So I picked up an okay apocalyptic zombie series, I should start a blog on this shit or something I swear.

It's...well frankly it's not bad. It's not ...fantastic either. I mean. A lot of it is same old same old to be honest.

It's called the Deadland Saga (3 book series, for free on KindleUnlimited). I ended up picking it up bc, well too long and not an interesting story.

These books are my jam though. They're very much my jam. I'm halfway through book 2, so here's some thoughts.

The author started with a theme in book one they kinda had to keep to, but it was clear it was a shit gimmick that didn't really hold up. Shame, because I think the author is good.

Basically it's a book they started out, IMHO, with a couple of characters they wanted to follow

I mean, the dude's name is 'Clutch' and he's basically that. He's a cardboard cutout in so many ways. I don't dislike him, but he's basically Shane. Or any other fucked up dude with a past who is good at killing people but is a fundamentally good person. (And ex Army Ranger)

I assume the military shit is right because she's too specific on some things, but I got the feel this wasn't the author's forte. (Leaning heavy on someone's experience, which is fine. No shade). What I REALLY liked about it was the clusterfuck of adjustment, issues of militias

a rapidly changing world with people adhering to old rules, for both good and ill.

Problem is...and please don't get me wrong. I like when apocalyptic shit has a nutbag prepper as the baddie.

Someone a bit racist. Deffo misogynistic, who's looking to set himself up as the Big Man, the Chief, the Fascism, the warlord.

But yeah idk. I felt burned out on the conflict here a bit because it's been SO overdone.

And the worst part was...there were SO many brilliant elements the author used. I mean truly.

But never follows them up or through.

Some bad shit is going on in a silo. We have references to it.

That never gets followed up. And okay...okay I'm being intentionally vague here, but sure, a mystery box of that is okay because it works in implying Bad Bad Evil Shit is Happening and your imagination can run.

But there's so many other elements that come up only super briefly then move so fast by...we don't get to appreciate it.

The bad guys dip bullets in zombie blood. So if they just wound you...you're dead AND are now hurting their enemies.

This is one of the few elements they

DO use to effect; the main character has an opportunity to do the same, and frankly SHOULD do the same...but doesn't. She draws a line there, she has to draw one somewhere.

I liked that. But we could've played more into this element. Also this element? Trope.

So if you're going to use it, you should use it well. I think she did, but too little.

ANOTHER great element. There's a fucking zombie fence. They ahve to be careful of lights and they're approaching an area to attack the bad guys.

And the bad guys have fucking planted zombies to their waists as a perimeter fence. They're also chained down in case they claw loose.

That's fucking great. Brilliant. There's a lot of 'using zombies as a weapon' tropes in zombie anythings.

And she breaks into that early on. No shade there...I mean ofc bad people would use zombies as a weapon, or good people potentially as defense.

Or average people as various things.

I mean. It's a given. SO when you do it, it's nice when it's original or a surprise.

I mean no one gives a shit about your zombie sled dogs (they do not do that in this book lol) plague warfare tho? Driving a hoard towards an enemy? Zombie fences?

I liked.

She also did a lot of research, but dropped the ball.

So, the main baddie is running a radio show on a hard to hear freq. running sedition against military (who's trying to actually help people) and is pro militia (his militia is evil and about him being a warlord basically)

We (the audience) and the characters do not know that the main baddie is the radio host (sorry spoiler). But the seeded propaganda gives you clues.

The main one is he talks about the 3%

*I* know what this is because I read this fiction genre AND I have friends who fight fascists and nazis all over the world like the badasses they are.

Oh here, just look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Percenters

But the author failed (unless I missed it...which btw, I read incredibly quickly especially when engaged which means I sometimes will miss something as I don't strongly visualize what I read, I fall into it differently)

FAILED to explain it to the audience. At all

Now, you get this guy's beliefs later on. He's a bad guy. There's some monologue. The strong survive the weak perish. Womens are for making the babies and shutting up. Brown people lol.

You know, an asshole who got a hard on once the world started to end and thought, 'My time!'

But she laid pipe she never expounded on and what a waste. And I'm all for trusting your reader to be smart, but when it's certain outside knowledge? And you have fish out of water characters who ...you know...could ask questions about it...you have a chance to

explain WHAT that reference meant and why it was important.

And it was pipe laid so well, I think they just forgot to sew it up.

They have the traitor trope (you'll remember this from Red Dawn) ~ it's played well.

We don't get enough time to care about a lot of the characters though. Like the dumbass traitor I felt badly for...not because I felt badly for him, though I should have. I really should have.

Like, we know enough about him peripherally to know it's a red dawn sitch sorta. He was a stupid kid mislead into doing something he thought was the right thing, because he's a stupid kid.

But I don't. And our characters...don't. And that's intentional, and I get it.

And so we only feel/care about his death...really...through the lens of the characters we DO care about it impacting.

But...I don't know. It was so good and then it failed. The only sense of growth or purpose we seem to get out of it

is this world sucks. And no one really reflects on their brand of justice.

So anyway I harp on the ...meh...because I love this genre. This book is NOT a bad book by any any any stretch of the imagination. It's entertaining, it's readable, it pulls you in.

The plausibility of the zombie thing ...meh, but who cares. I mean. Really.

The main character is a woman and that part isn't obvious for a bit. And then we find out way later she's a woman of color (puerto rican/irish) because someone is racist at her.

But it's gratifyingly asexual for a looong time. I mean there's sex. There's a girl who's raped