Creepy Reads: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

 From the publisher:

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginning of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse.

Faced with a future of mindless man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the ten-year fight against the horde, World War Z brings the finest traditions of journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of human civilisation.

 

So...yeahhh....I downloaded this audiobook on January 26, 2020, based heavily on the extraordinary cast (more about that later). I didn't start listening to it until a couple months ago, and I just finished it a couple days ago (I'm a slow listener) (and was distracted by 19 hours of Stamped from the Beginning). Taken by itself, World War Z is an incredible novel about a devastating pandemic. In these Interesting Times? Hoo boy. 

Max (son of Anne Bancroft and Mel) Brooks' best selling The Zombie Survival Guide came out in 2003, the same year that The Walking Dead comic premiered and helped usher in the wave of zombie-mania that's still getting fluids everywhere. Following up in 2006, World War Z takes place in the same world as his previous book. There's a viral source, it's spread by bodily fluids, and it reanimates the dead. WWZ  is a gripping account of the 10 years the world spent battling zombies, told through first person accounts from around the world. It traces the virus' emergence in China, then across the globe. World leaders and countries' responses are detailed, as well as the development of weapons and resistance. Critical battles are analyzed by both soldiers and commanders alike, and the cultural and environmental impacts are pondered. 

I'd read the book once years ago and really enjoyed it. When I saw that there was an audiobook with a stellar cast, I picked it up right away.  The cast list includes Nathan Fillion, Simon Pegg, Martin Scorsese, Jeri Ryan, Henry Rollins, Mark Hamill, Kal Penn, Alan Alda, and the late, great Rene Auberjonois and Carl Reiner, among others. The cast offers a captivating look into people around the world dealing with a plague that has changed everything they know. It is genuinely creepy in some parts, and then there's the whole 'world dealing with a pandemic' and 'actions government officials take (and don't take)' parts, and it may not be the best thing for you to listen to right now. You know you. But I do highly recommend this book in whichever flavor is your favorite.

Please note that the movies World War Z has nothing in common with the book besides the title.

World War Z is available from Galesburg Public Library in both Playaway (audio) and paperback formats. 

 

 

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

 

Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America. He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice—catastrophic events known as Drains—leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives. Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.

After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal . . . for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?

Of the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD—and her huge attitude problem—but really, she’s hiding secrets from them . . . secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.

On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One’s defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One’s ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold—bigger than the world itself. And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give.

Things I Liked

• Despite the fact that Roth is writing a sequel to Chosen Ones, the book didn’t end on a cliffhanger. It leaves just enough unanswered that I will read the sequel, but I still felt satisfied with the conclusion
• It has a well-written, very sweet love story. And a very interesting sort-of-but-not-quite love triangle that I was not expecting.
• I really enjoyed the wide cast of characters. Although I would’ve loved to learn more about some of them (hopefully in the sequel!), they were interesting, and an inspiring group in a very real way. They are flawed and broken, but they are strong and tenacious. I also liked that the characters are a very diverse group, with an array of races, backgrounds, and sexual orientations represented.
• The story is interspersed with letters, news articles, journal entries, and passages from fake textbooks that give more background into the story and clues as to what is going to happen. The different media provided a fun break from the narrative and was an interesting way of furthering the story.
• The book has a few great plot twists that I was not anticipating.
• The story is a very interesting mix of dystopian and fantasy. It’s hard to decide which category it fits best in. It takes place in an alternate Chicago, where five teens have to save the world, but the world also has magic in it, which is used in varying degrees. It also has a bit of science fiction mixed in, when alternate universes come into play. This clash of genres could have easily gone badly, but Roth makes them work together in a unique way that was exciting to read.

Things I didn’t like

• Even though it didn’t end on a cliffhanger, it also didn’t feel finished. I didn’t know until after finishing it that there would be a sequel, so the ending seemed especially abrupt. I still have unanswered questions, but hopefully they will be answered in the second book.
• The pacing got a little bit slow at times, especially when Roth gets very detailed about places and architecture of Chicago.
• While I liked the story and plot, the villain’s actions were very strange. In the end, his reasoning and motives seemed wildly disproportionate to his actions, which made me question the entire storyline a bit.

Overall, this was exactly what I needed for a quarantine pick me up. While it is maybe not the most original plot, I thought it was told in an original way, from an adult perspective years after they’ve saved the world. Despite being an adult novel, it’s very reminiscent of a young adult dystopian novel (plus magic), which I loved. If you’re from the Chicago area and you like dystopian or fantasy books, I would give it a try. Roth grew up in the Chicago area and lives in Chicago, so the details about the city are abundant (sometimes too abundant) and specific. I would recommend Chosen Ones for fans of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, or fans of dystopian novels in general.

The Galesburg Public Library owns this book in regular print format, as well as an ebook through both the Libby and Axis360 apps.

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

From the publisher: THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS FOR HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO’S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, in the next entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.

After I reviewed Peace Talks last month, I knew I had to review this 17th book featuring "the other wizard named Harry" as soon as possible. As I mentioned in the Peace Talks review, Battle Ground is the second half of that story, which was originally one book but was split in half by the publisher. While I think splitting into two books was probably the right decision, neither book feels quite complete on its own so I recommend reading the two back-to-back if at all possible.

For those unfamiliar with the series, I recommend starting with Storm Front, the first book, rather than jumping in here. The rest of this review may contain some spoilers for earlier books in the series, so please stop reading now if you don't want to know anything about the earlier books.

Since it was basically the first half of one story, Peace Talks left readers with a lot of unanswered questions:

• What happens when Harry Dresden's divided loyalties between the White Council of wizards and the Winter Court come into conflict?
• Why did Harry's brother Thomas try to assassinate the svartalf king?
• Can even the combined forces of the Accorded nations survive the onslaught of Ethniu and the Fomor?
• Even if they survive, can the world ever be the same after such a large-scale conflict happens out in the open?
• Do krakens have souls?

Okay, that last one isn't a lingering question from the last book, but readers are going to find out the answer anyway. 😁

One side effect of being the second half of a two-part story is that Battle Ground has a LOT of action. From start to finish, this book is practically one long sequence of action scenes and battles. The stakes here are higher than they've ever been before, with the fate of all of Chicago and possibly the entire world riding on Harry's success. But thanks to his tangled relationships and family, the personal stakes are still quite high as well. Harry still has family and loved ones to protect, even as some of them fight beside him and try to keep him safe as well. Thanks to the relentless pace of the story, I was totally sucked in and finished all 402 pages of this book in just one day.

All in all, Battle Ground has everything that was missing from the last book and more. It brings a true Dresden Files action climax with all the cool moments, sarcastic wit, and heart-wrenching drama that fans have come to expect from Jim Butcher over the first 16 books. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. The hardcover edition also contains a short story called "Christmas Eve," which was previously published online on the author's website.

Battle Ground is available to check out from Galesburg Public Library in hardcover format, and through the library's ebook collections using the Libby and Axis360 apps.

The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson and Michael Crichton

From the publisher:  Fifty years after The Andromeda Strain made Michael Crichton a household name—and spawned a new genre, the technothriller—the threat returns, in a gripping sequel that is terrifyingly realistic. In 1967, an extraterrestrial microbe came crashing down to Earth and nearly ended the human race. Accidental exposure to the particle—designated the Andromeda Strain—killed every resident of the town of Piedmont, Arizona, save for an elderly man and an infant boy. Over the next five days, a team of top scientists assigned to Project Wildfire worked valiantly to save the world. Now, a Brazilian drone detects a bizarre anomaly in the jungle, and, worse yet, the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle. The next-generation Project Wildfire is activated, and a diverse team of experts from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat.

The Galesburg Public Library's Tome Raiders book club read and discussed Andromeda Strain last month and Andromeda Evolution this month. While I won’t say I think a sequel was necessary, on the whole it was pretty entertaining. The sequel was written by Daniel H. Wilson (an actual roboticist) with permission and encouragement from Crichton’s family.

There’s a disabled member of the Wildfire team, which is refreshing, and three women to two men on the team. (In the original book, all the team members were men, although one was changed to a woman for the movie.) The human who turns out to be the closest thing the book has to a villain is an unexpected choice. Also, I knew the baby from The Andromeda Strain had to make an appearance, and I was right! 

This book was clearly written in hopes of being turned into a movie. The climactic scenes are blockbuster movie territory. If you enjoyed the original book, you might enjoy the sequel. The Galesburg Public Library has both The Andromeda Strain and The Andromeda Evolution in print and as ebooks. We also own The Andromeda Strain movie!

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

 

From the publisher: When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella's side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward's version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

The year is 2008. It’s November 21, and it’s finally started to get cold. I stand in line outside the tiny theatre with 17 other girls from my sophomore English class, as well as the three teachers from the English department. I’m about to spend the $30 my parents gave me on too much popcorn, soda, and Twizzler’s, and I’ll definitely have a stomachache by the end of the night. But it doesn’t matter — because we’re about to watch Twilight. I don’t think any teenager in the late aughts could truthfully say they don’t have a similar memory.

Fast forward to 2020, and Stephenie Meyer announces her remedy for the pandemic: Midnight Sun, aka Twilight, from Edward’s perspective. The book had been teased for years, ever since an unfinished draft was leaked on the Internet in 2008 and Meyer put the project on hold indefinitely. But in August, a final version was released (and promptly sold more than a million copies in the first week, proving I’m not the only one suckered in by teenage nostalgia for the series.) I took one for the team and read the 627-page novel and I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s exactly what you’re expecting.

Is Midnight Sun good? No. Is Midnight Sun entertaining? Absolutely. It’s the perfect book to read on a cold, autumn day to distract from the real world — you know, the one without sparkly forever-teenaged vampires.

Midnight Sun is available for checkout from the Galesburg Public Library in hardcover or audiobook, as well as through ADML as an eBook.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

 

From the publisher:
 

Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

 

Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Ursula Vernon writes awesome children's books, including the popular Dragonbreath series. But some of her books for older readers can be a bit dark, and rather than risk scarring children for life, she also write under the name T. Kingfisher. I've loved Ursula's writing and artwork for decades, and her earlier books were comfort re-reads during the spring quarantine. So the odds were pretty good that I would enjoy this one. And I did.

As described by the publisher, Mona's talent lies in bread. She can make cookies dance, tell the muffins they don't want to burn, and then there's Bob. Bob is the sourdough starter she 'created' when she was younger, who now lives in a bucket in the basement and blorps happily in greeting when she comes down to feed him flour. The book opens with Mona discovering the body of a young woman on the bakery floor, and unfortunately her day goes downhill from there.

As stated above, it was likely that I would enjoy this book, but I definitely think it will appeal to new readers as well. The characters are well thought out, the magic system makes sense and the focus on one particular aspect (like bread) allows for further imaginings. The situations and dialog are frequently humorous, such as arguing over whether baked goods created for wartime situations should be smiling or not (and whether angry frosting eyebrows will make things better or worse). There is drama and tension, and I did cry at the end.  As with many of the author's characters, minimal physical description is given, so the characters, for the most part, don't read as one race or another. 

Yes, the protagonist is 14, but this is a perfectly fine book for Grown Ups, and would be suitable for some younger readers as well. The book does open with a dead body, there's a carnivorous sourdough starter (not the most terrifying creature in the junior fiction section, I can assure you), and Mona must deal with the fact that the adults don't have everything under control, and even the People in Charge sometimes can't fix everything.

If you're looking for a fantasy that will make you hungry, I highly recommend this one. 

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is available at Galesburg Public Library via inter-library loan.

The Windsor Knot: A Novel by SJ Bennett

 From the publisher:

The first book in a highly original and delightfully clever crime series in which Queen Elizabeth II secretly solves crimes while carrying out her royal duties.

It is the early spring of 2016 and Queen Elizabeth is at Windsor Castle in advance of her 90th birthday celebrations. But the preparations are interrupted when a guest is found dead in one of the Castle bedrooms. The scene suggests the young Russian pianist strangled himself, but a badly tied knot leads MI5 to suspect foul play was involved. The Queen leaves the investigation to the professionals—until their suspicions point them in the wrong direction.

Unhappy at the mishandling of the case and concerned for her staff’s morale, the monarch decides to discreetly take matters into her own hands. With help from her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian and recent officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, the Queen secretly begins making inquiries. As she carries out her royal duties with her usual aplomb, no one in the Royal Household, the government, or the public knows that the resolute Elizabeth will use her keen eye, quick mind, and steady nerve to bring a murderer to justice.

 

'"Oh, not at all," Humphreys said, with an indulgent smile. "You underestimate President Putin."

The Queen considered that she did not underestimate President Putin, thank you very much, and resented being told she did.'*

 

Let me start this review by saying that neither mysteries nor the British royal family are my usual interests. I'm aware of them, I occasionally read them or pay attention past the headlines, but that's about it. So I'm not the best to speak on the quality of the plot compared to the rest of the genre, nor the accuracy of the Queen and Prince Philip (the only members given much attention). I can, however, say that this was a fun read. In this series, Queen Elizabeth has been solving mysteries since she was a girl, often with the help of her Assistant Private Secretary. Now as her 90th birthday approaches, the Queen finds herself on the case again, this time with a brand new APS. 

I found this book to be a lovely escape. The diverse cast of characters is well written and differentiated, and the dialog flows well. I found the wrapping up of the murder case itself to be a little murky, but as stated above, this is not my usual genre, and it may be crystal clear to others. Overall I would definitely recommend this book, and I look forward to reading future volumes in the series. 

 The Windsor Knot will be available from Galesburg Public Library when it is published in March of 2021. Thank you to William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for the e-ARC.  

 *Above quote is from an advanced copy and will be checked against final publication.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

 

From the publisher: From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

The Scholomance is a legendary school from folklore that author Naomi Novik has claimed for her own in A Deadly Education, the first book in a new series. I love Novik’s Temeraire series and enjoyed her two fairy tales Uprooted and Spinning Silver as well.

It took me about 80 pages to get into A Deadly Education. I was asking myself who wrote it, as Novik normally captivates me from page 1, and that did not happen with A Deadly Education. However, it finally clicked in, and I enjoyed the last two thirds of the book. I feel I need to start over and see what I think of the first third the second time through.

The world building is amazing if at times a little too detailed. There are definitely info dump passages. There are new vocabulary words that are a little too similar and I could have done with a glossary. The character development is surface level – hopefully we will get to know these characters better in book two. The protagonist Galadriel is a little too stereotypically an anti-hero; the hero Orion is a little too stereotypically a hero.

There is a fun obligatory Lord of the Rings reference for Ringers, and the ending is a shock and a slam dunk and makes me wonder how I can wait a year for book two.

My one big issue with A Deadly Education is that Novik’s main character, Galadriel aka El, is a mean bully. She’s smart, talented, powerful, and resourceful. But she’s also throwing herself a lifelong pity party, which got old with her as the first person narrator, and she is a mean, rude, bully. Especially right now, that strikes a very wrong note with me.

I will read book two for the action and wonder, but I hope El shows some serious growth as a person, and I hope we see character development in the rest of the cast. If you enjoyed Harry Potter and might enjoy reading another series about a magical high school, I recommend A Deadly Education. It’s available at the Galesburg Public Library as a print book and an ebook.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley, but I did check the final copy to make sure there was no glossary.