Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road (2010) Written by Mark Justice & David T. Wilbanks

Rant ended, back to the task at hand.

Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road is the tale of our world overrun by the living dead and the fight against the beings that control them. Somewhere in the Nevada desert, scientists have accidently opened a door to another dimension and allowed the Necros, a race of malevolent death worshiping and zombie creating aliens, access to our world. After turning our sky green and causing the death of a majority of the Earth's population, they cause the dead to rise and then begin their campaign to conquer the planet. A small group of the living, led by revenge fueled former Deputy Sheriff Jubal Slate, have decided to take the fight to the enemy. Arming themselves, they hit the road for Area 51 (yes, that Area 51), the nexus of the alien invasion, and the title of our book is explained.

From what I've read, Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks are new to the writing game, and this being the case, they've given a pretty good accounting of themselves. Much of the awkward phrasing and clunky dialog that you might expect from inexperienced writers is thankfully missing as is the urge to cram the story with too much detail, like an eight year-old describing his day at the zoo. It's an easy and enjoyable, if a little too quick read.

As I said, it's a quick read, but one I mostly enjoyed. I read my way through it pretty quickly, which is a sure sign that I was caught up in the story. Justice and Wilbanks bring a new and creative twist to what otherwise could have been just another zombie tale. The hinted at religion of the Necros, along with their turncoat human followers adds a nuance and level of plot to the story that helped it along greatly. I thought that the idea of the aliens converting humans to their cause by giving them suits that made them into super powered beings but pushed their minds further into subservience, was an original and very cool idea. All in all, the writers threw in enough new and creative ideas to separate their story from a slew of other zombie novels on the market.

Though I love the ideas that drive the story, I can't help but think that the characters feel a bit too cookie cutter for me. All the archetypes are present: You have the silent, sullen hero with vengeance on his mind; the anti-hero who starts evil, but eventually becomes good; the rich girl who goes from spoiled to battle hardened; the grandfatherly moral compass; the charismatic psychopath. They're all there, plus a few more. However, in the writers' defense I will say that with so many stories and movies having been written in the horror, action and revenge fantasy genres, it's increasingly harder and harder to write an original character, so as new writers, I won't put too much blame on them.

The stereotypes made it hard for me to grow fond of the characters. With the exception of Mother, the big, bad biker who turns from bad to good, I found myself not really caring about the characters. They felt too familiar and I think they suffered from the 'familiarity breeds contempt' curse. They're not poorly written, I've just seen them too many times before. The only other character I found interesting was Deacon Kemp, the main human turncoat in the story. But after first building him as a badass psychopath and then giving him super powers, his role in the story ends very anticlimactically. If feels like he goes out with a whimper and not with an appropriate roar. Perhaps if he's brought back in a sequel (the aliens do control the dead after all) this'll change.

Keep in mind that this is the second book in the series, and as I said, I haven't read the first one. Maybe my opinions on the characters will change if I read the previous book, but as mentioned, it's digital. Blah. Sadly, most people perusing their local bookstore aren't going to have access to the first part in what is a creative and interesting series from a pair of promising writers. Hopefully Permuted gives it the chance I'm sure it deserves and lets the first book, DEAD EARTH: THE GREEN DAWN, have a proper paper release.