Book Review: Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater

So as I was hanging around Thanksgiving break with a broken ankle and thinking about the upcoming ATZ demo game (see previous post) so I thought I would get in the mood by reading a zombie novel, in this case Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater.  It's the second in her "As the World Dies" trilogy, the first being The First Days.

In broad terms, the book is about a community of survivors of the zombie apocalypse who are living in a fortified construction site.  They decide to expand into a nearby luxury hotel in order to create more space and nicer accommodations.  In the meantime, a roving band of gangers becomes more and more of a threat to them.

The book's two protagonists are Katie and Jenni.  Both lost their families in the first days of the zombie attack, and both are developing new relationships in the survivor community.  For Katie this means overcoming her grief of losing her wife and realizing that she is falling in love with Travis, a leader of the group.  For Jenni this means dealing with the trauma of her previously abusive spouse and the death of her children.  Jenni isn't the most stable of individuals, and her sanity gets more precarious as the book goes on.

I have said in other reviews that for me the mark of a good zombie story--book, movie, or other--is how it handles the people element, not the zombie gore.  What this book does right is explore how a small, isolated community like this one has to cope with the challenges in a post-zombie world.  Some members of the community struggle with the collapse of class distinctions.  The question of how to address crime within the group is gone into detail.  There is also the issue of the role of vigilantism and the post-zombie social contract.  It's not dissimilar from what is going on right now in The Walking Dead with Carol being expelled from the TV series' community, and it what makes the book particularly interesting.

That's not to say the book doesn't have its grisly moments, but they are not gratuitous in nature.  In terms of pathos, the book is actually pretty light in tone, which could either be a plus or a minus, depending on the tastes of the reader.  There's distinctly a romantic overtone to the book as well, which wasn't a negative per se for me but might not be everyone's cup of tea.

A good read for hanging out by the pool in a leg cast.

Reading "The Walking Dead"

This may cause me to lose my zombie-blogger cred, but I haven't seen the TV series The Walking Dead, despite owning the first season on DVD.  The big reason is because frankly I don't have time, and then when I do my kids tend to be around and the show isn't elementary-school friendly.

But I heard it was good, so I went to my local friendly library and checked out most of the trade paperbacks for the comic book series.

Trivia bit: at least four of the people in this picture are now dead in the series

For those who don't know, the main character, Rick, is a sheriff from Georgia who wakes up from a coma to discover the world has gone to zombie hell (it's very 28 Days Later, making me wonder who ripped off whom).  In the many, many episodes that follows, Rick drifts from situation to situation with a rotating cast of characters who could end up being killed by zombies or humans at any time, usually in a striking graphic manner.

The over-arching theme of the series is really to continually subject Rick to torment after torment to the point where Rick can't even garner the smallest bit of hope when things start to go right, usually with good reason. As a reader, all I can say is don't get too attached to anyone.

The Walking Dead does a lot of things right.  The true horrors are the people, people reduced to barbarism, cruelty, and insanity.  The characters are complex, likable while falling just shy of heroic.  On a technical note, the series features the "no room in hell" style zombies where you can turn once you are bitten, but you can also turn if you die from other causes (the claim is that everyone is exposed to the zombie-producing element, but a living person can fight off the infection semi-effectively.  The location/character/plot turnover is pretty well done and keeps the story from getting too stale.

There are moments when I think the story goes too far, though.  A long time ago when I was a teenager I was talking to horror writer Stephen King (long story) and he said that he frequently used children in his stories as a way to get people emotionally involved in the story.  It is, in a way, a sort of cheap ploy in this regard, and not only does the series exploit this often, but often horrifically.  Children are the subject of attempted rape, they are shot and killed, and in several cases kill other people.

[spoiler alert after the break.  Stop now if you don't want to know at least one serious plot event.]