Night of the Living Trekkies

Review by Kayla -The zombie-lovin'-chick-from-Iowa -

I have to admit, I was WAY too excited for this book. I squealed when I read the e-mail that said I was the winner of the contest and going to receive the book in the mail soon (editor's note:  Kayla won this book from Zombies & Toys). When it finally arrived, I was actually afraid to read it. I was scared of the disappointment if I read it and didn't like it. What if the zombies were retarded? What if the characters were too cliche? What if they completely destroyed the zombie genre reputation and smeared shit in its rotting, flesh-eating face? Well, I faced that fear and opened the book, just to read the first page and be slapped in the face. I.Was.Wrong.

Right away the prologue snatches you in. Witty banter between characters and then - BOOM! Action happens. In my opinion, that's a great way to hook you in. There's so much mystery about what's going on immediately. And that's what kept me going. As you read on, you lose track of time (or is it just me?) - I loved the interesting mix of the story. A Star Trek convention in Houston unknowingly being under attack by a mysterious virus that takes the whole city and turns them into zombies. A bit of comedy. Action. Gore-filled scenes. The writers definitely knew what they were doing.

I loved the variety of the characters. There were all kinds of people with all kinds of personalities... the zombie variety was GREAT! When there's variety, it keeps things moving a long and leaves it open for any unsuspecting thing to happen. The lead character, Jim, I love. And of course his "side-kick", Leia is just amazing. The two have this interesting Star Trek/Star Wars cross over romance thing going on (and no, it's not that cheesy or bad). I do have to admit - it's tough coming up with different ways to kill off zombies when you're writing. It can be the same mundane thing - "Be-head. Set on fire. Blow up. Dismember." But instead, they introduce new ways for killing zombies by using Star Trek weapons. Hell yes!

I was only mildly disappointed with one part of the story (I'll be nice and won't spoil!) - The cause. The cause of everything going on. It honestly pissed me off a bit, but as a loyal zombie fan and fellow nerd, I kept pushing on. I do have to say the end did catch me by surprise and when I set the book down after spending a week and a half devoted to it, I was overall very satisfied. Thanks fellas for writing a story that struck home and made my nerdy zombie lovin' heart skip a beat or two during several scenes. You rocked my socks!