BIOHELL
by Andy Remic

http://www.solarisbooks.com/
p. 400

Review

Before you crack open this novel you should ask yourself: Do I enjoy violent sci-fi coupled with disgusting mutants and a creatively forged universe setting? If you can check: "Positive!" to any of those qualifiers I highly recommend checking out Andy Remic's novel "Biohell". If your reading tendencies trend towards cuddly creatures that hug out their emotions, steer well clear of this book.

The novel opens with a focus on Franco Haggis, a retired member of an elite combat unit known as Combat K. Franco resides on a massive world known as "The City" which is an interesting soup of sex, drugs and technology, where anything goes and everything is for sale. Nano tech bio-mods have permeated the world and allow the populace to alter their flesh shells at will, but somewhere a cog slips, the machine breaks down, and the human and alien forms that dot the landscape begin to quite literally break down. The book follows Franco, Keenan and some other.. interesting characters.. as they battle their way across the monster riddled City.

The book refers to the mutations of the creatures as zombies but I never really felt in reading the zombie they were zombies in the classic sense. They definitely fulfill a sufficient goo factor, but they are more along the lines tech driven mutations than the traditional 'zombie' you might picture. Biohell was an interesting novel for me because it combined elements of science fiction, with elements of horror and manages to combine for a story that's depicts its setting well, while not getting too bogged down in a sea of tech descriptions that seem to plague some sci-fi novels. One, memorable scene comes to mind when the party gets its hands on a bio-tech war machine that was constructed in a humanoid form and contains an access ramp positioned in a rather uncomfortable place.

The novel was written well, the characters were interesting and the scenery was clearly explaining. Biohell was a good blend of sci-fi tech, monster, horror and some light comedy that all melts together for a very good read, and I look forward to exploring future Combat K novels.

Resident Evil 5 Demo

A 2 level demo for RE5 looks like it's set to hit January 26, 2009 for the xbox (Heard 2/5/2009 for the PS3).

I enjoyed RE4 even if it was a departure from previously Resident Evil games. The "Ganados" were not really traditional zombies per se, but parasitically control creatures that moved much quicker than previous iterations of RE baddies and utilized weapons and from what I've seen of RE5, the creatures will be similar.

RE4 had more of an action feel that earlier incarnations in the series and it definitely pulled away from the ammo conservation game, but the play and feel were a solid fit. I expect that Resident Evil 5 will be similar to the its prior game in terms of feel and play but will still sit solid in the series.

The addition of co-op play is just the gooey icing on the brain cake.

Undead Entertainment

I've recently been playing Left 4 Dead on the xbox 360 and it game me the inclination to begin a post of good old fashioned, general zombie mayhem.

Starting off with flash:

http://www.zombiegames.net/

Zombiegames.net has a slew of games. Some you've probably seen before if you frequent many flash games sites, but you'd be hard pressed to find a single site that collects this maybe brain bursting games into one collection.

Of the ones I've played, Zombie Rampage is the one I personally feel is the most 'interactive' With multiple modes, varied weapons and a top down view, the production values are well done. I wish the creator would port this flash game over to the XBLA arcade games and offer it for download. If they could figure a way to incorporate multi-player and utilize a controller, it would cause far less wear and tear on my mouse.

Zombie Horde was well done and I also enjoyed The Last Stand. A few of the games are a touch mediocre and obvious re-skins of other flash games you might have played, but all in all the site has a slew of point and click corpse extermination to keep you busy for hours on end.

Note:

This site is a good way to spend some time exterminating undead while you await the impending zombie apocalypse, but most of the applets on the site are not 'lunch' friendly games due to the staggering amount of clicking required. I can't be held responsible if you're huddled down in your cubicle madly mashing on your mouse keys to hold of the wave of stumbling, bloated bodies and your officer manager queries why you're abusing your mouse.

In case this does occur, do not reply with a roll of your eyes and: "Saving your ass from the zombies" this is not likely to score you points with your boss (or any other rational person in your office.) Utilize the time honored excuse of a frozen computer and you're getting frustrated.

After Twilight: Walking with the Dead

After Twilight: Walking with the Dead
by Travis Adkins

http://www.permutedpress.com/
p. 284

Review:

To date I've not read a Permuted Press book that I disliked and "After Twilight: Walking with the Dead", continued an excellent run of books that should be accessible to both long time, and newly formed zombie fans.

Without revealing overly much, the book follows the a fortified city of Eastpointe, whose residents have managed to carve out a safe niche on the east coast of a ruined United States.

The denizens of this town are privy to a lifestyle most survivors of a zombie fiasco could only hope to have: access to electricity, a local saloon and even an internally created currency designed to take the place of the defunct US dollar. An elite team of combatants is sent into the surrounding decay to scavenge supplies and a nefarious shadow government has begun to form in the recesses of the city.

At first I felt a bit disjointed, like I was missing portions of the book, or there were segments not clearly explained. I did not realize until after the fact that this novel was actually a continuation of a prior book Twilight of the Dead. You don't have to read the first novel to thoroughly enjoy the second but it may help flesh out some of the missing jigsaw pieces.

After Twilight is an interesting depiction of society reforming itself after the initial shock and awe with not much time is spent on the initial outbreak(which I'm assuming is covered in the initial novel) and a large focus on the reforming of people afterwards. It seems like more time is spent on character development, their lives and interactions with fellow humans than on the zombie action itself, but there is enough undead violence to sufficiently satisfy most.

I look forward to picking up the first, and hopefully soon, third novels in this promising series.

First post

In case the title was not enough to give it away, this blog will cover most zombie and zombie related material. Not Rob Zombie (unless he participates in some corpse driven activity) and not the song Zombie (sung by Cranberries, which is completely not about zombies) but good old, brain eating, gray flesh fiends.

On the off chance I was unclear to which Zombie topics I was going to focus, please check here: Howstuffworks.com (Anyone else find it hilarious there is an entry for how zombies work? I can understand Howstuffworks.com: Mortgages, but zombies?)

From time to time I'll delve into the books, movies or games that deal with general post apocalyptic settings or other sci-fi items of interest, but the primary focus will be the name-sake of this blog.