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Rise Again: A Zombie Thriller Reviewed By Lavanya Karthik of Bookpleasures.com
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Lavanya Karthik

Reviewer Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.



 
By Lavanya Karthik
Published on October 23, 2010
 

Author: Ben Tripp

Publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 978-1-4391-6516-4

The apocalypse is here... and it’s got bite!



Author: Ben Tripp

Publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 978-1-4391-6516-4

Click Here To Purchase Rise Again: A Zombie Thriller

The apocalypse is here... and it’s got bite!

Ben Tripp’s gripping debut novel embraces a number of time - honoured tropes from the horror genre – monsters (flesh-eating and otherwise), a swashbuckling heroine with a troubled past and a yen for danger, a motley crew of mismatched survivors who must evolve into a team or die trying - and some spectacular scenes of carnage. And yet this is more than just another yarn about zombies; with its taut narrative, dark humour and a flair for description that will leave the writer as gore-drenched as its human characters, ‘Rise Again’ is a lively new addition to the ranks of the fictional undead.

It’s the Fourth of July in Forest Peak, California and Sheriff Danny Adelman wakes up to a terrible hangover, a neglected sister who has run away with her prized Mustang, and the prospect of enduring a day of festive locals and bored tourists. That’s the good part. For the town is soon swarming with panic stricken refugees in the throes of a mysterious disease that is both highly contagious and fatal. Worse, all communication with the outside world breaks down, except for a single computer generated message relaying on the weather band of her police radio - “ The infected dead will rise again.” Sure enough, the undead are soon shuffling through the streets, glassy eyed and oblivious to their grieving relatives, prompting a character to wonder if human-zombie unions will soon replace gay marriages as “..the hot button relationship issue.” As Danny struggles to comprehend what is slowly turning out to be a global disaster, and takes over as reluctant Noah to an edible Ark of squabbling survivors, she realizes Forest Peak has far more than odd couples to worry about. For the radio message now warns…”The dead eat living flesh.”

What more, you may ask, is there to say about the zombie (rechristened 'zero' by Tripp) apocalypse that Richard Matheson’s genre-defining novel ‘I Am Legend’ , George Romero’s celluloid classic ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and their infected spawn – those innumerable screen and print variations on the undead theme - haven’t already? The characters in ‘Rise Again’ wonder as much, as they ponder zero-slaying techniques culled from the movies they’ve watched. “Anybody born after 1940 knows,” says Wulf, the town derelict and resident Rambo.”.when a zombie shows up, you gotta smash its head. Destroy the brain.”

Plenty, as Danny and gang soon discover; it will take more than mere smashing, hacking and blasting to stay uneaten. For even as humans revert to the primeval, the undead are swiftly evolving from lumbering, almost comical, creatures into lethal predators. Yet it would seem only Danny can see this evolution; the rest of humankind - myopic Senators, frivolous thrill junkies, rogue mercenaries – refuses to believe that they are no longer on top of the food chain.

The end of the world was here”, Danny observes, after narrowly escaping an attack of zeros, “..and as always… it was upto the unimaginative, fighting, enduring types., like (her) , to pick up the pieces and carry on. The ones that got wiped out were the interesting people. “

Don’t believe her. Danny is a hero as compelling as they come, all damage and daring, with a strong maternal instinct that keeps her on the trail of an elusive redemption. A decorated war hero with the physical and emotional scars to show for it, she seems more at ease slaying zombies than being among people who care for her, and this book is equally about her journey from lone ranger to tribe member. As for that quest, prepare to be surprised .

An impressive debut, and a writer to watch out for.


Click Here To Purchase Rise Again: A Zombie Thriller