A Russian pilot, an above-average-housewife, and a lonely
old farmer with an excellent shooting eye have only one
thing in common: the zombies are here and they're not
going down without a fight. Vladimir Yurish and his
adopted son Ben, Angie West, and Halsey are part of a
tightly knit crew who spend their days moving through the
hordes of undead. Dean and Leah West, the husband and
daughter, are on their own desperately trying to find a
safe place. The dangers become more and more real as they
travel, but the zombies aren't the only ones who present
danger. Looters and killers, those who would have their
own safety without concern for others, are just as thick
in the air as those who should be asleep in their
graves...
DRIFTERS is a new zombie novel with some excellent
moments. The best segments are those with Dean and Leah
West, as Leah seems to have little conception of what's
going on and she provides adorable contrast to her all-
too-aware father. Halsey is an entertaining character,
being the older, wiser one of the group who enjoys
reading and shaves on schedule even when he can't find a
real reason to. I had a lot of fun reading about the
characters themselves, as their insights were by far the
best part of the novel.
As for the zombies, they seem typical. In an age where
the zombie novel is constantly shoved at the reader, the
zombies have to provide something new or the people's
reaction has to be far different. DRIFTERS really has a
fairly usual zombie plot, and fairly usual zombies. All
the typical tropes are in place: the family man fighting
for his daughter, the older misanthropic characters, the
looters, shambling zombies, and all the rest of the
trappings. It's not that this book is unremarkable. The
prose is excellent, heartrending when it needs to be and
heart-pounding at the climax.
For the zombie aficionado, DRIFTERS is another in a long
list of excellent novels. For those of you not obsessed
with the walking dead, I'd suggest looking for something
with a bit more plot and less character introspection. I
was expecting less character and more story. I enjoyed
that I got a subversion of that.
The survivors of the Omega Virus make a desperate effort
to find the living. But the walking dead aren’t done with
them yet…
Helicopter pilot Vladimir Yurish is a man of his word. The
last thing he wants is to abandon the safety of the U.S.S.
Nimitz and his newly adopted son Ben. Still, a promise is
a promise, no matter how close to death it brings him…
Angie West has fought hard to keep strangers alive, but
now it’s time to tend to her own. Only, when she finds her
family missing and their hideout burned and looted, she
realizes the threat to her family isn’t just the undead—
the living can do so much worse…
Halsey has done well for himself, given the circumstances.
Between his secluded ranch and precise shooting, the
plague hasn’t touched him. Until a Black Hawk crashes on
his property, bringing the war to his front door…
Amid the chaos of a destroyed civilization, the survivors
encounter a new threat. And these new monsters can’t be
outrun—or outwitted…
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