Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Constant readers of this review site will know that I am not a huge fan of Stephen King any longer. Most of his books are political or long-winded and boring. However, his new book fairy tale is brilliant.

The story flows well and even though it is long-winded with a very long entry intro before we get into the meat of the story, I feel that most of that intro worked well and it built up the story as a good lead-in.

Happily, there was only one Trump comment not shrouded in derangement and two democratic talking points. The rest of the story was story. And what a story it was. 

Hints of pre-accident King was clearly evident and I think he enjoyed writing that story. It seems to have taken him two years so it's a big book, it's a long story, and if you use Audio-book like I did it's really excellent to listen to.

The narrator was great and King even narrated a small section of the book which was an audio tape recording.

The story is about a boy named Charlie and his dog Radar. The dog is old and in the other world (Empis) the Fairyland world there is a sundial that can reverse age. It should be an easy journey, but, Fairyland is not as nice or safe as it once was, especially when the sun goes down.

This book is a quick and compulsive read, even though I use the audiobook, I found myself listening when I was working out or walking the dogs and killing time listening to it just sitting at home in my room.

This book is brilliant, but it has flaws. It's told in first person, where the MC occasionally talks to the reader and gives away the result of the action taking place eg. "Of course, things don't always go the way you planned". And there was the constant millionth-time reminder about the different language the people in other world used eg. "That's not what he said, but my brain translates it as such."  It's very repetitive and gets old very quickly. Finally, our hero Charlie often talks about how he was such a bad person after his mother's death and the bad things he did with Billy (?), and he says he's no hero. The things he did with the great reveal, are nothing that terrible. I thought he had maimed or committed manslaughter. What a let down.  

The Undead book 2 by R. R. Haywood

Book Two (Days 4, 5, and 6) introduces the virus as a conscious entity, that can think, reason, and plan. Also, we are introduced to a host of new characters. Howie plans to go to London and get his sister (Sarah) who is holed up in her apartment block. He has heard that London has fallen and the zombies fill the streets. He needs an APC (armored personal carrier) and so he and Dave head to Salisbury to acquire one. When there, he meets a bunch of new recruits, young guys, 10, I think. There are a couple that decide to strike out on their own. Howie becomes the unwilling leader. 

Dave is in his element. He trains the recruits in weaponry. On the way to London, the recruits become skilled in zombie killing. And Dave and Howie just like to fight face to face with only knives and an axe. One of the recruits, Darren, gets a tiny spay of saliva on his lip. So small and unfelt. He licks his lip and gets turned. But the virus decides not to turn him so fast. Darren acts as the inside man and all the plans that are made, the virus learns and decides to stop them.  

On the way into London, they meet Big Chris and his ex-military men who protect and small haven and around 200 people, living life normally (before zombies). They make a deal to team up. The haven has a hospital and it needs supplies and Howie needs to find his sister. 

Problems with this book. Too much killing without anything new. It seems mostly the same. Howie has internal thoughts bringing hate into his actions allowing him to kill thousands of zombies. This book seems a bit off -- like it was unnecessarily drawn out. And the virus jumping from humans to a cat, then rats required a large suspension of disbelief.   

The best section is the (mall?) with a Burger King and a small group of people.  

The narration is fucking brilliant. Dan Morgan really brings the characters to life. 

   

Lockdown by Peter May

I bought this book while going through Reader's Block, so it took me a couple of months to get through the 398 pages. I listened to a lot of audiobooks during this time. My reading has returned in the meantime and I polished off the final hundred pages of Lockdown. 

It's a cop story set in the pandemic and we get a very bleak version of London's lockdown, this fictional one (published in 2020, but written fifteen years earlier). The army ensures no one without a pass is on the streets after a certain time. D.I. Jack MacNeil is on his last day on the force. Retirement looms, but he desperately wants to find the killer of a child and successfully finish off a ruined career. All the while, his son lies dying of the virus in a bed surrounded by thousands of others in the same situation. 

This book kicks off at a good pace but slows down a lot as the characters are fleshed out. And I feel a lot of time is spent on Amy and her need to put a face on the bones that were found. 

This book was written in 2005 and was unpublished. This was my introduction to Peter May. I bought three of his books in one hit. I hope this book isn't a hint of what is to come. Lockdown wandered, and in the end, D.I. MacNeil finds the answers to who the child is, what happened to her, and by whom. However, there are a lot of holes in this book, and all the threads used in this book are not fully resolved. And it comes across as a bit formulaic. 

It is an easy read, and I think Pinky was the perfect villain (and the star of the book. I loved his scenes). 

The Undead Part 1 by R. R. Haywood

The book focuses on the first three days. 

Howie son of Howard, is a night manager at a supermarket. During the day, he is forced to attend a manager's meeting. This means he doesn't need to work the night shift. It's a rare Friday night off. All day he has been hearing about random attacks in Europe, on the radio, and on TV. Small snippets of information are gathered before his attention is stolen. 

This book is fast with characters you'll love or hate (like all of R. R. Haywood's books). Howie wants to check on his mum and dad. He steals a bike. This gives us a view of a disseminated town and highway. They have gone looking for him, so he heads back to his place. He stops in at his old workplace and runs into Dave (not David) one of his night shelf packers, and together they head to London to find Howie's sister. 

Along the way, there are many battles and many discoveries. 

For instance, during the day, the zombies move slowly with stiff joints. But at night, they growl and awaken into high speed killing machines. 

Part one ends on a cliffhanger. Luckily I bought a pack on 1-20. Already halfway through Part two.