David Wellington's first zombie apocalypse novel, Monster Island was startling in its originality and quality of writing. Wellington has a creative writing MFA and all that cute stuff, and the dude can twirl a sentence. His taut, powerful prose and lucid pacing suggests he's probably capable of writing any kind of prize-winning literary fiction he wants, but is for whatever reason fixated on zombies, werewolves, and other monsters that populate his books.Monster Nation is a prequel to Island. Where Island dropped us right in the middle of the apocalypse ("after the fall" if you will) and just took off running, Nation moves much more slowly, wading its way through the zombie uprising itself. In describing such events, and the slow decline of humanity in the face of a flesh-eating undead plague, Wellington falters a bit. Obviously, zombie uprisings and the subsequent apocalypses are no longer new literary territory, and the reason Island was so good was because Wellington pumped such an amazing amount of fresh life into the genre (zombie pigeons? oh yeah you better believe it.) But in Nation, he fails to achieve a similar feat. His blazing, adventurous creativity is gone, replaced by a careful attention to character, primarily in the forms of a military leader, Bannerman Clark (a stupid name), and a young woman who, through an odd series of events, kept her brain alive while succumbing to the zombie plague, thereby turning into the rare flesh-eating corpse capable of rational thought.Wellington used this same rational zombie device in Island, and it was fascinating because the character, "Gary," intentionally did it to himself and proceeded to use his combination of undead invincibility and working human brain to wreak major havoc. But the thinking zombie in Nation, "Nilla" (again with the silly name) became who she is by accident, and the explanation of her transformation is pretty feeble (something about an oxygen bar... yeah.) Her character never really recovers from this plot twist, remaining similarly passive and poorly formed throughout the book. Wellington seems more interested in putting his energy towards his military leader, Clark, who struggles to fend of the growing zombie hordes while grappling with his own moral dilemma regarding the slaying of undead "civilians." It's a nice element, but isn't intriguing enough to deserve the intense scrutiny Wellington devotes to it. I read this book aloud to my girlfriend each night, and both of us had trouble staying awake as page after page unfurled about Bannerman Clark and his soldiers shooting zombies and flying around the country feeling bad about shooting zombies. Wellington's focus on the military side feels informed and, as always, is well written, but the story itself doesn't add anything new to the problem: Ultimately it comes down to guys in uniform killin' zombies, and we've seen that before.Wellington rallies in the final 50 pages or so, culminating this second book in what is apparently a zombie trilogy with a truly unexpected plot twist that handily tied up a lot of loose ends and reminded me why I like the guy and why I will definitely read the final book in this series, Zombie Planet. Even when Wellington is slightly off his game, he's weirder, darker, and slightly better than most other horror writers I can think of.
Not quite as good a 'zombie apocalypse' story as I'd hoped.Monster Nation is book two in David Wellington’s zombie trilogy and, while well-crafted and plotted, it didn’t exactly electrify me in the same way his Laura Caxton / Vampire series did. Perhaps it’s simply symptomatic of the glut of ‘zombie apocalypse’ stories shambling across the shelves that led to my malaise or perhaps I simply let too much time lapse between reading the first installment of this series and the second book, but this fell short of expectations.On the plus side, Monster Nation describes the beginning of the undead plague, and though it’s heavily tread ground within the genre, Wellington keeps the story of the struggle between military and monster horde quite compelling. However, the book also focuses on the story of Nilla, one of a few intelligent zombies, who appears to be some sort of supernatural key to the whole affair. Nilla -- as the reluctant protagonist – never really exerts much control over the plot -- things just seemed to happen to her -- and the angle of the intelligent zombie (with supernatural powers no less) just didn't resonate with me. To be fair, Wellington offers up a better than average explanation for the zombies’ intelligence – though how Nilla gets there is a bit contrived – and I found his explanation for the germination of the entire zombie epidemic original and cleverly foreshadowed. And, despite this being the middle chapter of a trilogy, Monster Nation delivers a pretty complete story while leaving the door open for a third book and a conclusion to the whole arc. But ... it took a lot of slogging along with Nilla to get to these gems.I’ll probably come back for the final chapter, Monster Planet because I am interested in where this is all going, but if you are new to Wellington’s work, I recommend starting with the Vampire quintet (with the much dynamic Laura Caxton as protagonist) as a much stronger tour de force.
What do You think about Monster Nation (2006)?
2 AND 1/2 STARS I decided to read this series in chronological order after buying both the first two books. The writing is not bad, in fact, it's quite good. However, once the story got going, I quickly began to hate the Nilla storyline and her ridiculous invisibility gimmick. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Yes, even in a zombie novel, suspension of disbelief can only take you so far. There were a few other problems I had with the book. In one scene, a zombie (with human teeth, remember, this isn't a vampire) bites the neck of a 7 foot black bear and kills it. Please. A zombie would be hard pressed to pull out a clump of the bear's fur much less rip open its skin. In addition, every once in a while I would find some spelling errors which shouldn't happen in a professional novel costing $13.95. Other small details that took me out of the story was when a zombie threw a bone up at a flying helicopter and actually hit it. Wouldn't it be more poetic to have the bone be thrown at it and miss? The intention would still remain, but the reality wouldn't be flushed down the toilet. But okay, maybe that's being too picky. Anyway, I did enjoy Clark and Vikram's storyline and that was probably what kept me reading. Unfortunately, the ending wasn't satisfying, feeling rushed and thrown together without too much thought. I hear better things from critics about Monster Island, and being from New York City, I'm a little more excited now to read it.
—William M.
I know this is supposed to be a prequel to "Monster Island", but it felt really disjointed, probably because the only thing connecting the two books is a secondary character and one throw-away reference towards the end of the book. As a stand alone book, it was okay, however I'd give it a lower grade when ready it in the context of the trilogy. It is supposed to be an origin story for the epidemic that has swept the world in Monster Island, but 90% of the book is a slow build up to how the two (three?) main characters finally meet each other. The origin is very briefly touched upon and not really given much explanation other than through some very brief sidebars in between "chapters". The book then abruptly ends without any true resolution for several characters.Monster Island was actually a very solid story and tied up almost all of the plot points raised throughout the book. This book, however, leaves many unanswered questions, which I hope (but ultimately fear will not) are answered in the final book of the series.
—Terry Douglas
4 Stars.This is a great second book in a trilogy as it fills in lots of details and back story and combines them with the first book Monater Island. This really sets up the final book Monster Planet to be one hell of a ride.This book technically takes place immediately following the first, the story itself is a prequel and tells the reasons behind the undead getting up again. Gary and Dekalb are still here but this one really focuses on a new character, a young, blond, beautiful girl, albeit an undead one than self named herself Nilla.Nilla, like Gary can talk, think, move well, and many other spoiler free cool things. She strives to understand what has happened to her. She wants to find out her name and reclaim her memories. She wants to solve the mystery behind why the dead are back. Nilla, strives to find meaning in her unlife, all the while trying not be killed again.All good zombie books need at least one kick ass kill scene. Let's just say that this one pitted an undead versus a very angry grizzly bear. This one also had a seriously freaky arm-less undead that played a key role in the story.This book really worked for me and elevated my enjoyment of the first. This one cannot be read on it's own as it only makes sense if you have read Monster Island. I highly recommend these two novels. They are well written, add flare to the very full zombie genre, and are real page turners. On to the last book now, Monster Planet.
—Jason
