Two zombie books in a row, I know. Blame the narrator, Nick Podehl, whose gift for giving voice to suspense could keep me glued to the Golf Channel. It turns out my fandom is not alone, Nick has won multiple Earphones Award, Best Voices of the Year awards. Add to this The Walking Dead’s season finale leaving a void in my zombie adventures and this story was ripe to be enjoyed.
Dark Days (Apocalypse Z) by Manel Loureiro is a tough one to rate because the start to finish experience was better than the first book, Apocalypse Z, in terms of character development, pacing and the narrator got even better with the larger cast of voices. My main problem with this, and the reason for 3 stars instead of 4, is that the conflicts didn’t peak high enough and the ending fell flat.
It starts off with a summary of how the world has succumbed to the zombie apocalypse in a way that could allow you to start the series here instead of with Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End. It is a succinct summary, shorter by far than the previous book’s version, which was good, because we got into the actual story sooner.
Our characters have flown a helicopter to an island that is torn between two political factions, has corrupt guards with nasty secrets, and our two guy heroes from the previous book are tasked with taking another helicopter run out to get supplies. Their adventure ended up being just okay, and I think it was supposed to be the main draw to this book. Loureiro changes his style here to include the teenage girl, Lucita’s, pov, whom we met in the previous book near the end. Loureiro even gets into some zombies’ povs, which was insightful and cool. He did a good job in expanding in this edition; the new povs added depth to the cast in ways that answered my complaint about the previous book needing more than just our sole narrator as an engagement character.
The biggest problem with this book was the plot was essentially: guys go get stuff, fight for your lives to get back and watch out for the humans, too; and girls, don’t die before they come back. When the end happened, I thought, hmm, is that it? And not in a good way. He leaves us at a cliffhanger and most of the conflict that seemed to have been built up on a political level may not follow through to the next book, so, again, I’m wondering what purpose this edition served.
I’m on board for the next book, though. The narrator is one of my favorites. Without him, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book. He just does such a great job adding suspense to the narrative and creating unique voices that sound very real. Good thing we only have a month or so until the next book, Apocalipsis Z: La ira de los justos (The Wrath of the Just), comes out May 6. That third installment will also be translated from Spanish into English by Pamela Carmell.
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Timothy C. Ward
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