Down the Road in Apocalypse Whenever

Jul 10, 2011 Netanella rated it liked it

Shelves: zombies, 2015-sept-reading-challenge

"Down the Road" is a fun zombie story, with enough gore and violence to satisfy most readers for this type of read.

George is a high school teacher in San Antonio, Texas when the outbreak begins, and decides to journey to his small Texas hometown to find his family and shore up against the undead masses. For a public school teacher, George is the mac daddy of the apocalypse. On his initial excursion from the city, he deliberately runs over two police officers in his slick black Chevy Cavalier. H ...more

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Dec 25, 2007 Thee_ron_clark rated it it was ok

Shelves: zombies

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had high expectations for this book going into it because I had heard decent things from a number of people about it. I hate to say it, but I think most of them were wrong.

This book reminds me of a cheese-ball action flick from the eighties for numerous reasons. The hero (untrained in the use of the specific firearm he picks up) manages numerous head shots on trained soldiers firing back at him from some cover while he stands in an open field and they miss every round. A little reality here, p I had high expectations for this book going into it because I had heard decent things from a number of people about it. I hate to say it, but I think most of them were wrong.

This book reminds me of a cheese-ball action flick from the eighties for numerous reasons. The hero (untrained in the use of the specific firearm he picks up) manages numerous head shots on trained soldiers firing back at him from some cover while he stands in an open field and they miss every round. A little reality here, please. Some of the action just really felt like a bad Dolph Lundgren film to me.

Another problem I had is that much of the action was worded in a way that left me hard to visualize it. One part had a guy tackling a zombie to the ground and stomping its head at the same time. This left me picturing some ridiculous World Wrestling Federation slam leaving the attacker in a crab walk position over his victim. Did anyone go back and check some of these sections to see if they made any sense to them?

The next issue (I'm far from finished yet) I came across was the story of the character's fiance. His learning the truth behind her death was laid out in a really silly and far-fetched manner. It was very laughable and Saturday morning cartoon like to me. On the other hand, it was annoying.

The next irritating part was the sex. The sex in this novel made me wonder if the author has ever actually had any or simply learned everything he knows about it from adult films, books, and magazines. Let's picture this scenario: A man and woman kill some zombies and have to vomit from the stench of the corpses. They suddenly, in the same stench-filled room, decide to have spontaneous sexual intercourse. Kick in some disco music, please. The protagonist of the book is a mythical stud, bedding one woman several times in the course of one day and attracting another hottie before the book ends. All sex scenes involve the hero going through a variety of positions and the women putting on high heels for their part. Again, more disco music. I always picture women slapping on high heels and getting sexied up in the midst of a world wide zombie out break. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

There were too many things going on at times for me. I'm not sure if the author wanted the reader to feel like they were in the chaos themselves, but that's what it achieved for me.

Lastly, I found his portrayal of the military borderline offensive. The thought of the majority of our soldiers raping teenage girls and women and becoming completely barbaric and brutal a few days into an outbreak was complete crap. I spent nine years in the military and part of that was in a hostile environment. I didn't notice any soldiers running off to rape, plunder, and pillage. Perhaps Hagar the Horrible and the United States armed forces are the same thing to this author.

Now that I've bashed the hell out of the book, I'll put out some good points.

1. It seems the author had some creative and good ideas on where he wanted the story to go.

2. The ending wasn't bad either. I rather enjoyed the ending.

Over all, I felt this would have been better as a much shorter story. I feel this author has potential, but lacked maturity in this book. I will read the sequel since it was given to me as a gift, but I probably would not have purchased it otherwise. ...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Lisa rated it really liked it

This book was great. If you like zombies, then this the book for you!! Warning though, no character is safe! Odds are, if you like them, they will die. This book takes place between Austin and San Uvalde, which made the book even cooler for a person that lives in that area. It is a gore filled thrill ride!!!

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