The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days on and off

Pages - 294

Publisher - TOR

Blurb from Goodreads

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.





My Review

We all know I love a zombie read, for those who are a bit fencer sitter on them this one may appear a bit more to you. Temple is taking it one day from the next in a new world where zombies far outnumber the surviving humans. Twenty five years after the apocalypse kicked off Temple has lost everyone close to her and is moving from place to place to stay safe. After a horrific encounter she finds herself hunted and not just by the zombies. Coming across someone who is vulnerable to say the least she tries to keep them both safe whilst eluding the person who wants to dole out some justice.

I think if you like a story that is post apocalyptic which more focus on the human survival and rationale behind human actions and consequences rather than horror and flesh eating, this is one for you. Temple is older than her fifteen years and in some aspects really smart, in others you are slapping your head in disbelief at some of the choices she makes considering that which she has just survived.

She looks after a vulnerable male adult she comes across after her conscience won't let her abandon him yet calls him some terms that many readers will find offensive. The person who hunts her whilst you can understand their initial reasons just had me thinking, really?!?! she is a kid and anyone would justify her actions oh and she is a fifteen year old child! A few other issues for me was how well kept the world appears to be, twenty five years in and some places still have working electronics, electricity, home comforts meh I have read and seen so many of this genre that that did stick in my craw.

However, the book itself rather than heavy focus , as most zombie reads do, on death eating monsters & destruction this was more on humanity, the ups and downs of it. In a ravaged world we will have good guys, bad guys and a sense of righteousness, friendship, honor and family ties. I did like this book, I just didn't love it and whilst some will appreciate how it all came to play folk like me get a bit prickly with how things are chosen to come full circle. I would certainly recommend it to folk who enjoy the more human interactions of apocalyptic style read as it has been loved and enjoyed by many. If you are looking for a gore fest or the survival from limited resources then maybe not so much this one. 3/5 for me this time, this was my first time reading this author and I would read them again, certainly different from the other zombie reads so far.

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One by Conrad Williams

One by Conrad Williams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 6 days

Pages - 363

Publisher - Virgin

Blurb from Goodreads

This is no country he knows, and no place he ever wants to see, even in the shuttered madness of his worst dreams. But Richard Jane survived. He walks because he has no choice and at the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, his son may be alive. The sky crawls with venomous cloud and burning rain while the land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion, and a glittering dust coats everything. It hides a terrible secret as new horrors take root. He walks on, with one hope.


My Review

This book started off really strong, Richard Jane is a diver and down in the ocean when it hits. After witnessing horrors and experiencing his own brush with death, Jane makes it to the topside the world as we know it is gone. Death is everywhere, people, animals, the land, the sky is wrong and the rain burns. Jane fits himself with protective gear and heads for home, the idea of getting to his son the only thing that keeps him going. When Jane thinks all is lost and that he is the only survivor, he finally finds others. Together they struggle to come to terms with earth as it is now, surviving, loss, self purpose and trying to stay alive.

This first part of this book I really liked, the main character goes through all of the trials and tribulations, emotions, struggles and a few hairy moments that are so well written at times I felt claustrophobic. However, the books splits off to a decade later about half way through, no explanation of why and the set up in the later part is completely different. I really dislike when books do that, it also took the apocalypse in a whole other direction, we have more survivors, what happens to them is completely different, there is a tiger running around. The later part reminded me of so many other books and movies it seemed like two completely different books merged into one and all apocalypse ideas thrown in.

It is gory, creepy, tackles lots of different areas of apocalyptic stories, had it stuck to the formula in the first part I think I would have really enjoyed it. Instead, for me, by covering so much it rather diluted the story for me, too many plot holes, unanswered questions and I generally don't like that. To be fair, Justin Cronin did that with The Passage, one story broke into two parts, and The Road which I also didn't enjoy. If you liked the format of those books you may well love this, sadly it just wasn't for me, 2/5 this time.

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