Day by Day Armageddon: Zombie Journal for those with Low Expectations
I’m sorry, zombie pals, but this novel sucks.
Day by Day Armageddon (2004)
Sloppy syntax and misspellings fill the 260 page mass of this post-apocalyptic online journal turned print publication, while the narrative follows the survival of one particularly autobiographical U.S. Naval officer. Extensive time is paid to the referencing of Romero scenarios and the listing of cautionary harm-protection involved in surviving a plague of cannibal corpses. Author J. L. Bourne appropriately credits Max Brooks for his thoroughly detailed ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE. Also note the descriptive comments on isolation and alcoholism, not just vaguely similar to Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND.
Time has pasted. President Bush dies at the hands of an undead horde of ghouls, and first lady Laura Bush orders the nuclear bombing of Austin, Texas among other cities. Of course it doesn’t take. Swarms of radioactive zombies crowd the country. Our Texan protagonist then leaves his fenced in home to steal yellows hummers, motor boats and small planes to caravan back and forth across miles of Texas landscape and spasmodically paced narrative.
Scenes of high action erratically push the story along long lengths of description about the hero’s elaborate new plans, most of which are never acted upon. Although Bourne makes sure to include plenty of dashing but unclear 007-style escapes, one notable example involving parachutes and automatic weapons, the bulk of DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON reads like awkward online fan fiction in the mask of legitimate horror.
What saddens me the most is that this book could very well have been an awesome read if the author took the time to trim the fat, cut the overt homages and hire a proofreader. The genre of ‘self-published fiction’ doesn’t have to be the scary red flag that sends horror fans running home to their old Dean Koontz novels.
I give it: 3 radioactive thumbs down (badly decomposed of course).
Not only does the book suck but J.L. Bourne is a total asshole.