Dust & Decay (Rot & Ruin, #2) in The Zombie Group!

Jan 19, 2011 Lou rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series, august-read-list, ya, zombies

'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' that’s how I describe this story it all unfolds like a Wild West Battle.
The GOOD is Tom Imura and his band of warriors Benny, Nix, Lilath and Chong.
THE BAD is White Bear and other bad zombie hunters.
THE UGLY of course are the Zoms (zombies).

I have said it before Jonathan Maberry is really a masterful storyteller packing a punch across genres. Genre for genre a pound for pound a heavyweight contender for book awards. He has really knitted together a thrill ride o ...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Lou rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' that’s how I describe this story it all unfolds like a Wild West Battle.
The GOOD is Tom Imura and his band of warriors Benny, Nix, Lilath and Chong.
THE BAD is White Bear and other bad zombie hunters.
THE UGLY of course are the Zoms (zombies).
I have said it before Jonathan Maberry is really a masterful storyteller packing a punch across genres. Genre for genre a pound for pound a heavyweight contender for book awards. He has really knitted together a thrill ride o 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' that’s how I describe this story it all unfolds like a Wild West Battle.
The GOOD is Tom Imura and his band of warriors Benny, Nix, Lilath and Chong.
THE BAD is White Bear and other bad zombie hunters.
THE UGLY of course are the Zoms (zombies).
I have said it before Jonathan Maberry is really a masterful storyteller packing a punch across genres. Genre for genre a pound for pound a heavyweight contender for book awards. He has really knitted together a thrill ride of a story that is about more than zombies keeps you engrossed right to the end with love and war.
Benny is maturing and becoming a warrior he was no longer the skinny kid that he once had been he has muscle definition and six-pack abs. He has an eye also on one girl, will he be able to express his love to her?
Tom the powerful warrior equipped with his kami Katana, Tom the Swordsman, Tom of the woods, Fast Tommy. Tom the Killer.
Lilah is another hero fast efficient and ruthless she grew up out in the Ruin, she was raised by a man who helped her during the First Night and then was living on her own for years after. Lived alone in the woods spoke to no one. Learned from books and learned the art of making weapons. She became a hunter and a killer. She is quiet and very beautiful with eyes the colour of honey. They called her the Lost Girl on the Zombie cards. She was merely a legend or myth until Tom and Benny brought her out into the public eye.
Together they destroyed Charlie Pink-eye and the Hammer.
But did they really destroy Charlie?
That’s what they thought but a figure appears amongst the zoms that looks like Charlie from the distance, is it him?
If it is how could Benny tell Nix, a girl he loves, that her mothers murderer is still out there, still roaming the world free?
The band of warriors lead by Tom the hero Zombie Hunter set out on a journey to the Ruin in search of a Jet a mode of transport. They leave Mountainside and head for the Forest along there journey meet The Bad and the Ugly, they also meet many of their good friends, good Zombie Hunters. The Greenman is one of them a hunter who literally looks like a tree, he wears a leafed mask and has cones and leafs pinned to his coat, a camouflage amongst the forest in which the zoms cannot see him.
One good weapon to have against the zoms, is cadaverine. Consists of a mixture of cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine, and other vile ptomaines. They will not eat you if you have it smeared on you.

The journey places them into what could be debated as the greatest test some of their friendships have been under. A real nail biting experience as they become divided and some captured, love also flourishes in a story that really entertains with ingredients of courage and bravery.

White bear The Bad has a bounty on the heads of the good band of zombie hunters the four of them Nix, Benny, Lilah and Tom.

The Hunger Games is over for now until the movie is released and The Dust and Decay and The Gameland is a rightful dose of the same entertainment.
If you think all this is not enough to get you to read this novel, then hold on because Carpet coats, Football Helmets with Plastic Visors and a Pit in the ground are signs of danger!
An event of gruesome violence pitted against zoms in a pit they call it ‘Gameland’
The bets are on who will survive?
Gameland was a place that Lilah escaped in the past and was eventually closed down but now it has been reopened by White Bear and other Bad Zombie Hunters.

“Now Benny was fifteen and a half, and First Night was a million years ago.
This world was no longer that world. On First Night the old world had died. As the dead rose, the living perished. Cities were incinerated by the military in a futile attempt to stop the growing armies of the dead. The electromagnetic pulses from the nukes fired all electronics. The machines went silent, and soon, so did the whole country. Now everything east of the small town of Mountainside was the great Rot and Ruin. A few other towns littered the foothills of the Sierra Nevada north and south of Benny’s home, but the rest of the old world had been consumed.”

“Before First Night the United States Census Bureau estimated that there were 6,922,000,000 people alive on planet earth. Tom said that news reports claimed that more than two billion people died in the first two days after First Night.
By the time the internet went down, the estimates of the global death toll were at four billion and climbing.
People in town believe that following first night more than six billion people died. Most people think the whole rest of the world is dead.
We know that the total population of the nine towns here in central California is 28,261 as of last new year’s census.”

“It was like a plague, but different from the one that had destroyed the world. This was an emotional pandemic that blinded the eye and deafened the ear and darkened the mind so that there simply was no world other than what existed inside each fenced town.”

Preacher Jack shrugged. ”This world may be paradise for the Children of Lazarus, but to snot-nosed little sinners like you…this world is hell. How’s that for a cosmic paradox? Heaven and Hell coexisting out here in the Rot and Ruin, and the two of them forming a brand-new Eden. The towns-why, you might consider them limbo, where souls are just waiting for judgement. As for Gameland….now it would be God’s own truth to say that Gameland is purgatory. It’s where you have a chance to expunge your sins.”

“He took her hand, and they walked under the canopy of cool green leaves. Birds sang in the trees, and the grass beneath their feet glistened with morning dew. The first of the day’s bees buzzed softly among the flowers, going about their ancient and important work, collecting nectar and taking pollen from one flower to another. Cyclones of gnats spiralled up from the grass and swirled through the slanting sunlight. The loveliness of the forest was magical and fresh, but it was also immense. Neither of them spoke, unable to phrase their reactions to the rampant beauty and unwilling to trouble the air with the horrors that haunted their hearts.
Despite the warm reality of each other’s hands, they felt incredibly alone. Desolate. Even though they knew that Tom and Lilah and Chong were somewhere in this same forest, it was as if everyone else was on a different planet. Mountainside-home-was a million miles away. The jumbo jet could well have been on the far side of the world, or something from an old dream.”

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Oct 04, 2011 Schnaucl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, series, fiction, library, post-apocalyptic, october, read_2011, to_purchase, zombies, young_adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 15, 2011 Ashley - The Bookish Brunette rated it it was amazing

Shelves: zombies, 2011-release

After a very emotional and thrilling ride with Benny Imura in Rot & Ruin, Jonathan Maberry has left me almost speechless by Dust & Decay. (I wouldn't be me if I didn't always have something to say!) If you haven't read Rot & Ruin... Oh my God. PLEASE, GO get it and Dust & Decay because it comes out today!

Dust & Decay picks up just a few months after we left Benny and his friends in the last book. They are preparing for their trip across the great Rot & Ruin in hopes of finding the origin of the ...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Six months have passed since the destruction of Gameland, the deaths of the Motor City Hammer and Charlie Pinkeye, and the jet sighting. Benny Imura, Lou Chong, and especially Nix Riley are still reeling from these events and have changed so much because of them. Benny, Nix, and Benny's brother Tom decide to leave town in search of the jet after months of grueling training led by Tom. They decide to leave their town in search of the plane and aren't planning to come back. So they, plus Lou Chong Six months have passed since the destruction of Gameland, the deaths of the Motor City Hammer and Charlie Pinkeye, and the jet sighting. Benny Imura, Lou Chong, and especially Nix Riley are still reeling from these events and have changed so much because of them. Benny, Nix, and Benny's brother Tom decide to leave town in search of the jet after months of grueling training led by Tom. They decide to leave their town in search of the plane and aren't planning to come back. So they, plus Lou Chong, set out into the Ruin where everything goes wrong. They are attacked by wild animals, zombies, and crazy people. Plus Charlie Pinkeye may still be alive. The group gets split apart and have to face danger on their own or die.

I immensely enjoyed Rot and Ruin last year, but I was a little wary of its sequel because it could fall into the second book pitfall (where it just sets up for the next book) or just wouldn't be as good. Dust and Decay proved to be even better than Rot and Ruin. The character development and twists and turns are much better and more involved. Benny Imura grew out of being incredibly whiny and immature in the last book, but he still has a lot of growing to do. Dealing with the very harsh realities outside his town makes him realize what's important. Nix is much different. Her mother's death left her more somber and depressed than before and very eager to leave her home town forever. I really enjoyed her journal entries interspersed between chapters throughout the novel. They gave a lot of insight into her character and enlightened us about the science behind the zombies. Lilah has been one of the most consistently strong and stoic characters, but she breaks down and shows a softer side of herself. She has to come to terms with that fact that she can lose the people she cares about after not having anyone for so long. My favorite was the insight into Tom's character and how he did things to perpetuate love instead of hatred. He would examine his feelings to make sure he was in the right frame of mind and would give his all to protect those he loves and what is right.

Dust and Decay covers a lot of new territory. The Ruin is much more wild and dangerous than Benny ever saw. It's home to wild animals (even a rhino!) and zombies as well as bounty hunters and some very unsavory people. Every time these characters think they are safe, something else dangerous comes up that they have to deal with. The action is practically nonstop. Many new characters are introduced. The new villain is incredibly creepy on many different levels. He makes my skin crawl. Many of the bounty hunters from Benny's trading cards are introduced as well. My favorite of them are J-Dog and Dr. Skillz, who are cheerful with their obsolete surfer dude slang and laid back attitudes despite seeing horrible things and living in the wild.

Jonathan Maberry's strength is creating characters that I cared about and that were incredibly realistic. I could read about these characters all day and I found myself longing to read the book when I was busy. I am so happy Flesh and Bone comes out this month because I don't think I could have waited months for the next book. ...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Kat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: udate, ya, zombie

The one thing that really stood out for me in Rot & Ruin was that I started off almost completely disliking the ungrateful brat Benny Imura. However, in the course of the book he grew so much that by the end I really really liked him, which to me is the sign of a very good book.

Dust & Decay picks up a few months after the end of Rot & Ruin, with the same old gang of Benny, the more-than-slightly-swoonworthy Tom, Nix and Lilah preparing for a journey to find out the destination of the jet they si The one thing that really stood out for me in Rot & Ruin was that I started off almost completely disliking the ungrateful brat Benny Imura. However, in the course of the book he grew so much that by the end I really really liked him, which to me is the sign of a very good book.

Dust & Decay picks up a few months after the end of Rot & Ruin, with the same old gang of Benny, the more-than-slightly-swoonworthy Tom, Nix and Lilah preparing for a journey to find out the destination of the jet they sighted at the end of Rot & Ruin.

In some ways, Dust & Decay is a little bit of a repeated formula of Rot & Ruin - there are goodies, baddies and a whole bunch of the living dead who have more than a dash of Maberry-zombie-genius in their creation. But although it seems a little bit formulaic, it's certainly action-packed and there's very little downtime as the plot also moves on at a pretty brisk pace.

Once again, the good characters are admirable, strong and I couldn't help but cheer for them, and the baddies are despicable, terrible people that you kinda want to die in a horribly grisly brain-munching kinda way. Jonathan Maberry puts a lot of work into his characters - making them believable with realistic dialogue and bonding them together through shared experiences under difficult circumstances.

Along with the usual crew, there are new characters introduced, and their stories further expand the world-building that was started in Rot & Ruin. What I've always loved about Jonathan Maberry is that he can take seemingly ordinary characters and make them into heroes by their actions and attitudes rather then a sudden discovery of never-tapped martial arts or weapons skills.

I really enjoyed going back to the world of the Rot and Ruin, and with Benny as a more likable character, I liked this one a little more than Rot & Ruin, despite the ending (if you've read it, you probably know what I mean....). And I'm excited to get started on Flesh & Bone before the fourth book, Fire & Ash, is released in September.

Read more of my reviews at The Aussie Zombie ...more

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