Anonymous

Great idea. Good start. Mediocre climax. Lousy end

Reviewed: 03-31-23

interesting questions are raised, disappointing answers are given.

This was incredibly disappointing because while the story started off so strongly it wound up fizzling out. There are three separate storylines in play, or more accurately, there are two separate story lines in play only one of which actually matters.

first off, the positives. the World building is quite good. seeing average life in a hive is always a delight in a Warhammer novel, especially when shown to be mostly people just trying to live their lives in the Grim darkness of the 41st millennium. a lot of thought is put into just daily life in a city the size of a continent. in addition, most of the characters give you a very good first impression that leaves you wanting to know more about them. the idea of a zombie apocalypse inside of a city too big to escape is a good one, and when the author isn't tapping into their adolescent idea that Gore equals scary, they do a very good job covering the initial panic and breakdown of the complex social structure needed in a hive.

and so much for the positives...

The story about an Inquisitor trapped in a hive during a zombie apocalypse, a father desperately trying to protect his daughter from both the zombies and the inherent cruelty of the world, and a cowardly man proving himself when push comes to shove should be a page Turner from beginning to end, but instead despite starting on a high note, it's all downhill once the zombies are established as a threat.

The Inquisitor is surrounded by a colorful and interesting cast of characters, so it's a shame she's the one we're stuck with all the way through. The build up to her Amnesia is much more interesting than the actual payoff. the people she's surrounded by are whittled down as The Story Goes On, and you realize just how weak she is as a character when she has to stand on her own.

the bartender seems to be the only character who behaves as if they're actually in the middle of a zombie story, and thus is easily the best part. unfortunately despite being one of the three major POV characters he's essentially just one of the side characters Around The Inquisitor.

the factory workers story also starts strong but ends on such a wet fart that the only emotion the end of his story provokes is aggravation that you wasted your time on this. he's believable as a father who just wants to get his daughter to safety, which are points in the book's favor, but where his story goes with it makes you feel like his entire sub lot could have been cut and you'd have lost nothing.

the zombies also start strong and then just sort of fizzle out. the reveal of what's actually behind the zombies will have you slapping your face in frustration, and the "final boss" is so bizarrely out of place you have to wonder whether or not the author had a deadline they needed to hit and just rushed some half-assed explanation at the end.

there are two cults, one of which comes across as an opportunity for the author to say that Cults are bad, without actually taking any time to show why Cults are bad. they don't even have anything to do with the zombies, it's like the bad guys from a completely different book show up to threaten the cast. The other cult only appears at the end, so they can be excused for having less personality than the villains in a breakfast cereal commercial.

speaking of villains better suited for Saturday morning cartoons: since this is a zombie story, you're given your obligatory jerk who'd sell out the group to save his own skin, except he's not hateable enough that we're cheering when he ultimately gets his comeuppance, we just feel like we're in the room with an unhelpful asshole. his right-hand goon is slightly more interesting, and the author really could have just combined both of them into one, more interesting, antagonist.

none of this is the fault of the narrator, who put an awful lot of work into her performance, although her odd pronunciation of words like 'skeletal' May throw you off, she's putting in the effort to give each character their own, unique voice.

all in all, the last quarter of the book really does take away any Goodwill that had been earned during the first half of the story, but I do commend the World building and the setup. two out of five

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