Zombie Britannica by Thomas Emson

Pages (Paperback): 350 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks

Released: August 1, 2010

Quick Thoughts: I love zombies. I've enjoyed Thomas Emson's works so far. This is a book that is right up my alley. This book also has a great cover, just like his previous books. The only difference is the size of the book, this one is definitely smaller compared to his previous novels.

Review: It's hot, incredibly hot, too hot in London. But the weather is the concern at the moment, the residents of London have something even bigger to worry about at the moment. Zombies. Cassie has to rush back home to save her daughter from the undead. Vincent wants to impress Holly, only to realize that he needs to really be her knight in shinning armor or the two will never last. Craig wants to get away from his dysfunctional family, but it's either the car or on the streets with a horde of zombies.

And while I mention zombies, zombies, and even more Zombies! This book is more about the psychological aspect of the living. All of the characters will discover something in their journey to survival. And while not everyone will make it, they will learn things.

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed the werewolves and did have fun reading about the vampires, so I was excited to see what Emson had cooked up for zombies. The book, in itself, is still enjoyable and has the same things that I liked from the previous novels. But while I was reading Zombie Britannica, I did feel like something was missing. I'm not sure what exactly, but something was missing.

There are a lot of characters that you have to keep track in this novel and I liked how the three stories (Carrie, Vincent, and Craig) were connected in some way with each other. It's truly a small world in this book and it was nice seeing this connection.

However, because there are a lot of characters sometimes I did forget who was who. Some of the mannerisms were the same between certain characters which made me confused. There are some spelling errors in this book as well, which was a down side.

This isn't really a con of the book, but I did think that there were moments in the novel where Carrie was too stupid to live. I'm not a mother, so I may not understand lengths that mothers would go through to protect their kids. However, there were times when she was too irrational and I wanted her to take a moment and think before acting.

There are good things about this book, I'm just bummed that this book didn't have the same charm as Maneater, Prey, and Skarlet. In any case, Thomas Emson does write well and his books are always fast paced and exciting to read. So I'm still looking forward to more books from him.

Grade: 7 out of 10

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Prey by Thomas Emson

Pages (Hardcover): 469 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks Ltd.

Released: November 1, 2009

Quick Thoughts: Maneater was fun. Skarlet was noteworthy, and Prey is...

Review: Laura Greenacre has been hiding since the events from Maneater, keeping her distance from her non-werewolf aunt and her love, John Thorn. The Templetons are still trying to kill her and the authorities haven't given up searching for her.

Despite all this, a loyal group of regular joes remain supportive of Laura through the internet. Sharing their stories of how Laura saved them on that fateful day and keeping tabs on any werewolf sightings and hoping that one day they can see Laura again. Laura has her own mini fan club.

One person who isn't in the club is Ruth Templeton, who wants to kill Laura for murdering her family. Now, a werewolf herself, she's embraced her animal side and will not let anything get in her way of seeking her revenge. She finds a man, by the name of Wheeler Burns, to help her. Burns, along with his rich friends, bored of hunting animals have decided to up their game and hunt humans. Ruth decides to give them Laura and have a fun afternoon hunting the werewolf.


Final Thoughts: Wow, I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book compared to the last two. The addition of Burns was a great one. He's someone who you want to hate and want to see killed. Hunting humans for sport is sickening, but it made sense in the novel and it was interesting reading about him and his horrible involvements.

I loved the contrast between Laura and Ruth. Maneater was very much a story about Laura's revenge on the Templetons and the way Laura went about that was completely different to how Ruth tried to get back to Laura. Ruth was spiteful, mean, hateful, and did anything she could to get what she wanted, when she wanted it. While Laura was just going to go full force and guns blazing, Ruth would use her resources.

It was nice and despite myself, I looked forward to the chapters involving Ruth. She was definitely not a woman you could trust and if you failed, she would eat you. She was definitely the truest definition of a cougar.

As much as I love the character of Laura, I found myself more interested in Ruth, Burns, and Major Lev Dasaev. Laura is still a memorable character and she's great in this book, but Lev took over my favourite character spot in this novel. He's a wonderful character and incredibly sympathetic at that too. I wish we saw more of him, but I did like how he ended up becoming the hero in the end.

Prey wasn't something anticipated, Emson mentions that he didn't plan to write a sequel after Maneater, however, I'm glad he did. Everything that I loved about Maneater was intensified in Prey. Great characters, great premise, and tons of actions. Can't wait to read more from Emson!

Grade: 10 out of 10

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Skarlet by Thomas Emson

Pages (Paperback): 448 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks Ltd.

Released: December 1, 2009

Quick Thoughts: I've mentioned that if there is a book where the author takes a popular supernatural creature, but changes it in a way to make it their own, I will almost always want to read about it. I liked what Emson did with Maneater, so I had high hopes for Skarlet.

Review: It's a normal night in London for Jake Lawton. Jake, a disgraced ex-solider, works as a bouncer at a local nightclub called Religion. The club is popular with wannabe vampires and goths and it's up to Jake to keep the clubs free from vermin and drug dealers.

Fraser Lithgow, a drug dealer, is usually not allowed to go into Religion, but gets special permission to go on in. There, Fraser does what he does best, give drugs to people. The drug today is one called Skarlet. He doesn't know what it does or how good it is, all he knows is someone told him to give it out and that is what he's going to do. Things should be normal for him, but when club goers start dying after taking the drug, his life just went from bad to worse.

Everyone who takes the drug dies almost instantly. Fraser knows it's due to his drug and Jake knows that Fraser did something. But why was he allowed into the club in the first place and who gave Fraser the drugs in the first place?

48 hours later, the dead clubbers come back to life and they're hungry and kind of disgusting, but mostly just hungry.

It's up to Jake, Fraser, and a journalist who ruined Jake's career, to team up and figure out what is going on, before it's too late.

Emson has a way with writing and the short chapters help make the novel fast paced. The action is amazing, and the Babylonian myth that he weaves into the story was nicely done. The characters, for the most part, are developed nicely. You may not like them, but you do understand where they are coming from. Jake is still bitter after being wrongfully discharged from the army. Fraser, well...Fraser is just stupid (but I like him that way) and thankfully, he does grow a bit as the novel goes on.

The story behind journalist, Christine, was the most realistic. I don't like journalists doing whatever they can to get a story, even if they have to ruin people's lives, and while I didn't like her, I did sympathize with her situation. Her home life, while frustrating to read, had a lot of truth in it. I know that there are a lot of couples going through what Christine is going through and I liked how Emson added this in.

The villains in the novel are human and hearing about them is one of the best parts in the novel. The first chapter is both horrifying and yet so satisfying at the end of it. You hear about the villains from the present, which was interesting, but it didn't have the impact that the flashback chapters about them had on me. They do some really bad things, but due to their actions from the flashbacks, they had redeeming qualities about them.

Final Thoughts: If you are a fan of vampire novels and enjoy horror, then definitely pick this book up. While Maneater had the theme of revenge, this one had survival and you could really feel it as you read the novel. I will say that the same problem that I had with Maneater did continue here, as there were some words and phrases were overused and made some of the dialogue repetitive. However, there were many things that I did like; the chapters remain short, keeping up with the fast pace of the novel, the characters were fleshed out nicely, and there is just so much action in this that it was just so much fun to read. The ending does leave you with some questions, but seeing as this is the first in a series, I'm sure we'll be seeing the answers soon. Can't wait to read more from this series and from Emson.

Grade: 9 out of 10


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Maneater by Thomas Emson

Pages (Paperback): 380 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks

Released: June 2009

Quick Thoughts: Once upon a time, I was starting to get a bit burned out from the urban fantasy genre. When you read a lot at the same time, things start to sound the same. It was during this period that I found about this book and I'm glad I did, because it's pretty awesome!

Review: Laura and her family were caught under a dangerous family feud between the Greenacres and the Templeton. Her family, the Greenacres, were all murdered when she was a child, leaving her as the only survivor. The Templetons didn't like that the Greenacres embraced their werewolf side, while the Templetons suppressed it. Many years pass, but one thing remains the same. Laura and her revenge on the Templetons.

The Templetons have changed though, after a bit from Laura one of the family members changes into a werewolf and likes his new found powers. He convinces his family to change as well and embrace it. And it isn't long for the Templetons to realize that in order to achieve their goals, they'd need to take out Laura first.

I think Laura Greenacre is my favourite female werewolf at the moment. I like how her animal side rubs off on her human one, she's very much a lone wolf and you can see that when she's human. If she's in danger, she doesn't hesitate to kill and I think that is something that a werewolf would do, especially one who grew up as a werewolf. She wants her revenge and she isn't willing to let anyone get in her way, I love it.

The Templetons are another matter. I couldn't find any reason to like them, or find something redeeming about them, which is fine since they are meant to be the villains of the book. Their motivations, however, make perfect sense. If you found out that you come from a line of werewolves, but due to your family suppressing this, your powers remained dormant, you might be a little excited when you become a werewolf. And if you start becoming power hungry, well again, it makes sense. When you have power you want to rule the world and if you come from a powerful family, that sort of feeling comes a lot easier.

Final Thoughts: I don't think this book is for everyone, but I loved my time reading this. The chapters are short, which helps keep up with the fast nature of this novel. And the book is action packed. This is a perfect book for the big screen. My only complaint, would be the overuse of the phrase, "she will eat you alive." But other than that, this is a book you don't want to miss.

Grade: 9.5 out of 10

Maneater is the first book about Laura and is available at bookstores and Amazon.


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