The Dying of the Light: End

The Dying of the Light End by Jason Kristopher SPORILER ALERT

Basically, the story is about zombies and how they begin to exterminate the human race in their quest for food. The story begins by telling the reader a little of the history as to when and where the first attacks take place, their circumstances and recorded history. The story has both good and bad points.
As this is the first zombie story I've read, some things fans assume to be true I may miss entirely. Also, this review contains some spoilers.
First, I thought the list of acronyms and character descriptions at the beginning to be helpful when reading the story after.
Secondly the author goes back a number of centuries to create his story. Setting the premise, by giving histories regarding the first attacks and how the people at the time handled them. In addition to this, he gives the reader an understandable description of prions and how they work. What I personally would have liked to see more of was the origons of the disease itself. How did this thing come into being? Was it natually occurring and if so how did it first infect human beings?? Was it man made?? Perhaps the little green men are conducting an experiment on humans.
Third and perhaps one of the more unique qualities the government uses media itself dissuade the public of zombie existence, but at the same time it also uses it to acclimate us to them. Movies, books, radio, internet. You name it the government uses it. Once people see them on television, they're not real and when one lone person views an attack he thinks he's seeing things or is deemed crazy should he try to report it.
Finally, military characters are a given for this story. I liked the fact that the author has an ordinary person work with the military and women as leaders. However, I found the characters, some of the situations and dialogue a little unrelatable and a little too cheesy and wimpy for my taste. Every time you turned the page it seemed they were bawling like babies. I found myself telling them to "Man up, suck it up. For crying out loud you're supposed to be the seals, the rangers. The militaries best of the best. Think of D-day, the beaches of Normandy." Jack Reacher and Lara Croft they are definitely not.
As to Morena and the boy, I have they feeling they were strategically placed in the hospital by the evil doctor and very much more than a couple of look-a-likes. In my opinion, they may just be clones with an extra twist added in the mix. It reminded me a little of Resident Evil, esp with the main character being a carrier like Alice.

From The Aussie Zombie

The Dying of the Light: End starts with a prologue about David, who I would consider to be the main character of the book and a run-down of some recent US zombie outbreaks and how they were contained by the military. Fast forward a year, and David is recruited into the secret military group that is responsible for containing and covering-up zombie outbreaks.

There is not a lot of zombie action in this book – the story is centered on the secret military group charged with keeping the outbreaks under wraps and the forming of their relationships, both positive and negative. Although the book is heavily militaristic in setting, it’s not an overkill of talking about tactics, guns and other weapons – these are all, naturally, mentioned and explained, but for the reader who (like me) doesn’t particularly enjoy this kind of stuff, there’s no skimming required as the information is kept to the necessary minimum. There’s also some information about the virus itself, which is interesting but not excessive.

The Dying of the Light: End, does read a little like a movie script – it reminded me of Starship Troopers to be honest, but with far less battle scenes. The dialogue is a little cheesy in some places, but not overly so, and the characters that should be likeable are, and the ones that shouldn’t be are not (no cheering on the baddies here). The POV does shift from David in the first person to other characters in the third person, which can be a little confusing.

There are some emotional scenes, one had me particularly misty-eyed, but the overall feeling of this book is that it is a set-up of characters and relationships for the next book. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re looking for a whole lot of zombie-killing brain-munching heart-skipping action, you may find this book slightly disappointing. I did like this one, quite a lot, and will be looking forward to the next book.

Absolute Tour De Force

I'll admit right up front: I was really skeptical going into this book. I've grown largely tired of the Zombie genre lately as we constantly have more and more just plain bad media thrown at us. Until this point, the only saving grace for me was the We're Alive radio drama.

Now there's two. This book is an absolute delight. It's been a while since I've read a book where I instantly clicked with the characters, where I felt that I -knew- them, where I felt their joys... and their tragedies sharply. I'm man enough to admit that it's been a while since I cried while reading a book. That's what you're in for with Jason Kristofer's The Dying of the Light: End. It starts off at a dead sprint and only picks up speed until it's a runaway locomotive by the end.

The novel follows David Blake, a civilian book store owner from the fictional town of Falls Creek Colorado, as his entire world is turned upside down, inside out, and eviscerated as an outbreak of a threat that is straight out of a monster movie claims the lives of everyone he knows and loves. Rescued by a combination of his own skills as well as his timely arrival at a military camp, he picks up the broken pieces of his life as he is asked to join a secret task force that will be humanity's last line of defense against the threat of "the walkers." Though even the gathered strength of the walking dead isn't as bad as the evil that humans are capable of working...

Jason Kristofer masterfully blends military fiction with that of the zombie apocalypse, yielding a genre that I was unfamiliar with, but unknowingly had been waiting for for a long time. He utilizes a lot of time and location jumps to keep the action moving, which was jarring at first, but I quickly grew accustomed to, and towards the end I couldn't put the book down. I needed to know what was going to happen in the next chapter, and the one after that... and the one after that, witnessing humanity's spiraling descent towards their own destruction.

Absolutely worth picking up. I can't wait for the next installment.

Amazing Zombie read!!!

I have read a lot of zombie books, sci fi, fiction, history, etc. etc. books, but I have never read one quite like this. An absolutely amazing read! The story flowed and drew you into the plot. I literally could not put this book down. I was fortunate enough to meet the author this past weekend at the Seattle Zombcon where he was promoting his book. I was sold on it after discussing the book with him and the passion that he talked and described what the book was about. Can't wait for the next installment in this series! Kudos to Jason!

Highly Recommended for Zombie Lovers!

Awesome book! Had a hard time putting it down. It sucks you in right away and leaves you wanting more! I can't wait for the second book!

Highly Recommended - Astonishing Novel -Story Line

This book was extremely difficult...to put down! With that said; I cannot express just how impressed I am with The Dying of the Light: End. The read was smooth and flowing; the characters were remarkable and realistic. Emotions of all types were felt while reading. Though I'm not a big Zombie fan, I am definitely a BIG fan of Jasons DOTL. I cannot wait to read the next installment. And will surely read this one again (and perhaps again) while waiting. Like a great movie (which I can see this becoming), there are those that I can watch over and over. I highly recommend this novel. Thank you, Jason Kristopher for bring this novel to Light.

Fantastic read! It leaves you wanting more...

If someone suggested I read a novel about zombies, I would have laughed at them. But this book is special, or I should say the author is special. He's a dear friend writing his first novel--a lifelong dream. I HAD to at least give it a shot. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The book literally wowed me, and kept me wanting more. Your first thought when reading this is that I'm prejudiced, and to a degree, I am, but even if I never had the honor of knowing the author, I would still give him 5 stars.

When we normally think of a zombie book and especially a movie, we think it's nothing more than another slasher of book/film. This book has few "gross you out" parts. It's not about the zombies, it's about the war that the government faces. It's about the men and women fighting that war, and the difficult choices that they have to make, including choices that are about their own friends, family, and even their significant others and children. It's about a world gone mad, and the fight for the human race to survive.

When my step-daughter and I first finished the book, both our thoughts were to tell Jason to immediately start on the second novel. The first book left us wanting more. The entire time I was reading this, I kept thinking that this would make a great series (either television or movies.) It would be a travesty if this is not noticed by the James Camerons of the world.

Give this book a "shot"--no pun intended--you won't regret it.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.