I was amongst the lucky ones to have discovered the first book in this series just shortly before the second one was about to be released. I say that because after having now experienced my second immersion into the world of the Blue Plague I can honestly say that I know I will end up re-reading both the first and second books repeatedly to fill the void of overwhelming curiousity as I await the next installment in this series! While it is not as full of non-stop fighting and adventure as the first book was, the extra depth of character development and insight into the primary characters, especially Bruce and Debbie, more than make up for the change of pace. Like the first though this book had me feeling extremely close to the characters in this series, to the point where my actual moods were affected by what was happening in the novel... there were times I felt anger based upon how some people were treated, saddened at the loss of others, and laughing uncontrollably with many of the antics too! Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of fighting for life, against not only the infected, but also the dregs of society who have turned this downturn in society into their own personal opportunities to murder, rape and pillage... While I know there are some who seem to read the books and say they are too violent, especially the way the children of the family in the book were raised, or that the violence that Bruce is sometimes consumed by is too extreme, to that I can only say that all of my children were raised with strong self defense skills, survival in the woods skills, as well as having learned how to respectfully handle guns from the time they were in their early teens.... By no means to the level that the children of the family in the Blue Plague series are, but I am relieved that all of my kids are more than capable of protecting themselves in the world we live in now... if TEOTWAWKI should arise, at least they would have a fighting chance. As for Bruce when he `rides the wave` I admire his ability to distance himself, despite the cost those acts of violence take on his heart and soul, and just do whatever he needs to in order to protect the ones he loves, or has taken it upon himself to protect. They are military based fathers who have chosen to hand down their training and knowledge, but they are also very much caring Christians who are living the Golden Rule even when doing so could reduce their own chances of survival, such as thru depleting their supplies as they continue to rescue more people. I know one thing, if the SHTF and the Blues were running rampant, I sure as hell would want to have a Bruce, Mike, Debbie or Nancy (or any of their family for that matter) in my corner, or better yet coming around to where I would probably be huddled in fear and showing up to save me and my loved ones! I absolutely love the portrayal of strong women who stand side by side, equal to their men yet still every inch women, even when in full combat gear! I love even more the portrayal of men who can be cuddly, playful and gentle one moment, then absolute non-stop warriors ready to protect their family, both by blood and choice,in the next! I thought I had gotten to know, and so enjoy this family, and the characters added along the way in the first book, but after this addition I realized that I feel like I have gotten to not only know, but become emotionally invested in this entire extended family... from the impish little PJ, to the rapidly evolving Stephanie, and of course the ever feisty Millie, just to name a few. All of them people I feel like I have spent a great deal of time with and cannot wait to get the chance to do so again with in the future! I love absolutely everything (and everyone) this book, and the first are about, and will be waiting with bated breath every day until the next book comes out! Another five star book from an incredible author who I firmly believe will become more widely known with each book he releases!

Everything was lined up for me to be disappointed and that did not happen. The book got stronger as it went and is much darker than book 1. If you ever worry about where the story is going don't worry. Just sit back, close your eyes and enjoy it. You know what I mean.

This is the book order since Amazon does a bad job making such things clear.

Infection is book 1

Perspectives. It's a collection of short stories. Not a true novel. Its not required to understand or enjoy either book but it makes it more fun.

Evolution is book 2.

I went into this not knowing if it was going to be a romance novel with Zombies or what.
While there is more attention to feelings and sensitivity than in the usual male written slaughter-fest I am used to I found it enjoyable.
I fully intend to read the sequel when it comes out.

Have no fear action junkies there is plenty of it in this book.
The fight scenes are well balanced and realistic seeming at least in my mind.
Guns are present in quantity but seem to be more of a drawback than an advantage, due to sound attracting the infected.
Improvised weapons are the most common, the choices seemed well thought out to include what would actually be found in the heroines home.

I liked the way the heroine handled having a handgun and the reasoning behind keeping it a secret from the others.
I did think it a mistake to so easily turn it over to another survivor.
I was unsure if it was done to make me groan aloud or to be in keeping with the heroines character.
I lamented it's eventual loss but It turned out not to matter in the long run.

The characters are developed enough to identify with without getting bogged down in their individual stories.
She does not randomly kill off characters but she has no fear of whacking a main character when it advances the story.
I thought the method of Zombification had a fresh twist on an old ploy.
The varying speed of infection due to physical characteristic seems just another factoid until the end of the book where it greatly enhances the cliffhanger.

In short this is a story of an ordinary mom in extra ordinary circumstances doing the best she can.
At no time is she portrayed as super mom who leaps tall buildings in a single bound....
She is a team player that had an agenda and was not afraid to put the entire team at total risk to forward her agenda.
Did it really work out for her?
Will she agonize over her choice and what it cost the people she was traveling with?
Read the book and find out.

In two words: LOVED IT.

"Layered" is the key word that comes to mind - not a term I've frequently used when describing a book about zombies. "Mountain Man II: Safari" was a morality play as much as it was a zombie / thriller. One line summarized the entire book in my estimation: "When you dance with the Devil, you don't change the Devil, the Devil changes you..."

In MM2 we see Gus slip from good-hearted survivalist trying to make his way in a post-apocalyptic world yet still holding on to the notion that people are inherently good, to "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and taking out all of his feelings of betrayal and disgust towards humanity in his "safari" against the Zeds. We see Gus staring into the void and determining whether or not to cannonball right into it and measure his splash. Want to know which way he rolls? Ha-ha! Read the book! (you'll not regret it!)

As any good sequel does, several lingering questions from the initial 'Mountain Man' book are cleared-up - one in particular with absolutely skin crawling results! And the ending? Satisfying, but with enough open-ended issues that an MM3 is definitely a possibility.

Overall, a solid step forward even from MM1. Great action sequences, really turned-up the intensity in the combat scenes and still managed to weave a tapestry of human descent into "becoming that which we most revile" as well as leaving open the possibility that we / he (Gus) can still be saved.

Five stars. Get it, read it, thank me later.

Cheers,

- Savage

Look, just buy this book. It may be hard to believe, (because part 1 was awesome) but Thunder And Ashes is better than the first part!

Thunder and Ashes starts out where the first book left off in this trilogy. We have the split story, one of General Sherman and his team of army men and civilians making their way from the west coast towards Omaha, hoping to meet up with Anna Demilio and her much smaller group coming in from the east coast. They are racing towards a facility where they hope to hatch a vacine for the Morningstar virus, the plague that has swept over the world creating two forms of plague victims, one still alive, fast, and brutally violent, and one undead, slower, but just as dangerous and canibalistic.

I could have given this story a full five stars, it does rate that based on the action in the story. General Sherman's march was far more interesting to me, especially his pit stop in a little town in Kansas, than the more brief excerpts from Anna and Mason's more silent trek, but their stories tie together nicely, with plague victims, raiders, and rogue government agents all nipping at their heels. The story is cohesive and written with a certain amount of zip to it.

I am no military expert so I have no reason or desire to punch holes in the author's use of various terms and equipment. Again, the story and its use of military armaments are smooth and seamless. We are provided with an action packed zombie thriller as two sets of people are racing against the clock, not even sure what they are racing towards will mean anything in the end, but they are determined to do whatever it takes to get there and try to spare humanity any more agony from this brutal virus, if at all possible....

Where I would be critical of this book is in more or less minor details that unveil themselves towards the end of the story and I hesitate to spell them out because I have no interest in revealing plot points. Suffice it to say that there were two key things that happen that I did not feel were specifically needed to advance the story. One scene simply felt redundant, an echo of a scene from the first book in the trilogy having to do with one on one combat...almost laying the groundwork for a very similar scene in book three. The other issue I have lies within the epilogue and what I would deem an incredibly convenient story element revealed that will play a huge part in the final installment of this trilogy. I suppose I am just not a fan of something that the odds of happening are one in a billion revealing themselves so conveniently. Please understand, these are really minor issues for me and as such do not want them to be considered deterents for anyone interested in picking up this story.

The writing is fast paced, the characters are entertaining, and the story is fun. Perhaps some of the characterizations are a bit exagerated, but when you are dealing with an end of the world type plague, I can certainly understand how some folks would seem a bit over the top. I found myself growing attached to quite a few of the characters and really look forward to finding out what happens in the final chapter of the Morningstar Trilogy. This was a genuinely fun and exhilerating zombie romp.

I want to give this book more than three stars, but I just cannot do it.

While the concept of the journal seemed interesting, and the reviews of this style enticed me into buying and reading the book, I found the style jarring and unsatisfying for two reasons. First of all, each day's entry is very short. Many are a page or less. Others are, at most, two or three pages long. This means that there is not really time to get engaged in the action. Sure, there are exceptions, and there are a few scenes where I really did feel engaged, but for the majority of the book I felt like I was just going from one short story to another. It simply made it hard for me to get engaged in the book in a meaningful way.

Secondly, and this may be a spoiler unless you have read some of the other reviews, our original protagonist Sam dies and his journal is continued by his former love interest. As much as I want to give Brown a pat on the back for being bold enough to kill off his protagonist after about 175 pages, just as I really started to get the feeling that the book was hitting its stride, I simply cannot do it.

This is what bothered me the most about the book. You want to respect an author for trying something like that. It takes stones to take such a step in an attempt to jar your audience. I get it. At that point in the story, Sam is starting to hit his stride. He is going from simply a survival mindset to one of reflection and introspection. He is evolving and getting interesting. Then, bam, he is dead. It is like Brown was saying to his audience: "Guess what? You saw all that death going on around Sam, particularly his family and the Thompson family, and you started to think Sam was immune, didn't you? Well he's not. Deal with it...."

When I reached that part of the story, I made a note. I said I wanted to respect the author, and I was interested to see how he would handle shifting gears in the middle of his book from writing from the perspective of a 40-something man to a 30 year old woman. But you know what? After several pages, I just really did not care. This is where the short, disjointed blog format, I believe, really hurts the story. Things started happening to Meredith, thing involving the undead and the living, but, as the meme goes, not a single [expletive] was given that day. We liked Sam because we knew his story. We knew how he got from z-plague day zero to z-plague day whenever-he-died, and that is what made us interested. Meredith simply took over, and we knew nothing about her other than the rape story. It simply is not the same as following Sam through from day zero.

That brings us to the ending, which I found completely unsatisfying. Although I dislike stories with a happy ending, especially when they are told in some wishy-washy epilogue, I really hate stories that simply end abruptly and with zero explanation. I do not need to be hit in the head with a bat by an author, but I also do not want he/she to leave me with the blue balls, either.

Now that I have aired my grievances with the book, I will go ahead and shift to something else. In spite of my complaints, Brown can write really well. I have read some stories in this genre where the action was fast paced and some of the characters were compelling, but the author really did not have a huge talent for painting a picture with his words. That is not a problem for Brown. Although each scene is brief, due to the blog/journal style of narrative he chose to write, the action sequences are very well described and particularly gruesome. He also took the time to create a well rounded zombie apocalypse universe, in spite of the fact that the narrative format he chose limited the scope that he could cover, taking the time to touch on some of the themes with which we are all familiar.

That is why I wish I could give this book more than three stars: I know TW Brown can write really well. Unfortunately the things that I have written about in my review have forced me to remove two stars. Hopefully the next TW Brown zombie book that I read will force me to give all five?

I loved the different feel of this story. It's still a zombie story, but with a different spin. What would happen if we figured out a way to make them stop and slow down?? Great story!!!

I did not want this to end! This series just keeps bringing more surprises and continued originality. I really have a deep appreciation for each character and I feel the need to read each book in one sitting. However, I also don't want the books to be over so I try to find a delicate balance between relishing and finishing... so hard!

More Tookes now! Please and thank you!

Dr. Hugh Mann by Mark Tufo is a prequel to the The Zombie Fallout Series. If you have not yet read any books in this excellent series yet, I highly recommend that you start with Zombie Fallout, book 1, and do not read the prequel Dr. Hugh Mann until after the third book. It makes perfect sense then, but is a different story and style from the rest of the books. Zombie Fallout (book 1) sets the stage and is a better starting point.

The series thus far consists of Dr. Hugh Mann (this book, a prequel), Zombie Fallout, A Plague Upon Your Family, and The End.... Although distinct books, I am reviewing them together because that is the way that I read them. Once I finished each book, I was so wrapped up in the story that I immediately purchased the next. Cumulatively, they are an epic apocalyptic tale, which reminded me of Steven King's The Stand and Robert McCammon's Swan Song. Elements of horror, paranormal, supernatural, and dark humor elevate this series beyond your typical zombie fare. These elements, along with Mike's quirky personality & fierce, protective love of his companions, make this series poignant and worth reading. Highly recommended.

Now...on to the Dr. Hugh Mann prequel. The prequel is set years before the events in the rest of the books, and only one character from the other books appears in it. There are no zombies at this point, but there is a horrible epidemic, and this book sets the stage to explain how and why the zombie apocalypse described in the rest of the books occurred. It also sheds light on several important characters in the series, and has a great, surprise, twist at the end which makes waiting for book four intolerable. The plot of this story revolves around Dr.... Hugh Mann, a scientist, and the chain of events that is set off when he makes a startling discovery in the lab one day. For those engrossed in the Zombie Fallout series, it is required reading.

Having read the first in the series What Zombies Fear, I had to have the Maxists. It did not disappoint. The story continues and keeps up the intrigue. New characters show up; both good and bad. I plan to keep following this one until the end; which I hope is a long time from now. The story is too good to end soon. I recommend this book as much as the first one!

My husband and son really love our pit-bull, King, and everything about pit-bulls. Our friend sent this gift, "Pit Bulls Vs. Zombies," to my husband which they enjoyed reading.

I read this book too and now I know why they like it so much. It was fantastic how the author connected pit-bulls to Zombies, how the pit-bulls can talk, and how the virus spread and cured. The story was very interesting and exciting. Hoping for a book II.:)) A great read indeed.

My ONLY complaint is that I read this in one day and now I have to wait for the next one...uhg. Once again, DJ takes us on a journey of hope, failure, frustration, endurance, determination and the incredible human spirit. DJ takes the time to build characters and get us emotionally involved. The ending left me pacing back and forth in my living room...facing the fact that I will have to wait for the next book. I can get these for free as a Prime Member but I choose to pay, that is how good these are. If you read any negative reviews, ignore them, they are idiots looking for a reason to complain. They would be the infected in the books. Once again, this would be an absolute home rum as a mini series or show on an edgy network (not the lame 3).

UPDATE-D.J. Seriously....can you please get the next one out????? Come on!!!!!