Author:  Brian Kittrell

Page Count:  312 pages

Stage: Available!

The War of the Dead Cover Art

Format(s):  Novel, 5.25″ x 8″ paperback

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Released:  February 1st, 2011

The War of the Dead: Andy’s Story is the second book in a planned series of survival horror set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with flesh-eating undead zombies.  It tells the story from the perspective of Andy,  a Captain assigned to a secret military post in Texas, known only as North Star.  At first, Andy’s only responsibility is watching over a facility tasked with processing information and studying viruses.  As the story progresses, Andy’s job becomes much more complicated.

This book could be considered a more omniscient overview of the global events that occurred parallel to the story of the first book and explains, from the military’s standpoint, the progression of occurrences as the virus strikes the United States and Europe.  It also strongly reinforces a few twists and turns that were present in the first book and leaves the story open to develop into the next in the series.

The second book in the Survivor Chronicle series continues to develop strong characters and a strong progression of a very volatile and interesting storyline.  The second book can be read independently of the first book, but the story tie-ins to the first book might be missed.

Reviews

Any professional reviews for this book are listed here:

Review by Sandra Heptinstall of Whispering Winds Book Review & Midwest Book Review.  Reviewer rated the book 5 stars.

Often times we wait for the next book of a series to come out and then are disappointed, as it does not live up to the first book. I can honestly say that I liked this book even more than the first book.

In this second installment we are given the military perspective of what has happened in our country. The whole eastern seaboard has been hit by missiles. Many people have been killed from the attack, but then something strange happens. Some of the dead come back alive and are attacking and trying to kill the people who had made it through the initial attack.

Captain Andy McKenzie is assigned to a military post called “North Star,” which is near Fort Hood, Texas. His job is to keep everything coordinated, and inform Washington of his findings. By satellites he can see what is going on in the country that has attacked us and also, how the Marines are doing in the jungles where the attack was launched.

After many attempts at contacting Washington, and reporting his findings, Captain McKenzie learns that Washington, DC has been hit and people are dead, or have become a type of zombie. McKenzie finds his own men and women are leaving their post to move as far West as they can, and taking everything they think they may need too survive on their own.

This book is captivating and will keep you reading. You will find yourself waiting for the next installment. This is not your ordinary zombie type of book. Do not let the word “zombie” turn you away, as this book can encompass a variety of different genres.

For some of us baby boomers this story can hit home. We grew up doing drills each month where we would have to get under our desk and cover our heads. Then, the threat was the U.S.S.R and some people even had underground shelters in case we were attacked.

Again, I have to say that this book also has just a whisper of truth in it that will keep you reading. We now live in a world that is filled with terrorist and extremist. Who can say that the things that are mentioned in this book can not happen in our world today? You need to read this book.

Sandra Heptinstall

Rated PG for violence

Review by Lori Bowland from Living Dead Media.  Reviewer didn’t provide a star rating.

“War of the Dead: Andy’s Story” is the second installment of “The Survivor Chronicles” and tells the story of a Captain Andrew MacKenzie who commands a secret base tasked with finding intelligence and a way to stop a warlord from launching a deadly attack on the U.S and allies.

When I began to read this story I was reminded of some very interesting military thrillers and then the story evolved into a hybrid of a Tom Clancy novel and one written by Michael Crichton.  The story is very smoothly written and the storyline tight.  The writer seems to know a great deal about his subject and writes the story with a comfortable style. Scenes where there are military sequences and action are very convincing. The parts where there are zombie attacks are very creepy. He does go off on one tangent with the story which is a romantic side story that may be a little out of place in a zombie story.  The story does connect fairly well with the first novel in the series with a psychic link with its main character. This aspect of the chronicle is both baffling and fascinating.  I’m wondering where the author will take this sub-plot.

I liked most of the characters in this tale. I found them to be very convincing as well.  The main character could have changed into something like Captain Rhodes from “Day of the Dead” but the writer made a very good choice in creating a character that the reader will sympathize with.  Other characters include a special ops team which was one of the best written aspects of this novel. They become trapped in a lab with a few zombies around and one member is trapped outside by the warlord’s troops. I welcomed that they didn’t panic when their situation became dire.  A character called Alyssa Henderson was part of the romantic side story but even with that aspect she was very interesting and a bit of a mystery.  I wanted to know her back-story.

Brian Kittrell writes stories that go a bit beyond, “the box” with this series.  This is another series that I’m going to be impatient waiting for further installments.  The first story in the Survivor Chronicles was very good but I think that this one is just a bit better. This series is proving to be a mesmerizing picture of a world that could be.

Lori Bowland (Tauseret), Living Dead Media