Helpful Score: 4
The City of the Dead takes off immediately after The Rising leaves you wanting more. New breed of zombies that think, talk, shoot guns and drive. Very good book, hope there's another sequel.
Helpful Score: 2
The sequel to "The Rising" picks up right where the first book left off. It continues the streamlined and action-packed writing style of Keene and also further fleshes out all of the major players in the plot. It does have some similarities to George Romero's disappointing "Land of the Dead", but this book is by far better than that excuse for cinema. Also, watch for the ending - it's happy, but not. It's hard to explain.
Helpful Score: 2
This book was a a trip! It must be part of a series as it seems to pick up in the middle of action and it stays high-action all the way until the end. I won't give away the ending, but let's just say, this isn't your usual book! Anyway, if you like zombie stuff, this is worth the read. I read it in about 3 hours or less, so it isn't heavy-duty, but it is entertaining.
Helpful Score: 2
Like its precursor, The Rising, this book fills a certain void for those seeking zombies in fiction. It also doesn't have nearly as many typos and errors as The Rising (though they are not completely gone). Instead of typos, this one is riddled with continuity errors of which Hollywood might be jealous. Also like The Rising, though Keene claims the zombies are "slower" than a living human, they manage to leap and run and rip people apart with their bare hands--unless it will be necessary for a character to escape at the last moment, in which case the zombies approach slowly :S One nitpick about Keene's writing is that it is often difficult to really get a sense of the amount of -time- that passes; for example, though "the end of the street filled with zombies" the characters stop to talk and introduce themselves. One can't help thinking, "If they'd just said a quick 'Hi' and gone back to their car, they would have been golden!" Still, it continues the story of some of the survivors from the first book, so this book is recommended for those who finished the first book and managed to still be curious.
Helpful Score: 1
This book had non-stop action, but for a zombie purist like myself, I couldn't get into Keene's idea of zombies. I don't think they should be coordinated, cunning, and using weapons. Keene made them unstoppable and vindictive enough to saw through vocal chords to kill someone. Poor humans. I usually side with the zombies, but I had to side with the humans this time - how were they to fight this group that had no weaknesses? Zombies driving cars? Please. A big disappointment for me, but an action-filled book, nonetheless.
