Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397814 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 225 pages

Customer Reviews

A great apocalyptic zombie tale with a new twist
It’s becoming harder and harder to offer up something new in the zombie genre, it’s pretty much all been done. But, Scott A. Johnson has taken a successful stab at it in his new novel “Deadlands”.

“Deadlands” follows brother and sister Christian and Cadence through post-apocalyptic nightmare world. In this dark combination of science fiction and horror the entire world is scorched and ruined. What little civilization is left lives in somewhat primitive underground bunkers hiding from flesh scorching daylight, poisoned air, and most importantly, the living dead. The zombies, referred to as “rotters” in the book, are a product of a last ditch effort by warring factions to build an unstoppable army during the worldwide conflict that turned the earth into "deadland". Of course, this plan backfired miserably. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, a new, mysterious threat has arisen that is destroying the underground cities and wiping out all their inhabitants threatening to put an end to humanity once and for all.

Zombie and post-apocalyptic fans will find a lot to enjoy about this book. While a lot of ideas aren’t particularly new Johnson works hard to put a fresh spin on things. The book is fast paced, action-packed, and well written. Johnson throws in a new--at least to me--twist on the zombie but, I won’t give it away as it’s one of the books major plot points (and a good one at that). My only complaints are that the “emotional” scenes in the book are standard and clichéd and that the book is relatively short. If you’re looking for your next apocalyptic and/or zombie adventure you won’t be disappointed with “Deadlands”.

Totally Unbelievable...
I have read just about every novel going on the zombie genre. I love the apocalyptic nature of such stories and always try to put myself within the particular world situation that I am reading about, in the sense of "what would I do" However it must be said that this particular book Deadlands did very little as regards helping me climb into this imaginary concept in any way at all. The zombie theme in itself is, as we all know, one that is never likely to happen. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that there is no way that it could happen if you look at the physics involved. However the concept does indeed make for a great base to build a really good, exciting, action filled story upon... But in Deadlands, how are we in all honesty really expected to actually believe that these creatures can, in some way, mate with the living, and produce offspring of their own? This to me was a step to far with the subject matter I'm afraid and I abandoned the book well before the end.

Zombies in the apocalypse
This books starts off like a standard post-nuclear-war type tale with people living in bunkers while the majority of the world is an uninhabitable wasteland. However, in this case it wasn't (just) the usual military destruction of the world, but the conflict also involved the deliberate creation of undead armies that quickly got out of control. We pick up the story some years later when a few underground communities have survived but most people never see the surface.

We are soon introduced to the usual array of mindless shuffling zombies who pose little threat to the 'guardsmen' who protect the shelters. However, a new species of intelligent zombie emerges and begins to pose a real problem to the survivors. These 'necrosapiens' are similar to the demons/zombies in the Brian Keene books 'The Rising' and 'City of the Dead', if you're familiar with them.

The story doesn't feature too many new ideas but it is exciting and enjoyable for fans of this sort of thing (which you probably are if you're reading this). It's a fairly short book and features a ccouple of minor errors that I can live with in a work of fiction (for example the derivation of the name 'necrosapiens' isn't technically right and, without giving too much away, the item that's found at the bottom of the warm stairs couldn't exist - you'll know what I mean when you read the book). That said, these things don't detract from the story and I would recommend the book.