Michael Barnes
In Ashes, an EMP changed a large portion of the population, turning them into what can best be described as what we call zombies. The Changed roam and eat the flesh of those that remain unchanged. At the end of Ashes, our main character Alex found herself in a town called Rule hoping to find help for a fellow survivor named Tom; he was left injured as the two fled for their lives. The town of Rule is populated by survivors that have organized themselves into a survival group that appears almost as a religious cult. All is not what it seems in Rule.
Shadows picks off where Ashes left us, Alex is trying to escape Rule and finds herself in an enclave of zombies. The zombies may be the least of her problems.
Shadows follow several characters and their story lines, they eventually come together. I found it difficult to sort out all of the new characters – and there are a lot – but their paths all cross in a way that is satisfying and leaves you hanging on waiting for the third and final book in this trilogy.
Bick is a psychiatrist and she definitely puts some interesting psychological twists into this tale. There are a group of characters that will eerily remind readers of the Nazi doctors as they engage in some disturbing experiments regarding the nature of the changed. And one of the biggest questions appears to be whether or not the changed are in fact done changing.
Although Shadows is indeed an exciting read, it can at times also be a challenging read. There are many characters to keep track of and sometimes the characters make observations that they just leave dangling that come up a little bit later.
The Ashes trilogy is a unique and complex look at a post apocalyptic world and it takes the zombie genre and tweaks it in all the right ways; each character is thrust into unthinkable situations and is forced to make difficult decisions in order to survive. The characters also cover the spectrum; there are your truly evil characters, but there are also those that are basically good people forced to make unthinkable decisions in order to survive. This is, after all, the post-apocalyptic world so how do the old rules apply in this new world?
In Ashes, an EMP changed a large portion of the population, turning them into what can best be described as what we call zombies. The Changed roam and eat the flesh of those that remain unchanged. At the end of Ashes, our main character Alex found herself in a town called Rule hoping to find help for a fellow survivor named Tom; he was left injured as the two fled for their lives. The town of Rule is populated by survivors that have organized themselves into a survival group that appears almost as a religious cult. All is not what it seems in Rule.
Shadows picks off where Ashes left us, Alex is trying to escape Rule and finds herself in an enclave of zombies. The zombies may be the least of her problems.
Shadows follow several characters and their story lines, they eventually come together. I found it difficult to sort out all of the new characters – and there are a lot – but their paths all cross in a way that is satisfying and leaves you hanging on waiting for the third and final book in this trilogy.
Bick is a psychiatrist and she definitely puts some interesting psychological twists into this tale. There are a group of characters that will eerily remind readers of the Nazi doctors as they engage in some disturbing experiments regarding the nature of the changed. And one of the biggest questions appears to be whether or not the changed are in fact done changing.
Although Shadows is indeed an exciting read, it can at times also be a challenging read. There are many characters to keep track of and sometimes the characters make observations that they just leave dangling that come up a little bit later.
The Ashes trilogy is a unique and complex look at a post apocalyptic world and it takes the zombie genre and tweaks it in all the right ways; each character is thrust into unthinkable situations and is forced to make difficult decisions in order to survive. The characters also cover the spectrum; there are your truly evil characters, but there are also those that are basically good people forced to make unthinkable decisions in order to survive. This is, after all, the post-apocalyptic world so how do the old rules apply in this new world?