Coldbrook is a very solid story. The beginning threw me a little as I tried to make sense of the point of view character and his lucid dreams about zombies and people dying. It may have taken about 10 percent in before I was sure I’d keep reading, but even that first ten percent was not too bad to read. It laid a foundation for character interaction and the suspense of their first voyage across dimensions, but as happened at times during the story, I sometimes lacked an urgency to keep reading. If there is one complaint about this book, it’s that it didn’t make me want to read it faster. The last few percent I read at a joyously fast pace, but I wanted the story to be like that from start to finish.
I don’t know why there were moments when I could put the book down. The action is well-written and fast-paced and the characters made me care about what was happening. He has a nice touch on providing images that made this story often scary. In a market flooded by zombie stories, he gave me something I hadn’t seen before. The virus produces fast zombies who add a pack mentality to their hunt. Okay, seen that before, but their place in the story’s thrills remains fresh through the end, probably because of the character stories I had to see finished.
Lebbon’s characters are sympathetic and tragic. Thank you, Tim, for giving me a zombie story with characters to care for.
Vic, one of the scientists at Coldbrook facility, had cut off his affair with another scientist, Holly, the day he found out his wife, Lucy, was pregnant. The problem is, he still loves both women. Once the outbreak happens, he leaves his duties at Coldbrook to save his family. He is a man of guilt because of his affair and the ramifications of his leaving Coldbrook, but he needs to save his family, and that builds a strong desire to see him succeed. You worry about his wife finding out about his affair because you want them to be a happy family, but this story is dark, so you fear the looming tragedy.
Jonah is the head guy at Coldbrook, and in his mid seventies, he provides a different kind of hero for our story. He is a sad man, having lost his wife years ago, and yet he is a brilliant explorer, interested in seeing what the multiple dimensions have to offer.
Introduced about a quarter into the story is a young woman, Jayne, who has a rare disease that debilitates her muscles. She has a loving relationship with her husband that makes them easily sympathetic. Her and the rest of the cast, and even minor characters, all met my interest level to make them memorable and worth reading.
I don’t want to go too much more into the plot other than to say that I was very impressed with the surprise twists he took all the way to the end. Part Two has a terrific ending and it keeps getting better, with me still not knowing what would happen high into the ninety eight percent marker.
Tim Lebbon is an author I will follow gladly after his superb accomplishment in Coldbrook. I love zombie apocalypses and was pleasantly surprised at Lebbon’s twists and emotionally impacting story that used the multi-dimension angle very well.
Stay tuned for a written interview with Tim. John Dodds also reviewed his new release: Alien: Out of the Shadows.
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Timothy C. Ward
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