Central Outbreak Response: Genesis, A tale of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1)
by R.J. Kennett
230 Pages
Published by: R.J. Kennett. July 17, 2013
"Max Newsome wanted to forget his violent wartime past. He wanted to get a degree, maybe fall in love, start a family and live out his days in peace. Then the dead rose. Through a horrific classroom siege and into the devastated city beyond, Max struggles to build a new family from the rubble of shattered lives around him. When they team up with the emergency team from a mysterious organization called Central Outbreak Response, they believe they are safe, and on the difficult path to recovery.
But the dead keep secrets that threaten to destroy everything Max holds dear."
Book One of the Central Outbreak Response (COR for short) trilogy, Genesis has every component to top the ranks of the best seller lists. In a story where the action never stops, ex-combat vet Max Newsome, attempts to regain some normalcy in his life. Plagued by flashbacks of watching his friend die a gruesome death in combat, Max succumbs to terrifying nightmares and hallucinations of his dead comrade. Drowning in self-loathing, Max is forced to commit unthinkable deeds. The war against his own morality is deliciously delivered through the authors empathetic writing style as Max struggles with decisions that force him become the very thing he hates. I found the writers perspective so true to what I have experienced working with PTSD victims that I'm left to wonder if author R.J. Kennett has a few skeletons in his own closet.
Described as "turbo zombies", the infected are savage beasts who will stop at nothing to get to their prey. No Romero zombies here, people! COR: Genesis has scribed my favorite type of monster: fast, undeterred, killing machines. A subtle nod to David Moody's Autumn zombie is detected as readers are given a false sense of security when rigor mortis sets in and renders the infected inert. Brilliantly original by Kennett, and a deviation from the monotony that I was excited to discover. The Jaws tagline kept popping into my head, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water".
My favorite character was computer geek, Arthur Poole. Arthur, joins forces as Max's annoying sidekick, but comes into his own and becomes a respectable and compassionate man while still maintaining his snarkiness. This character provides the comic relief needed to balance out the serious scenes. "Can it, Arthur," quickly becomes the most used command in the book.
"Thanks for that, Max," Arthur said in mock joy upon seeing him. "Seeing you blow that dude away was an enjoyable experience. And staring down the gun barrels after was exhilarating. I peed my fucking pants!"Often times I encounter books with military influence saturating readers with a bevy of unknown acronyms and in depth descriptions of weapons used in dispatching the infected. COR: Genesis skips over all that fluff and uses its pages to provide readers with rich character development and rip-roaring action. COR: Genesis is impeccably edited and wildly violent. I couldn't bring myself to put it down and neither will you.
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| Totally vicious, right? |
I needed that seven pound ankle biter to alert me of anything hiding in the darkness. So...mission accomplished! Sufficiently paranoid and terrified! P.S. I also hold her in front of my face and peek through her ears during scary movies.
Will survivors make it to safety? Will the clandestine government agency known as Central be their only salvation? Or their ultimate undoing? Inquiring minds want to know!
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