Twilight of the Dead- A Review of Travis Adkins Zombie Novel

First I have to kick myself. This book has been out since 2004 and I have just now read it. And I call myself a Zombie fan. The book starts out telling us in great detail about the main character, Courtney, who is very odd for a lead character. It then dives into her back ground beginning 5 years earlier when the outbreak just began. We do not spend much time here, and I admit to missing that part of the early days, but the author makes up for it with this action packed story. We get just enough of the back story to find out she has been trained as a "Black Beret". Courtney and others that have been trained in the ways of the "Black Beret" wear a diving suit that is naturally resistance to human teeth being able to bite through. Along with the suit they are trained in various forms of mixed martial arts, sword, pistol and rifle attack (curiously enough none of the original berets seem to make it). They end up in a zombie survivors paradise. An already walled in resort community with it's on power and water supply. The berets naturally are recruited to go out and retrieve supplies when needed. Besides that they are free to do as they like. Now the author could easily of had the lead character be the leader, someone everyone loves and follows. He goes a much more interesting path. Courtney appears very much the proverbial bitch! We then find out that even though she is a trained killer, she is very much still a child growing up. She interacts very interestingly with the other most prominent character Leon, who is himself just a teen trying to grow up. Together along with the other beret, there are 6 left, they are sent on a mission with a newcomer to retrieve a reported antidote. The survivor has a bite on himself he has apparently survived. He has been at sea on a cruise ship converted to research vessel to find an antidote for the zombies. We quickly find out this is a trap for the insane Dr. Dane, the researcher. (I could not help but rhyme that part). He has apparently been very busy. He has developed an injection that tuned him undead but left him somewhat live and still has a functioning brain. Furthermore he has equipped a pack of zombies with metal armor and attachments like metal teeth to increase the destructiveness of these zombies. Through impulse control he can lead and direct these zombies to do his bidding. They make short work of all of the beret except for Courtney and Leon. Even though she has been tortured and Leon has been bitten, they manage to catch up with the mad scientist and stop him and his army of undead.

Now that pretty much sums up a great story, but besides the fact there are zombies in a story, I like the plot to be realistic within reason. Well we are not disappointed here. They antidote sounds as plausible as zombies, impulse control has been performed on small mammals and the undead are not special but simply have attachments to them that work just by them walking and eating.

Now I believe this story can be found online, but my copy has a very interesting forward form David Moody and extra stories about some characters found in the sequel, making a trip to the book store well worth it.

Overall this is a very action packed enjoyable read, highly recommended. I got mine from Amazon. It is easily found from my link to Amazon to the right.