Not Your Everyday Zombie Apocalypse

So I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump.  My focus has been on finishing my first draft, all other things be damned!  But I needed a break, before my brain melted, and took some books off my reading list.  I was looking for something fun.  Something that would be a quick read, so I picked up Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines.

My first impression was:  REALLY?  Just when I thought I’d read every imaginable zombie book out there, here comes Ex-Heroes.  I was expecting it to be campy and funny… I mean zombies and super heroes, but I was wrong.  Ex-Heroes had everything you’d expect from a good post-apocalyptic zombie novel just with capes and battle armor!

The book was better than I expected.  The main characters, the super heroes, had all the things I love from a good comic book; dark beginnings, murky pasts and complicated relationships.  Clines managed to build a dark and complex story around these characters while setting up a rich world and traditional zombie plot.

The book is told in alternating time lines, THEN and NOW.  This type of storytelling isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed hearing about the back stories of the Heroes…even the Ex-Heroes.  To be honest I wish Clines would have made these two separate books.  I found the THEN parts far more compelling and wanted to learn more about the outbreak and the Heroes. 

A word of warning about format.  I started Ex-Heroes as an audiobook.  I almost stopped listening because the dual male/female narrators were so horrid it totally ruined the story for me.   It wasn’t the voice talent, it was the fact they insisted the female narrator say all the female dialog… DON'T LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK!

 

I decided to give the book another chance and downloaded the ebook.  I’m glad I did.

Over all I’d recommend it for a fun summer read.   It was entertaining and defiantly not your average zombie book.  I will be checking out the next in this series… I need to know what happens next!!