J. L. Bourne

I went into Beyond Exile with slightly misleading information--its written journal style (its a guy, so I don't think we can call it a 'diary') and chock full of military terms, euphemisms and well...military stuff. Having grown up military this was both a godsend (because I understood what he was talking about) and a curse (because I understood too well what he wasn't saying). Also its fair to point out I read the first book (Day by Day Armageddon) after reading this book.

As a zombie book this is almost pitch perfect; the author's obvious military training (he's on active duty) gives a more realistic spin on how to deal with the threat. This doesn't mean its a clean cut fight, but there is a sense of order to some of the chaos. As this is about the narrator's first hand experiences anything that happens outside of his purvue, or anything he doesn't directly relate to us via his entries, may as well have not happened. In a way I was glad that the narrator wasn't in every single skirmish or battle, that would have seemed contrived. Sometimes though Bourne keeps the interesting action as a third hand accounting, which is irritating.

By its very nature a journal is an anti-info dump. Journals are personal things, how many people explain every little detail about something that is a) obvious to them and b) almost second nature? The occasional explanation of what a weapon or abbreviation means--that's understandable. It's nice to have reminders about important stuff.a full point-by-point breakdown of a big plot point in the third act just before the ending? Warning bells!

Not only that but abrupt what the heck are you talking about warning bells. At first I thought it was because I hadn't read the first book, but then I bought the first book. And it still made little sense to me. There is going to be a third one (I can't see how there won't be given that ending), so there is hope for this all to be explained. As is, read, enjoy and pick up some useful tips for surviving a zombie invasion.… (more)

Beyond Exile was the second book in the Day by Day Armageddon book.

Honestly, this one didn't work as well for me as the first one. It felt like halfway through this book there was a shift from the cool journal like entries to a more story based route for presentation. It was noticeable and just didn't hold my attention as much as the journal entries. I also don't know much about military, planes or cars so I felt at a loss and had to constantly research what was going on in the book. I felt like I was spending more time on the internet trying to understand what was going on than actually reading the book. I also felt that there was a lot in this book that could have been left out and the story would have remained unchanged.

That being said, it's still a great book. It's just not a book for me as a reader. I won't be continuing with this series but I will look up some spoilers for how it ends. J.L. Bourne has crafted one super cool but and I really appreciate the uniqueness of it!

Three out of five stars.… (more)