Monster Nation, The Sequel to Monster Island

After reading Monster Island by David Wellington, I was very curious as to how the story would unfold. Mr. Wellington is not telling a typical zombie story in this trilogy. As odd as it sounds, it is much more supernatural than most.

The book opens with Gary and Dekalb, though they only make a brief appearance. This novel explores the source and cause of the zombie uprising. It is told primarily from two characters' points-of-view, Clark Bannerman and "Nilla". In between their tales, Wellington uses snippets from government press releases, emails, health flyers, personal diaries, etc. to give us perspective on how the epidemic spread and personal experiences from all over the country.

We meet "Nilla" in an oxygen bar in California. She has bled to death and reawakened, but she is very different than most zombies, she can still think. When she was weak from blood loss, she put on an oxygen mask which kept her brain supplied with oxygen and reduced the brain damage she suffered. It allowed her to keep her reasoning skills, but she can't remember her name or anything else about herself. Police find her and take her to the hospital, they don't realize she is dead because she can still talk, neither does she. When the hospital is over run by zombies and the military is called in, she meets Bannerman.

Bannerman is introduced to us when he responds to a riot at a Californian jail, which in reality is an outbreak. Bannerman is an honorable military man and takes his duty very seriously. He treats the incident as a viral outbreak and insists that the infected are treated as humanely as possible, though he quickly comes to realize that they have no humanity left. It is difficult for him to accept that these people are dead. Bannerman is smart enough to realize what Nilla is and that she could be the key to a cure. He spends a lot of time looking for her, though he doesn't allow it to get in the way of protecting the public.

Though it was not a traditional zombie story, it was well told and intriguing. I look forward to reading the final installment, Monster Planet.

Baby blocks

For those of you that have been following my progress on the Christmas stocking, I am taking a sabbatical from that project. When I had my daughter, I decided to make stockings for all the babies in the family, just like my mom did for my sister and I. I feel that it is a great way to welcome a baby to the family, so many people don't ever have anything that was made especially for them. I made one for my nephew, but they didn't use it because it didn't match their theme and color scheme. I was slightly hurt by this, but such is life. Now my sister recently had a beautiful baby girl. I knew that they wouldn't use a stocking I had made, so I asked if they would prefer something else. At first we talked about a baby announcement, then I stumbled across directions for cloth baby blocks. My sister really liked the idea, and apparently my mom is going to get a special box and paint it to put the blocks in.

It will be a complete set, 26 letters. My niece will be able to spell her entire name and each block with have a picture to go a letter of the alphabet. It is surprisingly difficult to find pictures for some of the letters. I thought I would show the first block I finished stitching, though it's not in block form yet. Just in case you can't tell, that's a duck.

Zombies in NYC

I just finished reading Monster Island by David Wellington. It is the first novel in a trilogy, originally written on the internet. The book is a bit scattered, jumping back and forth between characters, this takes a bit of getting use to. I think that it was easier to follow online, as each entry probably dealt with a single character. There are even a few author notes scattered through out for the online readers. Wellington also uses a lot of flashbacks to set up the back story of the two main characters. The plot: an epidemic has broken out across the world, and the dead are walking. The dead, in fact, out number the living.

The book opens with Dekalb, a former UN weapons inspector, on a boat heading into New York harbor with some Somali nationals. They are in search of some much needed medication for the leader of Somali. This is an extremely dangerous mission as New York is full of the walking dead. You may wonder why a former UN employee would help militant Somali nationals. His young daughter, Sarah, has been given refuge in their stronghold that is safe from the zombies and in exchange for this service he will be allowed to stay with her. Having a daughter makes the mission even more difficult for Dekalb, as the soldiers with him are all girls of about 16 years old. They remind him of his daughter and has conflicting feelings about the girls as soldiers.

The other main character in this book is Gary, a former medical student. Gary believes he is the only survivor left in New York and takes a unique approach to ensuring his own survival in what is left of the world.

Dekalb's and Gary's interests conflict and they must "duke it out" as the saying goes. The danger is intensified later in the book when our heroes discover that not only have the human residents become zombies, but some of the animals too. I do not want to say much more about the events of the book, I don't want to spoil the experience for anyone else by giving away the book's secrets. I really enjoyed this book and am eager to read the next in the series Monster Nation.

So You Don't Know Max Brooks?

I started reading Max Brooks earlier this year, with his second work, World War Z, his history of the world wide zombie outbreak which almost caused the extinction of the human race. I found the survivors' accounts gripping. The most gripping for me was the story of the girl that at the age of six was the sole survivor from a town that holed up in a church; she is stuck in her six year old mind and can copy the moan of the undead perfectly. It is enough to send shivers up the spine of even the most hardened individual. This led me to read his other book, The Zombie Survival Guide.



I wish I had read this book sooner, so I could have begun my preparations earlier. He provides you a comprehensive overview of how to survive different levels of a zombie outbreak, from a Class 1 to a Class 4. Much of his advice would be useful in any large disaster or societal breakdown. His writing style is conversational and easy to read, I finished the book in less than two days, while completing a myriad of other tasks. He recommends resources to gain the skills you may be lacking in order so you can prepare for any eventuality. The publisher listed this work as humor, but I can find nothing humorous about an outbreak of the undead, the destruction of society, and the extinction of all animal life on the planet earth. You can think I'm crazy if you wish, but reading the historical cases of zombie outbreaks should make any sane person more than a little nervous. Once you read this book, you can not pretend that you weren't aware of the possibility and have no one to blame but yourself if you are caught unprepared. Please read this book for your family’s sake, if not your own. I wish you and your family the best of luck in your survival.

And People Say Movies Aren't Educational

I've gotten to watch four movies recently, one in the theater. Let me start off with that one, "The Incredible Hulk." I remember watching the show as a kid, though my parents were told by others that we shouldn't be allowed to because it would give us nightmares. BAH! We went and saw it as a family, as we tend to do. Everyone enjoyed the movie. Lots of action, it even got intense at times. It's amazing what judicial use of sound effects can do, that excessive amounts of blood can not. The casting was perfect. The Hulk looked so much better than in the other movie. They even got in all the necessary cameos, including Bill Bixby. It was almost as good as "Iron Man". I am looking forward to the Thor, Captain America, and Avenger movies.

The least favorite of my four recent movies was "The Superhero Movie", a parody film. It was stupid and funny all at the same time. Not a bad way to kill a couple of hours. Drake Bell was really good as our Spidey character.

The other two films were romantic comedies: "Definitely, Maybe" and "The Holiday".

We watched "Definitely, Maybe" last night. One of the reasons I wanted to see this movie was Ryan Reynolds, he's hilarious in everything he does. You may know him from "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" or "Blade: Trinity". He even had a small role in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle". One of my favorite Ryan Reynolds movies is "Waiting", it's about a group of waiters at a restaurant, it is disgustingly funny. The premise behind "Definitely, Maybe" is that his daughter receives a sex education class at school, and it results in her wanting to know the story of her parents and how they got together. Dad agrees to tell the story, but only if he changes the women involved names. The girl makes a game out of trying to figure out which of the women from her father's past is her mom. This movie is very sweet, and it showcases how complicated love can be. It was also very funny.

Now to the movie that actually taught me something, "The Holiday". A cast of actors that I love was the big draw to this movie: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and even Jude Law. The plot: two women that are both trying to recover from breakups decide to escape to another country over the Christmas holidays. Amanda, Cameron Diaz's character, has an inner-monologue that sounds like the movie phone guy. Hilarious. The courtships in this story are very stumbling, and in that way they feel real, though they are exaggerated for comedic effect. The thing I learned from this movie was that there is a relatively inexpensive way to travel the world. You can actually sign up to trade houses with people all over the world. I didn't think it was a real thing, so I did a Google search. It is real. Now all I need is to own a home, then world travel will be within my grasp.