, which would have made everything make so much more sense because Bannerman really sucked at this. But then the civilian seemed to actually, genuinely, like Bannerman and want him to join his cause??? So now I just don't know. I just know that reading his POV made everything in this book ten times worse. And like I understand the need for a military perspective in this one, I just think it was a dreadful experience, maybe if his crisis had only gone on for like two chapters max it could have been good but as is it made it such an unnecessary bit of page filler.
And like I understand Vikram and Bannerman are friends and Vikram obviously agrees with Bannerman's ideology regarding the outbreak but it made no sense to me why the author bothered to have Vikram outrank Bannerman. If anything, for the majority of the book, I had assumed Vikram had been serving UNDER Bannerman, it literally makes no sense as to why he is over Bannerman and still is here and follows his orders. Nevermind that the rest of the military allows it. The only reason I can think of would be that it was some weird power move promotion to continue not promoting Banner on the higher up's part so neither of them really care? But if so I think he should have made done it better. I did like their little moments though, one of the few things that made Bannerman's POV tolerable.
It especially sucks how much Bannerman made it unenjoyable for me, because the rest of the book largely wasn't bad. Except the random psychic. That actually really sucked, I was very close to dropping it cold turkey right then and there to be honest. I'm very glad he didn't last very long, I feel like there were other ways to convey that to Nilla than to introduce a random psychic for like 20 pages. And her taking a victim to prove herself to Mael could have been replaced as well.
I was so excited to realize that this book was going to be about the girl in California in the oxygen bar after all! I was really hoping that's what this one was going to be about when there were three book sand three "special cases" that Mael had mentioned in the first book. Her losing her memories was an interesting twist, I do wonder what caused that; I doubt Mael/his god did it on purpose like he said, although her being called "Nilla" because of it was cringeworthy. I thought her parts were super interesting and that she was much better at controlling urges to eat (and at everything in general tbh) than Gary had been. Although, while for Gary actively decomposing was kind of a big deal, for some reason he didn't focus very much on it in this book. It was a very back burner concern for Nilla, which is a shame because that was something about the first book that was so interesting. Its no wonder that Mael turned on the male manipulator to the extreme, which was very funny; very interesting to see more of him from more perspectives. While I did like her character for the most part, the author is definitely not beating the "can't write female characters" allegations from the first book, her character wasn't nearly as one dimensional as any of the girls from Monster Island (if anything, Dick was the most one dimensional as he spent most of the book acting as Mael's meat puppet) but there were several scene like okay I know you said you dedicated this book to your wife but have you actually talked to a woman before? Like did your wife read this first and approve it? Even the scene where she randomly decided that letting herself be sexualized and having some buy touch her boobs was chill because it meant she was alive? That her thinking she was about to be raped was not that bad because the guy still wanted her? Yikes. Those two scenes were definitely the worst of it at least, the majority of her parts were pretty good to read.
I liked the aspect of the chapters opening up with clips of news headlines, blogposts, and etc. that were related to the outbreak. At first they were all very obviously linked to the zombies but at a certain point they started integrating seemingly random lab notes which was a neat way of building the reveal of how the apocalypse was brought into existence. Like with the last book I feel like he switched POV too quickly, it was like right as you settled into the character, or at least their part of the story, we moved on to a different one. It was much more severe in this book than the last one I feel, there were several places where we would have benefitted from an extra chapter from one POV over the other, it mostly just killed any sense of tension he a built up. Only like Nilla escaping her captors in the cave and on did it really start to flow when switching POVs.
Honestly from the second it became clear that this already established mystical apocalypse was brought about because some scientist was messing around in things he shouldn't have I was sure I was going to hate the ending, I was basically preemptively rolling my eyes. But it actually wasn't that bad? Maybe its just because my expectations were so low, but the explanation actually sorta worked to me. I definitely didn't prefer it and thought it was unnecessary in an apocalypse that the last book already told us a god brought upon to bring about the end of the world, I feel like this ending made them into two different apocalypses a bit. I did like how it provided a reason for Nilla's invisibility at least, because before that I just thought it was kind of stupid, I still do; but I at least liked that they made the explanation more about her shifting the perception of the energies and not just going actually invisible. I also liked how that made her the only one able to actually see what had happened at ground zero. Her going "you deserve worse" and just cutting the cord was so cold, I loved it.
I was glad that this book had a satisfying ending that pulled everything together for the most part, because the third one was like ten years later and I'd actually have to pay for it unlike these two so I don't think I will finish this trilogy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 6, 2011Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Still an interesting read. And shorter than what I'm used to. Part of me wishes that i read this one first, just because it really is the beginning even though it was the second book in the series. If you read them back to back anyway you'll probably be fine. I read the first one closing in on a year ago now and spent some time wondering if I had also seen some of the characters in the other book. On a funny side note did any one else notice tha the two guys we get a viewpoint from are named Dick and Clark? Dick Clark? Lol. Anyway, there were some wording issues that his spellcheck missed because they were still words and there was a time he said something about why there was a pile of zombies and there must have been food underneath and the character was wondering if the person WAS or HAD been alive and all I could think was that they are both past tense words. But overall these are minor issues and don't really affect the flow of the book. I did question the bear senario in the story. Did it escape from a near by zoo? We will never know. Wellington briefly brought in an annoying character called Agent Dunnstreet. She called her self an imaginer. Really. That's what she does. Apparently she's the only one who has ever thought about a war on the US soil and even though her plan has nothing to do with zombies, it's the only idea. Obvioulsy they would have been better off buying some fantasy/horror books like this one to at least give them a starting point. When done right, authors are the imaginers. In any case it was neat to see a version of how the government would handle such an event and how people react. The characters are well thought out. There was even a guy with an obsession with yellow peeps. Random!
"We can do good in this world or we can be miserable over the bad that is already done. What would you have me do?" - Vikram pg. 112
"We can do good in this world or we can be miserable over the bad that is already done. What would you have me do?" - Vikram pg. 112
May 5, 2013
Not great, not bad either...just expected more. Part of me feels like the novel tried too hard to differentiate itself from other zombie novels, when there's really no need. Everyone knows about zombies and what to expect, that is not the fun in reading about them. The thrill of zombie literature is the post-apocalyptic backdrop the reader finds themselves in. Part of me feels like he went a little Twilight here (a la sparkling vampire) and tried to put that onto the zombies.
The action was touch and go and the book seemed to drag on some parts...too much explanation. Their zombies, they don't need to be explained, they just are. The moment you try to explain them rationally you loose a little the moment you put a sci-fi twist you loose a lot! There are two other books to this series (Monster Island and Monster Planet) I am willing to give them a try, if nothing else then to complete what I've started. Perhaps reading the whole trilogy will help me come to a better conclusion on the novel.
I didn't really care about any of the characters and they seemed to serve as nothing more than ways to fill in story holes or just to take up pace. The one thing I did find cool was the zombie like animals in the book, that was new and it worked (sort of). The main character who is zombie, but retains some human traits was too flat and just meandered around from one location to the next yet somehow she held the key to the whole thing. The sci-fi stuff was just thrown in to be different therefore held no bearing for me.
Again, not bad just not great. I would rather read World War Z again or a zombie anthology. Just my opinion...maybe you would like it or maybe you will see something I missed in my reading of this novel.
The action was touch and go and the book seemed to drag on some parts...too much explanation. Their zombies, they don't need to be explained, they just are. The moment you try to explain them rationally you loose a little the moment you put a sci-fi twist you loose a lot! There are two other books to this series (Monster Island and Monster Planet) I am willing to give them a try, if nothing else then to complete what I've started. Perhaps reading the whole trilogy will help me come to a better conclusion on the novel.
I didn't really care about any of the characters and they seemed to serve as nothing more than ways to fill in story holes or just to take up pace. The one thing I did find cool was the zombie like animals in the book, that was new and it worked (sort of). The main character who is zombie, but retains some human traits was too flat and just meandered around from one location to the next yet somehow she held the key to the whole thing. The sci-fi stuff was just thrown in to be different therefore held no bearing for me.
Again, not bad just not great. I would rather read World War Z again or a zombie anthology. Just my opinion...maybe you would like it or maybe you will see something I missed in my reading of this novel.
December 4, 2009
Had to give the first in the series 4 stars because this one was so much better. This is a prequel to Monster Island and we find out how it all started. The story is also a nice commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of our modern military. Sometimes America will face problems that don't have military solutions, and using the military to try to solve those problems can sometimes make the problem worse. Suffice to say, David Wellington is a person I'll be reading for a long while.
May 31, 2010
Kind of lame… the first one was good till this dude tried to put on all the “spiritual” crap… then this one did the same thing… it started so good! And then bang! The whole spiritual crap! I want my zombie books to be crazy zombie mayhem from beginning to end! This one only has it at the beginning! So a 3!
October 21, 2011
This was good enough - but for reasons I can't quite articulate I didn't like it as much as Island. I'll read Planet next and see how that goes.
August 17, 2013
Don't love this series, but like it enough to keep reading the trilogy.
August 10, 2018
2.5 stars.
July 13, 2023
‘Monster Nation’ is the follow-up book to ‘Monster Island’ in which, after a zombie apocalypse, a man came to New York from Africa trying to get HIV medicine to save a dictator who had his daughter hostage. In ‘Monster Island’, the United States was already overrun by zombies and ‘Monster Nation’ traces the origins of the epidemic, so it’s a prequel, but not far ahead in time.
There are no chapters. Instead, the book is broken up by paragraphs in bold print from various newspapers, public notices and wire services which let the reader know what’s happening in the wider world. For the main story, author David Wellington uses the tried and tested technique of following a number of characters whose lives become interconnected. The principal ones here are Nilla, a zombie with brains, and Captain Bannerman Clark of the National Guard in Colorado. Nilla is attacked and bitten by a zombie but runs into an oxygen bar, luckily for her. As established in the previous book, zombies are really stupid because the brain gets no oxygen between their death and revival as undead. By plugging into an oxygen supply, Nilla wakes up undead with intelligence, though no memory of her own life, not even her name. She takes the name Nilla as a joke, as not being really there.
Captain Bannerman Clark is an ex-soldier who has seen combat but is now a high-ranking officer in the National Guard. He is meticulous and organised, some might say anal, but efficient, too, with a strong sense of duty and a knack for inspiring loyalty in his troops. He’s called to Florence Supermax prison, located south of Colorado Springs, because a strange disease has broken out there which seems to make people eat each other and the staff don’t know what to do. The governor has just left for a vacation in California via connecting flights at two busy international airports, thus helping to spread the zombie plague.
There’s a third character, Dick Walters, a government livestock inspector who gets infected while investigating some sort of outbreak among sheep in Rocky Mountain National Park. Dick ends up as a true grotesque and will be great fun if they ever make a B-Movie out of this book. His fate was rather like that of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when former Chancellor Geoffrey Howe verbally attacked her in the House of Commons.
The zombie infection takes hold in various western towns and Captain Bannerman Clark does his best to discover the source and stop the spread. Nilla is obsessed with finding her name but is given a new purpose by an ancient Celt with magic powers who caused trouble in ‘Monster Island’. Like all good thriller writers, Wellington seems familiar with the various organisations in the military-industrial complex, as well as those ready to fight pandemics. A Washington bureaucrat brings some sleaze to the mix.
As with the first book, this is essentially a load of codswallop that is good fun to read. Pure escapism. Wellington writes clearly rather than poetically but has his moments now and then describing bits of America’s beautiful scenery. The main characters are well drawn and I especially liked Captain Bannerman Clark, the old-fashioned virtuous man trying to do his best. You eventually do find the cause of the zombie epidemic and it’s not what you might expect or who, for that matter. ‘Monster Nation’ falls firmly into the category of good trash and I expect to enjoy the third and final volume, ‘Monster World’. These sorts of books are a guilty pleasure. Really, one should be improving the mind with some Conrad, Wolfe or dear, dear Jane Austen. Maybe next year.
There are no chapters. Instead, the book is broken up by paragraphs in bold print from various newspapers, public notices and wire services which let the reader know what’s happening in the wider world. For the main story, author David Wellington uses the tried and tested technique of following a number of characters whose lives become interconnected. The principal ones here are Nilla, a zombie with brains, and Captain Bannerman Clark of the National Guard in Colorado. Nilla is attacked and bitten by a zombie but runs into an oxygen bar, luckily for her. As established in the previous book, zombies are really stupid because the brain gets no oxygen between their death and revival as undead. By plugging into an oxygen supply, Nilla wakes up undead with intelligence, though no memory of her own life, not even her name. She takes the name Nilla as a joke, as not being really there.
Captain Bannerman Clark is an ex-soldier who has seen combat but is now a high-ranking officer in the National Guard. He is meticulous and organised, some might say anal, but efficient, too, with a strong sense of duty and a knack for inspiring loyalty in his troops. He’s called to Florence Supermax prison, located south of Colorado Springs, because a strange disease has broken out there which seems to make people eat each other and the staff don’t know what to do. The governor has just left for a vacation in California via connecting flights at two busy international airports, thus helping to spread the zombie plague.
There’s a third character, Dick Walters, a government livestock inspector who gets infected while investigating some sort of outbreak among sheep in Rocky Mountain National Park. Dick ends up as a true grotesque and will be great fun if they ever make a B-Movie out of this book. His fate was rather like that of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when former Chancellor Geoffrey Howe verbally attacked her in the House of Commons.
The zombie infection takes hold in various western towns and Captain Bannerman Clark does his best to discover the source and stop the spread. Nilla is obsessed with finding her name but is given a new purpose by an ancient Celt with magic powers who caused trouble in ‘Monster Island’. Like all good thriller writers, Wellington seems familiar with the various organisations in the military-industrial complex, as well as those ready to fight pandemics. A Washington bureaucrat brings some sleaze to the mix.
As with the first book, this is essentially a load of codswallop that is good fun to read. Pure escapism. Wellington writes clearly rather than poetically but has his moments now and then describing bits of America’s beautiful scenery. The main characters are well drawn and I especially liked Captain Bannerman Clark, the old-fashioned virtuous man trying to do his best. You eventually do find the cause of the zombie epidemic and it’s not what you might expect or who, for that matter. ‘Monster Nation’ falls firmly into the category of good trash and I expect to enjoy the third and final volume, ‘Monster World’. These sorts of books are a guilty pleasure. Really, one should be improving the mind with some Conrad, Wolfe or dear, dear Jane Austen. Maybe next year.
December 20, 2019
Barely 2 1/2 stars and a really solid 'meh' reaction from me.
With "Monster Nation", I feel like we took a real step back from the first book that at very least provided some really unique plot-twists in the whole z-genre. This book got back to the tired "ok let's get all the zombies marching in one direction, have the military utterly fail to stop them, oh and for gods' sakes make Colorado a big part of it" approach of just too many others like it. I didn't connect with any of the characters like I did in Book 1, even finding the teenage Somali soldierettes more interesting than most of this lot.
Add to that we had, yes, prison scenes, untold numbers of 'surprise' attacks by the Z's (people, what the hell is wrong with you if you don't act with a little common sense by this point?), you name it: it just shambled on, both literally and figuratively. Even the interuptions of mysteriously scientific 'note taking' and the 'exciting conclusion' didn't make up for any of that. I'd better stop here or I'll lower my rating because truth be told, for a lot of this book I was bored silly. The loss of identifiable territory (eg NYC vs. 'somewhere out West') was also a big negative and as such, I'm losing my optimism that this series will wind up being something memorable vs. just an exercise in getting through it.
If you want to insist on me writing something more positive, well, in terms of basic mechanics, Book 2 is slightly better written than Book 1. However, just as its predecessor, it suffers horribly from a number of incorrect words, spelling errors and sometimes outright unintelligible gobblety-gook. I really had to wonder at one point if I had somehow downloaded a defective copy because I can't imagine this getting past the proofreading process. One way or another: change your damn editor! Overall, I expect more from Wellington and this did NOT deliver on the level it should have.
Oh well, one more to go (yes, I bought the box set). We can either hope we turn everything around and stop trying to come off as a cheap Sigler knock-off ... or even worse, go down in Koontzian shame. We'll see. I'm not optimistic.
With "Monster Nation", I feel like we took a real step back from the first book that at very least provided some really unique plot-twists in the whole z-genre. This book got back to the tired "ok let's get all the zombies marching in one direction, have the military utterly fail to stop them, oh and for gods' sakes make Colorado a big part of it" approach of just too many others like it. I didn't connect with any of the characters like I did in Book 1, even finding the teenage Somali soldierettes more interesting than most of this lot.
Add to that we had, yes, prison scenes, untold numbers of 'surprise' attacks by the Z's (people, what the hell is wrong with you if you don't act with a little common sense by this point?), you name it: it just shambled on, both literally and figuratively. Even the interuptions of mysteriously scientific 'note taking' and the 'exciting conclusion' didn't make up for any of that. I'd better stop here or I'll lower my rating because truth be told, for a lot of this book I was bored silly. The loss of identifiable territory (eg NYC vs. 'somewhere out West') was also a big negative and as such, I'm losing my optimism that this series will wind up being something memorable vs. just an exercise in getting through it.
If you want to insist on me writing something more positive, well, in terms of basic mechanics, Book 2 is slightly better written than Book 1. However, just as its predecessor, it suffers horribly from a number of incorrect words, spelling errors and sometimes outright unintelligible gobblety-gook. I really had to wonder at one point if I had somehow downloaded a defective copy because I can't imagine this getting past the proofreading process. One way or another: change your damn editor! Overall, I expect more from Wellington and this did NOT deliver on the level it should have.
Oh well, one more to go (yes, I bought the box set). We can either hope we turn everything around and stop trying to come off as a cheap Sigler knock-off ... or even worse, go down in Koontzian shame. We'll see. I'm not optimistic.
March 7, 2021
Another solid novel, this prequel opens at the start of the zombie outbreak and follows a career soldier and a zombie victim who survived with her intelligence intact as both track down the cause of the undead uprising.
Though this is a prequel, it would help to read the first one, as a few characters are brought up from it, and you'll know their motivations. And it will help you understand the set up for the discovery of the cause of the outbreak if you know more about how the intelligent zombie in this novel interacts with humans and the environment.
As this one was not released online originally (as the first novel was), the chapters are longer, allowing Wellington to develop his characters better than in the original. The story isn't dictated by the length of an online serial release, which makes it more engaging.
I will say, I had a problem when the novel switched to the POV of a non-intelligent zombie, as the writing gave the character more personality than a brain-dead critter looking for its next meal.
Still, I have to love a book where a character is chewed up by zombie sheep, while the protagonist zombie can act like The Shadow if sufficiently sated. The story moves at a brisk pace, the action is well-written and the characters act in a believable fashion. I don't have the final book in the trilogy yet, but I will be scouring any open used book stores for it, as I sure characters from the first two will show up to bring the trilogy to a close, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
Though this is a prequel, it would help to read the first one, as a few characters are brought up from it, and you'll know their motivations. And it will help you understand the set up for the discovery of the cause of the outbreak if you know more about how the intelligent zombie in this novel interacts with humans and the environment.
As this one was not released online originally (as the first novel was), the chapters are longer, allowing Wellington to develop his characters better than in the original. The story isn't dictated by the length of an online serial release, which makes it more engaging.
I will say, I had a problem when the novel switched to the POV of a non-intelligent zombie, as the writing gave the character more personality than a brain-dead critter looking for its next meal.
Still, I have to love a book where a character is chewed up by zombie sheep, while the protagonist zombie can act like The Shadow if sufficiently sated. The story moves at a brisk pace, the action is well-written and the characters act in a believable fashion. I don't have the final book in the trilogy yet, but I will be scouring any open used book stores for it, as I sure characters from the first two will show up to bring the trilogy to a close, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
May 27, 2017
Monster Nation: A Zombie Novel (2014) by David Wellington: Monster Nation is the second volume in Wellington’s three-volume Zombie apocalypse series. Although it is a sequel to Monster Island, it is written as a prequel to Zombie Island. It leads the reader from the beginning of the Zombie infection to a complete Zombie contagion in the United States. I expected to experience plenty of Zombie gore and I was not totally disappointed by the invasion. Unfortunately, I found these flesh-rotten Zombies to be somewhat blasé, tedious and repetitive. In addition, I did not appreciate the lengthy Zombie-Nilla storyline. I don’t mean to be discriminatory toward Zombies, but Monster Nation just did not significantly satisfy my need for gruesome bodily deterioration.
September 1, 2017
Whereas a great stand alone story, to tie it in with the zeitgeist that surrounded Monster Island was a poor idea. Here we have an established universe and mythos that feels forced (as much as you can do to make an author write more successful stories) into a sequel. Gone are the feelings of horror and despair as a father fights to not only save his daughter but ensures the survival of the girls that became his surrogate children. Replacing this is a mishmash of different points of interest from the first novel that are tied together with threads that should never be put together.
3/5 skulls
3/5 skulls
October 14, 2023
3½/4☆
Uhm...
Uhm.
I don't know. I definitely didn't like it as much as the first book. Even though I really liked the protagonists, the story just wasn't that much thrilling. Nilla's storyline felt too much like Gary's from the first book. Clark's was interesting but I just don't care about military stuff. My mind just kept wandering off during his chapters.
Also, I appreciate Wellington's unique approach to zombies but at times it just felt too much. I could not believe it.
I feel so bad right now because the first book was so good. I think I might appreciate this one more on a second read so maybe I'll wait a bit before reading the 3rd one.
Uhm...
Uhm.
I don't know. I definitely didn't like it as much as the first book. Even though I really liked the protagonists, the story just wasn't that much thrilling. Nilla's storyline felt too much like Gary's from the first book. Clark's was interesting but I just don't care about military stuff. My mind just kept wandering off during his chapters.
Also, I appreciate Wellington's unique approach to zombies but at times it just felt too much. I could not believe it.
I feel so bad right now because the first book was so good. I think I might appreciate this one more on a second read so maybe I'll wait a bit before reading the 3rd one.
October 4, 2017
Soft review: I'm not sure how to feel about this series. When comparing it to other zombie novels it's not my favorite. However I'm a huge fan of seeing a new take on the zombie genre. I haven't ever seen zombies quite like this. It's taken me a while to chow down on this series but I'm sticking with but I do enjoy a good zombie apocalypse.
Rating 4 of 5 stars
It gets high marks for originality, keeping my attention to the end and likeable villain(s). I would read another book by this author and recommend this book to fans of zombie horror.
Rating 4 of 5 stars
It gets high marks for originality, keeping my attention to the end and likeable villain(s). I would read another book by this author and recommend this book to fans of zombie horror.
June 16, 2021
Me ha encantado porque es súper raro y el enfoque de los zombies es tan diferente y, a la vez, súper sonsacado que me tiene fascinada. Quizás se hace un poco largo porque muchas veces se entretiene demasiado en dar detalles innecesarios pero esta bastante bien. En mi caso, también influye que lo que tengo es una especie de versión de bolsillo y la letra tan pequeña se me hace cuesta arriba de leer. Pero, en general, una gozada. Estoy deseando seguir con el segundo para ver por donde sale la historia ahora.
February 23, 2020
Advertised as a sequel but it is actually a prequel. Why was it called a sequel? Was that to piss off the readers who cannot handle how the zombies in this series (granted not many of them) don't behave like "traditional" zombies? The fact that they don't all behave in the manner expected by some reviewers is the main reason I enjoy this series. One more book to go which a actually is a sequel.
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
October 13, 2024
Part zombies, part Republican word vomit, part Army jargon, part Stephen King’s The Stand rip-off.
Overall, it was interesting enough to keep my attention, although at times I was annoyed by the main characters’ lack of depth. The action was solid, however.
Now I might consider reading the first book, which I had avoided as I don’t enjoy post-apocalyptic stories. I prefer reading about the apocalypse as it unfolds, and Monster Nation delivered.
Overall, it was interesting enough to keep my attention, although at times I was annoyed by the main characters’ lack of depth. The action was solid, however.
Now I might consider reading the first book, which I had avoided as I don’t enjoy post-apocalyptic stories. I prefer reading about the apocalypse as it unfolds, and Monster Nation delivered.
August 23, 2021
This book continues the story in Monster island, with Gary telling the story of how the undead rule come to be... Well what can i say... This book melted in my hands, i just drank of it, i really need and eventually i Will finish the third book as well, i need to see how Mr David Wellington Will end this story, i did like Nilla character way more than Gary
October 25, 2017
Better written than the first book. That said it is many ways s typical zombie book. Yes you have the magic side of things...but the narrative of the end of the world told in vignettes has been done to death.
August 21, 2020
El segundo libro de esta serie explica el origen de los zombies, pero acompañado de poderes ancestrales que le dan un matiz más irreal aún.
Nilla no recuerda nada, ni su nombre. Está muerta, no sabe cómo, pero es especial y lo sabe, y es la única que puede descubrir la verdad.
Nilla no recuerda nada, ni su nombre. Está muerta, no sabe cómo, pero es especial y lo sabe, y es la única que puede descubrir la verdad.
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