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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781934861011
ISBN number: 1934861014
Label: Permuted Press
Manufacturer: Permuted Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 312
Printing Date: April 21, 2008
Publishing house: Permuted Press
Sale Popularity Level: 10086
Studio: Permuted Press
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A lot can change in three months: wars can be decided, nations can be forged... or entire species can be brought to the brink of annihilation. The Morningstar Virus, an incredibly virulent disease, has swept the face of the planet, infecting billions. Its hosts rampage, attacking anything that remains uninfected. Even death can't stop the virus-its victims as cannibalistic shamblers. Scattered across the world, embattled groups have persevered. For some, surviving is the pinnacle of achievement. Others hoard goods and weapons. And still others leverage power over the remnants of humanity in the form of a mysterious cure for Morningstar. Francis Sherman and Anna Demilio want only a vaccine, but to find it, they must cross a countryside in ruins, dodging not only the infected, but also the lawless living. The bulk of the storm has passed over the world, leaving echoing thunder and softly drifting ashes. But for the survivors, the peril remains, and the search for a cure is just beginning...
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I was a bit lukewarm upon completing my reading of Recht's Plague of the Dead. It now looks like that Recht has learnt -an awful lot- from the shortcuts of its prequel... Unbelievable! The type of book you can't put down easily, in spite of its flaws. Yes, the scientific explanations are still weak, bordering on naive. Yes, some of the characters' behavior is sometimes stereotypical (Krueger, Mason, Thomas or Sherman). Yes, the end of the story is quite predictable. Yes, there are still some pretty upsetting typos... But boy, ain't the tempo of the whole story great!! The story has the reader follow three separate groups of survivors, all motivated by the same objective: find the place where they think they might be able to come up with a vaccine to fight off the infection.
The balance of gore Vs action is perfect. The idea of coming up with an isolated haven of safety is perfectly rendered. The action scenes are so visual, they tend to look like a movie in the reader's mind. And still, this top notch idea of two types of infected -runners Vs shamblers- is real great! Add to this that Recht got his lessons from his previous book and seriously enhanced his depiction of military/combat scenes, and you've got a book that, if it does not carry a lot of weight in terms of underlying social message, is a pleasure to read for its action scenes. Great fun to read. Almost a 100%-ready scenario for a movie version of it!
Rated by buyers 
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I finished Thunder and Ashes a while back and I've struggled since then with just how exactly I felt about it. I won't dive too deeply into a synopsis because others have done so elsewhere and the story is a basically just the continuing struggles of the two different groups from the last book trying to survive in a zombie infested world.
So, was it well done?
eh...Not really, but at the same time, it wasn't terrible. So where did it fail? Where was the breakdown? Where does the fault lie?
The easy answer is the author, but I don't think that is entirely fair.
Because while yes, Thunder and Ashes is more than a bit amateurish, make no mistake on that and populated by characters that are mostly wooden and interchangeable (the pure transparency of the "red shirt" minor characters is dumbfounding, they almost cross the line into self-parody), none of it is bad... at its core.
Most of the characters are classical archetypes, just like the quest nature of the story itself is classic. Basically all of the elements involved within the story are correct and familiar, they all do what they're supposed to when they're supposed to. The right moments are all hit, plot wise. Sure, the book is predictable in that way, not to mention somewhat two dimensional and heavy handed, but my point is, the basic necessary elements are all present and accounted for. To me, the author shows that he is well versed both in the minutiae of this genre AND the tropes of classic story telling. Its all there...
Where he fails is in his window-dressing, his details, his finer points, his character moments. The dialogue is... ugh, for the most part. Often times characters stand around in a circle and talk amongst themselves, explaining whatever silly and somewhat obvious crap they're going to do, (while we, the readers, wait patiently for them to catch on so the story can move forward again) but since they all lack a distinct voice, it just seems like each one is only given a chance to speak merely to remind the reader of their presence. At other times, the dialogue is so stiff and unrealistic, its just painful. I mean really, who hasn't heard of an Ostrich before and the action that they are famous for? It doesn't need to be explained, man, we all get the metaphor. And to compound the amateurish nature of the story, when all these characters are chatting away, making their Casper-Van-Diem-ian level jokes, not once, NOT ONCE, is there a single character moment revealed about them. Who are they, where do they come from, what was their life like before this, what are their hopes and dreams, how do they feel about each other, are they worried about family and friends? Nothing. Nothing is revealed and as a result, the characters remain, for the book's entirety, as nothing more than simple 2-D archetypes, classic archetypes sure, but flat, spare and a complete enigma to the reader. I mean... I don't even know what any of these folks even look like. To be fair, the Author may have mentioned some details once a while back in the very first book, but hey, how about a refresher detail or two every now and then? And the town defense, while fun, in its way, its basically nothing but a time waster, story wise, its nothing but padding and if you haven't read the very first book... don't bother starting here.
As for the "tense" situations, they are anything but, most of them are so contrived as to be just stupid. Its all bad horror cheats of the worst stripe. "Oh no, my foot is caught! Ah! Zombies!" or even better: "Hey, there are zombies walking around, so I'll just TURN OFF my Walkie Talkie despite the fact that my buddies in the tower could be using it to guide me... AH! Zombies!" Come on, dude, you don't need to cheat for the tension, the situation will supply it naturally just be its very nature and setting.
Despite all of this, though, I still feel the book and the Author has potential. Every bit of this just reeks of earnest, honest effort but the simple fact is, this version isn't ready for publication yet. This book is a very first draft, plain and simple.
And that's where I've decided the problem lies.
I've said it before and its plainly evident here yet again, Permuted Press's company line must be: Good ideas told poorly. My meaning being, so far, of all the mostly disappointing books I have faithfully supported from Permuted Press, (this, most likely being the last, as I'm only slightly masochistic...) the authors have all shone ability, if a somewhat rushed and pedestrian one, and each time this little glimmer has consistently been undermined by the fact that the editing on each book was completely and unequivocally lacking. Now, most of the time, its been as basic a thing as just a normal read and critical response in preparation for a second draft, but sometimes it's been a massive mishandle ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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I'm one of the few people on here who didn't like the book. I ended up reading this middle book because the very first book still hasn't shipped from Amazon. I don't know if that is influencing my opinion of this book. I wish I had waited to read the very first book before buying this second book.
I like zombie stories and I like military adventure fiction so I should had liked this, but the dialog was absolutely terrible. The characters were barely developed and flat. Maybe they were better developed in the very first book?
What bothered me the most and had me rolling my eyes every other page was that most of the characters had the same 'voice'. They had the same manner of expressing themselves, sometimes in longer than necessary complete sentences. 'Clever' responses in the middle of a firefight? Yeah right, that didn't break my suspension of disbelief.
The plot development was pretty standard, almost like a TV movie. Not many surprises or new ideas that make you think.
Honestly, some of the prose in the book comes off as 'articulate redneck' who is cool only in comparision to the company he keeps. Nothing personal against the author, but I didn't find it entertaining.
Rated by buyers 
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I hadn't really read any zombie books before this series. Great book/series! Easy to follow the story line. Can't wait for the subsequent book. Scary, action filled & easy to believe this could really happen.
Rated by buyers -
Book two of series/trilogy continues with the epic tale of survival in a zombie infested world. Author Z.A. Recht has got this genre down pat. In my opinion, this novel and plague of the dead are the most engrossing innovative stories i have ever read. You can read some short stories by Z.A on her website at www.themorningstarsaga.com some great stories as well as info on these books
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