Book review — Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse by Alex Newton

Disclaimer: While the author and I are Twitter acquaintances, I did not receive compensation for reviewing this book, nor did I receive a free copy for review.

This review was first published on my blog. The link to the original review is here.

This book is available from Amazon in both ebook and print formats.

Amazon blurb:

Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is an introductory guide to emergency and disaster planning and preparation.

This book follows Bill Jones and his family as they navigate their way through a series of emergency and disaster events, culminating in the outbreak of a Zombie Apocalypse.

Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse walks the reader through basic planning and preparation techniques and attempts to answer most of the more basic questions before they are asked. Areas that are often overlooked by beginners are explored, and some of the more common misconceptions are discussed.

This book does not claim to be a survival handbook, so if you’re looking for a how-to book about how to become Survivorman(TM), you’re reading the wrong book.

Also, note that Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse isn’t actually about zombies–not the Hollywood kind, anyway. It does include zombies, but not the undead-eat-your-brains version that are currently prevalent in movies and TV.

Continue reading “Book review — Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse by Alex Newton”

Winter and you in the post apocalypse

You might remember that awhile back, Jettica wrote about climate in the post apocalypse. She talks about different climate and weather possibilities for the post-apocalyptic world. (They’re all valid possibilities.)

One of the things she talks about is snow. I, personally, hate snow. Despise it. With the heat of a thousand fiery suns. But unfortunately, I’m moving back to Canada and snow will once again be a fact of life. For probably six months of the year.

Have I mentioned I hate snow?

Anyway. Snow usually comes during that most dreaded of seasons–winter. (Well, I dread it, anyway. I hate winter as much, if not more, than I hate snow.) Winter is hell on icy, locked up wheels for most of us now, when we still have central heating and cars with block heaters–can you imagine what it’ll be like during the post apocalypse?

Yeah. It’ll be bad. And I can’t say that you’ll survive. (Winter, it is a cold, harsh, unfeeling entity.)

I know Ann talked about surviving the winter months in this post, and she’s got some valid tips. But here are a few more things to keep in mind in terms of what you’ll need to have with you. You know, if you happen to get stuck in a part of the world where winter will be your post apocalypse hell. Like Canada.

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There are Dancing Zombies at PAX East…

Ever seen dancing zombies? I have.

Here at In Case of Survival we’ve been basking in the wonderful panic and speculation that surround the Mayan-predicted End of Days. Video games starring zombies and set in the post-apocalypse have been a near constant tread and we’re loving it.

Well it’s that time again. The biggest video game expo on this side the country, PAX East, is back in Boston and it’s better than ever. Why? Because this year is PAX East 2012 and it’s the end of the world!

Psyched up to see people and play games, I hurried to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) after work. On my way to meet up with my friends I walked across the catwalk on the second level of the convention center I saw zombies. Dancing zombies.

Promoting all their wonder full games, from Solitaire Blitz to Plants vs Zombies, PopCap Studios set right up front with a display of zombies dressed like they fell out of Plants vs. Zombies and danced like a crew from ABDC[1. America’s next Best Dance Crew.].

It was amazing, experience it:

Dancing Zombies - Arrrg!
Dancing Zombies – Arrrg!

Dancing Zombies - Team Photo
Dancing Zombies – Team Photo

Dancing Zombies - OMG So Adorbz!
Dancing Zombies – OMG So Adorbz!

 


Book Review: Starters, By Lissa Price

[1. Review copy provided by Random House Childrens Books]

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson.

It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

Starters is a great YA. The story is complex (though not too complex) the characters believable and likeable, and the dystopia shown in the work is disturbing.

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Book Review: The Last Night, by Nico Rosso

[1. Review copy provided by Carina Press]

After a chain of earthquakes ravaged the globe, long-dormant viruses were released into the air, turning many humans into creatures with an appetite for human ashes. Erica and a group of survivors are barricaded in a half-destroyed hotel, and every day brings them closer to being devoured by the seemingly unstoppable ashers.

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Even though Erica is a fighter, she’s tired of just surviving…

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When a mysterious stranger rides into town, everything changes. Jake knows how to kill the ashers, and he’s the only man brave enough to leave the safety of the hotel in search of a better life. Erica and Jake make a deadly fighting team, with even hotter sparks flying between them. But Jake has survived this long because he rides alone. He doesn’t trust easily, especially in this harsh new reality. Can Erica convince Jake that living is more than just surviving to the next day?

I’ve tried to write post-apocalyptic erotic romance before. Despite the fact this is the second in the genre I’ve reviewed, there’s a huge gap there. I’d personally like to read more of it, and because I believe in writing what I’d like to read, I made the attempt.

I wasn’t very good at it. It turns out, I am not good at writing desire and sex. I am extraordinarily good at writing people having awkward romantic feelings for each other that sort-of maybe get kinda fulfilled towards the end, but I cannot write erotica. Because of that, I am always pleased to read the good stuff.

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Continue reading “Book Review: The Last Night, by Nico Rosso”

Heart Land : Children surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

Here at ICoS we are SUPER LOOKING FORWARD to when Heart Land is made, after seeing the kickstarter funded trailer.

In a unique take on the genre, Heart Land has kids as the point of view characters. Here’s what the makers have to say about it:

HEART LAND is the brutal allegory of a group of children in Middle America struggling to survive in the wake of a zombie apocalypse.  Some have called it “Lord of the Flies” meets “28 Days Later” where the zombies themselves act as a backdrop to the conflict that unfolds as the children attempt to build a rudimentary society of their own making…

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Sounds bloody brilliant to me.

And below the cut is a video to whet your appetite.

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Book review: An A-to-Z Guide to Biblical Prophecy and the End Times

Publisher’s blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Zondervan]

This dictionary is a comprehensive reference tool designed to assist everyday people in understanding biblical prophecy. Based on solid scholarship, it contains clear and readable entries on a broad sweep of topics relevant to biblical prophecy, providing insight to complicated subjects in a balanced fashion.

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It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that I like the apocalypse. (Ha.) I research it, I read novels about it, I watch movies about it, I poke fun at conspiracies about it, blah blah blah. So it’s probably not surprising to learn that I’ve long been interested in Christian eschatology. After all, the Bible has some wicked imagery about the end of the world. (Seriously, those four horsemen?

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Awesome.)

Anyway. I came across this book on NetGalley, and being a book entirely about a topic I’m ridiculously interested in, I requested it. (And got it. Yay!)

When they say this book is a guide, they’re misleading you. No, this book isn’t a guide; it’s an encyclopedia. There’s nothing wrong with encyclopedias–I’ve been known to read them for fun.

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My point is, this book is one of the most comprehensive resources on biblical eschatology that I’ve ever come across.

Continue reading “Book review: An A-to-Z Guide to Biblical Prophecy and the End Times”

Book review: Resonance by AJ Scudiere

Blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Griffyn Ink]

THE SHIFT IS COMING. SOON.

Dr. David Carter knows this. However, he’s a geologist, so ’soon’ means anywhere from tomorrow to a thousand years from now.

PEOPLE ARE DYING. NOW.

Drs. Jordan Abellard and Jillian Brookwood are standing at the edge of SuperAIDS.

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Or are they? They won’t be able to figure it out if they can’t get some authorization signed – and soon. But they’re peons and no one is paying attention. That means no one will notice a little forgery either, right?

WHOLE SPECIES DIED AT THE LAST POLAR SHIFT. 65 MILLION YEARS AGO.

Right now Dr. Becky Sorenson has some seriously mutated frogs in her lab. In L.A. Bees are making abnormal columns on the side of the freeways. In Georgia, birds are migrating out of season. It all makes a sick kind of sense when the doctors consider that the last magnetic shift is strangely coincidental to the dinosaur die-out. And the only similarity among the problems today is that each is occurring in a ‘hotspot’ – a pocket of reversed polarity that tells them all.

THE SHIFT IS ALREADY HERE.

I’ll come right out and say it: I really, really wanted to like this book. Regardless of whether or not a catastrophe of this magnitude could be caused by a pole shift, the concept is intriguing.

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I'd like my microchip now, please.

Mind control microchips are a fun thing to fear and speculate on. Well, for me. I’m kind of a scatterbrained-forgets-a-lot. I often mean to do things then hours (or seconds) pass and the thing is not only not done but also an annoying ghost of a memory. I lose all the scraps of paper I make notes on; I set reminders on my phone a leave it in another room; and, I have a dozen half finished projects I don’t know how to keep track of. I need a microchip. In my brain. Continue reading “I'd like my microchip now, please.”

Book Review: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

[1. Robopocalypse was provided for review by Simon & Schuster]

Twenty years from now, a high-level artificial intelligence known as Archos comes on-line…and murders its creator.

Humanity has no idea when it starts to silently take over our cars, power grids, aircraft guidance systems and computer networks.

In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of humans, but most of us are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

At a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels against us, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and – for the first time in history – unites humankind.

Something I’ve had to learn with my increasing review schedule is this: Just because a book is good doesn’t mean I’ll like it, and just because I like a book doesn’t mean it’s good.

I like this book a lot. But, objectively speaking, it’s not that good. It’s action-y brain candy, and there is nothing wrong with that.

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