| Title | : | Elements of the Undead Omnibus (Elements of The Undead #1-3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1479101419 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781479101412 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 390 |
| Publication | : | First published August 11, 2012 |
This omnibus contains the first three stories in the Elements of the Undead series - Fire, Air, and Earth.
The Elements of the
The Collapse
Mortal Choice
Desperate Measures
The End of Us
An Elements of the Undead Short
The Elements of the Undead Omnibus (Books One-Three)
Elements of the Undead Omnibus (Elements of The Undead #1-3) Reviews
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The Elements of the Undead: Omnibus Edition contains all three books in the trilogy by William Esmont. Those three being Fire, Air and Earth. I'm going to explain a little bit about each one (without giving too much away) and then conclude with my thoughts on the series as a whole.
But first, a little background. The Elements of the Undead Trilogy is a horror series (though the horror is pretty tame considering the plot. I would call it more of a thriller/ adventure). A zombie apocalypse breaks out at the very beginning and we're brought along with the characters as they react and absorb all the information and struggle through each situation they're faced with.
I'll start by saying there are a few graphic scenes, such as zombies eating people or sex scenes, as well as course language. If that's not your cup of tea, you have been warned.
In book 1, Fire, we meet quite a few pivotal characters who, step by step, are brought together. First we have Megan Pritchard- a prostitute who works in a brothel in the desert, four hours outside of Vegas. She is planning to visit her sister in Tucson when the zombies start appearing.
Meanwhile, we have very brief snippets of Alicia (who is more of a secondary character if that), working in a supermarket, when she witnesses a zombie attack outside the store.
We then switch to Jack and his wife Becka in New Mexico, who have two twin daughters, Maddie and Ellie, who are in the process of building a birthday surprise for their girls, when Jack's mother calls telling him to look at the news.
Then there's Cesar, the illegal immigrant from Mexico, crossing the border with a few others into the States in the hope of making it to Kansas.
We then switch to Kevin Salerno, who has just landed in Idaho returning from a business trip to Shanghai.
Then along comes Captain Mike Pringle, flying a Boeing with his co-pilot Marty Sellers, when one of the passengers goes rogue and starts attacking people.
Switching again, we meet Peter Woo, a devout Christian who believes the apocalypse is the Rapture come again.
Finally, we meet US Navy Commander Betty Hollister, who is the first woman to ever command a ballistic nuclear missile submarine in the Navy and her second in command, Andrew Pollard as they receive a message from HQ to bomb certain cities in the US to try contain the zombie plague.
So you can see we have quite a few characters to keep switching between, but somehow the author makes it work. Bit by bit, we get brief, little snippets of each group before moving onto the next, slowly revealing more and leading them all, inevitably, to the same place. We are given more information about a few particular characters more than others. In the first book, I would say the key characters are Megan, Jack, Cesar and Hollister. With Mike, Peter and Andrew adding specific important plot points.
However, as you can imagine a lot of the characters (if not all of them) end up in sticky situations and we're not always given the details of how they manage to escape. For instance, hopefully this won't be a spoiler, but Mike is in the cockpit of the Boeing. The last thing we witness of him before he crops up again later in the story, is a zombie banging against the door trying to get in. They're 30,000 ft in the air. Yet, we never receive any explanation of how he survived or got to where he was. Or what happened to anyone else on the plane. This happens for a few characters, but it's understandably considering how many of them there are.
In this case, having that many characters actually works in the story's favour. Normally, I would say too many characters spoil the broth. They just make it confusing and distract from the main "flavours" you want people to experience. If done wrong, it can destroy a book, but if done right, like in these books, it creates the necessary viewpoints to get across the different reactions people would have and allows the author to mess with their brains the way it would in real life. Think about it, a zombie apocalypse breaks out. What are the odds everyone (providing they survive long enough) would keep their sanity. We all have a very different way of dealing with problems, especially one of this magnitude. Some people will harden up and become the nearest thing real life has to action heroes, some people will fold and lose their minds, some people with end it, rather than face the alternative. Those are just a few possibilities because the mind is so complex that you can never really predict how someone will adapt (if at all). That's where having a large cast plays to the trilogy's advantage. Not only can we get multiple reactions, but it also lets the author write some of the characters off without leaving too small of a cast behind.
Pretty much all of the individual stories happen simultaneously, giving us a view of many different parts in the States. We don't ever hear much about the rest of the world, all we know is that zombies are global and likewise situations are probably happening everywhere.
In Fire, we get some information about the zombies themselves. As pretty much anyone who has ever heard of a zombie knows, they can come in many different forms, with many different strengths. In this trilogy, we have simple, traditional zombies. They lumber along (with the exception of radiation-poisoned zombies (courtesy of all the bombs dropped on the States via Hollister's orders), who can sprint), are often missing limbs, organs or anything else, their vocabulary is restricted to moans and growls and you can only kill them with a headshot. They also travel in packs. Oh, and when food is scarce, they're cannibals.
While we're never given any concrete reason for zombies appearing out of nowhere, it is suspected that "zombiefication" happens from some kind of virus or disease. The victim starts off with symptoms similar to the flu and then quickly becomes aggressive, before converting to complete zombie. It's quick and deadly. It also spreads surprisingly fast, in fact, the virus went global in only a few hours. Also part of traditional zombie lore, one bite is enough to turn you, with the added complication that any of their fluids (saliva, brain fluid, etc) can infect you as well- if they get into your bloodstream. So when you're fighting for your life, make sure to keep your eyes and mouth closed and cover any cuts or scrapes. They have no blood though, so at least you don't have to worry about that too. Unless of course you have to kill a human who has been bitten, to stop them becoming a zombie. Though most of the people in this trilogy keep a spare bullet for themselves in that eventuality.
As the story progresses, we witness two survivalist camps forming (with a few stragglers on the side heading their way). On one hand, we have the Scorpion Canyon group in Tucson. A relatively laid-back (considering the situation) group, who are looking out for everyone's best interests. On the other hand, we have an aggressive group, run in military style. The two groups deal with the living dead and the people in their confines very differently. The first group survives on raids and equality, while the second struggles under a dictator for a leader, who is quickly losing the plot, but still desires power, authority and complete loyalty on penalty of death.
As the two groups become aware of the other's existence, tensions run high as one group wants to co-exist and the other wants absolute dominance over everything and everyone.
Throughout the books, there are some nice quotes from the likes of Robert Frost and Ezra Pound (among many others) which make for some pleasant, figurative palette cleansers between scenes.
Now we come to book 2, Air. An original and unusual idea for a second book, Air has almost nothing to do with the first book and at only 10,000 words long, it's not a format I've ever seen in a series before. The only similarity in plot is the zombie apocalypse. But I found it an interesting way to backtrack and introduce a new character, without confusing the readers or relying on flashbacks.
In this book, we meet Chris Thompson. Using another not-often-seen technique, the author places us in the middle of his story, without even a name to go on. Though considering this book is only 10,000 words, we're pulled up to speed rather quickly.
It starts off with him on the roof of the Liberty Medical Centre, holding off a horde of zombies with the aid of a rather feeble door. He's contemplating what he believes are his final few moments and the choices he made earlier in the day to end up at this point.
I won't give too much away (especially considering the length of this book), but it's suffice to say he came to the hospital to visit his brother, Dave, after he was in a car accident. Of course, considering how the virus starts (remember the flu symptoms), they have the bad luck of being in the exact worst place possible. What's the old saying? The worst place to be sick is in a hospital. This is quite a while back from the main story (a few months back in fact), as we return to the very beginning of it all.
Short and sweet, Chris' story continues and ties in with the rest in the final book, Earth. There will be a few spoilers from the previous books below here (nature of a series I'm afraid), so if you don't want to know, stop reading now. If you're interested in the series, why not try it out? Final warning for spoilers below.
Set three years later, not much has changed. Zombies are still everywhere. There are less survivors than before and those still around are more savvy than they were at the start.
Straight away we're introduced to yet more characters. Ryan Franklin, his wife Paige and their 14 year old son, Luke. They live in an underground bunker in Arizona, courtesy of Ryan's brother-in-law Mitch persuading him Armageddon was approaching. Unfortunately for Mitch, he never made it to his own bunker. The only other members of their community are Jim, his wife Felicia and Jim's father, who live in an adjacent bunker.
Megan and Jack return, along with another new character in the form of an ex-military retiree, Archie Henderson. They are planning to move the Scorpion Canyon group to another canyon across the valley, where they'll have more access to water and food.
Immediately, we can see that something is different in the zombies' behaviour. They are gathering in swarms much larger than previously seen and all seem to be waiting for a command. They are now almost impossible to fight (due to sheer numbers) and are advancing upon all compounds.
The Franklins are forced to decided whether to stay and fight an impossible battle or try to escape in their car, while a wave of zombies fast approaches. Meanwhile, Megan, Jack and Archie are still in the wilderness trying to survive more zombies than they've ever seen.
Not surprisingly, the two parties eventually meet up. Drawn together by necessity, they discover something that leads them to believe there is another survivalist group in Tampa. Deciding, it would be best to find them, they start the long journey.
As we start to learn more about the newcomers, the unease builds. As it turns out, Paige was on antidepressants long before everything went under and it's no surprise that zombies all over the world have put her precariously close to the edge. Dealing with a woman who only has brief moments of lucidity and a rapidly weakening grip on reality, while trying to survive impending death, is enough to make anyone nervous.
Chris Thompson also returns with a brief explanation of the last three years. He and a few other survivors made their way to Galveston and then onto one of the oil platforms in the Gulf. Their group has been slowly growing since and (apart from storms) they are kept safe by the sea. The sea also provides plenty of food, they gather water from frequent rains and the generators provide ample electricity. Surprisingly, they also have internet. Some satellites are still functioning it seems, allowing them to keep a check on storms in the area.
With zombies such a dominant presence on the planet and the number of living people dwindling by the second, is there any way to win or even to simply survive?
The way these books are written is less like three books made into one story and more like one story made into three books. What I mean by that is that the plot flows almost seamlessly between one book to the next (with the exception of the second book for obvious reasons). Within the plot, the timeframes change often enough that even with the 'three years later' subtitle at the start of the third book, it could well have been part of book 1. It would even be possible to make it all one book without making any changes. What I'm trying to say is it's less episodic than some series. There's no obvious end to one book or beginning of the next, more just the start of the next scene. And I enjoyed it being like that. Often in series, the later books will be set some time after the previous ones and we get a lot of backtracking and flashbacks to fill us in. While we do get a little filling in at the start of the third book, it's done in a way that could've taken place after the end of the first. I actually didn't realise I was on the third book until I finished the series.
The ending is a little abrupt and leaves no real conclusion. But then considering that the zombie apocalypse has broken out, there are very few ways to give a definitive ending, short of killing all the survivors.
However, there are also a few unanswered questions. One, what happened to Hollister's group? The last we see of her she went stir-crazy, was drugged up and killed her second in command. Did she end up destroying the group through sheer ineptness? Did the zombies attack them at the same time as Scorpion Canyon? Did she kill everyone and then die herself?
The final niggling question is the zombies themselves. In the third book, the idea that they're under command is introduced, but never expanded on. They seem to be getting smarter or are waiting for orders from a leader, but it's never explained.
I don't know whether there were ever any plans for another book (perhaps Water based on the previous titles?), but I would've liked that plot point to go somewhere.
Having said that, I did thoroughly enjoy the series. While I'm not always a fan of gore, it's handled well here. It is graphic, but not too graphic. At no point did I find the huge cast of characters confusing or distracting and they were all given surprisingly detailed situations considering the amount of time we had with each one. Each of their survivalist stories are basically the same, but then they would be. A zombie apocalypse breaks out and your first instinct is to get away from the larger cities. To try to find other people. To bunker down and try ride it out. And that's exactly what they did. While the stories are similar, they're all given just enough individuality to make them interesting, rather than reading the same scenario ten times.
If you're a fan of zombies or dystopian worlds this series will be right up your alley. I breezed through it and, before I knew it, was at the end.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This is not a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% my own. -
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. -
I was lucky enough to win an e-copy of Elements of the Undead – Omnibus in a Librarything Giveaway.
I am exceptionally glad I did. For quite some time I have wanted to read this novel, and have been unsuccessful in winning a copy through several different outlets. I crossed my fingers and hoped for this one last try before having to purchase it and it paid off. It is, quite simply, one of my favourite zombie novels ever.
That said, now I have read the novel, I would gladly pay full price for it, and recommend that others who love a good zombie book do the same immediately. Elements of the Undead is exceptionally well written and tells the stories of several different groups of people all experiencing the zombie apocalypse in different places and situations. The jumps between each story can be a little disconcerting; just as the action starts in one group’s tale, it will swap to another group’s story, leaving you hanging! This device does make it a compelling read, as you simply cannot put the book down due to the need to find out what is going on everywhere! As all the subplots converge into one story like strands being woven into a rope, everything comes together and starts to make sense.
This novel is mainly free of the spelling and grammatical mistakes that seem to pepper most novels I read lately, and the writing style is graceful and concise, making it an easy (but not simplistic) text to read. I found myself empathising with most of the characters, as they are revealed and developed through the novel. It explores the way that some people will step up during a crisis and lead, care for and protect, while others will take the easy option and descend into a brutal and debauched existence once social structure and norms have broken down. The practical and the impractical, helping or pitted against each other, the moral or the immoral; Elements of the Undead is almost a sociological case study in its exploration of this lack of society.
I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good zombie, or even those who enjoy puzzling out society, or lack of, if they’re not discriminating against its causes! -
Elements of the Undead Omnibus is quite a captivating story filled with blood, gore, death, sacrifice, and Zombies, Zombies, and more Zombies that will stop at nothing until they've infected anyone and everyone that comes across their path.
This book takes you on a journey through the lives of those who have survived the beginning of the zombie apocalypse and how the endure through the trials of living in a world where they are no longer on top of the food chain, and how they fight to ensure that they don't join those who fallen, and find themselves hungry for human flesh.
If you like anything to do with zombies, then you'll enjoy this book. It's has all the makings that give a zombie apocalypse what it needs to be great. Humor and carnage, along with determination and sacrifice fill the many pages of this book (books if you separate into the three parts). -
DNF
Got to 60% and couldn't take any more.
It started off great. The zombies were described really well, and i liked some of the characters.
It got dull really fast, though. Then it got to the point where i couldn't understand anything that was going on, because of how much i was skimming. -
I won a copy of the Elements Of The Undead omnibus through the Goodreads FirstReads program. This is, I think, largely intended to get people ready for the fourth book that is coming out in the near future. I reviewed each individual story on Goodreads, but this is a review of the omnibus as a whole. I say a lot of the same stuff in the individual reviews, but am more specific and don’t worry about spoilers for previous books as much. Read or ignore at your leisure. Links to the individual reviews are as follows:
Fire (***)/
Air (***)/
Earth (****).
Bottom line: this is far from being high-quality literature, and nowhere near the best of the genre, but it is decently entertaining and probably worth the five bucks to get it for your Kindle.
Book One: Fire is a pretty standard zombie survival story. We meet our characters as the world falls to pieces, then pick them back up as each arrives in the Tuscon suburb that is the setting for the second half of the novel. There’s Megan, a prostitute until the infected sweep the world. Now she’s one of the leaders of the little post-apocalyptic community she helped to found. Jack is a loving husband and father at the beginning of the book…but can he protect his family from the walking dead? Kevin is a drifter, with no ties to anyone. Will he find his place in this new world? Or will he wind up just another zombie-snack? Mike is a womanizing airline pilot stuck in the air when the plague hits. He’s not saying how he managed to survive that situation, but he has definite ideas about how the community should be run and who should be running it. With these and other characters knocking about, the first book is definitely intriguing and moves fast. I only wish the pacing had been as good on the back half as it was to begin. The quality goes from good in the first half to mediocre/decent in the second half, with a building conflict that inexplicably short-circuits as if the author hit his word count and decided to call it a day. I was frankly disappointed, after the quality the book started with.
Book Two: Air is more accurately a novella, a bridge between the other two book-length tales. The good news is that it made none of the mistakes of the previous chapter. The bad news is that it was too short to be all that compelling on its own. So long as you’re not reading it out of the context of the series, it serves mostly as a prologue to book three, introducing a character that becomes important near the end of Earth.
Book Three: Earth closes out the omnibus, but I understand that there’s a fourth book coming out soon. This is good, because the ending of Earth is really not a satisfying end to the series. The author is clearly trying to stoke your appetite for more. Did it work? You tell me. I would read the next one, provided I could do it for cheap/free. This was the best of the three stories in the collection, and Esmont is definitely improving his game as he goes along. The book would benefit from a more cohesive antagonist or conflict (see my individual review for this book, linked above, for details), but on the whole it was a solid story.
Zombie fiction, like most subgenres, has its rules. You can tweak them, you can bend them, but you had better not break them because these rules are all that allow us to suspend disbelief and believe the impossible. ”Zombies aren’t real, but if they were they would act like this….” When they don’t, it jars you out of the story and forces you to reconsider your choice of reading material.* For example, you always go for the head. Destroy the brain and the zombie is no longer a threat. Running zombies? That’s a new(ish) thing. I personally side with Max Brooks on the issue–slow zombies make more sense, at least so long as we’re sticking with reanimated dead folk. If we’re doing a virus that doesn’t kill but instead manifests with zombie-like symptoms (Zombieland, 28 Days Later) I don’t have as much of a problem with zombies running. But that’s a contentious issue among the zombie-lovers, and I’ll leave it alone from here out except to say that Esmont’s run just fine. People reanimate really fast here, especially in the opening phase of the plague. One character watches a guy go down, get munched on for a minute, then stand up and join attackers, all within two minutes tops from infection to reanimation. Seems to me that if it worked that fast the world would go to hell even faster than it usually does in these stories…. Origins of the plague? Most of the time this is left alone, but the idea is that it started somewhere and is spread from there by travellers. It works, unless your characters are either responsible for or combatting the source of the plague. Here, though, the plague itself makes little sense. Or rather, most of the time it’s not an issue, except that a quarantined and bedridden old lady with no contact with anyone save her uninfected family inexplicably gets zombified. Was I jarred out of the story? Yes, yes I was. Was there a good reason to do this? Nope. There wasn’t even any payoff to that scene–it ends in an unresolved cliffhanger. We meet the relevant character again, but no mention of how he escaped his zombie-mom is ever made. Could such a turn of events been explained, had Esmont tried? Sure. I can think of at least three methods off the top of my head, but the point is that without making up your own explanation it makes no sense. Even more inexplicable is the scene where a character battles a severed hand and forearm ala Evil Dead 2. That’s not how zombies operate–if that was the case destroying the brain would be useless! Unless the zombies are telepathic, in which case we’re all screwed. That could be an interesting story too, but that’s not the story we get. We get a standard zombie tale with a couple of inconsistent bits of worldbuilding. Meh.
I’ll admit that I was a little annoyed with the way Esmont portrayed Christians in Fire. One character is a young, charismatic Christian whose entire youth group is excited about the zombie apocalypse, because they believe it’s the Rapture. Only, you know, with more biting. Idiots. I would have liked to get back inside the character’s head later and see how he was dealing, but was never given the chance. That whole element disappeared from his character anyway, aside from one mention of him reading a Bible while on guard duty. Yet another inconsistency. Less annoying was an undeniably positive Catholic character, though even the author admits the character is more Buddhist in outlook than he is Catholic.
CONTENT:
Language: R-rated.
Sex: One of the protagonists begins the story as a prostitute, thus there is some explicit sexual content related to that. There is also some that has absolutely no connection to that fact, some of which is a little disturbing. Frankly, I found this a little off-putting.
Violence: Umm….Zombies! What did you expect? Gruesome and gory violence throughout.
Other potentially offensive material: Some use of marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines. The Marijuana by a protagonist, the harder drugs by the villains. Some use of painkillers, but given the fact that the character involved had just lost an arm I think it was justified….
*I know, sometimes it pays to break such rules. If done properly, such a change can reinvigorate the whole concept. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened here. -
This was fantastic! I was sad when it ended. I'm sorry it took me as long as it did to get through it. Sometimes I went way too long between sessions and my brain felt a little lost, but chances are that may have happened regardless thanks to my 3 "distractions" (aka children). My girls weren't particularly taken with it as they felt it was a little creepy. Considering they are not the target audience, that doesn't alter my opinion. If anything, it might make it a bit higher as it meant I actually got some alone time. The way this is written, it jumps between points of view, which admittedly, is sometimes hard to keep up with when you are listening to a book rather than reading it yourself, but the narrator did a good job with keeping character voices discernable
*I received a copy of this audio book for free. The review is my own and unsolicited. -
I read each story over a series of 2 to 3 days. I enjoyed each of the stories, and most definitely enjoyed the third best of all.
Fire (★★★)
"Fire" is the first in a series of zombie apocalypse books by new-to-me author William Esmont. The writing is free from grammatical errors (yay!) and the characters that are introduced in this first book, as the ZA breaks out in the southeastern US, are interesting, atypical, and complex. There's the prostitute in Nevada, the sociopathic female nuclear submarine commander, the pot-smoking retail clerks, and seemingly a score of others. Some of their stories intersect together in this first book, but not all, leaving lots of room for development of the story. At times it seemed that there was too much going on, but all in all, this is a very interesting read.
The zombies are neat - they are not your slow-moving, physically retarded types, but the fast runners of 28 Days Later, the scary as shit type. The ones that will sniff you out and hunt you down. And although I don't feel that author Esmont is very graphic in his descriptions of zompoc mayhem, he doesn't hesitate to kill off main characters, including innocents and young children. And of course, the most of the major cities in the US (and possibly abroad) are nuked to contain the threat. Hence, I believe, the fire title reference.
A decent zombie book. I'm off to the next.
Air (★★★★)
Two brothers are trapped on the roof of a hospital in Texas when the zombie apocalypse breaks out in Houston, Texas. This is a short, quick tale set in the world of the Elements of the Undead series by author Esmont. I enjoyed this one very much, and hopefully these characters will make a reappearance later on the series.
Earth (★★★★)
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. -
When I got my copy of "Elements of the Undead - Omnibus Edition", there was a little trepidation in my mind because I thought, "here we go again - another zombie novel". I am happy to report that it didn't take me very many pages to see that this book was something special. "EOTU-OE" is a wonderful story that deals as much with the human spirit as it does "The Great Zombie Apocalypse".
Author William Esmont has crafted an outstanding plot that's centered on the survivors of a zombie outbreak that's taken over the country. Making things even tougher for those few still living is that fact that the military has nuked almost every major U.S. city as the government's response to the outbreak. As the remaining humans fight for a place to call home, they find that radiation is almost as much of a problem as the zombies that roam the countryside.
As Esmont builds his story (the book spans a three year period of time), he creates a large number of characters that readers will care about. He shows time and again that he's not afraid to tug at the emotional heartstrings of those readers as he puts his characters in difficult situations that threaten their existence. Throughout these scenes, Esmont creates characters who are well-developed, sympathetic, and believable.
As I look back at this book, I appreciate the manner in which Esmont stressed story over special effects and content over gratuitous gore and violence. Yes, there are plenty of moments of horror as the survivors attempt to fight off the zombies, but Esmont doesn't simply throw those situations into the reader's face.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and found it very hard to put down. It's a story of survival that most readers will find easy to relate to. If you're a fan of this type of horror, I think you'll find "Elements of the Undead - Omnibus Edition" a fascinating and memorable experience. -
September 5:
I'm going to reserve my final rating and my final review for after I've finished reading book 4 - Water - The End of Us.
I can say that there were some definite edge of the seat moments.
But there were some issues as well.
It would have been nice to know where Alicia went, even if it was just a quick paragraph to at the end of that chapter.
And Megan, with her eye. I'm confused.
Book 1 - Fire. Chapter 34,
"She brought her fingers up and probed the swollen skin around her bad eye. She felt a thick line of stitches.
The doctor frowned. 'About that...'
She understood. The eye was gone."
Book 3 - Water. Chapter 22
"She closed her eyes and wept"
"Megan awoke up to a hand shaking her shoulder. When she opened her eyes, she found Archie hovering over her, his face only a few inches from her own."
Also, Peter Woo. How the hell did he get from being completely ready for the Rapture and wanting to die to ending up in the same camp with Commander Betty Hollister? And since he and Pringle died after attacking Megan, it would have to nice to know a little about the plan the Woo and Pollard had made.
Chris's brother, Dave. He got on the first helicopter ok. What happened to him? Did he ever find his family?
There's just too many open ended story lines for me.
Final review after I finish the next book. I'm hoping I get some closure to some of the issues I have.
September 7
Finished reading book 4. Still no answers to the previous questions, which to be honest I didn't really expect. But not only were those story lines never resolved, but new ones came up. Too many open endings for me. I don't need a book to fully close everything. I've read lots of books that don't. But there's too many questions left here for me. Especially since there's 4 books in the series.
I'm disappointed. -
Actual rating 3.5.
**I won this book in a GoodReads First Reads Giveaway**
Throughout this book I was torn as to whether I really liked it or not, the end really brought me to the side of liking this novel. If it had ended a different way I probably would have ended hating it.
The situation that the characters find themselves in is one that has been used in the movies and countless books, a zombie apocalypse. But these zombies aren't the stupid ones that you see in horror movies, these zombies are scary as heck! They tear you apart while you're still alive and some of them even have the ability to move quickly. They move in hordes and are pretty much everywhere.
I found myself only liking a few of the characters. Such as Megan, Jack, Luke, Archie and Steven. The others I had no real attachment too or they just plain got on my nerves. These few characters that I actually did like were a ragtag group of survivors who knew how to fight and were doing just that to try to survive as well as reclaim some piece of the world that the undead took from them.
The only things that really brought my rating down were that the sex throughout the three books really bothered me, as well as the language used throughout it, I know it's the end of the world they're fighting for their lives there is going to be lots of cursing. Still doesn't mean I have to love it. If you are looking for a zombie book that will give you chills and make you wonder what just might happen if these zombie apocalypse theories are correct then this book is definitely for you! -
This 3 book series was really good IF you like zombie books. Nice character development and a fast paced story. You learn enough about characters to be attached to them... But there isn't a ton of narrative about each... You learn about the by their actions in the story or via effective flashbacks to the days prior to the outbreak or just after...
While not all of the elements of this book are entirely original... This definitely is not just a same old same old zombie story. I liked the twists in the story and the storytelling perspective... The route the story took definitely adds something new to the genre.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
One thing I didn't like was how the second book simply wiped out many of the characters and storylines from the first book. I know that's probably how things could go if this scenario was to really happen... But it to me came across as disjointed and seemed to lack continuity. However that might just be me... Or maybe the fact it started the second book.
I also had a hard time sometimes with the flashbacks... Tying the into the current story or getting oriented to the fact that they happened in the past and not current timeline... But I did figure it out.
This book was very enjoyable and I'll definitely be looking for more from this author. -
I'm glad I read this as one book instead of three separate pieces; the story seems to flow better this way. It's well written with the exception of a few small mistakes (such as forgetting an apostrophe, etc.) but that could be fixed with a good editor. Other than that, the storyline is decent. The only negatives for me were the seemingly low number of zombie encounters in the beginning book (Fire), ditto to a lesser extent in the second (Air) as well as the shortness of the second one. I am also struggling to find a connection between book one & three's stories to their chosen titles. For example, in reading the 3rd book (Earth), there were many scenes in which I felt the story should have been titled Water (the 4th element). Despite these minor things I enjoyed the story, especially the third book and wished it hadn't ended where it did. Hopefully there is (or will be) a final / fourth installment (Water?!?!) to bring everything together nicely?
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NO SPOILERS: I received this book for free through a Goodreads First-Read giveaway.
When the book arrived and I realized it was about zombies I thought, "Holy cow, what in the world possessed me to enter this giveaway?" Zombies and gore are not my thing, at all. I considered giving the book to someone else to review but, decided, I would push through if I had to. What the heck, it was free and it would teach me a darn good lesson to be more thoughtful of the giveaways I enter.
Loved this book! I was astounded at how much I enjoyed it. William Esmont does a particularly good job of describing the physical feeling of anxiety--I was feeling it too. (I don't want to know how he got so good at this.) I was so eager to get on with the story, I did not pause to consider the breakdown of books 1, 2, and 3 or the titles or the quotes separating certain sections. I *will* reread this more thoughtfully. -
This book is a fantastic young adult zombie novel. Bravo Esmont! It covers roughly 3 years of a zombie apocalypse with flash forwards and flash backs. Excellent character building at the beginning of the book.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Do not read on if you don't want to know a little about the ending. The only disappointing part of the book was the end. Megan's cauterizing and saving Jake's life was absolutely unbelievable in context to the rest of the book. The ending really needed to have Jake die, Megan mourns, and eventually hooks up with Chris. This is not enough of a flaw to give this book a rating of 5 starts, though. -
I was very fortunate to have won this book in a giveaway, with a lovely note in the front by the author. I was very excited for this book, but unfortunately I could not finish it.
The story is great and a fresh approach to the zombie genre. I also really loved the switch of POV which provided a fresh approach to the story.
However the book just did not hold my interest enough for me to continue. I might come back to it once I have finished my other "to-read" books, but this book just wasn't enough for me to continue. I just didn't feel like there was enough in the story for me to invest in the characters of their actions. -
Looking for a good zombie story? One that just starts the plot moving from page one (why wait when we know what is coming)? William Esmont has written a zombie story that will satisfy all those zombie fans out there! I found myself quickly reading this one and feeling for the characters in the story as they are faced with a zombie outbreak that is completely out of control leaving the survivors to battle for their lives.
I received Elements of the Undead Omnibus as part of Goodreads' first-reads program. -
Three in one – love it!
Zombies are attacking! I liked the standard zombie survival story of the first book and how book two was more of an arc to the third. I’m interested to see what the fourth book is going to be like (the author has to finish out the elements). I’m not generally for zombies but this book was interesting to read and kept me on my toes. I felt there were some characterization flaws but overall the author did a nice job.
Note: I won this book from LibraryThing member giveaways. -
A typical zombie plot with graphic violence and some gore - this kept me coming back every time. I wanted to know who would die next. There are a few editorial/organization issues but the action-packed story utilizes Noir-style prose to move scenes along quickly. Mr. Esmont isn't afraid to kill his characters, which allows the plot to be unpredictable. The only expectation I kept was that anyone and everyone would probably die.
I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for a review. -
The story line is good. Plot develops well, good action, I like the writing style, it moved along. Interesting take, a prostitute at a bunny ranch becomes the leader. Certainly possible but seems extremely unlikely, a girl in her 20's, several men, some with military experience, much older would emerge as the leader. More than her sex, I think an older person would lead group, planning, logistics, weapons, it just seems like a older person with more experience with these elements would lead. Would you trust your life to a 20 yr old female with no leadership experience?
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This wasn't my typical type of book. If zombies are your thing you will LOVE this book. I enjoyed it, especially book 3 - Earth. This book gives you a scary inside to our world and how much we rely on certain things, how much we take for granted and how many loved ones we take for granted. What would you do without running water? Or to be able to leave your house and go to the grocery store to pick up food?
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I have never read a book with zombies in it. For a novel and a first ever zombie book I was very pleased. This book had a great story line and will not leave you hanging. I look forward to reading and loving more books written by William. I will be on the look out.
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Not my favorite zombie trilogy of all time but I did enjoy them . The 2nd book in the trilogy seems nothing more than a few chapters and is in a way disappointing but all the books together as one make for a really good suspenseful read !
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Good, not great. If you want an easy read that is full of zombie destruction than this is the series. It didnt take long to get through at all. Story was good, nothing special though. But overall it was an entertaining read.
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Great book, fast paced, I love this genre, only let down was the ending....
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This was a fast read and if you like books about zombies then I would definitely recommend that you read these.
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Elements of the undead was a instering read. I did enjoy reading it. it was hard at first with all of the jumping around with different people, but it got easier. Looking forward to more books...
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DNF at 28%
It was just so boring to me. There were so many characters that I couldn't keep them straight or care about any of them.
