September 26th - Day Zero

Dr. Miles Andrews has announced the discovery of a common viral agent among the re-animated dead. He has dubbed this viral agent "the Zero cell," due to the cell's unique shape.

September 19th - Day Zero

Dr. Miles Andrews of Lincoln General Hospital has released a statement claiming that several patients, pronounced dead, have revived and began attacking the living.

EPIC! Chapter 1

o the His name was Rex Gunner and he was out on the town with a knife in his hand. Up above his head, hoover-cars puttered along like blue and red fireflies. On the street before him, spidery walker-mobiles chugged out smoke as they carried hooded men and women.

Rex slipped through a crowd of old men, slinking into an alleyway, tucking his knife into his sleeve. Three of the old men from the crowd dropped down to the ground, blood draining from dozens of wounds. A single droplet of blood slipped from the edge of Rex's knife. The three old men were dead before Rex left the crowd and Rex was, altogether, gone by the time the crowd sparked up into a panic.

Rex was one of three, but he was the spark while they were the explosion. His knife was quick and silent while they'd be loud with shotguns and grenades. None of them knew the others' names, but the two that remained had the same job, but from opposite sides. They were to herd the crowd into one other, cause a stampede, cause them to trample one another. Toward the end, with all the blood spilt and all the bone broken. All three had disappeared, having injected the right amount of chaos into Malm, the last city of Man.

  

September 12th - Day Zero

A Madison Frey of Lincoln, Nebreska reports that a group of men chased her through the streets of Lincoln. She claimed that the men "were bleedy as hell. One of them had his head caved in." She escaped into her Sports Utility Vehicle and called for the police.

Book Review: The Dark Tower (Book 1):The Gunslinger

The Dark Tower (Book 1): The Gunslinger by Stephen King was published as five short stories between the years of 1978-1981. The five stories were assembled into novel form in 1982 and was then revised in 2003.

Summary:
Roland, a gunslinger, seeks a mysterious wizard known only as 'The Man in Black.' Allong the way,  Roland meets a young boy named Jake Chambers, who claims he's from 1972 New York City. The gunslinger takes Jake along,Roland fears Jake was placed in his path as a trap.

Impression:
"The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed."  This iconic line starts this novel and the entire Dark Tower series. I've read this one repeated. It's gritty, action-packed and just plain addictive. I've read all seven and went back for the 4.5 addition published in 2012.

September 5th - Day Zero

A spree of grave-robbings plague the small town of Appleton, Washington. Nearly twenty plots were reported to have been smashed open and body were removed.  

Book Review: Wizard's First Rule: Sword Of Truth (Book 1)

Wizard's First Rule: Sword Of Truth (Book 1) by Terry Goodkind was released in Hardcover on August 15th, 1994 and in Paperback on July 15th, 1997.

Summary:
Richard Cypher is a young woodsman who encounters a mysterious woman named Kahlan. She is pursued by four men. As the story progresses, Richard's father is murdered and he learns that he is the Seeker and he is destined to confront Darken Rahl, an evil wizard seeking to rule the entire world.

Impressions:
I've read this novel from cover to cover and all the while, I rolled my eyes and laughed at how bad it was. There's this joke that I'm reminded of.

A customer at a resturant orders at steak. The steak is under-cooked, bloody and salted to hell. He complains to the manager, but only after finishing the steak.
"I'm sorry the steak was so bad." The Manager says. "But if you didn't like it than why did you eat it?" Not very funny, I know but it illustrates my issue with "Wizard's First Rule." It was bad, really bad at times, but I went from "Once upon a time" to "And they lived happily ever after."

Richard is given a sword, the Sword of Truth and it apparently has some strange magic that you and I might recognize as empathy. Zedd, the resident wizard, has a long, drawn-out explanation about how the sword wouldn't allow him to kill people he considered friends (as if a sane person would kill his friends.) and it would make him feel sorrow for those the sword allowed him to kill (i.e. empathy).

Even with this, I finished the book.

The resident Wizard, Zedd keeps expounding that evil people still have reasons for the things they do, as if we were children. (Note: For a while, I thought this was a YA novel from the way it spoke down to the reader, but then there was repeated mentions of child molestation and an attempted rape.)

Even with this, I finished the book.

I wanted to know why I read this novel, this crappy novel. The fact of the matter is, although the novel is broken, it still has hooks. It has a skilled protagonist pushing ever-forward toward an established goal. This novel illustrates exactly how hard it is to fuck up a story because this one fucked up a lot and still got me to the end.