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...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30554 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781934861011
• Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Morningstar Part Two...4.5 Stars
Thunder and Ashes starts out where the first book left off in this trilogy. We have the split story, one of General Sherman and his team of army men and civilians making their way from the west coast towards Omaha, hoping to meet up with Anna Demilio and her much smaller group coming in from the east coast. They are racing towards a facility where they hope to hatch a vacine for the Morningstar virus, the plague that has swept over the world creating two forms of plague victims, one still alive, fast, and brutally violent, and one undead, slower, but just as dangerous and canibalistic.

I could have given this story a full five stars, it does rate that based on the action in the story. General Sherman's march was far more interesting to me, especially his pit stop in a little town in Kansas, than the more brief excerpts from Anna and Mason's more silent trek, but their stories tie together nicely, with plague victims, raiders, and rogue government agents all nipping at their heels. The story is cohesive and written with a certain amount of zip to it.

I am no military expert so I have no reason or desire to punch holes in the author's use of various terms and equipment. Again, the story and its use of military armaments are smooth and seamless. We are provided with an action packed zombie thriller as two sets of people are racing against the clock, not even sure what they are racing towards will mean anything in the end, but they are determined to do whatever it takes to get there and try to spare humanity any more agony from this brutal virus, if at all possible.

Where I would be critical of this book is in more or less minor details that unveil themselves towards the end of the story and I hesitate to spell them out because I have no interest in revealing plot points. Suffice it to say that there were two key things that happen that I did not feel were specifically needed to advance the story. One scene simply felt redundant, an echo of a scene from the first book in the trilogy having to do with one on one combat...almost laying the groundwork for a very similar scene in book three. The other issue I have lies within the epilogue and what I would deem an incredibly convenient story element revealed that will play a huge part in the final installment of this trilogy. I suppose I am just not a fan of something that the odds of happening are one in a billion revealing themselves so conveniently. Please understand, these are really minor issues for me and as such do not want them to be considered deterents for anyone interested in picking up this story.

The writing is fast paced, the characters are entertaining, and the story is fun. Perhaps some of the characterizations are a bit exagerated, but when you are dealing with an end of the world type plague, I can certainly understand how some folks would seem a bit over the top. I found myself growing attached to quite a few of the characters and really look forward to finding out what happens in the final chapter of the Morningstar Trilogy. This was a genuinely fun and exhilerating zombie romp.

Worth the wait
I really enjoyed this book. While I prefer the classic slow moving zombie, this author has a clever way of having both slow and fast zombies. They're fast while alive & infected and return as shamblers after they die. So you have double the danger as you have to put them down a second time if you didn't get a clean headshot when they were alive.

The characters are enjoyable and towards the end of the book I found myself wishing the book was much longer. This is not a criticism, the mark of a good book is wanting more. You find yourself caring about well drawn characters and would like to hang out with them longer. The science behind the pandemic is very interesting. Post-apocalyptic atmosphere is well done and believable. If I had to nitpick, maybe there would have been more car wrecks and obstacles along the road that one set of characters sped through to get to their destination. But it's a minor point and doesn't detract from the story.

Without giving anything away, one major plot point within the epilogue and the odds that this person is a friend of the other characters seemed a little convenient. However, I guess there would have been many others with the same condition of a certain character. But most of those people would have been killed off because they didn't have the training to survive. Or they're in hiding. So that makes the plot point plausible and takes nothing away from the story.

Fast paced, well written and kept me up late reading for a few nights. Five stars.

Fantastic!!!!!
I could not wait for this book after reading The Plague of the Dead. Now I cannot wait for the next novel. Thunder and Ashes takes up just where Plague of the Dead ends. You are reunited with all your favorite characters and introduced to new ones also. However, the dead are still among us and so are some of the "governmental" bad guys. I went through the book in an entire weekend only because I was very excited about it. Z. A. Recht is a great writer and I hope he continues to enthrall us with such great books.