Tuesday 28 July 2009

FANTASY REVIEW: Tomes of the Dead: Tide of Souls - Simon Bestwick


BOOK BLURB:

Flash floods devastate Britain and an army of the dead rise from the waters to hunt town the survivors. For ex-prostitute Katya, it's a constant fight to stay alive, but also a chance at freedom. Ex-soldier McTarn is sent on a mission to retrieve a scientist from a northern village. When the floods cut them off, McTarn may be Katya's only hope of survival!


REVIEW:

In an end of the world scenario, a tale of three people who face the curse of the undead. In itself the first two thirds of the novel are pretty much wasted and with no real explanation of how no one knew that the water level was rising in such a quick succession was not only improbable but an impossibility. The third character however is the principle protagonist of this offering. He’s the reason for the whole thing and why its happened and were this to have been a novella based on just that character it would have been a reasonable offering but having to wade through the first two characters before hitting this part will have people turning off and perhaps not even getting to the good bit.

It’s a real shame as that last part goes to show that the author had talent and was a grave error that they felt that they had to pad it out with unnecessary filler. After all the prostitute seemed to only be there to fulfil a sex quota, the soldier just for some Zombie splattering and to be honest I really didn’t get a good handle on either. A great shame to be honest but perhaps it might be interesting to see a Tomes of the Dead novel, made up of short stories from the authors of Abaddon’s fold.
LE

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