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Thunder and Ashes (The Morningstar Strain) (Pt.2) | 
| Author: Z.a. Recht
Creator: Travis Adkins
Publisher: Permuted Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $12.10
You Save: $2.85 (19%)
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 34245
Media: Paperback
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 1934861014
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781934861011
ASIN: 1934861014
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A lot can change in three months: wars can be decided, nations can be forged... or entire species can be brought to the brink of annihilation. The Morningstar Virus, an incredibly virulent disease, has swept the face of the planet, infecting billions. Its hosts rampage, attacking anything that remains uninfected. Even death can't stop the virus-its victims as cannibalistic shamblers. Scattered across the world, embattled groups have persevered. For some, surviving is the pinnacle of achievement. Others hoard goods and weapons. And still others leverage power over the remnants of humanity in the form of a mysterious cure for Morningstar. Francis Sherman and Anna Demilio want only a vaccine, but to find it, they must cross a countryside in ruins, dodging not only the infected, but also the lawless living. The bulk of the storm has passed over the world, leaving echoing thunder and softly drifting ashes. But for the survivors, the peril remains, and the search for a cure is just beginning...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
Not Bad--Not Mind Blowing December 16, 2008
Bachochin
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I wouldn't say this book is great--I wouldn't say it's horrible. The book is very stiff to get into. Around the 30 or 40 page marks was when I started looking forward to what happened next. (Before that I didn't really care but thought I would continue reading just for the heck of it). Me, being a writer myself, am quite a critic with books. Now I am not sure what the whole history behind the author is, but granted; it's a tad corny and unwritten in someways. It's suitable if not coming from a critics point of view.
Furthermore, I began to really like the "first" set of characters. AND THEN, disaster struck. A "second" set of characters were introduced that I could not stand. They were uninformed about, corny, stereotypical, and very much insignificant characters that the book could have probably done just well without. I felt so much less connected with these characters to the point that I was hoping the author would kill them off nearing the end of the book in some happy miracle to us readers.
But despite all of this, it's an alright book. I gave it 4-stars because it's not HORRIBLE. It's not a Stephen King, and does not even come close to being a masterpiece. BUT!, it's not horrible and at least worth a read if you can pick it up for a decent price.
One final thing, I think that the characters really screwed this book over. They are very stale. There is no background history into who or what they were in the past (besides a few who are very ambiguously credited as being soldiers for the US Army at one point).
The book hits some stale parts, but like said; it's worth a read if you can get it for a decent and bargain price.
 Part 2 December 4, 2008
ZMoney (Colorado)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The second in the Morningstar Saga continues right where the first left off. This was a really fun book. There is tons of action packed into this book. Not only are we treated with some good zombie action there is a nice conflict that develops between survivors as well. An aspect of the first book that I thought was missing was character development. In Thunder and Ashes the characters have the opportunity to flush themselves out and we start to see each individual personality. The author has created a good mix of survivors and it is fun to see them all interact with each other in their own individual ways. The author has also created a very fun zombie series with tons of well written action and his own little quirks to the zombie genre that keeps things very fresh.
The Difference between Preventing and Curing November 25, 2008
TastyBabySyndrome ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Thunder and Ashes picks up right where it needs to - with the characters we have become attached to trekking through an abyss with teeth in search of that needle in a veritable angry haystack. Here we essentially follow three groups through the nothing that is hope, trying to see what can come out of man's darkest hour. There is our favorite General and his merry band of men (to Z.A. - I absolutely love your people, especially Krueger, because they have so much personality), Anna and her group of two, and - in the end - the remainder of the undead loveboat that we followed in the first book. The journey is a brutal one, too, and showcases how good people can still do good things in the middle of chaos, how hope can still blossom in a world gone mad, and how fast a runner can move when it wants the taste of (insert person here) on its tongue.
As far as zombie books go, I normally do not find the living the focal point. Normally they are a pit stop for hungry zombie, and I find myself waiting for each one to die slowly. With Z.A's work it is different: here I have become attached to certain people and actually hope they make it out alive. In the raid sequence, for instance, I hoped our friendly neighborhood sharpshooter would find a way to overcome the weight of the world.
That seems odd for me to even type, but it is true.
There are ideas here that work out really nicely as well, with the utilization of zombies not simply working as things that bump about and give chase. The rules have been explained in the first book for how that works, but the author took that pen and crafted something far deeper than that while working on this book. I appreciated it. I also appreciated something that some people did not seem to like. I enjoyed getting to know my armada of voices, understanding how each saw a world that was turned into nothing. From the political to the unpredictable, it was all there and it was all worth reading. Anyone can write a book with corpses in them - it takes a craftsmen to make people walk through that world in a believable fashion.
As far as recommendations go, read the first book and then continue on. Both will give you something you want and you will be happy with the result. I normally speed through reads in a day or so because I am just reading but, with this, I took three times the normal amount just so I could taste the air the people were breathing.
Great and then some.
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