Dead New World

While I suffered through the flu over the holiday break, I passed some time reading the book DEAD NEW WORLD by Ryan Hill.  It is can become somewhat surreal reading a book about a zombie apocalypse caused by a viral pandemic while you are shaking and aching from the flu and the author did a nice job of bringing his story to life for its readers.  DEAD NEW WORLD really cemented for me that the zombie genre for the time being has allowed Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead to define the standard elements of any story - a crisis was created by a viral outbreak, a zombie bite will transform the person bitten into a zombie, a person's soul, identity, personality die when they transform into a zombie, and you have to destroy a zombie's brain to kill it although they don't act by thinking but rather through instinct, the world as we know it is gone and people are struggling to survive on a post-modern planet.  Though Hill sticks with these standardized elements in his story, he does branch off in some new ways to make this his own apocalyptic zombie tale.

In a Dead New World, the United States has been overrun by millions of infected people turned into zombies with a blood lust, but unlike the world of The Walking Dead the U.S. government was able to stay intact and operational stemming the tide of the infestation.  There are cities where people live in security and pockets of civilization spread out across the country.  The population is a small fraction of what it once was now though and the army is on constant patrol through the "wilderness" in an effort to keep zombie herds in check.  If it was just the zombies they had to deal with the tide may be turning back in humanity's favor but the army also is under assault from a dangerous cult of fanatics that worships the zombies and wants to take control of the world.  Led by a man known as The Reverend, this cult has the power to command the zombies and is quickly overrunning U.S. military bases and civilian settlements across the east coast of the country with an eye on destroying Washington D.C.

You see the Reverend was bitten by a zombie during the initial stage of the infection that enveloped the world but he didn't "turn" but rather just had some of his skin become discolored and mutilated.  Another side effect of his surviving the transformation was that he also now had the power to control the zombies around him.  He believes that those people who don't transform into zombies after becoming infected are meant to be a new hybrid race to rule a Dead New World.  The Reverend's zealous human followers volunteer to be exposed to the virus believing that it is God's plan for people to either become elevated to a higher level or to become zombie servants.   He has created a human/zombie army that may be unstoppable.

Young draftees Ambrose and Holt while on a routine patrol face their squad being wiped out by the Reverend's Army.  Can two sixteen year old grunts take on a cult, save Washington D.C. and prevent the world from becoming a place where humanity is obsolete and ruled by a maniac who believes that he will create a new hybrid race to rule over a world of zombie servants?  The focus of this book really is from the perspective of Ambrose and Holt and has just as much of a military stylized approach to telling the story as a horror or Sci-Fi tact to it. 

Ryan Hill

Dead New World receives A GEEK DADDY nod of approval because I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book from cover to cover.  Ryan Hill did a nice job of making this story an interesting and entertaining read that kept my interest and curiosity peeked throughout it.  If you are looking for some mindless zombie adventures that actually spin into a well thought out story arc this is a nice pick up.  Looking for a story to read at the beach, on a plane ride, or maybe while sick in bed with the flu...grab DEAD NEW WORLD published by Curiosity Quills. 

Dead New World is available on Amazon.com either for Kindle or in paperback. 




DISCLAIMER:  A Geek Daddy Blog received a free digital edition of this book to review.  The opinions expressed are my own.