Earth by William Esmont

Earth Reviews

• 
  Shannon

  I admit it, I was skeptical. Then again, I thought that Twilight was fun, despite being badly written. Lots of things are entertaining without actually being good. So, I thought I’d give Esmont’s Elements of the Undead a shot. At least, it would be a diversion from daily life.
  
  I underestimated it.
  
  In all really satisfying science fiction or fantasy stories, paranormal archetypes (in this case, zombies) are symbols for bits or themes of culture or humanity about which we do not know how to discuss. The outlandishness of the apparent subject gives the audience permission to safely talk about troubling social issues. If the conversation gets too hot, someone can crack a joke about vampires or zombies or changelings or Big Brother. Everyone can save face and retreat into the social order they distrust. It is always about today, always about now, when the genre is correctly executed. If it is done badly, it is never more than an idle pastime and an object of ridicule. Done well, however, it can subvert existing power structures. It can become a cultural touchstone.
  
  The popularity of superheros, paranormal heroes and villains, and artificial intelligence named “Hal” (or cars which park themselves and talk back to the drivers when they ask for a certain radio station) is not a fluke. It is a lightening rod for social psycho-analysis.
  
  At the end of Fire, the narrator uses Megan’s point of view to say, “The undead were only a symptom, she had finally realized, a symptom of a broken society that would rather battle each other to the death than compromise for the greater good.” (Page 184.) Elements of the Undead is a commentary about what we have become, with our social media, hyper-violent entertainment, and bloated governments. We turn on ourselves, and devour senselessly, without meaning and without stopping.
  
  If your taste doesn’t run towards the metaphoric, the series more than satisfies with quick pacing, lots of action, and just the right amount of detail. Esmont skillfully develops characters (even those who don’t live long) who mean something to us, and about whom we care. He weaves us around various geographical locations, introducing us to groups of survivors, and different manners of survival, some of which are as bad as the zombies themselves. Esmont does not sacrifice story for pacing, however, and while it is a violent novel, it is not unnecessarily gruesome. The real violence happens between people – and leads us to the book’s self-description: “tales of survival.”
  
  By the end of Earth, book three, we still do not have a clear notion of what survival is or what death is, since very few things stay dead for long in this world. Elements of the Undead presents possibilities for what it might mean to be dead, or what it might mean to be alive, and thus offers a searing perspective on our treatment of each other in this, our zombie-free world.
  
  It is a relevant tale in this age of online relationships and decreasing face time.
  
  Lastly, the formatting and artwork of the book are beautiful. They add to the grittiness of the story, giving it the appearance of an old telegram with blood smears and crinkles. The e-version is good, but the paperback is lovely.
  
  Also by William Esmont:
  
  The Patriot Paradox (The Reluctant Hero, Book One)
  
  Pressed (The Reluctant Hero, Book Two)
  
  Self-Arrest
  
  
  http://www.williamesmont.com
  
  Red Adept Editing:
  http://www.redadeptpublishing.com/edi... offers editing services to elf-published authors, in addition to being a small press.
  
  Streetlight Graphics is ww.streetlightgraphics.com, another small business offering graphics arts services to idenpendent authors.
  
  This review first appeared on irevuo.com, Friday Reads.
• 
  Jordan

  I received the omnibus edition of Elements Of The Undead via the FirstReads program. I've been working through it, and Earth is the third and last story in the collection. You can find my reviews for
  Book 1: Fire and
  Book 2: Air here.
  
  Earth was definitely the best of the three stories so far. The first one, while definitely drawing the reader in, contained some series flaws that diminished the reading experience for me. The second story was not intended to stand alone, instead introducing a character who would be revisited towards the end of Earth, but given that it had no discernable a priori connection to the series I found it a bit bland. Changing the ending could have rendered it an excellent standalone story, but then it wouldn't have served the author's purpose in writing it.
  
  This third book revisits the surviving characters from book one and moves their story forward. As such, despite the flaws in that novel, I very much recommend starting with Fire if you are going to touch the series at all. This book will make a LOT more sense with that as your foundation. At the end of Fire, Megan, Jack and her crew had managed to forge a mostly-safe community outside Tuscon. Now, three years later, lack of water at their previous location has forced them to look for a new home. But complicating matters is the fact that all the smaller swarms of undead for hundreds of miles seem to have merged into a gigantic tide of zombies with no end in sight. Megan and her scouting party, out hunting for a new home, are cut off from their community and forced to flee before the coming horde. On the road they meet with new friends and new perils, never truly leaving behind the ever-present danger of attack from the undead.
  
  (The following analysis contains minor spoilers. I don't give specifics, but I talk about the plot and its structure. While normally I avoid spoilers for the book currently under review like the plague, I feel the analysis is worth setting down and the book is really character-driven as opposed to plot-driven, so I'm going ahead with it. Skip this part if you want. Your choice.)
  Esmont does a better job this time of delivering a climax, but here we have the opposite problem from book one. In book one, we are building to a climax that never comes. In this book, it feels like there's little build to the climax--largely because there's no real identifiable adversary or conflict. The super-swarm is largely a plot device to upset the status quo and get the characters moving, and is left behind fairly quickly once they manage to get moving. A vehicle is vastly faster than a zombie on foot, after all, so this only makes sense. Once that swarm is left behind our characters largely are dealing with isolated smaller swarms--dangerous enough, but not nearly so bad as what they've left behind. Of course, the environment of a world such as is depicted here is itself a danger, be it the weather or hungry beasts, but the simple fact is that the beginning of the book features a much larger-scale threat than the ending. Does that mean that the ending is not exciting? By no means! You are intricately involved and care about these characters, and their lives are in mortal peril! But when you set the book down and look back on it, you'll realize it would have benefitted from a slightly more cohesive conflict.
• 
  Sarah

  I won this book through a GoodReads First Reads giveaway. I should note that I have not read the first two books of the series.
  
  The story takes place after the undead have risen. Civilization is fractured, with small clusters of people living together but isolated from the rest of the world. Suddenly, the undead begin to swarm, and some of the safe havens are lost. Two groups of survivors join forces to make their way out of the newly-developed swarms, hoping for somewhere safe on the eastern coast.
  
  In a lot of books, I feel like the plot is solid but the writing is totally lacking. Here, I think it was the opposite problem. There was a lot of action and a lot of tragedy, but I didn't really know why. People died seemingly at random (which happens, but this group was particularly susceptible to freak accidents). Decision-making was impulsive, and plans got easily derailed. The sudden change in zombie behavior was not investigated.
  
  This was good for a quick read, but it felt more like playing a video game than reading a book.
• 
  Netanella

  Much, much better than
  Fire, the first book in the series, this third installment introduces a new family who has been holed up in an underground bunker in the desert since right when the bombs fell. Forced to flee due to unfortunate circumstances, they cross paths with Meagan and Jack from the first book, and Chris from the second,
  Air. The writing is tighter and descriptions of the zombie gore is spot-on nasty gruesome. Very recommended.
• 
  Cynthia

  This is the third segment in William Esmont's Elements of the Undead tale. Book One introduced the reader to a huge cast of characters and Book Two was a short story, seemingly unrelated to the first (except for zombie overrun). Book Three is beginning to tie things up and make connections between the lives and stories of the various characters.
  
  As in the first two, Esmont's pacing is fast, the mood tense and the threat real. Earth is a quick entertaining read that will make you squirm with unease.
  
  I look forward to the next installment.
• 
  Melissa

  This was definitely the best book of the series. Book one didn't move as fast for me as I like but I am extremely glad I didn't give up on it. You would need to read the first two books to really appreciate the third. I LOVE reading series but one thing I don't like is the repeated information to allow someone to jump in the middle of a series. Earth didn't do that or at least very little. I really enjoyed it and couldn't read fast enough. I even had someone comment to me on the bus that it must be good because of how intensely I was reading.
• 
  Angela

  The undead still roam the earth, and survivors are seeing them form into hordes. Megan and Jack are looking for new place for the community she took control of, while Ryan and his family are running from their bunker because of the hordes. Their lives intersect and they join together to find a safe place. Finding a tip that safety may be in Tampa, the group heads that way. The traveling brings dangers of its own. Megan uses her quick wits to get the group out of danger again and again. They don't make it to Tampa, but they do find safety on a oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, for now.
• 
  Sam Atkinson

  I thoroughly enjoyed this zombie apocalypse novel. The characters felt real, the tension felt real. The book reminded me of the series 'The Walking Dead', so if you enjoy that show, this series of novels are must read material. The story was fast paced and I found myself having trouble putting the book down. I hope that this trilogy is not yet finished, as I am eager to find out what next?
• 
  Jammies

  An alligator? Really, Mr. Esmont? Lame.
• 
  David Morgan

  Well told stories of the undead giving me my Walking Dead fix. On to the fourth and final book Water.
• 
  Howard

  This was a pretty good story. I liked this book better than the first book in the series.