Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon ~ A Review

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon

Published: Paperback, Arrow Books in association with Hammer, October 2012

Length: 632 pages

Where Did I Get It? Amazon after getting a free sampler of it at Alt. Fiction 2010

Summary (from Goodreads):

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER

THE REASON IS COLDBROOK

The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing.

With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead.

In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race.

But will they find her in time?

Opening Line:

Six hours after forging a pathway from his own reality to another, Jonah Jones closed his eyes to dream.

~

My Review:

I’ve read a few zombie books, they frighten me in the same sort of way that roller-coasters do – I enjoy it but shake like a fool for twenty minutes afterwards and have the occasional issue with walking to the toilet on my own in the night for a couple of days.

Coldbrook blew them all out of the water.

As far as zombies go, Lebbon created the scariest ones I have encountered. Which is impressive because until now I would have replied to a statement like that with ‘but surely a zombie is just a zombie?’ Apparently not.

Combining quantum physics and multi-universe discoveries with Stephen King-esque road-trip horror, Coldbrook takes you on a journey across an America ravaged by something from another world.

There’s plenty of stereotypical ‘shoot the zombies in the head’ action mixed in with loyalty and love and bucket loads of desperation when there’s a whisper of the word ‘immunity’.

I liked the ferocity of love in the book, sometimes it is easy for horror novels to fall into the trap of killing everyone off apart from maybe one character, and I always find those a bit numbing – by the end I really don’t care – but Coldbrook doesn’t do that. There is the love of friendship, family and illicit affairs running through the story, buoying you through the gore and terror of it all and stopping it from becoming too mindless – there was a reason for all the destruction you witness through the character’s eyes. (Admittedly though, if Vic had called his daughter ‘beautiful’ one more time I may have screamed. I understand the contrast of innocent child versus relentless death-bringing zombie hoard but, seriously, there are other words than ‘beautiful’.)

Possibly the scariest thing about Coldbrook was the human-ness of it. The story may be stretched across worlds but the heart of it all was something very human and scary – the reactions of the world and the mystery at the centre of all the madness came down to things that were hauntingly easy to believe. Humans are very scary creatures.

Coldbrook scared me witless and made me cry but for all that, there was just something not quite right that I couldn’t put my finger on. Partly I felt it was trying a bit hard to be a Stephen King novel – there were a few references dotted throughout, Lebbon clearly holds him in high regard – and because of that bits of it felt almost forced. I probably couldn’t go back and tell you which parts, it was just a feeling I got that sometimes dragged me out of the action. Also, I think there was a slight juxtaposition where the characters all felt a bit too ‘British’ for a book set in America – something subconsciously off about their mannerisms – I’ve found it before, though more often in books written by American authors, set in England.

If you like zombies, shotguns, multi-universe theology or being scared witless I would recommend picking up a copy of this.

My Rating: 4/5*

January Reading

Having taken up the 52 Book Challenge again this year I need to average 1 book a week (obviously), which translates to 4 a month: in line with my other resolution, at least one of those books needs to be a self published one. Another thing I want to do is return some of the million books I have borrowed off other people and not read yet, so at least one book each month will be someone else’s. I may well sometimes tailor my reading to echo what I’m writing – call it getting to know the market (and competition) and also research. So don’t be surprised if I seem to be reading lots of myths, legends and fairy tales when I’m writing my short stories etc.

This month my choices are:

My Books

Days Of Blood And Starlight by Laini Taylor

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon

Welsh Fairy Tales by William Elliot Griffiths

Borrowed Book

Trash by Andy Mulligan

Self-Published Book

Can’t Live Without by Joanne Phillips

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So, what are you reading this month?

Reviews: The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas and Coldbrook (Sampler) by T.J. Lebbon

Coldbrook, T.J. Lebbon

I will start with my review for T.J. Lebbon’s Coldbrook which isn’t actually released until 28.04.2011 (Edit: New release date has been announced of March 2012). What I have read is the 59 page sampler book that I received at Alt. Fiction 2010 and I enjoyed it so much I couldn’t resist talking about it, even just a little bit.

I’m a bit of a zombie newbie and this has certainly piqued my interest by combining zombies with ‘what’s really out there?’ big universe questions and humanity’s idiot curiosity (I am of the general opinion that, in time, curiosity is going to kill much more than the cat).

Fast paced and with good strong characters, even just these 59 pages has got me begging for more and the final book’s release date feels all too far away.

(To read the sampler for yourself – so long as you don’t mind a bit of ‘e-reading – simply follow this link to the Coldbrook website and click on ‘Read the exclusive sampler’.)

The King Of The Crags, Stephen Deas

Published: 2010, Gollancz

Summary (as non-spoilerish for The Adamantine Palace as I can manage): The King of The Crags continues from exactly where The Adamantine Palace left off with no let up in pace or intensity. Jehal is still up to his old tricks but with the added inconvenience of falling for the wife he married for power, creating a jealous rift between himself and his lover. There are rumours of a revolution, led by the legendary Red Riders, and Queen Shezira’s precious white dragon, Snow, is still missing.

The Realms are crashing steadily towards a war and the missing dragon, far from the care of any alchemist or Scales, could be a much bigger danger than most would even dare to imagine.

What I Liked: The pace of the story is carefully measured, never too slow, often fast and always keeping you reading all the way through.

The characters, though not all likeable, are all thorough and believable and you find yourself endlessly curious about what each of them is plotting or planning against the others. Stephen Deas never gives too much away about any of them yet at the same time never makes them so closed that you don’t care for them either. I have a passionate dislike for a few characters and fondness for others – despite not really knowing, ultimately, who is good and who is bad.

I also love the fact that, for once, dragons are as dragons should be. They are not docile, friendly ‘pets’ or the slightly Disneyfied versions of dragons that we have been endlessly fed that don’t mind being used as glorified horses or have a random fondness for these small annoying human things that shout, wave pointy metal sticks and kill each other. No, in these books they think they are food. Which is a nice change. I like proper dragons.

What I Didn’t Like: Despite having read the two books very close together I still ended up being a bit confused at times by who was married to who and who had feuds with which family and why. The family trees at the beginning of the book were useful to combat this but it was a bit frustrating to have to stop mid-action to flick back and find out just who Prince So-and-So was and why he was arguing with King Blah. This wasn’t a major flaw and it certainly didn’t stop my utter love for the books, indeed, it may well just have been down to my terrible memory for names.

I also sincerely dislike the fact that I now have to wait for the next instalment to find out what happens next. *Pokes Stephen with a pointy metal stick* Write faster!!

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Summer Break Reading Challenge:

2/16