Wesley Clark, James N. Cook and Craig DiLouie...can 30 minutes be enough?

 Wowzers! Triple the action on Short Attention Span Theater. That is where I read for 30 minutes and start putting together a review. Today is the first triple bill in SAST history. So, I am currently into some primo zombie action. Each has its own unique flavor...so up first, Wesley Clark's The Extinction Diaries: Provenance. So, here is my take thus far...there are a handful of characters. You meet them, then you start getting flashback scenes where you start to learn more about them leading up to the whole zombie thing.

The strength of this story is that it really give you that NotLD (Night of the Living Dead) feeling. This is early in the madness and you see people dealing with uncertainty and not truly knowing what to do. Real life stuff is still important because the central characters are not yet aware of the doom that lies ahead. It is still early, but there seems to be some good tension building up. These are real people...you, me, the annoying neighbor. So if you have not grabbed yours yet, do so and join me here next week as we delve deeper.

I already know that I like Craig DiLouie, so snatching this one up was a no brainer. The Infection is what you expect from this author. The opening scene in the classroom paints a nice picture that preps you for the basic idea of how this particular ZA gets started. After that, we are dropped into the nightmare headfirst with action happening all around us. It does seem to be a bit jumbled at first, but perhaps that was the author's intent...to scramble your noggin with a flurry of stuff going on and a few characters to get introduced to in short order. Once this settles in, we start to meet the central characters by means of flashbacks. I had a hard time stopping when my timer rang.

The headliner of a concert always plays last...and that is where we find James N. Cook and No Easy Hope: Surviving the Dead--Book One. So, we have met Gabe  and Eric up to this point and we get some more of the backstory on these two as their friendship solidifies. Also, we learn about some of Gabe's dirty little secrets. Then, at about 12% into the book, the zombie event resumes its center stage role. This is another book that does a great job of giving a plausible cause. Of course, on the down side, it does use the US Government (CDC to be even more specific) as the culprit. But that is really my only story-related critique at this point. What sets these guys apart is that we are being introduced to a pair of guys who already had some stuff in place for an apocalypse style event. Now we get to see if it was enough.

So, grab one or ALL of these titles and join in on the read. I would love to hear some of your thoughts.