I was really looking forward to reading this, since I am a fan of zombie literature (I'm not proud to say this, but it's true!). Anyway, within a few pages I found that both the dialog and depiction of the novel's characters and their actions were so unrealistic that I just didn't care to continue the book.

It was okay at best. A bore mostly. I'd read it if someone loaned it to me.

Sorry,

joe

I really thought that this book was not worth my effort. I checked the local book stores for a few weeks trying to find it before purchasing on amazon. The book was very generic, and read just like a made for cable action movie. The only redeeming quality was that it was actually about zombies, and I am a freak about zombies.

This is a great story and a fun book to read. The sequal is even better!!!

Enjoyable read in the usual dead bodies walking genre. The virus idea is quite good, and it is obviously set up for book 2 which no doubt i will buy. Jumps around a bit and a lot of characters but well worth the read if you enjoy this type of book

This is a great story and a fun book to read. The sequal is even better.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ZOMBIE FANS!!! TWO THUMBS UP TO Z.A. Recht!

I loved this book and i can't wait to get the sequel which has just come out and ive ordered and now i'd like to shamelessly plug my own book at the expense of a small quotation on Amazon here in the united states seeing as im from the UK and you know what us Brits are like, we love to blow our own - Please be a good citizen, do wonders for our overseas relationship and buy Deathday by Eugene Bruce (23rd in the list if you type my name in) I love you America!

Check out Z. A. Recht for zombie lit. This book is great, and the second of the series is even better. Be prepaired to lose sleep over the Morningstar Saga. I just couldn't stop at bedtime.

I've just finished this first book in the Morningstar Strain saga, and I've got to say, it rocked my socks off.

Plague of the Dead is better by far than David Wellington's zombie trilogy and J.L. Bourne's Day by Day Armageddon combined.

The inclusion of both speed zombies (for lack of a better way to put it) is brilliantly handled, as is the detailing of the initial containment attempts.

I would recommend this to any enthusiast of zombie lit. To borrow from Stan Lee, excelsior!

This book is the first in a series of three about a virus outbreak that turns people into "zombie like" hosts for the virus. This was a very good book. I really like the story premise and the author's take on the zombie genre. There wasn't as much gore as I thought there would be in a zombie novel but there was still tons of action.

Since this is the first in the series the plot and story telling is a little bit slower than a lot of the other zombie books out there because the author knows he has three books to work his story into. In the book you get a good introduction to the main characters for the saga but one thing I didn't like is that there were almost too many characters for the author to work with and I don't really know a lot about any of them and there just really isn't the "main character connection" that really draws you into caring about who dies and who doesn't.

This is one of only a few zombie genre stories, books or movies, that doesn't make the military look like a bunch of power-hungry jarhead rapists. The group that the story focuses on is very down to earth and humble which is really refreshing for me since I'm almost to the point of hating any movie/book that goes the bad military persona way.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the saga and this book set-up a good story base for those that follow.

Ok this book is poorly written and theres no other way to say it, the characters are totally useless plus there are a number of times when i lost what was happening. I mean they stop in the Philippines for a bit then they leave and i kinda missed that happening?! Theres also a hilarious bit with a magnet gun that i think the author had bigger ideas for but then he seemed to dump it, after all he made great pains to introduce it and then *poof* it was gone.

The game you can play though is called 'guess the movie', there are probably over 50 times when i could name the movie and even the character that delivered that exact line in a film! Aliens, The Terminator and a whole host of others, i would urge you not to buy this book but maybe get it from the library, read a third of it and then if you still like it go and buy a copy. Anyone giving this tripe more than 3 stars is either retarded or works for the publisher ;-)

And yes before you all jump down my throat, its alot better than i could hope to write yadda yadda and i like the fact he mixed shamblers and sprinters, im a shambler purist so at least he got a positive mark from me on that. Which incidentally is the reason this gets 2 stars.

Go and read World War Z if you haven't already its a much better investment of your time and money.

Oh and before i go i have to mention this, theres a scene thats just too priceless. It involves a hoard of zombies about 2 minutes away from killing 3 main characters and an evil government agent shows up, ooooo. Our hero has a gun and 2 people to protect from imminent 'death by zombie' but he decides to have a fist fight with this guy as its the honorable thing to do *rolls eyes*. It was hysterical, i actually laughed out loud reading it in bed, the description of the fight is then the most hideous piece of teenage masturbatory material ive ever read. Bravo.

After reading "Plague of the Dead" you will want to read the sequel. That is not so bad tho because the sequel is equally good. A rare enough thing in any series.

"Plauge" starts what I believe, will be a at least a three part series. The book starts out with some sketchy explanations of types of virus's (mostly African) and how they spread via some emails between a general (Sherman) and a military scientist (Rebbecca) who is studying a new strain but.. that doesn't mean that the book doesn't get right to the action. The action builds quickly as does the character development.

That brings me to the characters.. They are believable and interesting, they cause you to either like or respect them or both. The story follows two basic sets of characters as they try to get to a lab from opposite ends of the continent.

I have to interject politics here. I am new to the zombie book genre but, like in most of the "end of the world as we know it" genre I have noticed two basic themes. On the one hand, the author will be a socialist and the zombies will not be the real terror.. really.. just like us but... different, more needing of understanding than anything.. no, to them the real terror in their zombie novels is that the government has broke down. No government to run to is the most terrifying thing they can think of and salvation only comes from a re-established government.. even with the help of blue helmeted UN soldiers.

The other type is the more individualist type.. the zombies are dead. they feel nothing and are motivated by the desire to eat you or, in the case of "Plague", spread their strain. The government is either evil or impotent and the individual has to fend for himself or in small groups.

I much prefer the latter. "Plauge" strikes a good balance I believe. A realistic balance where not all government is evil but individuals need to fend for themselves. Where the zombies are the real terror and people are on their own or banding together in small groups.

One thing.. I love firearms and cars. Nothing turns me off more in a book than talking about guns that don't exist or couldn't work the way the author says. Recht did some research... his guns and use of them is almost flawless. The only nit I wish to pic is that there never was a Winchester lever action in 45 colt. I know, a minor thing. Also, even tho I am not a military man, Sherman seems to get caught in some real bad military blunders. Some of this can obviously be attributed to the fact that the enemy is like nothing anyone has ever seen tho.

All in all.. one of the better of the dozen zombie books I have read so far and deserving of five star. The "flaws" are just me being nit picky and do nothing to detract from the book(s).

Plague Of The Dead is one of the best novels I have read in the zombie genre. I have read a lot zombie fiction before, so there is nothing here that is brand new, but overall, this is a story that actually works. The characters, for all their strength and weaknesses, are decently fleshed out (though I can see, quite a few reviewers will not agree with me). The action moves along at a clean, fast pace. The few holes that exist in the plot and the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion are the only real problem areas, but these are to be expected in this genre. Overall, I definitely recommend it.

I am a sucker for the zombie genre in books and movies. There's somethng about a glazed-eyed, shambling pile of rotting flesh trying to eat you that really turns the juices on.

"Plague of the Dead" is a fun book even though it does have those fast-moving zombies among its characters. It also has "shamblers." The cause of all this killing and dining is a virus.

I think zombie fans will enjoy this book. I did.

I thought this book was okay, but it's still an interesting read if your into zombies. The book started out a bit slow with some of the characters emailing back and forth, but it eventually gets a little better with the outbreak starting at an airport in Africa. I guess my biggest beef against the book is the one-dimensionality of the characters and the whole conspiracy theory, bad guy FBI/CIA agents torturing people was a little far-fetched and ridiculous. Also, the book never ends which leads me to believe that there might be a sequal...

If I were a high school teacher and one of my students turned in this story, I'd chide them for paying too much attention to gung-ho war movies and not enough to the dialogue, detail and character development. At one point, there are three different characters in a single scene, all with last names beginning with "D" and it was virtually impossible to tell one from the other because they all sounded the same.

A good zombie / end-of-the-world story not only delivers shocks, it also forces us to look closer at ourselves and society. I think the author shows promise and with a little polish, could turn into quite a good storyteller. This book is certainly ambitious, and deserves a look from fans of the genre.

second only to day by day armageddon this book is the holy book of zombie lovers

To me, Z.A. Recht's Plague of the Dead has the distinction of being the most ambitious, epic and inventive of Permuted Press's somewhat lethargic and pedestrian line, however extremely poor characterization, a pervasive disregard for fact checking or character and world details and a rushed, surprisingly timid style completely buries any creative surprises that might be found within.

I won't deny Mr. Recht his props. In some ways, he really deserves them. Most of all because I think he might have done what many considered to be impossible, he came up with a new way to present the zombie plague and he did it by simply combining the age old with the new in a way that works really surprisingly well. Its so inventive and fun in fact, that I wouldn't be surprised to see the idea of sprinting, rage filled and infected living that when killed then rise again as the shambling, shuffling dead start to catch on and appear in the more "main stream" zombie stuff. It was a creative bend on existing ideas and it worked. Kudos, Mr. Recht, well done. He also has not only obviously put together some thoughts and a little bit of research on his plague, its biology and its origin, but also on his greater story itself, as this is just the first part of a proposed trilogy. I can respect the effort evidenced, at the very least, if not the execution.

Because, quite frankly, this is where Plague of the Dead stumbles, falters and then fails. The characters are so one dimensional that calling them paper thin would be a compliment. Their motives and speech patterns are completely and totally interchangeable. If you had a page of dialogue without qualifiers, you wouldn't be able to even guess gender, let alone the character identity. At their core all the characters can all be boiled down to simple, one word descriptions: General. Girl. Scientist. Loner. Black guy (admittedly that's two words... sue me.) but even then they get confusing: Soldier, soldier, soldier, young soldier? To top it all off, half the names are so similar that at a glance, many could be mistaken for each other.

And speaking of "at a glance", the worst mistake of the book is so huge, that it simply can NOT be ignored. CAN NOT! Now, lets ignore the fact that he obviously did not even look at a picture of the Suez Canal, lets ignore the fact that he obviously has no idea as to the Suez Canal's purpose, lets ignore the fact that there is no way in the world that if a dangerous plague was threatening to jump from Africa, from Egypt and over the canal, that the entire opposite bank wouldn't be lined with the entire Israeli armed forces, not to mention a huge chunk of America's, lets EVEN ignore the somewhat silly idea that we would even TRY to quarantine Africa, alright? Barring all those little flubs, which, come on now, when listed together suddenly don't seem so little (and this is by no means an even close to complete list of all the inaccuracies, mistakes and things that don't make sense) barring all those things, there is one mistake that towers over everything, that destroys, DESTROYS, any credibility the author or his book might have had, a mistake so god awful dumb that... I can't even quantify it, man...

You'll read some reviews that will refer to it as a "simple" geography mistake, but let me assure you, it is not. Look... Africa is to the WEST of the Suez Canal, THE WEST! You don't even need a detailed map in order to see this. A child's globe, even an inflatable globe beach ball where you'd find a big yellow blob labeled simply as: Africa, would tell you this at a glance! AT A GLANCE! Africa = west of the Suez! Africa only connects to Asia at one point! ONE POINT! COME ON, MAN! Who was the editor on this book? They should be fired, just fired out right. A typo, a mistake... that's one thing, but for an entire chapter he gets this wrong and that only makes it obvious that the Editor DID NOT do his/her job. Doesn't this upset Permuted Press? Is this what they want to present to the world? How very, very professional.

So what else? Really, at this point, after that, is it worth going into all the little aggravating mistakes, technical inaccuracies and poorly conceived and choreographed moments? I could go into the fact that a hundred or two more pages or so were needed and that the story was crippled by be confined to so few. I can go on about the lack of character development and the hesitancy displayed when faced with an emotional character moment but not when it came to gore, but what's the point? I mean, if you can get it wrong that Africa is to the west of the Suez canal, does anything else really need to be said?

Overall, this is a very poorly done book, but it is one that feels like a very early first draft, as Mr. Recht shows an inventiveness and a sense of action and story lay out that could be nurtured into something much better, if only given some time, even if the end result would most likely be somewhat clichéd and surface. And while, yes, the blame for this does lay firmly on Mr. Recht's shoulders, a healthy portion also falls on Permuted Press whose editorial staff did the man a massive disservice with their ludicrously poorly performed job.

This is a cheap, paper thin, clichéd, one dimensional child's adventure, but there is a sparkle of imagination contained within that might someday outshine the myriad of mistakes and mis-steps... maybe.

My recommendation: Anyone with even low-medium standards need not apply.

good plot, accurate military tactics, great story. i really hope z a makes another one. thanx z a

I went on a zombie novel binge a few months ago, and this is one that I picked up based on a majority of the reviews being quite good.

The story itself is pretty interesting, and I like the two ongoing but semi-separate storylines. I'm normally of the opinion that zombies shouldn't run, but the idea was pretty clever of the fresher ones sprinting while the long dead ones are shambling fleshbags.

Now, on to the minuses. The writing. Sweet lord, the writing. It seriously reads like a sophomore's english mid-term. Very uninspiring dialogue, (If I remember correctly there's a mention of someone changing moods "faster than an obsessive compulsive changes underwear".) Really? I mean, REALLY? Also, tons of editing issues. If you have enough imagination to write an entire book, I'd like to think you also have the capacity to distinguish between 'to' and 'too'.

Also, as a former member of the Army, reading a lot of the military parts made me actually cringe. The technical and tactical parts were pretty good, but just the romanticized description of how the soldiers felt and acted were cheesy beyond belief. A kind-hearted General paired up with a gruff, 'I hate everyone except my commanding officer' Sergeant Major? Not exactly the most original thing to suffer through.

I know I'm dwelling a lot on some of these low points. Overall I'd say the book was above average. Let me put it this way. If the author continues this 'saga', and takes some time to think out the sentences and wording so that they are maybe 50% less vanilla, I'd probably buy it too.

One of the best Zombie books I have read, second only to "World War Z". It takes the virus approach as to the cause of the outbreak and combines the traditional shambling hordes of George Romero with the ravenous maniacal zombies of 28 days later. I can't wait for the next 2 books to come out.

I picked this up as I've been enjoying zombie movies more lately and I thought it would be neat to go ahead and read about zombies as well.

This was a satisfying book, though not overly so and I still feel that after all is said and done, that the price of the book was a bit high and normally wouldn't have purchased this book other than the fact I had a gift card and could 'afford' to do so. I think $9.00 would have been a better price for the book at the outmost.

Still, a good book overall, made you interested in the characters and its interesting to see how the virus moves across the world and just how screwed up everything gets. Lots of people die, lots and lots, and some characters that you really wish hadn't either, but that's how it is in a zombie thriller.

If the price doesn't scare you, pick it up, its a good read.

Decker, Dewen, Denton, Darin, Don, Demilio, and more!!! How can one keep these characters straight when the names begin with the same letter, four end in the same letter, four are two-syllable names, and they all have the same undeveloped personality. That's just lazy writing. However, the story is an interesting, if typical, zombie plot. I enjoyed the adventure. I liked the new zombie lore of mixing "infected sprinters" and "undead shamblers." I wish there were more hands-on action. Much of the plot development required one to overlook flaws. Soldiers and doctors seem to have no qualm killing comrades (because they're in the way of their escape). But it was still a fun read.

This is a good book if you accept it for what it is. It is a pulp zombie novel. The story line is your basic the planet is being over run by mindless zombies. While i enjoyed this read i was ultimatly disappointed because i thought it had so much potential. The plot and characters are very formulic and often times predictable. You never really identify myself with the characters. There actions are very predictable. Often times the book feels as if you are reading your standard hollywood script .... I do however commend the author on creating 2 type of infected. Shamblers ... who are your slow moving classic undear and sprinters who are your faster more mobile "dawn of the dead" type zombies. I feel that the book has a real good story behind it, but if the author had spent more time on it could have polished over the rough spots and had a much better novel ... still fun to read when you have nothing better to do.

I finally have a break in school for a month, so I'm actually back to reading for fun for a change! :) I bought this after reading World War Z (which I also enjoyed) so I'm kinda on a zombie kick.
I have to say this book is very good right from the start and doesn't let go until the last page. I finished it in 2 days and it really is a fast read. The idea of 2 types of zombies is interesting and made sense once it was explained. This book was hard to put down and if you are a zombie fan I don't think you'll be disappointed.

So, I love zombies. They're awesome. Zombie movies have always been a favorite of mine, but only in 2007 did I discover there was an entire genre of zombie fiction floating around out there. Some of it's good. Some of it's not.

And then there's "Morningstar Strain." As near as I can tell, the author wanted to combine the Romero zombies with the hyperactive nutjobs in the "28 Days/Weeks" movies. If you are infected with this strain, you turn into a sprinting carrier -- you like to eat flesh and you moan, but you're still alive, and you can run around. If someone puts you down, you'll come back as a more familiar shambling dead dude.

Cool idea. The science in the book, what there is of it, is interesting enough (plausible? who cares. It's zombies), and I read the thing in one day, but...the characters are sadly lacking. One, there's way too many of them to develop in the less than 300 pages the author has to work with -- off the top of my head I can think of at least ten characters that have their own POVs. Everyone acts the same: tough, war-worn, ready to Do What They Must. Up until I read this point I thought I would love a book with a cast of entirely tough characters that didn't crack in the face of peril, but after Morningstar...well, maybe if they'd been better developed, I wouldn't have had issues with them.

So. Everyone acts the same. On top of this, ZA Recht needs a few lessons in writing. He's (she's?) not bad, and certainly has a great imagination, but he's got this nasty habit of head-hopping, which is enough to make me want to throw any book against the wall. Also, characters Talk! Like! This! a lot. Sigh.

Lastly, Permuted Press needs a copy editor. I'm sorry, guys, but there were too many dumb mistakes in this book (and another book I've read that they've released) to forgive. I don't know who did the final line edit on this thing, but he/she needs to either read things closer or find a new line of work.

That said, I am a sucker for zombies and I will probably look at the next book in the series. Also, there's two sturdy female characters in Julie Ortiz and the doctor, which is nice to see (no shrinking screamers here).

I am thoroughly convinced that the publisher and even the author are writing some of the reviews here.
I just got done reading a review that said great character development, and was wondering if we read the same book. Here is an example of the introduction of a character......"Freelance photographer Sam Denton grinned wryly behind his dark sunglasses" and you also find out that he is a Canadian a half a page later.
That's how this individual was introduced, and that's all you know about him, even though he is one of the main characters.
What about the families of all these refuges and soldiers? Are they all orphans? Are they all single? Did they all lose there families in a car accident when they were kids? Not one individual in this book is interested in finding out what happened to their wife, husband, kids, parents, brothers, sisters or friends back home.
Given the severity of the virus and also the fact that an entire continent was being quarantined, where was the rest of the worlds armies, especially the middle eastern troops? You mean to tell me that we were holding the Suez canal with a couple hundred troops and the only airpower we had was a helicopter gunship? I could go on and on but I will close with the only reason I gave this book 2 stars instead of 1. The grammar was good.

I love zombies. I love zombie movies, I love zombie fiction, I love documentaries about "zombies" in Haiti. I am a Zombie fangirl, I admit it. My standards aren't even that high when it comes to zombies. But this book? This book was so awful, SO poorly-written, that I couldn't even get halfway through it. I thought maybe it'd be unintentionally hilarious, but no such luck. It's just bad. REALLY bad. I hope people will learn from my mistake and avoid this book.

Recht obviously did his homework for Plague of the Dead, which deals largely in military skirmishes with the armies of the infected (some of whom are undead, some of whom resemble the 28 Days Later-types). The battles are gripping and the soldiers are likable; the subplot about those trying to expose the truth of the Morningstar Strain isn't as interesting but it has some good moments, especially when nefarious government agents get involved.

If you like apocalyptic horror and military combat then this one's definitely for you; but I think any general zombie lover will appreciate this book.

Recht obviously did his homework for Plague of the Dead, which deals largely in military skirmishes with the armies of the infected (some of whom are undead, some of whom resemble the 28 Days Later-types). The battles are gripping and the soldiers are likable; the subplot about those trying to expose the truth of the Morningstar Strain isn't as interesting but it has some good moments, especially when nefarious government agents get involved.

If you like apocalyptic horror and military combat then this one's definitely for you; but I think any general zombie lover will appreciate this book.

After reading World War Z by Max Brooks (a book I strongly recommend), I was in the mood for another zombie book. Sadly Plague of the Dead left me unsatisfied. The book is OK, but the characters do not grab you, the technical discussion of the virus is weak and the descriptions of military organization and protocol seem unrealistic. I'll be honest, I read the book all the way through, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably pick something different.

Yes, four stars for the zombies. A great mix of pre-existing zombie mythology and some gripping action sequences definitely stand out. But two for the people because the characters are really disposable. They're a bit cardboard, and it's really hard to care when one of them dies. As others have pointed out, the multiple "D" named characters all blur into one because no one is really developed (a more important "D" word that would have helped this novel). I didn't realise it was the first of a trilogy when I read it, so I found the ending sorely disappointing. Now that I know that, I'd cut it some slack, but I don't know that I care enough about these people to want to read about them further. If you just want to read some fun zombie mayhem sequences, it's worthwhile, but it gets a bit tedious towards the end when it becomes more about the people who become MORE thin as characters as the story goes on, and, in essence, are less interesting than the nameless undead they fight, which is a shame, because I really wanted to care. Still, some fun military/zombie action if that's what you seek.

I love zombie fiction. I really disliked this book.
The writing comes across as high school fan fiction - but trying very hard to be taken seriously by giving a lot of (non-zombie) side story, that doesn't go anywhere. Its easy to loose track of the characters (especially the 3 or 4 guys whose names start with 'D'). There is a full 100 pages in the middle of the book that have almost no action at all. The first 200 pages build up to a huge let down, and then the book doesn't have an ending.
I really want to warn zombie fans that their 14 bucks is better spent somewhere else.
Also - this is my second major disappointment from Permuted Press - so I recommend that you use caution when considering their horror fiction. Maybe this is because I am a reader to begin with - and the people attracted to this specific genre don't recognize bad writing, or are more forgiving of it because they are just happy to have somebody writing about zombies.

I don't mean knock this book, but honestly it seems like it was too short and while it is action packed you honestly don't feel anything for the characters. However, as I mentioned, the action is quite intense at times and completely side tracked me from my complete lack of compassion for any characters. Also it leaves you hanging and I expect the sequel to be quite the action packed, zombie filled romp.

Plague of the Dead takes another twist with the zombie genre, showing that the zombies can and cannot be dead at the same time. Z.A Recht, author of the new zombie novel Plague of the Dead brings a new twist to the genre.

Beginning with a strange-if not disturbing-email from a scientist in the army, it tells of the inevitable danger that the new and strange plague may bring. While the scientist tries to warn people about it, it doesn't do any good, and that means that people are vulnerable. It hits our home of the United States when a medical examiner turns his back for just one moment.Africa is the center of the action, and if where the plague originated. Fires sprung up from every town, and the dead were attacking and devouring the living . . . And the ones that they killed also got back up to eat the flesh of the living men. The military tries their best to deal with it, but when they find that they can't do anything other than separate Africa from the Israel area, they have to flee. This is where the military steps in to take action.

Recht brings many new things to the genre, especially the exciting way the military works. With scattered traces of emails and government conspiracies hidden in its depths, Plague of the Dead is a different, if not new way of the zombie genre. The main characters are real in the sense of the military, we learn how the military could operate if such an event were to happen, and we learn several different aspects of the military that most people don't know. Recht shares the knowledge of weapons and military strategy in this book, and he does a very, very good job doing this.

Plague of the Dead brings us into a different view of the zombies, with the way that they can be alive at first, then die and come back to life as true zombies. Sprinters and Shamblers are they way Recht describes the zombies, and makes them even more terrifying. One bite infects, two bites doubles the rate, and from there, it goes downhill when the zombie plague hits Africa and spreads into the United States.

Plague of the Dead is another novel that must be picked up if you are a fan of horror and zombie fiction. It's hard to put down, it's exciting, and it leaves you wanting with more of this new way of zombies.

I have a serious thing for zombies. If it is about the undead I will read it or watch it. Because of this I have read a whole lot of horrible books. While this is certainly not the worst of the genre it does come fairly close.
The novel is grammatically sound, sadly an unusual trait in most zombie books. This does help an awful lot, but it certainly isn't enough to overcome paper thin characters throughout the book. I mean it, there isn't one well developed character in the entire book. Transparent, poorly researched caricatures of people are all you get, and it is often enough to make you cringe. There's the gruff general who is a natural leader, the plucky red cross nurse, and enough soldiers stolen from various movies to fill a small stadium.
Another glaring problem is the lazy story development. This book is made up of long strings of ridiculously convenient plot devices that carry the story from A to B. It reads like the author had a an idea for the beginning and end of a story and decided to slap together enough filler to get you from one to the other.
I gave the novel two stars because I think this is the author's first book. Since his technical writing skills aren't too bad there is room for him to pull it together and learn how to write at least marginally interesting characters and plot lines. Considering how god awful much of this genre is, it is at least a bit refreshing to find a writer that knows the difference between 'there' 'their' and 'they're'.

This is a strong book that always keeps yo guessing and on the edge of your seat. I think that this author writes some nice pieces of written masterpiece! I will be buying more!

If you enjoy Zombie stories like I do (guilty pleasure) then you will really enjoy this one. This book has all of the attributes of a world-wide zombie apocalypse. It incorporates a causative agent and the in-effective efforts of the military. The story centers on several different characters and their experiences. It is a complete story but could very well have another book following the surviving characters.

The story takes the reader through Africa, the Middle-East and finally to the United States. The story becomes more compelling as the number of soldiers and civilian refugees dwindles and they are forced to find supplies where they can.

If only I could have been better convinced that the battle at Suez was truly un-winnable, then I would have given this book 5 stars. That wasn't even the key turning point in the story that it seemed to be; The world was lost before then.

The story is very good and I am glad I read it. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

This book was awesome. I'm so sick of Romero fans turning their collective noses up every time there is a fast moving zombie. This story makes fans of both slow and fast moving zombies have to coexist with each other. I can't wait for Thunder and Ashes...

I quite enjoyed this book. I'm relatively new to zombie books, so I couldn't say which ideas were new and which aren't, but I liked the concept of having two different types of zombies. The parallels drawn between the Morningstar virus and other viruses also made sense to me.

I had a couple of minor issues with the book. There were a fair number of spelling/printing errors in my copy (such as Pacific Northwest not being capitalized). Not the fault of the author, nor did they detract from my enjoyment. But the copy editor needs to double check his work.

*Spoiler Warning*

The other issue is a pet peeve of mine. I grew up in northern California - five hours north of San Francisco. From where I lived, it was another hour and a half to two hours to the Oregon border. If the Ramage was headed to San Francisco, and they were dropped off a little north of the city - even 2 hundred miles north - they would have been crossing northern California, not Oregon. Not a major issue, but it seems like there's a lot of folks that forget that San Francisco is in the middle of the state. Like I said, pet peeve.

Still a good book, though, and I look forward to the sequel.

I have been on a zombie kick the last few months, and have read a good majority of the zombie books out there. This one kept me turning the pages and was very hard to put down. If you liked Night of the Living Dead, or 28 Days you will enjoy this one. It doesnt have talking zombie which I personally hate more than anything. This is a Zombie story.... I need to say that again. It bugs me when I read reviews with people complaining about how the book was written blah blah blah............Take it for what it is.... ITS A ZOMBIE BOOK!!!!!
The book ends on a cliffhanger, which I really hate because I am not a patient person. I cannot wait for the next part in the saga!!!

Again, if you love Romero and his zombies you will get a kick out of this one!

The story started out very strong, but then fizzled. It reads more like online fan-fiction than the a coherently constructed novel.

A little bit of continuity checking would have gone a long way to improving this book. Ultimately it was rather disappointing...all the more so because the beginning of the story is so strong and had such potential.

The idea that the plague is an infection that cause live people to go crazy for human meat is great! Only after the live ones are "killed" do they return as the slow staggering beasts we have grown accustomed to in movies and other novels.

This was a great zombie book, I only wish it lasted longer. It was hard to put down once I started reading.

For those who have said it came to a sudden hal,t that is because this book is meant to be part of a trilogy, see www.themorningstarsaga.com it ISN'T over yet, that's why. A great, gripping novel- a truly moving story of survival.

The MorningStar Virus - a not-So-Friendly strain that has been likened to the next "Eboli" has spread across Africa like an epidemic and shows no signs of slowing. First there were the random reports, then the confirmations of the attacks, and then the footage of people trying to make it to floating salvation only to find themselves eaten alive by "packs" of ravenous carriers on national TV. Making it worse is the hushed tones of the government and their attitude toward the virus, thinking it will never make off a continent placed on lockdown. Seemingly containable at first, the MorningStar Virus nonetheless has a fast incubation rate, rendering its victims raging beasts that seem to press on with insatiable appetites, and it doesn't seem to understand the extent of juristic ional boundaries. Even worse, when a carrier dies they don't stay dead for long.

I have to admit that I've been reluctant to by zombie books as of late. Often they follow a predictable format and, worse still, they end up with predictable endings. Still, in this market flooded with books on the dead coming back to life, Z.A. Recht has more than taken the subject and run with it by adding a little something extra. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you p-l-o-t. Yes, by adding in realistic elements and fundamental questions about the problem, Recht went passed the problems of older books and instilled a genuine feeling of panic in the characters abounding in the book. The writing in the book is done with a great deal of talent, too, and the pace of the book is fantastic and allows the reader to keep a brisk pace while tracking the virus and the efforts to contain it.
By drawing the battlelines this book really does hit on the elements you need to make a complete novel about the undying - it touches on the human element, it mingles some ideology into the fray, and it adds in the ghastly for effect. This gives the book something that newer successes have had; zombie stories with actual teeth.

If you are a fan of zombie books or are a person that is trying to find a new way to look at the zombie question, this book is a good place to play. It has all the elements you need for a great tale, it showcases the overconfidence that humanity has, and it has some of the most adorable flesh-eating cast of characters you'd ever want wrapping their gums around you.
I highly recommend the book, thinking it is a step in the right direction.

One of Recht novel's biggest merits is to bring the light back onto this old -though fascinating- Zombie theme. Looks like it is the latest trend in horror books, given the number of new publications on the subject as of late...

Anyway, I have enjoyed the "international" coverage of the theme: for once, the action is not strictly limited to the US and not solely focused on US internal affairs -as opposed to global ones. Recht's novel covers the whole world, and the author seems to have been willing to involve a fair panel of foreigners as part of the group of heroes, with characters of such diverse backgrounds as Japanese, Arabic, Black African. Good and realistic stuff, as a viral epidemics of the nature of what Recht identifies would in no way be contained to a single nation in the world.

Beyond these comments, I have been a little taken aback by a number of flaws in the novel architecture and hypothesis used in it. For one, there is no clear definition of the number of soldiers that participate to the Suez conflict. One would only hypothesize that such a threat would be dealt with dozens, if not hundreds of soldiers, from various countries and not only from the US, not by a limited-scale force as featured in Recht's book.

Also, there is a lack of overall cohesion in how the US military behaves: after the Suez debacle, it looks as if the General is simply cut loose from his own commanders. He does not try hard -as he would be supposed to do in real life- to reestablish the connection with his "back-office" supervisors to get their instructions on how to further conduct the war against the enemy. It is as if the head of the US army, back on the East Coast, had completely vanished. With the Suez front being of such a key importance to the overall conflict, how come the US President does not manage to establish and maintain contact with Sherman through either his remaining brass staff, or DIRECTLY in the worse case? The repetition of major flaws in the army's chain of commands' functioning put me slightly off and, from then on, I could no longer read without looking at the overall cohesion of the book. Also, what about the use of non-conventional WMD by the US and their allies, especially out there in the desert? That's probably one of the first things mankind would be doing in such a real-life situation, the risk of collateral damage being of such a limited nature and scope... Plus, look at this righteous target: a bunch of dumb-minded carriers, amassed in a crowd, moving in almost a straight line along a clearly outlined road! Just reroute a few Guam-based B1B's, B2's or even B52's, located a mere few hours flight time away from this theater of operations, have them drop their 40 tons of ordnance right on the target, and the threat would have been quickly and cost-efficiently taken care of...

I believe that, as the book is most certainly going to be followed by a sequel, the entire work of Recht should be monitored and assessed once all his books on this saga are made available.

Now, as it is always easier to criticize than to do the job, I have to stress a few more merits of the book, which in my mind reflects a finely balanced view of the human society overall:
- The idea of runners Vs shamblers zombies is top notch. It is a good means for merging the two concepts of traditional zombie movies/books: some feature slow-moving zombies, others sport fast runners (28 days after). The expanation between the two is also good.
- It is simultaneously critical of the military, and still shows some respect to the soldiers.
- It does not get dragged into stereotypical situations and behavior descriptions: women act as they are supposed to act in real life, soldiers are not born-heroes.
- The General is not superhuman: he, too, makes long reaching mistakes in his decision-making process.

This is just like real life is supposed to be: not black-and-white, but a constant mix of grays.

I will generally read or watch anything zombie related so, of course, I ran to pick up a copy of Plague of Dead - unfortunately, I just as quickly had to put it down. Its a shame really, I LOVE the idea ZA Recht had for his infected/undead. Really, it was a great idea and that is why it gets two stars from me. The prose (or lack thereof) was awful. Long rambling on sentences. Character development done in one sentence. Just Awful. Plus the characters were so transparent that, personally, I couldn't keep them straight. The General became the Captain and the Private became the doctor in my mind as I read the confusing prose in each of the 5 chapters I managed to wade through.
Will I one day pick up Plague of the Dead and give it another shot? Maybe.
Do I wish that Mr. Recht had taken a little more time to develop a writing style before he ultimately slaughtered his own brillant idea?
YES!
This story has LOTS of potential (and I mean LOTS!). Its excellent ideas simply suffer from poor writing skills.

I will generally read or watch anything zombie related so, of course, I ran to pick up a copy of Plague of Dead - unfortunately, I just as quickly had to put it down. Its a shame really, I LOVE the idea ZA Recht had for his infected/undead. Really, it was a great idea and that is why it gets two stars from me. The prose (or lack thereof) was awful. Long rambling on sentences. Character development done in one sentence. Just Awful. Plus the characters were so transparent that, personally, I couldn't keep them straight. The general became the captain and the private became the doctor as I read the confusing prose in each of the 5 chapters I managed to wade through.
Will I one day pick up Plague of the Dead and give it another shot? Maybe.
Do I wish that Mr. Recht had taken a little more time to develop a writing style before he ultimately slaughtered his own brillant idea?
YES!
This story has LOTS of potential (and I mean LOTS!). Its excellent ideas simply suffer from poor writing skills.

I'm a huge fan of zombie movies so dove into this book with great enthusiasm. It started strong, but a little after the halfway point it began to falter.

The beginning was great... a deadly virus appears in Africa and the international community does its best to quarantine the entire continent. This was great stuff...

But once the focus turned to the general and his rag-tag group of survivors making their way east to America, with an entirely superfluous stop in the Phillipines, I began to lose interest. I was hoping for more "big picture" stuff that outlined the extent of the zombie apocalypse. But instead, the book focused on the general and a few victims of a mysterious government agency on the hunt for answers, leaving me pretty much in the dark as to how bad things were across the world.

The set-up was great but the ending was a bit disappointing.