The Fallen by Charlie Higson
Review by James Lamb (July 20, 2014)
I feel like this should be a short review. By now we're up to book 5 in the series. If you've read the first four, you'll probably read this one. If you haven't read the first four, I wouldn't imagine anyone want to join the series already in progress. That would be silly. Go read the other ones first.
Plus, I don't think this was as strong an outing this time around. The events in this book happen immediately after the events of the first book and at the same time as the events of the fourth book. That might be all well and good if were binging, reading them altogether. But, spread out over time, you forget some of what's happened. And because it's happening at the same time, you end up with a disconnect because the characters that you were just following in the other book aren't in this one.
I think three things set this book apart from the others: first, less travel. There is a journey, but I didn't find it to be tense. I don't know if it's just the nature of the kids getting better and smarter or what. Second, a new plot device. I don't want to say much about it, except that I understood why it was employed before it was explained which caused me to start alternating between fear and smugness at my perceived cleverness. Third, the book begins to explore the cause of the zombification of the adults. The explanation felt way too similar to the genesis of The Passage by Justin Cronin (My Review) except with zombies instead of vampires but one of the outcomes/discoveries in this case was really disappointing, but it's hard to say more without spoiling it.
I will definitely keep reading, but, yeah, there were whole sections of this one that I felt should have been better and too many times where the children only survived because the zombies were seemingly less intelligent than we've seen them be.
I feel like this should be a short review. By now we're up to book 5 in the series. If you've read the first four, you'll probably read this one. If you haven't read the first four, I wouldn't imagine anyone want to join the series already in progress. That would be silly. Go read the other ones first.
Plus, I don't think this was as strong an outing this time around. The events in this book happen immediately after the events of the first book and at the same time as the events of the fourth book. That might be all well and good if were binging, reading them altogether. But, spread out over time, you forget some of what's happened. And because it's happening at the same time, you end up with a disconnect because the characters that you were just following in the other book aren't in this one.
I think three things set this book apart from the others: first, less travel. There is a journey, but I didn't find it to be tense. I don't know if it's just the nature of the kids getting better and smarter or what. Second, a new plot device. I don't want to say much about it, except that I understood why it was employed before it was explained which caused me to start alternating between fear and smugness at my perceived cleverness. Third, the book begins to explore the cause of the zombification of the adults. The explanation felt way too similar to the genesis of The Passage by Justin Cronin (My Review) except with zombies instead of vampires but one of the outcomes/discoveries in this case was really disappointing, but it's hard to say more without spoiling it.
I will definitely keep reading, but, yeah, there were whole sections of this one that I felt should have been better and too many times where the children only survived because the zombies were seemingly less intelligent than we've seen them be.
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