Sunday, June 28, 2015

Dying Days: Darlene Bobich Part III

The Dying Days universe has quite an expanse to it, so I'm going to focus on the story line that follows Darlene Bobich.

Dying Days 2 finds Darlene and the other survivors she lives with facing down a giant horde of the undead, but the bigger concern is the possibility that it might rain.

In the long run, the rain proves to be a minor issue as the undead have found a way to breach the defenses and work to reach Darlene and her friends. This is when we learn just how much the zombies in this universe differ from all the others- they're evolving.

After the fight, the people Darlene dissuaded make an appearance, floating by their camp. It upsets Darlene, but once she's past it, it's time to alert the nearest settlement on the approaching trouble.

Life inside the settlement is about as expected- some people have slipped into living the new normal, some haven't given up their prior lives and some are surviving as best they can. The warning comes, but in the end means nothing.

Going back to Darlene, she has decided to shut some people up and returns to the shelter she took over in Dying Days. In a classic bad idea move, Darlene attempts to clear the house near her old shelter to see if there is anything of value.

We leave Darlene this time with the settlement under attack, but she's made it there, brought some help and won't be going down without a fight.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Dying Days: Darlene Bobich Part II

The Dying Days universe has quite an expanse to it, so I'm going to focus on the story line that follows Darlene Bobich.

We pick things with Darlene in Dying Days, although we open on Darlene's usual bad luck with the surviving members of the human race. As we've grown accustom to seeing, Darlene ditches her bad luck and is soon back on her trek to find survivors in Florida.

Darlene manages to find shelter, stages a mini coup and takes over. She also finds a house nearby, but it's not a good idea. Yet. Darlene does manage to settle into a routine for a little while and finds herself missing the days when the zombies were just something on TV and not the current nightmare she's being subjected to.

In the midst of being normal, Darlene hears a plane and decides to abandon her shelter for the chance of being around normal people. She loses sight of the plane, finds some zombie friends and loses consciousness.

When she comes to, she finds herself in a bed. After some initial confusion, she learns that she is in a human settlement, currently zombie free. They're surviving better than others using stilt homes for shelter and making supply trades with a neighboring safe haven. Darlene decides it's better than the alternative and elects to stay. This time she decides to try living with other people, rather than staging a mini coup.

In getting to know the others, Darlene learns there are areas around the country that are fighting back against the undead and are winning, but this is all based on the information they receive from the settlement they trade with.

Time passes and Darlene is learning other ways to kill zombies and survive with the living, meeting plenty of interesting characters along the way.

Soon some people from the past appear and that's where we leave Darlene for now.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Dying Days: Darlene Bobich Part I

The Dying Days universe has quite an expanse to it, so I'm going to focus on the story line that follows Darlene Bobich.

The beginning of Darlene's journey begins in Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer. When we meet her, she's living in Maine and she's been forced to kill her father, who had gone zombie. Sadly, she had to do the deed with the gun that her father had given her and taught her to shoot with.

Once Darlene comes to realize the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, where she lives is too far gone and she sets out to escape the town she had been living in. The neighbors prove to be no help, but only because "NOM!" has set in.

Darlene finds herself at the local mall in search of a quieter weapon, news and other supplies. She does meet with some former co-workers and manages to get a small piece of normal until zombies appear.

After a couple more duds at a stadium and a store where the employee is set on committing arson, Darlene finds herself in Buffalo, NY freezing her butt off. Soon she has more to worry about when she comes across some not so nice people set on making her stay. It takes some time, but Darlene manages to dissuade them of the notion of keeping her around and she's back on the road again.

Soon Darlene has a road companion, but it's short lived and she's stranded in Connecticut. After a side adventure with some school children, we find Darlene in a group of survivors pulling guard duty in a convoy. This too becomes short lived and Darlene is left fending for herself in a library. She does have a companion while at the library, but an accident one night finds Darlene back on the road again.

The book closes with Darlene still on the road, headed to The Sunshine State.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Audiobooks

Ok, so I'm pretty new to the audio book thing.

I downloaded the Audible app and have listened to a few books on it, namely
State of Horror: Illinois (oh you know that was on the list)
The Ables (awesomeness upon awesomeness with a sprinkle of awesome)
The Nerdist Way (I'm still convinced that the author consumed a ton of red bull while reading the book).

So why audio books? Well it's a nice portable way to get a book fix in at work, in the car, being dragged all over the neighborhood by your pet and so on.

The only drawback I've found is if the person reading doesn't have a good pace, it gets annoying.

So I'm enjoying it so far and will see where my reading adventures take me.