The Sacrifice
This week I have been mostly reading: The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson.
This is the fourth and currently most recent edition to the young adult zombie series that started with 'The Enemy'. Though its still a very readable book I wouldnt recommend that anyone start reading this book if they havent read the others in the series first. Its not that so much has happened that you wouldnt understand it but so much has happened that the rich back story that has lead to this point and the tensions that have been so carefully built would be lost.
Higson has created a great series with these books. I wish that they had been around when I was a kid. The characters are endlessly relatable and interesting and the basic premise (that all adults have fallen victim to a zombie-like virus is a winner. What Higson has also managed across the four books is to examine the way the survivors (all of them children) have organised themselves not just in terms of survival (though thats an important first step) but how larger groups of kids have started to build towards some form of organised society. One group are shown to have developed a cult like religion, another to have established a parliament style democracy, another group is based on a more intellectual model whose priority is scientific research into the zombie virus. Other kids have rejected all of these models and have adopted either mercenary of more bandit-like modes of living.
There is much more to these books than just zombies but the fact that they are very well written and DO have zombies is something to shout about. I will have to keep my eye out for the publication of the fifth book as there is still yet some unfinished business!
This is the fourth and currently most recent edition to the young adult zombie series that started with 'The Enemy'. Though its still a very readable book I wouldnt recommend that anyone start reading this book if they havent read the others in the series first. Its not that so much has happened that you wouldnt understand it but so much has happened that the rich back story that has lead to this point and the tensions that have been so carefully built would be lost.
Higson has created a great series with these books. I wish that they had been around when I was a kid. The characters are endlessly relatable and interesting and the basic premise (that all adults have fallen victim to a zombie-like virus is a winner. What Higson has also managed across the four books is to examine the way the survivors (all of them children) have organised themselves not just in terms of survival (though thats an important first step) but how larger groups of kids have started to build towards some form of organised society. One group are shown to have developed a cult like religion, another to have established a parliament style democracy, another group is based on a more intellectual model whose priority is scientific research into the zombie virus. Other kids have rejected all of these models and have adopted either mercenary of more bandit-like modes of living.
There is much more to these books than just zombies but the fact that they are very well written and DO have zombies is something to shout about. I will have to keep my eye out for the publication of the fifth book as there is still yet some unfinished business!